Cuba

Background

The Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean, made up of the main island of Cuba and thousands of smaller islands, islets, and cays. It lies where the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean meet, east of the Yucatán Peninsula, south of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola, and north of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the capital and largest city, and the country has about 10 million inhabitants, making it the most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It is also the largest country in the Caribbean by area and is generally regarded as part of Latin America.

Cuba is politically significant because it is a socialist state with the Communist Party’s role fixed in the constitution and a government that restricts political opposition. Its economy is a planned system centered on tourism, sugar, tobacco, coffee, and the export of skilled labor, while long-standing U.S. sanctions have shaped its external economic environment since 1960. The country is a member of the United Nations and several multilateral groupings, and it has maintained a contentious relationship with the United States, including a continuing dispute over the U.S. military presence at Guantánamo Bay, which Havana considers illegal. In international affairs, Cuba has also been notable for its diplomatic alignment with other socialist and non-aligned states and for its role as an ally of Russia and Belarus.

Human settlement on the island dates back to the 4th millennium BC, and the Guanahatabey and Taíno peoples were present when Spain colonized the island in the 15th century. Cuba remained part of the Spanish Empire until 1898, then came under U.S. occupation before gaining independence in 1902. The 1959 Cuban Revolution brought Fidel Castro to power and established communist rule, making the country a major Cold War flashpoint, especially during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Since then, Cuba has intervened in conflicts abroad, received extensive Soviet aid, suffered a severe economic downturn after the Soviet collapse, and more recently has continued under the leadership of Miguel Díaz-Canel.