History Map Key Stories Photo Gallery Slideshow Web Links

Havana's Cathedral Square reveals Spain's influence on Cuba. (Courtesy of Corbis, 1995)

Father of Cuban independence José Martí. (Courtesy of Corbis)

By Aileen S. Yoo
Washingtonpost.com Staff
Updated December 1998

Sitting 60 miles south of Cuba is Isla de la Joventud (the Isle of Youth), a swath of flat land as wild and rugged as Cuba's history.

Spanish colonialization of Cuba began shortly after Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World and landed on the island in 1492. Cuba became a vital stopover point for galleons laden with gold and silver plundered in Mexico and Peru. The island burst with treasure and pirates raided frequently, often using Cuba's largest offshore island, known then as the Isle of Pines, as a base to attack the galleons and mainland cities.

The Spanish sought other countries for treasure and mined Cuba for agricultural riches like tobacco. But Cuba grew fat on sugar. In 1791, French sugar planters left Saint Domingue, Haiti – the world's leading sugar producer at the time – after a crippling slave rebellion and settled in Cuba, bringing with them their knowledge of the industry. The Haitian rebellion and rising world sugar prices brought an explosion of sugar plantations and a lucrative slave trade to Cuba. Because death and disease had virtually wiped out by the 15th century the native Guanahatabey, Ciboney and Taino populations – who had been enslaved to work on mineral mines and plantations – the Spanish were forced to import slaves from Africa, and later, China.

Trouble brewed amid the wealth and prosperity. Three slave rebellions in the 1830s and one in the next decade unnerved plantation owners. Spanish-rule created disparities between the wealthier Spanish-born peninsulares and Cuban-born criollos, who did not have many privileges, such as holding a public post and establishing a business. As a result, criollos demanded political and human rights. In 1868, planter Carlos Manuel de Cespedes released his slaves, setting off a bloody 10-year war that pitted black and white criollos against Spanish troops. The war ended with the Pact of Zanjon and unfulfilled promises of reform by Spain.

Cuba's next push for independence came in 1895, when separatists of the Cuban Revolutionary Party -- organized by national hero José Martí -- clashed with the Spanish. Martí was an intellectual, poet and journalist who supported independence as a young man. He founded his first newspaper, La Patria Libre (Free Fatherland), in 1869 at age 16. Soon after, Martí wrote a letter denouncing a classmate for attending a pro-Spanish rally and was sentenced to six years imprisonment, three months of which he spent on the Isle of Youth until he was banished to Spain in 1871.

For the next 24 years, Martí lived and worked abroad as a journalist, writing political poetry and essays on his homeland, meeting with Cuban exiles and outlining the goals of the revolution. Martí, who had visited Cuba twice during his exile, died in the May 19, 1895, battle at Dos Rios and is remembered today as the father of Cuban independence.

The island that the Spanish commonly used to imprison Cuban patriots continued incarcerating rebels years after colonial rule. In 1931, President Gerardo Machado built the Model Prison, which housed Fidel Castro and his followers for the July 26 attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. Castro's room is the main tourist attraction of the prison, which has become a museum. The island was renamed the Isle of Youth in 1978 to honor the work brigades made up of thousands of foreign students and Cuban youths who helped with the citrus plantations.