Cuba was in Spanish possession for almost 400 years (circa 1511-1898). They had an economy based on plantation agriculture and mining, the export of sugar, coffee and tobacco to Europe and later to North America. Havana was seized by the British in 1762, but restored to Spain the following year. The Spanish population was boosted by settlers leaving Haiti when that territory was ceded to France. As in other parts of the Spanish Empire, the small land-owning elite of Spanish-descended settlers held social and economic power, supported by a population of Criollo, small farmers, laborers and African-descended slaves.

In the 1820s, when the other parts of Spain's empire in Latin America rebelled and formed independent states, Cuba remained loyal, although there was some agitation for independence. This was partly because the prosperity of the Cuban settlers depended on their export trade to Europe, partly through fears of a slave rebellion (as had happened in Haiti) if the Spanish......

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Title: Colonial Cuba
Approximate Word Count: 933
Approximate Pages: 4 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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