Editing History of Cuba (section)

==Spanish conquest==
[[File:Havana 1639b.jpg|right|thumb|A [[watercolor]] painting of Havana Bay, {{circa|1639}}]]
[[Christopher Columbus]], on [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus#First voyage|his first Spanish-sponsored voyage to the Americas]] in 1492, sailed south from what is now the [[The Bahamas|Bahamas]] to explore the northeast coast of Cuba and the northern coast of [[Hispaniola]]. Columbus, who was searching for a route to India, believed the island to be a peninsula of the Asian mainland.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Worlds of Christopher Columbus|author=Carla Rahn Phillips|edition=reprint, illustrated|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1993|isbn=978-0-521-44652-5|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tVAxgY0sUpEC&pg=RA2-PA205 205]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tVAxgY0sUpEC}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Early Mapping of Southeast Asia|author=Thomas Suarez|publisher=Tuttle Publishing|year=1999|isbn=978-962-593-470-9|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZG7ZMAbv_jAC&pg=PA109 109]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZG7ZMAbv_jAC}}</ref> Columbus arrived at Cuba on October 27, 1492, and he landed on October 28, 1492, at Puerto de Nipe.<ref name="Gott">[[Richard Gott|Gott, Richard]] (2004). ''Cuba: A new history''. Yale University Press. Chapter 5.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hale |first=Edward Everett |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gSQSAAAAYAAJ&q=cuba |title=The Life of Christopher Columbus: From His Own Letters and Journals and Other Documents of His Time |date=1891 |publisher=G. L. Howe & Company |isbn=978-0-7950-1143-6 |language=en}}</ref>

During a second voyage in 1494, Columbus passed along the south coast, landing at various inlets including what was to become [[Guantánamo Bay]]. With the [[Inter caetera|Papal Bull of 1493]], [[Pope Alexander VI]] commanded Spain to conquer and convert the [[Paganism|pagans]] of the [[New World]] to [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]].<ref>Bakewell, Peter. ''A History of Latin America''. Blackwell Publishers. pp. 129–130.</ref> The Spanish began to create permanent settlements on the island of [[Hispaniola]], east of Cuba, soon after Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean, but the coast of Cuba was not fully mapped by Europeans until 1508, by [[Sebastián de Ocampo]].<ref name="historia_naval">{{Cite web |url=http://www.ipen.org.br/webpages/noticiasS.htm |title=Historia de la Construcción Naval en Cuba |access-date=10 September 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070508202135/http://www.ipen.org.br/webpages/noticiasS.htm |archive-date=8 May 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1511, [[Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar]] set out from Hispaniola to form the first Spanish settlement in Cuba, with orders from Spain to conquer the island. The settlement was at Baracoa, but the new settlers were greeted with stiff resistance from the local Taíno population. The Taínos were initially organized by ''[[cacique]]'' (chieftain) [[Hatuey]], who had himself relocated from Hispaniola to escape Spanish rule. After a prolonged [[guerrilla]] campaign, Hatuey and successive chieftains were captured and burnt alive, and within three years the Spanish had gained control of the island. In 1514, a south coast settlement was founded in what was to become [[Havana]]. The current city was founded in 1519.

Clergyman [[Bartolomé de las Casas]] observed a number of massacres initiated by the invaders, notably the massacre near [[Camagüey]] of the inhabitants of Caonao. According to his account, some three thousand villagers had traveled to Manzanillo to greet the Spanish with food, and were "without provocation, butchered".<ref>Las Casas, ''A Short Account'', p. 29</ref> The surviving indigenous groups fled to the mountains or the small surrounding islands before being captured and forced into reservations. One such reservation was [[Guanabacoa]], today a suburb of Havana.<ref name="Thomas1">Thomas, Hugh. ''Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom'' (2nd edition). p. 14.</ref>
[[File:Hatuey monument, Baracoa, Cuba.JPG|thumb|A monument to the Taíno chieftain Hatuey in [[Baracoa]], Cuba]]
In 1513, [[Ferdinand II of Aragon]] issued a decree establishing the ''[[encomienda]]'' land settlement system that was to be incorporated throughout the Spanish Americas. Velázquez, who had become Governor of Cuba, was given the task of apportioning the land and the indigenous peoples to groups throughout the new colony. The scheme was not a success, however, as the natives either succumbed to diseases brought from Spain such as [[measles]] and [[smallpox]], or simply refused to work, preferring to move into the mountains.<ref name="Gott"/> Desperate for labor for the new agricultural settlements, the Conquistadors sought slaves from surrounding islands and the continental mainland. Velazquez's lieutenant [[Hernán Cortés]] launched the [[Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire]] in Mexico from Cuba, sailing from Santiago to the [[Yucatán Peninsula]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Naimark |first=Norman M. |date=2017 |title=Genocide: A World History |publication-place=New York, NY |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=21 |isbn=978-0-19-063771-2|oclc=960210099}}</ref> However, these new arrivals also dispersed into the wilderness or died of disease.<ref name="Gott"/>

Despite the difficult relations between the natives and the new Europeans, some cooperation was in evidence. The Spanish were shown by the natives how to nurture [[tobacco]] and consume it as [[cigar]]s. There were also many unions between the largely male Spanish colonists and indigenous women. Modern studies have revealed traces of DNA that renders physical traits similar to Amazonian tribes in individuals throughout Cuba,<ref>[http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/41/310.html "Cuban Site Casts Light on an Extinct People"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060905230020/http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/41/310.html |date=5 September 2006}}. Anthony DePalma. ''The New York Times''. 5 July 1998. Retrieved 8 December 2012.</ref> although the native population [[Taíno genocide|was largely destroyed]] as a culture and civilization after 1550. Under the [[New Laws|Spanish New Laws]] of 1552, indigenous Cuban were freed from ''encomienda'', and seven towns for indigenous peoples were set up. There are indigenous descendant Cuban ([[Taíno]]) families in several places, mostly in eastern Cuba. The local indigenous population also left their mark on the language, with some 400 Taíno terms and place-names surviving to the present day. For example, ''Cuba'' and ''Havana'' were derived from [[Taíno language|Classic Taíno]], and indigenous words such as ''tobacco'', ''hurricane'' and ''canoe'' were transferred to English.<ref name="Thomas1"/>