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Answer

Who colonized Cuba?

Caribbean — the powers that ruled Cuba, the dates, and what independence did and did not change.

In short

Who colonized Cuba?

Spain, from 1511 to 1898, followed by United States military occupation and a protectorate under the Platt Amendment until 1934.

Cuba won its war against Spain and lost its sovereignty in the settlement: the Platt Amendment made the right of American intervention a clause of the Cuban constitution.

World map showing imperial possessions and spheres of rule in 1914
A world map of imperial possessions in 1914, offered as global context only. It is a single snapshot: countries that became independent earlier, later occupations, disputed borders and differences between colonies and protectorates require the chronology below.Source — Wikimedia Commons

How rule changed in Cuba

These periods describe different governing arrangements. The presence of a trading company, a military occupation and direct colonial government are not interchangeable; the notes preserve those distinctions where the record identifies them.

Political chronology

Rulers, periods and governing arrangements

PeriodRuler or administrationContext
before 1511TaínoSee the chronology and context below.
1511–1898SpainSee the chronology and context below.
1898–1902, with reserved powers to 1934US occupation and protectorateSee the chronology and context below.

Periods may overlap where control differed by territory. A national independence date does not imply that every enclave or dependency changed status on that day.

At a glance

Key facts

Colonising powers
Spain, United States
Independence
20 May 1902; Platt Amendment repealed 1934
Reconcentración
Spain's camps, 1896–97, killed an estimated 150,000 civilians
Platt Amendment
Gave the US the right to intervene in Cuban affairs
Guantánamo
Leased under that arrangement in 1903 and still held

Chronology

Key dates

  1. 1511

    Spanish conquest begins.

  2. 1800s

    Sugar boom; Cuba becomes the world's largest producer using enslaved labour.

  3. 1886

    Slavery abolished.

  4. 1895–98

    War of independence; Spain's reconcentración camps.

  5. 1901

    Platt Amendment written into the Cuban constitution.

Context

What the record shows

Spain's reconcentración policy in 1896–97 herded rural civilians into towns and is a direct ancestor of the twentieth-century concentration camp.

Questions

Frequently asked

Who colonised Cuba?
Spain from 1511 to 1898; the United States then occupied the island and retained intervention rights until 1934.
What was the Platt Amendment?
A 1901 condition on Cuban independence granting the United States the right to intervene in Cuba and to lease naval bases, including Guantánamo Bay.
When did Cuba become independent?
20 May 1902, though full sovereignty followed the repeal of the Platt Amendment in 1934.

Read on

Related in the archive

References

Sources — colonial Cuba

  1. [1]Bartolomé de las Casas, Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias (Seville, 1552).
  2. [2]Noble David Cook, Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650 (Cambridge University Press, 1998).
  3. [3]Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America (Monthly Review Press, 1971; English 1973).
  4. [4]Adam Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost (Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
  5. [5]Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa (Random House, 1991).
  6. [6]Shashi Tharoor, Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India (Hurst, 2017).
  7. [7]Caroline Elkins, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya (Henry Holt, 2005).
  8. [8]Alfred W. McCoy, Policing America's Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State (Wisconsin, 2009).
  9. [9]Daniel Immerwahr, How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019).
  10. [10]Jürgen Zimmerer, "The birth of the Ostland out of the spirit of colonialism", Patterns of Prejudice 39:2 (2005), on the German South-West Africa → Holocaust lineage.
  11. [11]Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Bogle-L'Ouverture, 1972).
  12. [12]Karl Marx, Capital, Volume I (1867), Chapter 31 ("Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist").

All works cited in good faith for documentary, educational and critical use. Errors and omissions: contact the archive.