CUBA

                                                   The Nation

       This island nation, jewel of the Caribbean, at 750 miles long is the largest island in the Caribbean. About the size of Pennsylvania, it covers 42,804 square miles and has a population of 11 million. The country is home to 6000 plant species and many bird species, half of both are indigenous to Cuba. More than 300 bird species use the island as a fly-over.

       The landscape includes a combination of mountain ranges, plains, valleys, marshland, the northern coast, and has 200 bays and 250 beaches. On the east the Sierra Maestra Mountain range towers 6500-feet, while on the west sits the Cordillaro de los Organos range. In central Cuba we stopped at an overlook to soak up the beauty of the Sierra de Escambray. Even a panoramic camera had difficulty capturing the vastness and beauty of the area.

      This country of great diversity and natural beauty has four main ports with the Port of Havana being the largest.  With a temperate climate, the sub-tropical country boasts an amazing literacy rate of 98%.
 The flag has three horizontal blue stripes divided by two white stripes; on the left is a red triangle with a white star in the middle of it. The country’s crest is in the shape of a shield. Across the top of the shield is half sun rising behind a mountain. The left half of the bottom is the blue and white of the flag in vertical stripes, the right side represents the landscape of mountains and palm trees.

      In the 19^th century, Cuba was Spain’s colonial jewel and the vibrant crossroads to the New World. Ships laden with treasures passed through the Port of Havana. Havana grew up around the harbor evolving as a protectorate of the ships and their crews, developing a service society. Four forts were built to protect the harbor.

       After the Spanish-American War, business interests made the island a virtual U.S. colony, and it remained such until the Revolution. The many mansions and architectural treasures throughout the country, although numerous but decaying from over 40 years of neglect, are evidence of the amount of wealth that flowed into the small Caribbean nation.
    The Spanish built cities where they settled while the British just allowed cities to grow. By the mid 18^th century Havana was the 3^rd largest city in Latin and South America (after Mexico City and Lima, Peru).  
      The Treaty of Paris traded Cuba for Florida in 1763.  In 1898 the US military initiated reform to eradicate yellow fever.

A rich diversity in arts and music reflect the blending of cultures brought to the island by Spanish and African immigrants. Sugar and tobacco became king and the greatest influence on the economy.

To understand Cuba one needs to review a bit of its history. Christopher Columbus discovered the island in 1492 believing he had found China, India or a new continent. For some reason, he did not circumnavigate Cuba, so was unaware that it was an island. He described Cuba as the most beautiful land human eyes had ever seen. The native people of that day were called Tainos, meaning big land.  

The island’s location, 110 miles from the Yucatan with its Spanish influence, 90 miles from the Florida coast and its Spanish influence at that time, 35 miles from Haiti and French influence and 50 miles from Jamaica and the British influence, made it the key to the Americas during the colonial era, in the 18^th century. However, the proximity to these cultural differences also meant decades of conflicts.

The British took Cuba with 10,000 men and ruled it for eleven months in 1762. At that time the population of Cuba was 4000-5000, so the British troops outnumbered the population by 2:1.  The Cubans were used to conflicts with pirates, but this was the first time that they had to defend themselves from a foreign power.

In 1792 African slaves from Haiti were kidnapped and taken to Cuba to work on the plantations. The French rebelled at this point and left, going home to fight the French Revolution. Between 1800-1830 Cuba’s sugar industry exploded creating rich sugar barons and the country switched from a service economy to a plantation economy.

One million African slaves expanded the sugar industry and by 1830 fifty percent of Cuba’s population was black, which changed the religion, culture and society.

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