Cuba

Geography

Cuba, of a 114524 km surface ², is the biggest island of the Caribbean Three mountainous chains occupy ¼ lands: the Sierra Maestra "highlight, Pico Turquino: on 2005 m", the central Chain and Sierras del Rosano and of Los Organos. The tropical climate is warm and wet. The capital of Cuba is Havana.

Population

The Cuban people consist of 51 % of half-bloods, 37 % of Hispanic of European previous history and 11 % of Afro-américains. 56 % of the population is an atheist. 39 % are catholic, 3,3 % are Protestant and 1,6 % are syncrétistes afro-Cubans. Cuba has the weakest rate of fertility of all the Central America and the South. More than 75 % of the population lives in urban areas.

Havana, capital, is the shopping center of the country. Santiago of Cuba, an important port, forms a big shopping and industrial center.

History

In 1492, Christophe Colomb lands on the island then lived by Indians of the Caribbean. To exploit the lands of the island, these last ones import black slaves of Africa. The Spaniards dominate the island till the end of the XIXth century. Then the United States play it a role increasing, controlling several aspects of the economy.

In 1898, they free the island of the Spanish activity and stay there during almost 40 years. In 1940, Batista becomes a president of the Republic and begins a big number of social reforms. He admits 2 communists to his government. A small group of right men, steered by the lawyerFidel Castro, dashes into an armed political fight.

The revolt widens thanks to communists' arrival. In 1959, the guerrillas steered by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara enter in Havana. The movement of July 26th collects very different persons of origin, often hostile to the communists.

But, in 1961, Fidel Castro, who wishes to apply the reforms which he promised, refers to the Marxism-Leninism, and create, in 1962, the first communist State of the American continent. This situation pulls the break with the United States and an unprecedented crisis, when the Soviet citizens want to install in Cuba, in 1963, nuclear warheads.

During more than around ten years, Cuba is the head of bow of the revolutionary movement in Latin America, the fall of the communist block made, in Cuba, his main economic partners lose, pulling a major economic crisis. The American embargo stresses this situation.

Today, Cuba lives a great shift, in a context of extremely difficult foreign policy, notably with the United States.