Cuba

Taíno Civilisation: Masters of the Caribbean

When Columbus arrived in 1492, Cuba was home to the Taíno — a sophisticated Arawakan people who had settled the Caribbean for over a thousand years, cultivating maize, cassava, and tobacco.

Columbus Arrives in Cuba

On 27 October 1492 Christopher Columbus anchored off Cuba's northeastern coast, declaring it the most beautiful land human eyes had ever seen — and setting in motion the Spanish colonisation of the Americas.

Spanish Colonial Cuba: Sugar, Slavery, and Havana

For three and a half centuries Cuba was Spain's most prized Caribbean colony, built on African enslaved labour and sugar that made it one of the wealthiest islands on Earth.

Ten Years' War: Cuba's First Independence Struggle

On 10 October 1868 sugar planter Carlos Manuel de Céspedes freed his enslaved workers and rang the bell of his plantation — the Grito de Yara — launching Cuba's first war of independence against Spain.

Cuban Independence and the Spanish-American War

When the USS Maine exploded in Havana harbour in 1898, the United States declared war on Spain. Cuba won independence — but found itself under heavy American influence for decades.

Havana's Golden Age: Jazz, Cars, and the Mob

In the 1940s and 50s, Havana was one of the world's most glamorous cities — a playground of jazz clubs, casino hotels, and American gangsters that gave Cuba an outsize cultural influence.

Cuban Revolution: Castro Overthrows Batista

On 1 January 1959 Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement marched into Havana as dictator Batista fled, launching a communist revolution that transformed Cuba and set it permanently at odds with the United States.

Bay of Pigs Invasion

In April 1961, a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs to overthrow Castro — and failed disastrously, embarrassing the Kennedy administration and cementing Castro's hold on power.

Cuban Missile Crisis

In October 1962, the discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba brought the world to the brink of nuclear war — thirteen days of superpower confrontation that remains the closest humanity has come to mutual annihilation.

The Special Period: Cuba After the Soviet Collapse

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Cuba lost 80% of its trade overnight, triggering the "Special Period in Time of Peace" — years of devastating scarcity that forced the island to reinvent itself.