Cuban History and Geography
From Cuba and the Cubans by Wilbur S. Tupper, 1907.
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From Cuba and the Cubans by Wilbur S. Tupper, 1907.
Discovery and Early Settlement.
The Island of Cuba was discovered by Columbus, October 28, 1492. Fourteen days before, he had touched upon the small island which he named San Salvador, now called Watling Island, from the name of the present owner. Cuba may. therefore, be regarded as the first land of importance discovered in the new world.
Columbus landed on the Island in the neighborhood of what is now known as Nuevitas, probably at the mouth of the Maximo River. The journal of Columbus during his first voyage, indicates his wonder and admiration for the fertility, beauty and richness of the Island. He termed it "the most beautiful land that eyes ever beheld,” and called upon his companions to carefully note its beauties and its wonders; for he feared that his sovereign might not be able to believe that so wonderful and beautiful a country existed, it was so much a scene of enchantment, Columbus thought he had struck the mainland of a continent; but the Indians made him understand that it was an island.
He took possession of the land in the name of the Spanish crown and named it Juana, after the son of Ferdinand and Isabella. After the death of Ferdinand, an attempt was made to give the Island the name of Ferdinanda. Later on, it was called Santiago, after Spain's patron saint. This name still lives in one of the largest cities of the Island in the south-eastern part. It was also called Ave Maria. But the native term, Cuba, has alone survived.
The first Spanish settlement was made at Baracoa, on the northeastern coast, in 1511. Then followed Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus, Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba. These settlements were made between 1513 and 1515 by Velasquez and Diego Columbus, son of the great discoverer. In 1515 there was founded the town of San Cristobal de Habana, on the present site of Batabano. In 1519, however, the city of Havana was moved to its present site on the northern coast.
The native Indians of Cuba were a mild, peaceful race, and showed a fair degree of civilization. They believed in a personal god and in the immortality of the soul. They lived at peace among themselves, the art of war being unknown to them. There being no wild beasts of importance or game animals in the Island, they were not accustomed to the chase, as were the northern Indians; and the prodigality of the soil rendered much exertion unnecessary. They were at once made slaves by the Spaniards and put to work in mines and fields. Unused to hardship, the entire native race became practically extinct in half a century. Toward the close of the sixteenth century, slaves began to be imported from South Africa; and from then on until the abolition of slavery, Cuba was one of the principal slave markets of the world.
Spanish Oppression and the Republic
Spanish dominion in Cuba is a record of nearly four centuries of cruelty and oppression. Every industry and product was taxed to the uttermost. The administration of the Island in the hands of favorites of the crown, was one of graft and extortion in every conceivable form. Resistance and revolution inevitably followed, and hardly a decade passed without insurrection and strife.
One of the most important of these insurrections is known as the Ten Years War, which lasted from 1868 to 1878. One incident of that war is worthy of our attention. A Spanish gun-boat overhauled and captured off the coast of Jamaica, a steamer called the Virginius which claimed American registry. The Spaniards claimed it was a filibuster, and took steamer and crew to Santiago de Cuba, where on the 4th of November, 1868, three Cubans and one American were shot by order of the local commander. On the 7th, thirty-seven more men, including the captain of the vessel, were likewise executed, and on the 8th twelve more suffered the same fate. At this point the commander of a British sloop of war in the harbor intervened and saved the remainder of the crew numbering something over 100. This incident caused an outburst of indignation in the United States and nearly led to war with Spain at that time.
In 1898 war broke out between the United States and Spain, beginning with the blowing up of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor. On May 20, 1902, the Cuban flag was run up on Morro Castle and the Palace, and the Island began its existence as an independent republic. Subsequent events are fresh in our minds. Internal dissension in the Island led to a revolution in the fall of 1906, which was promptly suppressed by the United States. The president of the Republic resigned, and an American military governor was appointed by the President of the United States.
It may be explained here that the reason for United States intervention and the appointment of an American governor to rule the Island arose as follows: The treaty between the United States and Spain, made at the close of the war, provided that the United States should guarantee in the Island a safe and stable government and likewise personal and property rights. Not only Spain, but England and Germany had large interests in the Island which would have been jeopardized by an unsafe or unstable native government and which called for this guaranty. Through his treaty, therefore, and by the Piatt Senate Amendment on Cuban affairs, the substance of which was incorporated into the Cuban constitution, Cuba became practically a ward of the United States, and the United States became a perpetual guarantor of a stable government and the preservation of personal and property rights.
Location and Topographical Features
Cuba lies straight south of Florida and is about 100 miles from Key West. The extreme eastern end of the Island lies directly south of the City of New York, and the extreme western end is nearly due south of Cincinnati. From Cape San Antonio on the west, to Point Maisi on the east is a distance of 730 miles. The total length through the center of the Island, which curves upward in the middle, would be about 800 miles. The width of the Island varies from 25 miles from Mariel through to the Caribbean Sea, to about 125 miles at. the widest point in the eastern part. It has an area of about 44,000 square miles, being about the size of the State of Pennsylvania.
Lengthwise throughout the Island there runs a watershed or ridge, developing here and there into a well defined mountain range, but in the main being an elevated plateau, ranging from 100 to 500 feet above sea level. In the Province of Pinar Del Rio, in the west, there is a well defined range of hills called the Organ Mountains, reaching a height of 2,000 feet. In the southern part of Santa Clara Province there is a group of rounded peaks, the highest of which, Potrerillo, is 2,900 feet. The most important mountain range, however, runs from east to west along the southern coast of Santiago Province. These mountains rise to an elevation exceeding 8,000 feet. East of the City of Santiago these mountains are called the Cobre range, and it is here that the great copper mines of Cuba are located. The word "cobre," means copper. Here likewise, may be found a few survivors of the Aboriginees, called the Cobre Indians.
On the north coast, in Camaguey province, there is a range of hills parallel to the ocean and about twenty miles distant from it, called the Cubitas Range. Between this range and the sea is the famous Cubitas Valley, which is noted for the depth and fertility of its soil. In the Cubitas Valley region are found the oldest and most prosperous American colonies. It is the typical American agricultural section of the Island. It was in this valley that the provisional government of the insurgents was established in their struggle for independence. While this range is not more than 1,000 feet high at the most, there are, however, several mountain passes with precipitous sides and of great beauty. Taken as a whole, however, Cuba has little mountainous country, except in Santiago Province, The mountains are not rocky like our western mountains, but are fertile, and subject to cultivation where not too steep.
All authorities agree that Cuba is the best watered of any tropical bit of land under the sun. Innumerable streams of clear, pure water pour down from the elevated interior into the ocean. All of the streams are well stocked with fish. The largest river is the Cauto which rises in the mountains in the Province of Santiago de Cuba and flows westward into the Gulf of Esperanza ; but the whole Island is well watered and well drained. In this respect, it presents a striking contrast to many parts of our southern states, where the land is flat and hardly rises above sea level. In the region of New Orleans, Galveston and many other southern points, digging ten or fifteen feet below the surface discloses salt water, and the rainfall is depended upon for drinking water. Cuba lies high and dry, and in addition to its numerous fresh water streams, wells of fine drinking water are obtained by digging from fifteen to one hundred feet or more, as the case may be.
Cuba excels in fine harbors and has them in great numbers. The entire southern coast is marshy except between the cities of Trinidad and Cienfuegos and where the Maestre range rises precipitously from the sea. This marsh or low strip of coast is only a mile or two in width, except in the great Zapata Swamp south of Matanzas, which is 30 miles wide and about 70 miles long, an unexplored everglade. The northern coast is high and dry and in some places rapidly rises a hundred feet or more from sea level.
Tupper, Wilbur S. Cuba and the Cubans. The Stationary Manufacuring Company, 1907.
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