History of Cuba: Timeline, Rulers & Map

5,000 BCE – 1491

Pre-Columbian Cuba

Hunter-gatherer and fishing peoples settled Cuba several thousand years ago, with the oldest known site, Levisa, dated to about 3100 BCE. Later Arawak-speaking farmers, known as Taíno, spread from Hispaniola into the east, shaping the island Columbus reached in 1492.

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c. 4000 BCE Archaic hunter-gatherers settle Cuba By about 4000 BCE, small bands of hunter-gatherers were living on Cuba without pottery or farming.
c. 900 BCE Canímar Abajo burials reveal Archaic lifeways At Canímar Abajo, a burial site on the Canímar River in Matanzas Province, archaeologists excavated the graves of pottery-less Archaic people.
c. 1200 CE Taíno chiefdoms take shape in eastern Cuba From about 1200 CE the Taíno culture, with its fully developed chiefdoms (cacicazgos), dominated the Greater Antilles, and eastern Cuba held many of its villages.
c. 1300 CE Taíno ceremonial plazas and ball courts appear Around 1300 CE, according to the Metropolitan Museum's timeline, Taíno communities across the Greater Antilles began building plazas and ball courts for communal ritual.
c. 1491 Cuba on the eve of contact: how many people? No census exists for Cuba before 1492, so every figure is an estimate.

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1492 – 1555

Conquest & Early Colony

Columbus reached Cuba in 1492, and Diego Velázquez's expedition conquered it from 1511, founding Baracoa, Santiago and Havana. Epidemics, forced labour and violence devastated the Taíno, while enslaved Africans arrived and French corsairs sacked Havana in 1555.

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28 October 1492 Columbus lands in Cuba On 27 October 1492 Columbus's three ships raised the north-eastern coast of Cuba, and on 28 October he went ashore, traditionally at Bariay Bay near present-day Gibara in Holguín Province.
1513 Bayamo founded In November 1513 Diego Velázquez founded San Salvador de Bayamo on the Bayamo River in eastern Cuba, the second of the seven original villas.
1518 Diocese of Baracoa created, Cuba's first bishopric The Diocese of Baracoa was created in 1518 as Cuba's first Catholic bishopric.
1532 or 1533 Jobabó slave revolt In 1532 or 1533, enslaved Black workers at the Caobilla gold mine in Jobabó, in eastern Cuba, rebelled.
July 1555 Jacques de Sores sacks and burns Havana In July 1555 the French corsair Jacques de Sores, commanding part of François Le Clerc's fleet, took Havana with little resistance and occupied it for about twenty days.

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1556 – 1761

Fleets & Fortresses

Havana became the hub of the Spanish treasure fleets, defended by fortresses such as El Morro and La Punta, while the island's economy rested on cattle, tobacco and small sugar mills. Growth was slow amid piracy, imperial wars and the rise of a Creole society.

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1558–1577 Construction of the Castillo de la Real Fuerza begins In 1558 the Spanish Crown began building the Castillo de la Real Fuerza on Havana's harbour front, under the engineer Bartolomé Sánchez.
c. 1612 Virgin of Charity appears at El Cobre According to tradition, two Indigenous men and a young enslaved boy, known as the three Juans, found a small statue of the Virgin Mary floating in the bay while searching for salt.
c. 1687–1694 A pilgrim's hermitage to the Virgin of Regla rises across Havana Bay Wikipedia's article on Our Lady of Regla says that in 1687 a pilgrim named Manuel Antonio built a hermitage to the Virgin at Regla, on the eastern shore of Havana Bay.
c. 1724 Havana's royal shipyard turns to warship building From about 1724 the royal shipyard on Havana's bay, directed by Juan de Acosta, began producing warships for the Spanish Navy.
15 August 1761 Spain and France sign the Third Family Compact On 15 August 1761 representatives of the Bourbon monarchies of Spain and France signed the Third Pacte de Famille in Paris.

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1762 – 1791

British Occupation & Bourbon Reforms

Britain captured Havana in 1762 and held it for about eleven months before returning it to Spain in exchange for Florida. Bourbon reforms then opened trade, strengthened the military, produced the first census in 1774 and accelerated sugar and the slave trade.

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6–7 June 1762 British expedition lands east of Havana After sailing from Spithead on 5 March 1762, the British expedition under Admiral Sir George Pocock and the Earl of Albemarle came into sight of Havana on 6 June.
1763 Spain retakes Havana and reforms its defences In mid-1763 Spain took back Havana from the British under the Treaty of Paris.
20 March 1769 A force raised in Cuba restores Spanish rule in Louisiana On 6 July 1769 a Spanish expedition of 23 ships carrying almost 2,100 soldiers, both Black and white, recruited in Cuba and 150,000 pesos set sail for Louisiana.
9 March–10 May 1781 Havana-based expedition takes Pensacola On 9 March 1781 the Spanish expedition sailed from Havana reached Pensacola Bay, and the siege ended on 10 May when the British commander surrendered.
21 August 1791 Haitian Revolution begins and reshapes Cuban sugar On the night of 21 August 1791 enslaved people in the French colony of Saint-Domingue began a revolt that grew into the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804).

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1792 – 1867

Sugar & Slavery

After the Haitian Revolution, Cuba became a leading world sugar exporter on a plantation system that brought hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans and, later, Chinese contract labourers. Slave revolts, reform and annexationist movements and railways marked an era that ended as the Atlantic slave trade closed around 1867.

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1792 Arango y Parreño's Discourse on Havana Agriculture In 1792 Francisco de Arango y Parreño, a Havana-born lawyer and planter, presented to the Spanish court his Discourse on the Agriculture of Havana and the Means of Improving It.
March 1826 Congress of Panama and the Question of Cuba From 22 June to 15 July 1826 delegates of the newly independent Spanish American republics met in Panama City, at the invitation of Simón Bolívar, who had issued his call from Lima on 7 December 1824.
5 November 1843 Rebellion at the Triunvirato Mill On 5 November 1843 enslaved workers rose at the Triunvirato sugar mill in the Matanzas district.
1851 (executed 12 August) López's Last Expedition and Execution The third López expedition left New Orleans on 3 August 1851 aboard the steamer Pampero and landed at Morillos, in Pinar del Río province, on 12 August.
1867 Revolutionary Committee of Bayamo Formed In July 1867 the Revolutionary Committee of Bayamo was formed under Francisco Vicente Aguilera, described as Cuba's wealthiest planter.

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1868 – 1898

Wars of Independence

Cubans fought Spain in the Ten Years' War, the Little War and the war of 1895 led by José Martí, Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo. Slavery ended in 1886, and US intervention in 1898 brought four centuries of Spanish rule to an end.

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10 October 1868 Grito de Yara: Céspedes Proclaims Independence On 10 October 1868, at his La Demajagua sugar estate near Manzanillo in eastern Cuba, the planter Carlos Manuel de Céspedes rang the estate bell, freed the people he had enslaved and declared Cuba independent of Spain.
1878 Liberal Autonomist Party Founded In 1878, after the Pact of Zanjón made open politics possible, moderate Cuban liberals founded the Partido Liberal Autonomista.
22 January 1893 Albear Aqueduct Brings Fresh Water to Havana On 22 January 1893 Havana inaugurated the Acueducto de Albear, 32 years after work began in 1861.
8 August 1897 Evangelina Cisneros Rescued by Hearst's Journal In the early hours of 7 October 1897 the reporter Karl Decker and two accomplices broke the bars of Evangelina Cosío y Cisneros's cell in Havana's Casa de Recogidas.
9 February 1898 Treaty of Paris Ends Spanish Rule in Cuba On 10 December 1898 in Paris, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish–American War.

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1899 – 1932

Us Occupation & Early Republic

After a US military occupation, Cuba became a nominally independent republic in 1902 under the Platt Amendment, with American capital dominating the sugar industry. Sugar-price crashes, corruption and Gerardo Machado's increasingly authoritarian rule marked the years to 1933.

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1899 Liberation Army disbanded under American occupation The Cuban Liberation Army, the force that had fought Spain since 1895, was disbanded in 1899 while Cuba was under American military occupation.
28 September 1906 Disputed elections, revolt and the Second US Occupation On 28 September 1906 President Tomás Estrada Palma and his cabinet resigned, leaving no government.
1921–1923 Capablanca becomes world chess champion in Havana Between 18 March and 28 April 1921 the Cuban José Raúl Capablanca played Emanuel Lasker in Havana for the world chess title.
1927 – 1 November 1928 Revista de Avance launches avant-garde Cuba The first issue of Revista de Avance appeared in Havana on 15 March 1927, produced by members of the Minorista group, including Alejo Carpentier, Juan Marinello, Jorge Mañach, Francisco Ichaso and Martí Casanovas.
9 November 1932 Santa Cruz del Sur hurricane On 9 November 1932 a Category 5 hurricane, weakening to Category 4 at landfall, struck the south coast of Camagüey province.

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1933 – 1958

Revolution of 1933 to Batista

The 1933 revolution toppled Machado and brought Fulgencio Batista to power, followed by the 1940 constitution, elected governments and Batista's second dictatorship from 1952. Tourism and sugar fuelled prosperity and inequality as opposition grew, culminating in Fidel Castro's armed uprising.

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27 July – 12 August 1933 General Strike of 1933 and the Fall of Machado On 27 July 1933 Havana bus drivers walked out over wage cuts, and the stoppage swelled into a national general strike that halted ports, railways, sugar mills and newspapers.
1 July 1940 (in force 10 October 1940) Hemingway Buys Finca Vigía In December 1940 the American novelist Ernest Hemingway bought Finca Vigía ('Lookout Farm'), a hillside estate in San Francisco de Paula, on the outskirts of Havana.
3 August 1950 Celia Cruz Joins La Sonora Matancera In 1950 La Sonora Matancera's singer Myrta Silva left to return to Puerto Rico, and the band chose Celia Cruz as her replacement.
17 January 1957 Attack on the Presidential Palace On 13 March 1957 about 46 members of the Directorio Revolucionario, with Auténtico partisans, stormed the Presidential Palace in Havana in an attempt to assassinate Fulgencio Batista.
24 February 1958 Battle of Santa Clara Che Guevara's column reached Santa Clara on 28 December 1958.

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1959 – 1990

Revolution & Cold War

Fidel Castro's rebels took power in 1959 and built a one-party socialist state allied with the Soviet Union, facing the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Missile Crisis and the US embargo. Literacy and health campaigns, military missions abroad and waves of emigration shaped the era.

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1959–1965 Escambray Rebellion Begins Armed opposition to the new government emerged in the Escambray mountains of central Cuba from 1959 and developed into a guerrilla war that lasted until 1965.
February 1960 US Imposes Trade Embargo on Cuba In response to Cuba's expropriations, the United States prohibited most exports to the island on 19 October 1960, excepting food and medicine, and it ended the sugar quota.
3 October 1965 UMAP Labour Camps In November 1965 the Cuban government began to organise the Military Units to Aid Production, UMAP, camps in Camagüey Province.
1976 Bombing of Cubana Flight 455 On 6 October 1976 a Cubana de Aviación DC-8 flying from Guyana to Havana via Barbados was destroyed by two time bombs about eleven minutes after taking off from Seawell Airport.
1990 Soviet Support Collapses and the 'Special Period' Looms In 1990 Cuba faced the sudden unravelling of the trade and aid network on which it had relied for three decades.

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1991 – present

Special Period & Modern Cuba

The Soviet collapse triggered the Special Period economic crisis, followed by tourism, Venezuelan aid, Raúl Castro's reforms and the 2014 thaw with the United States. Blackouts, shortages, the 2021 protests and a mass exodus have since left the population ageing and shrinking.

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2–18 August 1991 Havana Hosts the 1991 Pan American Games Havana hosted the eleventh Pan American Games from 2 to 18 August 1991, bringing athletes from across the Americas to the Cuban capital.
4 November 2001 Hurricane Michelle Strikes Cuba Hurricane Michelle made landfall on 4 November 2001 on Cayo Largo del Sur as a Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds, then struck again about five hours later at the Bay of Pigs.
20 July 2015 Pope Francis Visits Cuba Pope Francis visited Cuba from 19 to 22 September 2015 on the way to the United States, celebrating Mass in Havana's Revolution Square, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba, where he visited the shrine at El Cobre.
1 January 2021 Tarea Ordenamiento: Currency Unification Announced on 10 December 2020 and effective on 1 January 2021, the 'Tarea Ordenamiento' (Ordering Task) ended the dual-currency system that dated to the 1990s.
3 January 2026 Communist Party Approves Emergency Economic Package On 18 June 2026 the Communist Party of Cuba approved an emergency economic package that expands space for private enterprise, gives more autonomy to municipalities and state-owned companies, and seeks more foreign investment, including from Cubans abroad.

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