Cuban Life During Spanish Colonial Rule
by For nearly 400 years, the island of Cuba was among Spain’s foremost and most loyal colonial possessions in the Americas.
The Beginning
The Spanish established their first settlement on the island at Baracoa, toward the east, in 1511. San Cristobal de la Habana, the future capital, was founded four years later.
Over the next two centuries, cuba served two primary purposes as a colony. First, Cuba served as a key stopping-off point for commerce between the new world and the old, and second, Cuba developed a number of important industries of its own: tobacco, coffee and sugar.
The Slavery
African slavery became the primary means to supply labor to Cuba’s agricultural industries. In 1774, a census reported that 25% of Cuba’s total population of 173 000 were African slaves, another 18% were free blacks, or slaves that had been permitted to earn their freedom. By the mid-1800s, the combined totals of free and enslaved blacks accounted for well over 50% of the population. Slavery was partially eliminated in 1868.
The Neighbor to the North
The growth of Cuba’s agricultural industries over time drew the island progressively closer to its neighbor to the north, not the Spanish crown.
Between roughly 1810 and 1825, Spanish colonial empire fell apart, the victim of a substantially declining power base, domestic unrest within Spain, imperial overstretch and a spate of powerful independence movements.
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