Cuba is an island nation located in the northern Caribbean, south of both the U.S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica.
History
Cuba's capital is Havana.
Cuba was inhabited by three distinct tribes of indigenous peoples of the Americas. In 1492, Christopher Columbus claimed Cuba as a colony for Spain. Within a century, the native people were wiped out, mainly to diseases brought by the European settlers. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, Cuba was frequently targeted by pirates and privateers. In 1762, Havana was occupied by the British during the Seven Years' War until returning to the Spanish in exchange for Florida.
By the 19th Century, Cuba underwent a series of failed rebellions against Spanish rule. It was not until 1898 when Cuba became the main battleground in the Spanish-American War, which resulted in the Spanish withdrawing from the island, and following three-and-a-half years of subsequent American military rule, Cuba gained formal independence in 1902.
Through the rest of the 20th century, Cuba saw significant economic development, but also political corruption and a succession of despotic leaders, culminating in the overthrow of the dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 during the Cuban Revolution. Cuba subsequently became a socialist state governed by the Communist Party under the leadership of Fidel and Raúl Castro. The United States placed a trade embargo on Cuba following the revolution, and deeply strained Cuban-American relations over American support for the Batista regime.
In 1961, the American Central Intelligence Agency launched a failed attempt to overthrow the Castro regime in what is known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion, which exacerbated Cuban antipathy towards America and culminating in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The aftermath of the missile crisis resulted with an agreement that, among other things, the United States would not invade Cuba in exchange for the Soviet Union removing long-range nuclear missiles from Cuba.
Alternate Realities
Earth-9
On Earth-9, the Cuban Missile Crisis resulted in near-apocalyptic disaster when the first superhero, The Atom, attempted to intervene which only caused the Cuban government to mistook him for an incoming American missile and provoking them to destroy Florida in nuclear fire. In turn, Cuba was similarly destroyed by American retaliation. The Atom prevented nuclear war from further escalating, by neutralizing American and Soviet nuclear missiles that were already in the air.[1]
Residents
See Also
- Appearances of Cuba
- Location Gallery: Cuba
- Catalogued images related to Cuba