Cuba was first conquered in 1511 by the Spaniards from Spain
after Christopher Columbus’ arrival in 1492. The Spaniards conquered throughout
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Cuba was also colonized by the U.S.
The Spanish-American war resulted in Spanish withdrawal in 1898. Three and a
half years later, Cuba gained its independence in 1902. Three aboriginal groups
that inhabited the island when the Spaniards invaded were the Guanahatabey, the
Ciboney, and the Taino. They soon died because of disease or from the shock of
conquest. As a result, indigenous group influence was limited to Spanish culture.
Cuba began to prevail in the nineteenth century. It became
the major sugar producer of the world after Haiti collapsed as a producing
colony. Sugar supplanted tobacco agriculture and cattle became the main
occupation. Cuba was the last Spanish possession in the Americas. The Platt
amendment of 1901 gave the U.S. the right to intervene in Cuban politics. The island
remained a virtual American colony even after President FDR repealed the law in
1934. In 1952 Fulgencio Batista seized power, and even though Cuba remained one
of the wealthiest nations in Latin America, Batista’s rule was marked by
corruption. Fidel Castro fought to restore constitutional democracy and to
break away from U.S. domination. In 1959 he assumed military and political
power as Cuba’s Prime minister.
Cuba’s history continues to be reflected Through art, its diverse population, integral exports, its communist government, and the Santeria religion. Chinese Cuban artists have left imprints with their work as well. Wifredo Lam created Surrealist paintings and sculptures. His most well known piece is his painting called “The Jungle”. Cuba has a long literary tradition that goes right along with its history from artists like Alejo Carpentier and Jose Marti. Cuba’s agricultural role during its time as a Spanish colony has led to a racially diverse population that is still seen today. Its population consists of races such as mestizos, Chinese, blacks, and whites. Unfortunately, Cuba has been a communist government since 1965. After Batista’s overthrow, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party socialist state. Cuba is still the religious center of Santeria. The faith of this religion has spread to many other countries as well. Going through Cuba’s history will also inform you of some historical sites that are still standing today. For example, The Comandancia remains one of the Cuban revolutionary war’s most historical shrines. It served as Fidel Castro’s main command post. Another would be the Santiago cemetery which has a wall of plaques that names those who were killed by Batista’s security forces.
I like how much detail you've included in your post. One area that may need a little work is grammar. I noticed just a couple grammar errors in capitalization and punctuation, where some thoughts could have been made into one sentence. I think the strongest area is the content; there's a lot of information here, and you've written it in a way that's very retainable to the readers.
ReplyDeleteI like how far you went back in the history of Cuba. I also like how you included the pictures even though they could have been integrated a little better. Overall I like the information you included and it was interesting to read.
ReplyDeleteI like how descriptive you were in the history of Cuba but I also like how even as you were going through the facts you are doing more than just listing them. You did a good job of weaving the facts together into a good post. The pictures are well selected even though I would like a little more context on the pictures you selected.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job, I like how you are giving us more detail and fact about Cuba. You also added pictures and references with makes your work look good. It was interesting reading your blog post.
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