HISTORY OF CUBA

History of Cuba

History of Cuba

History of Cuba

Cuba was discovered by Christopher Columbus on October 28, 1492; during his first trip to what he believed was the empire of the Great Khan. The island was inhabited then by about a hundred thousand Amerindians: Guanajuatabeyes, Ciboneys, Tainos, Arawaks, as well as cannibalistic tribes, the Caribs. The island was called by its indigenous name, Cubanascan. Cosa mapping and surveys made Sebastián de Ocampo was the first European to make the full rotation in 1508.

Colonization of Cuba began in 1511 under the leadership of Diego Velazquez de Cuellar, appointed governor of the island and founder of Baracoa, Santiago de Cuba (1514) and Havana (1519). In less than five years, the indigenous population of peaceful temperament, systematically slaughtered, was reduced to a few hundred individuals. On the other hand, since supply base for Spanish expeditions to Mexico and Panama, Cuba had gold reserves were quickly depleted. The local administration was then in charge of promoting new economic activities: the snuff, plants to make dyes, sugar cane then met considerable development, aided by the importation of African slaves. Species-based American port en route to Europe, the island became commercially active (Alfred, 2005).

From the early nineteenth century, the differences between the Spanish and Creole are exacerbated. Local authorities should deal with the independence aspirations of all peoples of Spanish America. In Cuba, the movement experienced a real development through the action of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes. Owner of a domain rich sugar, Freemason, freed his slaves and called on his countrymen to revolt, forming groups of Manzanillo and triggering the Ten Years War (1868-1878) (Alfred, 2005).

At the end of the war lost by the insurgents, the pact Zanjón (10 February, 1878) agreed to major concessions to the Cubans. The island was endowed with a certain autonomy, slavery was abolished in 1880 and equal rights between whites and blacks, proclaimed in 1893. The consequences of the pact reached the political domain, with the establishment of the first political parties, as well as the economic sector, and that U.S. companies increased their investments in the region.

Government and Politics

The Cuban constitution states that Cuba is a socialist state of workers (Article 1) that the state name is Republic of Cuba (Article 2) and the Sovereignty resides in people, from whom originates all the power of the state (Article 3). The latter article also specifies that power is exercised directly or by the Assemblies of People's Power (Parliament) and other bodies of State. Critics of the current Cuban government described as dictatorship, their Supporters see it as a popular democracy. Since the revolution, (1959), the country has been led by Fidel Castro, first as prime minister after the abolition of this office in 1976 has chaired the Council of State, the maximum executive body. Castro addition there is five vice presidents Carlos Lage Dávila, José Ramón Fernández Alvarez, Pedro Miret Prieto, José Luis Rodríguez Garcia and Osmany Cienfuegos Gorriaran (Ferrer, ...