Indian peoples had apparently lived in Cuba for around 10,000 years, the first groups arriving from the Mississippi and Florida regions by way of Grand Bahama Island. Later waves of Arawaks arrived from what is now Venezuela and Central America, island-hopping along the Antilles. These migrations were still occurring in 1492.
The indigenous peoples of Cuba—the Guanahatebeys, Siboneys and Tainos—were generally hunters, gatherers, fishermen and early farmers. These groups of Indians never attained the cultural complexity and development of other societies in South and Central America, but some developed rudimentary agriculture and pottery. They grew tobacco, corn and yucca and lived in small hamlets either inland or on the banks of rivers.
By the time the Spaniards appeared on the scene, some of these societies had already achieved greater complexity, reflected in the custom of burying their dead and the emergence of a social division of labor, distinguishing between the tribal chief, the religious leader and the rest of the community. They also played sports, called batos, engaged in ceremonial songs and dances, and portrayed their surroundings in pictographs. The Spaniards’ arrival halted the development of these indigenous societies in Cuba and almost entirely wiped them out.
Under the Santa Fe Pact signed by Christopher Columbus and the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand, Columbus was to sail around the earth to reach Cipango and Cathay, in Asia. The pact stated how much of the booty obtained on the voyage would go to the contracting parties and how much the sailors would receive.
Cuba had almost none of the gold and silver the Spaniards sought for their nascent capitalist economy in Europe, so Columbus prioritized the colonization of Hispaniola to the east (the Dominican Republic today). On his second voyage, in 1493, he skirted the southern coast of Cuba, putting ashore near Cape San Antonio in the western part of the island, and he forced his crew to sign a document stating they had reached the mainland. He then returned to Hispaniola, which he viewed as more important; for the next 15 years, the Spanish monarchy displayed very little interest in Cuba.
In 1508, Nicolás de Ovando, governor of Hispaniola, was instructed to organize an expedition to circumnavigate Cuba. Sebastián de Ocampo carried out this order and proved it was an island. A conflict developed between the Castilian monarchs and Columbus’s son, Diego Bartolomé Columbus, the new governor of Hispaniola. So it was Diego Velázquez, rather than Diego Bartolomé Columbus, who was appointed governor of Cuba in 1510 and he was ordered to begin the conquest and colonization of the island.
Velázquez arrived in Cuba near what is now Maisí and faced little resistance from the indigenous population. He founded Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Baracoa, the first Spanish settlement in Cuba, at the end of 1510 and the beginning of 1511. The Spaniards soon expanded throughout the island: a brig went along the northern coast; a column of men under the command of Francisco de Morales—who was soon replaced by Pánfilo de Narváez, a close friend of Velázquez’s—advanced through the central part of the island; and Velázquez himself traveled along the southern coast. None of the indigenous people put up much resistance, except for Hatuey, an Indian chief from Hispaniola, who was burned at the stake. So the conquest was quickly achieved.
Six new settlements were founded between 1512 and 1515 at San Salvador del Bayamo, Santísima Trinidad, San Cristóbal de La Habana, Sancti Spíritus, Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe and Santiago de Cuba (which replaced Baracoa as the seat of the island’s government). Some of these settlements were later moved to their present locations.
The Spanish idea of developing a colony by encouraging the emigration of families laid the basis for future conflicts between the representatives of the monarchy and the top level of local government, the town councils, whose members elected their own mayors. Over the decades, the town councils became ever more exclusive oligarchies reflecting the interests of particular regions and these frequently clashed with the interests of the mother country. Apart from the governor of the island, the most important Spanish officials in Cuba were the inspector (or agent), the accountant and the treasurer. The town councils also sent representatives to the Cortes. The Catholic Church also had a strong presence, whose main duty was to proselytize among the Indians.
One of the conquistadors’ main goals—finding gold—was not achieved in Cuba, which had no large deposits of that mineral. Some gold was obtained by forcing Indians to pan the rivers; but by 1542, raising cattle, pigs and horses—both for local consumption and for export to the newly conquered territories in South America—was becoming the basis of the new economy. Cattle ranching did very well in the forested areas of the island. At the same time, the need to survive forced the Europeans to use plants cultivated by the indigenous peoples, such as yucca, from which a substitute for bread was made. Tobacco was another plant the Spaniards learned about from the Indians and gradually it became very important to Cuba’s economy.
Without authorization, Velázquez allocated Indian land to his men. In 1536, following the established practice, the town council of Sancti Spíritus issued land grants to Spanish soldiers. This did not imply legal ownership as the land officially belonged to the king of Spain. Rather, it meant the right to use it on payment of a fee to the Spanish monarchy and the Catholic Church. The land grants were made in the form of farms of various sizes. The contradiction between right to use the land and lack of legal title would, in the long run, create a serious impediment to the development of capitalism in Cuba.
An indigenous work force was distributed along with the land, tying the Indians to the Spaniards not in the classical form of slavery but in a bond similar to serfdom. Torn from their families and culture, the Indians were forced to work between 14 and 16 hours a day. For indigenous people who had not been exposed to class exploitation, the system of being tied to the land, combined with the diseases brought by the Europeans, was catastrophic. Because the Spaniards brought no women with them, many mestizo children were born to Indian women and, in these early times, most of their descendants were integrated into the European society rather than the indigenous one.
In the first few decades of colonization, Africans, who survived under the system of exploitation better than the Indians did, were brought in as slaves. In small numbers at first, sporadically, and then more steadily, Africans were brought to Cuba, enhancing the racial mixture of the population. Different African cultures quickly began to blend with the nascent Spanish-Indian culture and, by the middle of the 16th century, some of the Cuban nation’s present-day cultural features began to emerge.
The Criollo Economy and Society
The island’s economy evolved slowly, reflecting the priority Spain gave to its new territories in the Caribbean and South America. At first, Cuba’s population decreased when men were sent to participate in the conquest of Mexico and other expeditions, such as that led by Hernando de Soto to Florida. The Spaniards who stayed in Cuba adapted more quickly than expected. In the middle of the 16th century, a new generation of Spanish descendants, most of whom had been born in Cuba, became influential in the nascent colonial world.
During the 16th and 17th centuries and through the first half of the 18th century, cattle ranching remained important, both as providing food for the settlers and as a commodity for trade. Vast cattle ranches covered the island, but these were soon displaced by the development of modern agriculture.
Sown on the banks of rivers, tobacco was a crop that required very little labor, as the Spaniards soon learned from the Indians. Nor did this product require any great capital outlay or large area of land, and the increase in its use in Europe led to a steady growth in demand. In addition, food crops were planted for the settlers, especially those living in Havana. Thus the cattle ranches were replaced by more profitable agriculture. The Spanish government and town councils tried to protect the very powerful group of cattle ranchers, but the Crown’s growing need to feed its soldiers and sailors, plus the taxes that agricultural products contributed to the treasury, meant the legislation