Mark Cuban Jewish
The island of Cuba has been occupied for around several thousand years by Amerindian peoples referred to as the Taino and Ciboney. The Taino were known to be mostly farmers while the Ciboney were hunter-gatherers. The moniker Cuba in fact is derived from the Taino word cubanacan, which means "a central place”. Christopher Columbus sighted the island during his number one sail of discovery on 24 October 1492, and directly claimed it for Spain.
Spain possessed the island of Cuba for 388 years, ruled by the governor of Havana. It had an economic base of orchard agriculture and main exports of refined sugar, java and tobacco to European Community and down the road to North America. British people confiscated the island in 1762, but gave it to Spain the following year. Like most of the Spanish Empire, a minute land-owning elite of settlers retained all the social and economic power. They were served by a population of modest farmers, laborers and slaves.
Many architectural masterpieces reconstructed during Spanish rule still stand today. An first-class instance is the Catedral de San Cristobal, Havana. During the 1820s, when the rest of Spain’s conglomerate in South America renegaded and seceeded, Cuba rested loyal, though a few pushed for independence. Partly because concerns of a slave rising (as had took place in Haiti) if the Spanish disengaged, partly because the prosperity of Cuban settlers counted on their export trade to Europe, and partially because Cuba dreaded the mounting power of the United States more than they disliked Spanish colonial reign.
Due to the fact that Cuba is a slender 90 miles from the United States has had a heavy influence on the nations growth. Politicians in the south plotted the island’s annexation as a means of bolstering the pro-slavery forces in the U.S. throughout the early 1900’s. In 1848 a pro-annexationist rebellion was defeated after a few failed invasion atemps from Florida proved fruitless. After that the United States tried to buy Cuba from Spain but was universally turned away.
Rural impoverishment in Spain led to a significant Spanish expatriation to Cuba. Among those arriving were the parents of Fidel Castro. During the 1890s pro-independence excitement revived, fueled by rancour of the restrictions brought down on Cuban trade by Spain and hostility to Spain’s more and more oppressive and incompetent administration of Cuba. On 15 July 1895 uprising broke out and the independence party, led by Tomas Estrada Palma and the poet Jose Marti, exclaimed Cuba an independent republic. Marti was killed shortly thereafter and has become Cuba’s undisputed national hero.
This abbreviated article can’t possibly address the huge history that is Cuba. I have listed various first-class books at the closing of this web page. You can buy them all at Amazon or your local bookstore.
Cuba: A New History by Richard Gott
The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Latin America Readers) by Aviva Chomsky, Barry Carr, and Pamela Maria Smorkaloff
This is Cuba: An Outlaw Culture Survives by Ben Corbett
Inside Cuba by Julio Cesar Perez Hernandez, Angelika Taschen, and Giani Bosso
