Cuba - Lonely Planet [25]
1492 Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba near modern Gibara in Holguín province. He sails for a month along the coast as far as Baracoa, planting religious crosses and meeting with the indigenous Taínos.
1508 Sebastián de Ocampo circumnavigates Cuba discovering the bays of Havana and Cienfuegos. In doing so he proves that it’s an island, not part of Asia as Columbus had died thinking.
1511 Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar lands at Baracoa with four ships and 400 colonizers including Hernán Cortés (the future colonizer of Mexico). The new arrivals construct a fort and quickly make enemies with the local Taínos.
1512 Rebel Indian chief Hatuey leads a brief insurrection against the Spanish before being captured and burnt at the stake for refusing to convert to Catholicism.
1522 The first slaves arrive in Cuba from Africa, ushering in an era that was to last for 350 years and have a profound effect on the growth and development of Cuban culture.
1555 The age of piracy is inaugurated. French buccaneer, Jaques de Sores, attacks Havana and burns it to the ground. In response, the Spanish start building a huge network of military forts.
1589 Work begins on two forts – Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta, and Castillo de los Tres Santos Reyes Magnos del Morro – on either side of Havana harbor, to protect Spain’s prized colony from pirates and foreign invaders.
1607 Havana is declared capital of Cuba and becomes the annual congregation point for Spain’s stinking-rich Caribbean treasure fleet loaded up with silver from Peru and gold from Mexico.
1728 The University of Havana is founded in Cuba’s rapidly growing capital, a city of decorative baroque churches and muscular Spanish forts encircled by a 5km-long wall.
1741 A British Navy contingent under the command of Admiral Edward Vernon briefly captures Guantánamo Bay during the War of Jenkin’s Ear, but is quickly sent packing after an outbreak of yellow fever.
1762 Spain joins France in the Seven Years’ War, provoking the British to attack and take Havana. They occupy Cuba for 11 months before exchanging it for Florida at the Treaty of Paris in 1763.
1791 A bloody slave rebellion in Haiti causes thousands of white French planters to flee west to Cuba, where they set up some of the earliest coffee plantations in the New World.
1808 Pre-empting the Monroe Doctrine, US president Thomas Jefferson proclaims Cuba ‘the most interesting addition which could be made to our system of states,’ thus beginning a 200-year-long US obsession with all things Cuban.
1850 Venezuelan filibuster Narciso López raises the Cuban flag for the first time in Cárdenas during an abortive attempt to ‘liberate’ the colony from Spain.
1868 Céspedes frees his slaves in Manzanillo and proclaims the Grito de Yara, Cuba’s first independence cry and the beginning of a 10-year-long war against the Spanish.
1878 The Pact of El Zanjón ends the First War of Independence. Cuban general Antonio Maceo issues the Protest of Baraguá and briefly resumes hostilities before disappearing into exile.
1886 After more than 350 years of exploitation and cross-Atlantic transportation, Cuba becomes the second-last country in the Americas to abolish slavery.
1892 From exile in the US, José Martí galvanizes popular support and forms the Cuban Revolutionary Party, starting to lay the groundwork for the resumption of hostilities against Spain.
1895 José Martí and Antonio Maceo arrive in Cuba to ignite the Second Independence War. Martí is killed at Dos Ríos in May and is quickly elevated to a martyr.
1896 After sustaining more than 20 injuries in a military career that spanned four decades and two independence wars, Mambí general Antonio Maceo finally meets his nemesis at El Cacahual near Havana where he is killed in an ambush.
1898 Following the loss of the battleship USS Maine, the US declares war on Spain and defeats its forces at land and sea near Santiago de Cuba. A four-year US occupation begins.
1902 Cuba gains nominal independence