Cuba
Fact File
Capital: La Habana (Havana)
Major cities: La Habana (Havana), Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Santa Clara, Matanzas
Currency: Cuban Peso (CUP) $
Population: 9.75 million (2024 estimate)
Official language: Spanish (castellano)
Demonym in Spanish: cubano
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Overview:
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Cuba, the largest island in the Caribbean, is a nation shaped by colonial rule, U.S. intervention, revolution, and a distinctive cultural identity. Claimed by Spain in 1492 and colonised in the 16th century, it remained under Spanish rule until 1898, with formal independence following in 1902. The Cuban Revolution (1953–1959), ending with Castro’s rise to power in 1959, reoriented the island’s politics, economy, and international alignment.
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The years that followed were marked by political instability and Cold War tensions. The failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 placed the island at the centre of global confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. The subsequent U.S. embargo (bloqueo), imposed in the early 1960s, has continued to shape Cuba’s economic and political life for decades.
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Despite its political situation, Cuba is renowned internationally for its pristine Caribbean beaches, the beautiful landscapes of the Viñales Valley, and the colonial splendour of Havana’s historic centre..
La Habana
Havana
Havana (La Habana in Spanish), the capital of Cuba, is one of the Caribbean’s most historic and culturally significant cities. Founded over five hundred years ago, it has long been the political, cultural, and economic heart of the island.
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As with much of Cuba, Havana’s origins lie in Spanish colonisation. Founded in 1519, it quickly became a vital port for the Spanish Empire due to its strategic location on the Gulf of Mexico. Its harbour served as the gathering point for fleets transporting gold and silver back to Spain, and as a result the city was heavily fortified.
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In the first half of the 20th century, Havana underwent a dramatic transformation. With its proximity to the United States and the end of Prohibition in the 1930s, the city became a magnet for American celebrities, writers, and tourists, who were drawn by its nightlife, casinos, and grand hotels. It was during this period that Havana cultivated a cultural identity that became synonymous with Cuba itself: a blend of music, dance, and social life that was exported across the world.
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This image was reinforced through Havana’s famous cocktail culture. The mojito became closely tied to the city’s bars, while the daiquiri, although originating in southern Cuba, achieved global fame thanks to its strong association with Havana’s thriving nightlife. The Hotel Nacional de Cuba, which opened in 1930, epitomised this glamour. Hosting international stars, politicians, and even notorious mafia figures, it became one of the most famous landmarks in the city and a symbol of Cuba’s place in global cultural life.​
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Havana was then deeply reshaped by the turbulence of the mid-20th century. The Cuban Revolution (1953–1959), culminating in Fidel Castro’s rise to power in 1959, placed the city at the heart of a new political and social order. In the following years, Havana was thrust onto the global stage during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the Cold War reached its most tense point. During this period, the terraces of the aforementioned Hotel Nacional were even fitted with cannons as the city braced for possible U.S. invasion, a striking reversal from its earlier image as a playground of glamour and leisure. The continuing U.S. embargo (bloqueo), imposed in the early 1960s, has since left a lasting impact on the city’s economy and everyday life.
Playa Girón
Bay of Pigs
Playa Girón, located on the southern coast of Cuba in the Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos), holds a defining place in the history of the Cuban Revolution and the Cold War.
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n April 1961, it was one of the two main landing sites for the U.S.-backed invasion force of Cuban exiles whose aim was to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government. Around 1,400 exiles, trained and armed by the CIA, landed at Playa Girón and Playa Larga, only to be met with strong resistance from Cuban revolutionary forces. Within three days, the invasion collapsed, with heavy losses on the side of the exiles and a decisive victory for Castro’s troops.
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The failed invasion became a turning point for Cuba’s revolutionary government. It reinforced Castro’s position domestically, giving him the political capital to declare the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution and strengthen ties with the Soviet Union. Internationally, the fiasco humiliated the United States, heightened Cold War tensions, and directly contributed to the escalation that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
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Playa Girón remains symbolically tied to this event, with a museum (pictured) dedicated to preserving the memory of the invasion and its consequences. Its name has become shorthand within Cuba for resistance against foreign intervention and the resilience of the revolutionary project.
Viñales
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Viñales
Viñales, a rural town nestled in Cuba’s western Pinar del Río Province, is celebrated for its striking mogote landscape (towering limestone hills that rise from a fertile valley). This distinctive topography creates a unique microclimate ideal for traditional agriculture, particularly tobacco cultivation, with Viñales lying at the very heart of Cuba’s premier premium cigar-producing region.
Historically, the valley became a refuge for escaped enslaved people during the colonial period. Hidden within its forests and caves, they established communities and contributed to the cultural and agricultural practices that still define the region today. The valley’s history is therefore inseparable from the broader story of resistance and survival in Cuba’s colonial past.
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Viñales is also at the heart of Cuba’s tobacco industry. Its fertile red soils and favourable climate provide the ideal conditions for cultivating some of the finest tobacco in the world, much of which is used in the island’s globally renowned cigars. Generations of farmers have worked the land with traditional techniques, giving the valley a distinctive rural identity that continues to shape Cuban culture and economy.
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Today, the combination of its history, agriculture, and unique geography has made Viñales both a symbol of Cuba’s past struggles and a testament to its enduring traditions. Its picturesque landscape was also declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.
Cienfuegos
Cienfuegos
Cienfuegos, known as the “Pearl of the South” (La Perla del Sur), is a port city on Cuba’s southern coast with a distinctive history and identity. Its blend of French heritage, maritime importance, and revolutionary legacy makes it one of the most remarkable and unique cities on the island.
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Founded in 1819 by French settlers from Louisiana and Bordeaux, it stands out among Cuban cities for its French-inspired urban plan and neoclassical architecture. This heritage remains visible in its broad boulevards, elegant facades, and orderly layout, distinguishing Cienfuegos from the more typically Spanish colonial cities elsewhere on the island.
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Throughout the 19th century, Cienfuegos became an important centre of trade and commerce, largely due to its deep natural bay and thriving sugar industry. The port played a key role in Cuba’s integration into global trade networks, exporting sugar, coffee, and tobacco to international markets. The city’s prosperity during this period is reflected in its architecture, with landmarks such as the Palacio de Valle and the grand Teatro Tomás Terry serving as symbols of its wealth and cosmopolitan outlook.
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In the 20th century, Cienfuegos was the scene of one of the most important revolutionary events prior to 1959: the naval uprising of September 1957, when sailors and civilians rose up against Batista’s dictatorship. Although ultimately suppressed, the event left a deep mark on the city’s identity and highlighted Cienfuegos as a place of resistance during the Revolution.
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Today, Cienfuegos’ unique historical character is formally recognised through its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.
Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad, on Cuba’s southern coast, is one of the island’s best-preserved colonial cities and has been recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988. It was founded in 1514 by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, the Spanish conquistador who led the earliest colonisation of Cuba on behalf of the Spanish Crown.
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The city flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries as a centre of the sugar trade. Wealth from nearby plantations and enslaved labour transformed Trinidad into one of the richest towns in Cuba, a prosperity still visible today in its cobbled streets, grand mansions, and ornate plazas. The Plaza Mayor, framed by pastel-coloured colonial houses and baroque churches, remains the heart of this historic legacy.
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Yet this prosperity did not last. When sugar prices collapsed in the mid-19th century, and with the abolition of slavery in Cuba by the 1880s, Trinidad’s economy entered steep decline. Many of its wealthiest families left, and without new investment, the city was effectively “frozen in time.” Unlike Havana or Cienfuegos, Trinidad did not modernise on a large scale, leaving much of its colonial fabric intact.
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Trinidad’s importance was not only economic but also cultural. It became a meeting point of Spanish, African, and Creole traditions, shaping music, religion, and architecture that continue to define the region. The nearby Valle de los Ingenios (Valley of the Sugar Mills), with its plantation ruins and slave towers, stands as both a reminder of the city’s former prosperity and its dependence on enslaved labour.
Varadero y los cayos
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Varadero and the quays
Varadero, located in the north of the island, is Cuba’s most famous beach resort. Its origins stretch back to the 16th century, when the area was first used for salt harvesting, though it only began to develop as a leisure destination in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when wealthy Cuban families and foreign visitors built holiday homes along its pristine shoreline.
In the 20th century, Varadero grew into a hub of international tourism, attracting Cuban elites and foreign celebrities. After the 1959 Revolution, tourism was restructured and brought firmly under state control. Much of Varadero’s expansion from the 1960s onwards was shaped by brutalist, Soviet-style architecture, reflecting Cuba’s political alignment during the Cold War. Hotels and resorts were designed for state-run mass tourism, and this legacy is still visible in the town today.
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The cayos (quays), by contrast (pictured), are a chain of islands off Cuba’s northern coast that also offer white-sand beaches and turquoise Caribbean waters. Their large-scale development began in the 1990s, during Cuba’s Special Period, when the government sought new ways to earn foreign currency after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Unlike Varadero, which catered mainly to domestic and socialist-bloc tourism, the cayos were designed with international markets in mind, targeting European and Canadian travellers in particular. American visitors, restricted by the U.S. embargo, have been absent. Resorts there also emphasise the surrounding environment, with mangroves, coral reefs, and marine life forming part of their appeal.
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