Havana: History

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Havana: History

The Spaniard Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founded Havana in 1519 primarily as a commercial harbour. In 1607 it was proclaimed the capital of the Spanish colony Cuba. Havana became the main Spanish port in the New World.

In 1538 Havana was burnt down by pirates. The city was also regularly looted. At the start of the 18th century, Havana had developed into the third largest city in the New World. Large wharfs were built, where freighters for the Spanish commercial and war fleets were assembled.

A university was founded, as well as a publishing house, through which culture came more and more to life. In 1762 the city was taken by Great Britain, which traded it against Florida. After the Spanish had obtained control over the city again, they made Havana, which by then counted about 70,000 souls, into the best defended place on the island.

Two Spanish fortresses, situated on the other side of the bay, played a major role in this. The most well known of which is Castillo del Morro, but the most impressive is Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana. (See also: Havana High Lights)

DDue to intensive trade between the Caribbean and north America, Havana grew into a prosperous city in the 19th century. During this period, the new and well-to-do middle class built expensive mansions, while in the theatres the most famous actors of their time took to the stage.

In 1837 the first Cuban railway track came into service at Havana's harbour. Thus, Cuba became the first Spanish speaking country to have a railway. It was built to transport sugar from the valley of Guines into Havana.

With the Paris Peace Treaty of 1898 came an end to the Spanish presence and Cuba gained independence, partly due to American pressure. The United States kept a major influence and supported dictator Fulgencio Batista, who gained power in a coup in 1933 and was elected president in 1940.. However, he lost the elections in 1944. During this period, Havana became a leisure resort for Americans and the Mob flourished. Luxury hotels, like Capri, Riviera and Nacional arose, and casinos mushroomed, all of them used by the mob to laundry money. The famous night club Tropicana opened and big stars like Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner and Marlène Dietrich visited the island.

Batista once more organised mock elections, this time to give his designated successor, Andres Rivero Aguero, the appearance of legitimacy. He was to step into Battista's footsteps on 24th February 1959.

But events turned out differently. The army's support grew less, as did the support of the US. At the battle of Santa Clara, during the last days of 1958, Batista's troups were defeated by Che Guevara.

On 1st January 1959, the dictator secretly fled Havana to the Dominican capital Ciudad Trujillo, taking Cuba's treasury with him. 8th of January, Fidel Castro drove into Havana and celebrated the revolution's victory. After 25 years of crime and corruption, Cuba became a socialist state, with Fidel its president.

After the Cuban revolution, that brought Fidel Castro into power, efforts were made to improve the living conditions of ordinary Cubans. Thus, the revolutionary government launched a campaign to fight illiteracy and reformed agriculture.

After the Cuba crisis, president Kennedy announced a trade embargo against Cuba, which also had severe consequences for Havana, one of which was the absence of means to protect the old buildings against the tropical climate and its hurricanes.

At the end of the 80’s, Cuba's economy took another heavy blow. With the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, Cuba lost most of its trade partners. Recently, Cuba is slowly recovering from the economic downfall. Since the 90’s, tourism has become the major source of currency.

In 1898, the american war ship Main sank in Havana's port. The Americans accused the Spainish.. A battled followed, which was finally won by the Americans.

Granma

In 1952 Batista set up another coup which made democracy completely disappear. However, 1955 was a bad year for the dictator. There were student riots and protest manifestations. Police took to the streets heavy handedly and there were regular casualties. On 10th of December, a well loved student leader was killed, leading to large scale protests and a 5 minutes silence. Despite this, Batista ruled with an iron fist, even after Fidel Castro, Raul Castro en Che Guevara landed on board of Granma. By then, revolutionary ideas were gaining influence all over the island. (See also: Havana Highlights.)