Lying at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico and bordering the Caribbean Sea, it served the Spanish as a base for expeditions to the whole region, including Mexico and Florida. The Spanish soon exterminated Cuba’s native Taino and Ciboney, but other workers were readily found: African slaves.
By the early nineteenth century, the colony’s masters were prospering on exports of sugar, coffee, and tobacco
As the most precious jewel in the island groups known as the Greater and Lesser Antilles, Cuba earned the nickname “Pearl of the Antilles.”