(Note: Timeline and Overview are pure-copy-paste, others are summary)
Timeline
1492 Colombo reaches Cuba 1511 Spanish start conquering Cuba 1514 Spanish complete conquest 1762 Britian capture Havana 1763 Treaty of Paris return Cuba to Spain 1812 Aponte ’s Conspiracy 1813 Simon Bolivar becomes known as “El Libertador” 1819 Bolivar becomes president of independent Venezuela, and begins his Latin American liberation campaigns. 1823 Bolivarian failed in Cuba 1863 Spanish rule ends in Santo Domingo
Overview
- In many ways, the year 1492 was an important turning point for Cuban history – and for both the Americas and the rest of the world.
- Not only did it open the Americas up to what soon became a brutal and murderous conquest by powerful European states, it was also an important first step in the process now known as globalisation.
- By 1514, Cuba had been conquered by Spanish forces, despite resistance from the indigenous Amerindian population.
- From the mid-18th century, Spanish control of Cuba was threatened by other powers – in particular, by the US, which began to consider plans for annexation.
- A slave revolt in 1791 in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which ended in achieving independence in 1804, inspired the first serious independence rebellion in Cuba in 1812.
- The successes of Bolívarian independence movements in Latin America in the early 1820s inspired another unsuccessful Cuban independence rising in 1823.
- In the 1860s, those Cubans wanting independence were further encouraged by evidence of Spain’s declining imperial power.
Original population (Who are Cubans)?
Original: Peninsulares, Creoles, Mestizos Later: Afro-Cubans, Spaniards, Intellectuals
Political factors to independence moves
Spanish established control
The method was brutal. e.g. In 1511, ==Diego de Velasquez== established a settlement at Baracoa, and conquered the whole island. Several massacres were carried out as part of a genocidal plan to crush the determined guerrilla resistance of the indigenous populations.
Slavery
Local inhabitants were exploited as forced labors in gold and copper mine.
Spain imported a large number of slaves from Africa. Statistics: - Over the next 300 years, almost one million West Africans were taken to Cuba. - By the 17th century, Africans formed almost 50 per cent of Cuba’s population. - From 1821–31 alone, it is estimated that 600,000 slaves were imported. - The vast majority of slaves (possibly as high as 85 per cent) arrived in the 19th century.
Impact
Slaves worked on the sugar and tobacco plantations that, from the 17th century, had come to replace cattle ranching as Cuba’s main economic activity.
Slavery had an important impact on Cuba’s developing society, culture and economy.
Rebellions
In 1532, there was a rebellion in a gold mine. in 1538, blacks and native Cubans joined together against the white landowners. As became increasingly evident after 1800, the experience of slavery eventually resulted in black Cubans forming the bulk of the military forces that successfully fought to end Spanish control of Cuba.
Economic factors
Initially, the main source of wealth was growing of tabacco+cattle ranching+sugar plantation.
Landowners aimed to increase their wealth by adopting more modern methods. More imported slave to expand sugar plantation.
-> During the second half of the 18th century, the number of slave ships arriving in Cuba rose from six to 200 a year. The number of sugar plantations in Cuba increased fivefold, and the amount of land for sugar production doubled between the 1770s and the 1790s.
By 1800, sugar was Cuba’s biggest single export. The wealth this generated soon turned Cuba into Spain’s most valuable colony.
Problems: - Spain’s economic problems meant that it could not absorb all of Cuba’s sugar production. - Competition from Europe and North America - Slavery was banned in 1817, so the import gradually dropped until 1860 when it was completely ceased. -> No alternative for work force.
External factors
Challenged authority by: - ==Britain==: briefly seizing Guantanamo in 1741, even taking Havana in August 1762, and then occupying Cuba itself until February 1763. - ==US==: US politicians and business people began to think about either the purchase of Cuba from Spain, or even outright annexation by the US
Foreign rebellions and spread of enlightment: - ideals of French Revolution - success of Haitian Revolution (slave rebel) -> White landowners fear the same happen, increase control(adopt racist attitude) - the success of Bolivarian movement (In the Venezuela government, one of the important participants had been ==Simón Bolívar==. In 1811, Venezuela proclaimed its independence—although this first attempt was defeated by Spanish forces, Bolívar raised a new army and briefly liberated Venezuela again in 1813. However, Venezuela was finally liberated in 1821; in 1822, he also freed Colombia and Ecuador from Spanish control. The following year, he liberated Peru and Bolivia.)
Main rebellions
| Category | The Aponte Conspiracy (1812) | 1823 Bolivar Movement |
|---|---|---|
| Leader | ==Jose Antonio Aponte== | ==Jose Francisco Lemus== and ==Jose Maria Heredia== |
| Inspired by | Toussaint L’Ouverture and Henri Christophe | Bolivar’s achievements |
| Force | Followers and slave organizations, with a few white people | 3,000 Bolivians from Venezuela |
| Aim | Overthrow Spanish control and set up an independent Cuba | Achieve independence (presumably for Latin American regions) |
| Reason for Failure | Some plans were betrayed | Plot uncovered, invasion force did not arrive |
| Consequence | Executions of involved people, increased repression by Spain | Exile of conspirators, increased repression, continued influence of Enlightenment ideas |