Cuba was Spain’s stepping stone to the new world. It wasn’t long before it became a key trade route. It was used as a stop for any Spanish ships passing through carrying gold, silver, and other valuables. Around 1520 slaves began being shipped there from Africa and as a result, at one time Cuba was the worlds lead supplier of sugar. “Slavery in Cuba on the whole was a rural phenomenon.
Charlestown was founded by planters whom brought along their slaves from the overpopulated sugar growing island Barbados. [2] African slaves were difficult to acquire in north america because of the Caribbean's voracious appetite for slave labor. The african population growth in north america started off very slowly. “In 1625 their were only 23 africans present in virginia.”[3] 25 years later there were only 950, 3-4% of the colonies population, and they were still treated in the same manner as an indentured servant. The main reason behind slaveries growth in america was economy based.
The USA played a big role in Cuba’s economy after 1875. From the time of the 1898 Spanish-American war until 1959, the U.S. also played an important political role in Cuba's internal and foreign policies. During 1898 the USA declared war on Spain. In 1898 the USA manages to defete Spain which gives up all claimes to cuba and surrenders it to the US. In 1902 Cuba becomes independent with Tomas Estrada Palma but the Platt Amendment keeps the island under US protection and gives the US the right to intervene in Cuban affairs.
This meant that PR was never going to be fully developed as a colonial powerhouse but instead used to house a good deal of soldiers to keep a firm grip on Spanish colonial interest. Cuba was more the bread basket for the Spanish and would soon become the most important colony for the Spanish Crown. Because of President McKinley and teller Amendment after the Spanish American War the United States could not and frankly did not want to annex Cuba but it did annex PR, from then on the differences started to be apparent. The US did not want to annex Cuba because it did not want to fan the flames of anti-imperial groups in the states. Also the Cuban people had figures like Jose Marti who petitioned for Cuban independence in the United States, one of the main reasons the US actually got involved was because of people like Marti who ran such a successful slander campaign on the treatment of the Cuban people by the Spanish.
When Fidel Castro’s named is mentioned I think of an unjust dictator and an evil character. However, as research was done I learned many things from Castro that slightly changed my perception of him. Fidel, as the Cuban Revolution leader and former communist revolutionary, brought about development, progress and order to the Cuban community. Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born in August 13, 1926 on a sugar plantation in Birán, Oriente Province in Cuba. He was the third child born to Ángel Castro y Argiz, a Galician immigrant from the poor area of northwest of Spain who became somewhat rich through work in the sugar industry and successful investing.
As a leading producer of sugar, coffee, nickel, and tobacco, Cuba was attractive to entrepreneurs who contributed to a diverse cultural mix by bringing workers from Africa and Asia. Cuba was dominated as a Spanish colony until it’s independence from Spain in 1902. The migration of Cuban artists to Europe and various parts of the Americas such as Mexico and the United States has contributed another level of influence on the development of Cuban art and culture. Among the most important émigré artists is Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), who brought to Cuba from his long period of residence in Europe the influences of Pablo Picasso’s Cubism and Andre Breton’s Surrealism. The influence of these two movements with the emphasis of Surrealism on automatism and revealing the unconscious through visual and literary images, brought the new artistic developments of Europe into the Cuban artistic community.
Examine the role of the United States in the outcome of the Cuban revolution= The ties and tensions between Cuba and America are historic; with America’s aid Cuba was able to assert its independence from the Spanish colonies. Yet the United States were eyeing Cuba carefully, they saw not only economic and commercial opportunities but they saw their manifested destiny of expansion. As explained by future President John Quincy in 1823, Cuba is a natural appendage of the North American continent . There are many ways in which the United States affected the outcome of the Cuban revolution but the main three is the economic and political influence the United states had over Cuba since the 1700s, the use of containment and other cold war policies implemented by the united states which forced Cuba into the arms of the Soviet union dramatically influencing the outcome of the revolution and Americas actions in Latin America and elsewhere in the world. Cuba is located only 90 miles off Florida with harbours in strategic position for enemies to threaten war or conversely for America to use as a first line of defence.
The ships could yet return to England. The Negro slave trade became one of the most important business enterprises of the seventeenth century. The monopoly of the French slave trade was at the first assigned to the French West India Company in 1664, but yet they transferred in 1673, to the Senegal Company. The Monopoly of the Dutch Slave trade was given to the Dutch West India Company, incorporated in 1621. In the early as the 15 century, England passed from raising sheep and producing wool, an agricultural activity, to manufacturing cloth.
Book review #1: Biography of a Runaway Slave The book Biography of a Runaway Slave entails the captivating and surreal life of a young man in Cuba whose name is Esteban Mesa Montejo. This book is very unique in a way that it tells a true story in such a perfectly intertwined narrative. Though Miguel Barnet, the author, interviewed every word, the words feel so real and it gives a sense of true slavery and what it must have been like in 19th century Cuba. Miguel’s purpose of this book was to give people a realization and understanding of what slavery was like. Anyone who grabs this book and dives into its narrative will surely feel and understand what slavery must have been like.
His method for achieving this would be to desegregate Cuba and to focus on national identity. After learning more about the Independence of Cuba and the republican period, I have to say that Castro’s methods were not that different from the solutions used by white elites after the independence of Cuba from Spain. White elites used Afro-Cuban soldiers to advance their nationalist cause against Spain but were hesitant to grant them rights after independence. During this time, white elites wanted to make Afro-Cubans feel like they did nothing to achieve their own freedom, it created a sense of paternalism, which we see again during post-revolutionary era. During both the post-independence and post-revolutionary periods, national unity was seen as a way to manipulate Afro-Cubans into feeling guilty for wanting to express their racial grievances.