Spain
The island of Cuba was inhabited by about 50,000 Ciboney and Taíno. They were agricultural Mesoamerican Indian tribes prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus in October 1492, who claimed the Island for the Kingdom of Spain. Aboriginal groups were soon eliminated or died as a result of diseases or the shock of conquest. Thus, the impact of indigenous groups on subsequent Cuban society was limited, and Spanish culture, institutions, language, and religion prevailed. Colonial society developed slowly after Spain colonized the island and Cuba was remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish–American War of 1898.
The conquest of the Island for Spain almost begins for the Oriente of Cuba two decades after Colón’s first trip, like part of the occupation process that was irradiated toward diverse lands of Caribbean. To Diego Velázquez, one of the richest colonists in The Spaniard, took charge to subdue the Cuban territory that began in 1510 with a lingering acknowledgment operation and conquer, plagued of bloody incidents. In a period of 5 years, Spaniards undertook the establishment of seven villages with the objective of controlling the conquered territory.
From these establishments that changed its primitive location mostly, the conquerors began the exploitation of the resources of the Island. The economic activity was sustained in the work of the natives, delivered them to the colonists for the kingdom by means of the system of “commands”, a kind of a granting personal, revocable and not transferable, through which the colonist committed to dress, to feed and to Christianize the aborigine in exchange for the right of making him work in benefit of the prevailing government. The dominant economic line in these first years of the colony was the mining, specifically the extraction of gold, activity in which commended Indians were used as well as some black slaves that were integrated from very early to the ethnic conglomerate that centuries later it would constitute the Cuban town.
The native Indians were working under the Spaniards oppression were virtually wiped out due to multiple factors, including Eurasian infectious diseases aggravated in large part by a lack of natural resistance as well as privation stemming from repressive colonial subjugation. In 1529, a measles outbreak in Cuba killed two-thirds of the natives who had previously survived smallpox. Thus, entered the slave trade. The first Spanish royal permit for Negro slaves was issued in 1513.
The quick exhaustion of the gold-bearing sands, the lack of gold, and the population’s drastic reduction in value, the salted meat and the leathers would be the almost exclusive goods with which the scarce colonists of the Island could incorporate themselves to the commercial circuits of the nascent Spanish empire.
By the 1590’s Cuba’s economy began to prosper by cattle breeding and farming as this lead to new jobs on the island, but this new slow and uneven growth led supplies to be more expensive. How the agriculture also developed and farming expanded with sugar, coffee and tobacco crops began to use the black market in order to purchase contraband. These new crops also served to encourage new settlements. No longer had a remote military outpost, food shortages and inflated prices worsened. Supplies did not increase and money was not sent from Spain. The cost of goods did not decline but contraband increased.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the chief industry was stock-raising which was followed in all parts of the island. The meat afforded a supply for the shipping and the hides were exported. Honey and wax soon became important. The sugar industry grew slowly and chiefly in the favorable region of Habana, three ingenios being established in its vicinity in 1576. These mills were simple, crude constructions of rollers for crushing the cane moved by cattle or water power. The product obtained by simple boiling in open pans was of a very inferior quality, and was consumed in the island. The ingenios required from eighty to one hundred Negroes each. Large-scale sugar production in Cuba began early in the 19th century. Sugar quickly became the cornerstone of the Cuban economy and a new class of wealthy planters emerged. By mid-19th century Cuba provided about a third of the world’s sugar, and U.S. investors began to make moves on the island.
There were three liberations wars that Cuba people fought against Spain; Ten Years War (1868-1878), the Little War (1879-1880), and Cuban War Independence (1895-1898). The final three months of the conflict escalated to become the Spanish–American War, with United States forces being deployed in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippine Islands against Spain. On August 12, the United States and Spain signed a protocol of Peace, in which Spain agreed to relinquish all claim of sovereignty and title over Cuba. On December 10, 1898, the United States and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris, which recognized Cuban independence.