Portal:Cuba

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Location of Cuba in the Caribbean
Republic of Cuba
República de Cuba (Spanish)

Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba, Isla de la Juventud, archipelagos, 4,195 islands and cays surrounding the main island. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean meet. Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both the American state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola (Haiti/Dominican Republic), and north of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital. Cuba is the third-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti and the Domincan Republic, with about 11 million inhabitants.

Cuba is one of a few extant socialist states, in which the role of the Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Cuba has an authoritarian regime where political opposition is not permitted. Censorship is extensive and independent journalism is repressed; Reporters Without Borders has characterized Cuba as one of the worst countries for press freedom. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America. It is a multiethnic country whose people, culture and customs derive from diverse origins, including the Taíno Ciboney peoples, the long period of Spanish colonialism, the introduction of enslaved Africans and a close relationship with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. (Full article...)

Poster of Fidel Castro chopping sugar cane promoting the push for a mass sugar harvest.

The Revolutionary Offensive was a political campaign in Cuba starting in 1968 to nationalize all remaining private small businesses, which at the time totaled to be about 58,000 small enterprises. The campaign would spur industrialization in Cuba and focus the economy on sugar production, specifically to a deadline for an annual sugar harvest of 10 million tons by 1970. The economic focus on sugar production involved international volunteers and the mobilization of workers from all sectors of the Cuban economy. Economic mobilization also coincided with greater militarization of Cuban political structures and society in general.

By 1970 production in other sectors of the Cuban economy had fallen, and the predicted 10 million ton annual harvest fell short to only 8.5 million. The failure of the 1970 harvest caused officials to reassess the Cuban economy, sacrificing egalitarian measures and embracing Soviet influence. (Full article...)
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Damage in Havana, Cuba, succeeding the hurricane

The 1846 Havana hurricane (also known as the Great Havana hurricane of 1846, San Francisco de Borja hurricane and The Great Gale of 1846) was the most intense tropical cyclone in recorded history for 78 years and the first known Category 5-strength hurricane to strike Cuba. The first indications of the formation of a disturbance were first noted on 5 October in the Caribbean Sea, but little else was known until the storm approached Cuba on 10 October. There, it brought extreme winds and the lowest known atmospheric pressure of the time – 938 millibars (27.7 inHg) – a record which remained unbroken until the development of a later cyclone in 1924. It soon curved toward Florida, where it maintained its intensity, continuing to rapidly hasten northward along the East Coast of the United States to New England. It entered an extratropical transition while situated over New York on 13 October, producing intense Category 2-force winds and unusually little precipitation. Eventually, the gale dissipated over the Canadian Maritimes the following day as a markedly weaker storm.

In Cuba, the storm caused hundreds of deaths, capsized dozens of ships, obliterated buildings, uprooted trees, and ruined crops. Many towns were wholly destroyed or flattened and never recovered, while others disappeared entirely. Damage in the United States was considerably better-chronicled despite being less severe. In Key West, widespread destruction was noted, with 40 deaths, many vessels rendered unfit, and widespread structural damage, with several buildings swept off of their foundations and hundreds of others flattened. Few supplies arrived in the following days and relief efforts were gradual, with few resources within the town's vicinity. Along other sections of the Southeastern U.S. coast, copious rainfall and moderate winds impacted agriculture, shipping, and residences. As the storm tracked along the Middle-Atlantic coast, similar effects were reported: there, the gale inundated many areas, impeded communications, destroyed railroads and canals, and flattened structures. Despite extensive damage, only two deaths were recorded outside Cuba and Florida. Along its entire track, the hurricane caused $338,000 in losses and at least 164 deaths. (Full article...)

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Carlos Manuel de Céspedes del Castillo (18 April 1819, Bayamo, Spanish Cuba – 27 February 1874, San Lorenzo, Spanish Cuba) was a Cuban revolutionary hero and First President of Cuba in Arms in 1868. Cespedes, who was a plantation owner in Cuba, freed his slaves and made the declaration of Cuban independence in 1868 which started the Ten Years' War (1868–1878). This was the first of three wars of independence, the third of which, the Cuban War of Independence led to the end of Spanish rule in 1898 and Cuba's independence in 1902.

Because of his actions which led to the eventual independence of Cuba, he is known there as the "Father of the homeland". (Full article...)
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The cupola of Capitolio from inside, Havana, Cuba, December 2006
The cupola of Capitolio from inside, Havana, Cuba, December 2006
Credit: Chaerani
An interior view of the cupola of El Capitolio in Havana.

More did you know - show different entries

  • ...that a CPA is a type of agricultural cooperative that exists in Cuba today?
  • ...that Eastern Cuban cuisine forms the basis of criollo cooking, which shares a great deal of recipes with other Caribbean cuisines, but has the distinctive difference of making almost no use of peppers?
  • ...that Cupet is Cuba's state oil company and extracts around 80,000 barrels per day of heavy crude oil?
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Taíno chief Hatuey who rebelled against Spanish rule before being tied to the stake and burnt alive at Yara, 1512. (online).

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