This document provides an overview of Cuba's geography, people, and history. It notes that Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with mountain ranges, rivers, and coastal plains. The climate is tropical, with Havana as the largest city. The population is multiracial, with Spanish and African origins predominant. Christopher Columbus first landed in Cuba in 1492, and it was a Spanish colony until independence in 1898 following the Spanish-American War. Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959 that established a communist government aligned with the Soviet Union until its collapse in the 1990s.

1. NATIONS OF THE AMERICAS: A COUNTRY REPORT
Diana Bruce
History 141
November 13, 2011
Assignment 6: Part 1

2. CUBA: GEOGRAPHY
• Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean
and the 16th largest island in the world by
land area, equal in area to Pennsylvania. This
unique country is made up of the island of
Cuba, the island of Youth and numerous islets
and reefs.
• Cuba consists mostly of flat rolling plains,
with flat wetlands and undulating valleys to
pristine beaches and rugged mountain ranges.
The Sierra Maestra mountains are in the
southeast, its highest point is Pico Turquino
(6,480 ft).
• The Cauto River or Río Cauto, located in
southeast Cuba, is the longest river of Cuba. It
is one of the two navigable rivers in Cuba.
The other one is called Sagua la Grande.
• Laguna de Leche ( “Milk Lake”) is the largest
natural lake. The white color is caused by the
lake's limestone bed.

3. CUBA: GEOGRAPHY
• The climate of Cuba is tropical, with northeasterly
trade winds that blow year-round. The drier season
is from November to April and a rainier season from
May to October. The average temperature is 69.8 in
January and 80.6 in July. Hurricanes are most common
in September and October.
• Havana is the capital and largest city, with a population
of 2,686,000. Other large cities are Santiago de Cuba,
Camaguey, Holguin, Guantanamo and Santa Clara.
• Cuba has 11 main ports capable of handling general
export and import cargoes, which include major deep
water ports at Cienfuegos, Havana, Mariel (the Free Trade Zone),
Matanzas, Nipe, Nuevitas and Santiago de Cuba.

4. CUBA: GEOGRAPHY
• Havana is the country’s largest and most frequently
accessed port.
• During the 1990s a new pier for cruise ships was built.
In 2001, cruise ships from British, Canadian, Italian,
and Spanish companies began to make Havana a port
of call.
• Number one in sugar exports, the port of Cienfuegos is
capable of handling one-third of Cuba’s sugar
production through its bulk sugar terminal. Its pier for
handling oil and oil byproducts allows the berthing
of ships up to 50,000 tons.

5. CUBA: PEOPLE
• According to Cuban census of 2002, the
population was 11,177,743, including
5,597,233 men and 5,580,510 women.
• A multiracial society, Cuba has a
population of mainly Spanish and African
origins; a majority of inhabitants, 51
percent, are mulatto or mestizo; 37 percent,
white; and 11 percent, black. A small
Chinese minority constitutes less than 1
percent of the total population.
• Cuba has two languages. Spanish
(Español) is the official and dominant
language. Lucumí is an ethnic language
with Niger–Congo, Atlantic–Congo, Volta–
Congo, Benue–Congo, Defoid, Yoruboid,
and Edekiri roots.

6. CUBA: PEOPLE
• Immigration and emigration have
played a prominent part in the
demographic profile of Cuba during
the 20th century.
• During the 18th, 19th, and the early
part of the 20th century large waves
of Canarian, Catalan, Andalusian,
Galician, and other Spanish people
immigrated to Cuba.
• Afro-Cubans are descended
primarily from the Kongo people, as
well as the Sahrawi Arabs of Western
Sahara under Moroccan occupation
since 1976.

7. CUBA: PEOPLE
• In 1992 Cuba amended its constitution to
characterize the state as secular instead of
atheist.
• Roman Catholicism was brought to the
island by the Spanish and remains the
dominant faith. Catholicism is often
practiced in tandem with Santeria, a mixture
of Catholicism and other , mainly African,
faiths that include a number of cults.
• Pentecostalism has grown rapidly in recent
years. Cuba has small communities of Jews,
Muslims and members of the Bahai Faith.

8. CUBA: HISTORY
• Christopher Columbus landed on Cuba’s
northeastern coast near what is now Baracoa on
October 27, 1492.
• In 1511 the first Spanish settlement was founded
by Diego Velazquez de Cuellar at Baracoa. Cuba
remained a Spanish possession for almost 400
years (1511-1898).
• Independence from Spain was the motive for a
rebellion in 1868 led by Carlos Manuel de
Cespedes. De Cespedes, a sugar planter, freed
his slaves to fight with him for a free Cuba. This
rebellion resulted in a conflict known as the Ten
Years’ War.
• Prosperous sugar industry employed chattel
slavery until the third of the 19th century. In 1868
more than forty percent of cane sugar reached
the world market. Slavery was abolished in 1886.

9. CUBA: HISTORY
• In 1895, the poet Jose Marti led the struggle
that finally ended Spanish rule, thanks largely
to U.S. intervention in 1898 after the sinking
of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor.
• After the Spanish-American war, Spain and
the United States signed the Treaty of Paris
(1898) by which Spain ceded Puerto Rico, the
Philippines, and Guam to the U.S. for $20
million. Spain relinquished all claim of
foreign sovereignty over Cuba.
• The U.S. occupation ended in 1902 when
Theodore Roosevelt abandoned the Treaty of
Paris and the Republic of Cuba was declared.
• A constitutional government was maintained
until 1930 when Gerardo Machado y Morales
suspended the constitution.

10. CUBA: HISTORY
• Senior elements of the Cuban Army forced Machado
into exile. In 1934 after several puppet presidents
subordinate to the army were ousted, Fulgencio Batista
was democratically elected President in 1940.
• Batista’s regime was weakened by a U.S. arms embargo
imposed on March 14, 1958. Fidel Castro and his rebels
captured Santa Clara and Batista fled to Havana in
1959 to exile in Portugal. Castro became prime minister
under president Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado.
• By 1963, Cuba was moving towards a Communist
system. The U.S. imposed complete diplomatic and
commercial embargo on Cuba. In 1965 Fidel Castro
merged his revolutionary organizations with the
Communist Party, while Raul Castro became Defense
Minister and second in power to his brother Fidel
Castro.
• With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba has found a
new source of aid and support in China, Venezuela, and
Bolivia. In 2008, Fidel Castro resigned and Raul Castro
was elected as the new president.

11. SOURCES
Library of Congress - www.loc.gov. 2011. Federal Research Division. Country Profile: Cuba, September
2006.
Wikipedia - www.en.wikipedia.org. 2011. Cuba