Geographical Situation

Cuba is more than an island. It is actually an archipelago consisting of the main island, which is the largest in the Antilles; the Isle of Youth; and about 4,195 keys and islets totaling 110,992 square kilometers of surface area. It is located in the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico. It is about 140 kilometers from the Bahamas; 77 from Haiti; 144 from Florida; and 210 from the Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. It's bordered on the north by the Florida Peninsula (United States), the island of Jamaica on the south, Haiti on the east and the Yucatán Peninsula on the west.

Cuba is long and narrow (1,200 kilometers from Cabo San Antonio, on the western tip, to Punta de Maisí, on the eastern tip). It measures 210 kilometers at the widest point and 32 kilometers at the narrowest point. Lowlands predominate and there are four important mountainous areas: the Guaniguanico range, in the west; the Guamuhaya range, in the center; and the Sagua-Baracoa range; and the Sierra Maestra mountains, both in the east. The highest elevation, Turquino Peak, which is 1,974 meters in height, is located in the east. The landscape is diverse, varying from semi-desert to humid tropical forests. Cuba's biodiversity is high and its various ecosystems are very well preserved.
It has 5,746 kilometers of coastline that is home to 289 beaches, more than 200 bays and some ports capable of receiving large ships.

Cuba´s flora is very rich and extremely diverse, with more than eight thousand species. The royal palm tree is the one that best characterizes the Cuban countryside.

One feature of Cuba´s fauna is the lack of poisonous or others species haamful to human health. With its diverse and bright colors, the polymita is a mollusc that can only be found in Cuban fauna, just like the zunzún, the smallest species of hummingbird in the world, and the tocororo, a climbing, colorful bird. In the island´s surrounding seas you can find about 900 fish species, most of which are edible like the precious red snapper, the sawfish, the sierra, the swordfish, shrimps, crabs, and lobsters.




Official Language
Spanish is the official language

Population
Cuba's population is considered one of the most heterogeneous of the world, consisting of whites, blacks, mulattos, Chinese and other Asians, in perfect symbiosis. According to estimates, the island had a population of 11,180,099 inhabitants in the year 2000. Cuba has slow population growth, almost 0.9 % annually, which is similar to that of industrialized countries.

Of the 11 million people living in this archipelago, 5,587,970 are male and 5,592,129 are female. The population density is 100.5 inhabitants per square kilometer, with a greater relative concentration in City of Havana, Santiago de Cuba, La Habana and Holguín provinces. The least populated provinces are Camagüey, Ciego de Ávila, Sancti Spíritus and Pinar del Río, as well as the special municipality of the Isle of Youth.

Climate
Cuba's climate is considered moderate subtropical, with warm temperatures prevailing. The annual average temperature is 25º C (77º F) in the summer and 22º C (71.6º F) in the winter. There are two very well-defined weather cycles: the dry season, from November to April, and the rainy season, from May to October. Average rainfall is 1,059 millimeters in the rainy season and 316 millimeters in the dry season, for an average annual rainfall of 1,375 millimeters. Annual relative humidity averages 78 %.

Cuban Provinces
The country is divided into 14 provinces, 168 municipalities and a special municipality, the Isle of Youth.

Important dates
1492(October 27)
Discovery of Cuba by Christopher Columbus during his first trip.

1519(November 19)
San Cristobal de la Habana was founded in its present location. This was the last of the seven settlements founded by the Spaniards during the conquest which begun in 1510.

1561
King Philip II ordered the sea traffic between the ]Spanish colonies in the Americas and Spain to be made in convoys, for fear of the attacks of pirates and corsairs. Havana was to be the meeting point of these fleets.

1595
First royal aid to the emerging sugar production in Cuba.

1762(August 12)
Havana was seized by the British, bringing about liberal ideas and practices to local economy, subjected until then to colonial monopoly(British domination lasted less than one year)

1790(October 24)
First issue of the Newspaper Papel Periodico de la Habana, one of the developments of the new era brought by the reforms of Enlightened Despotism and the economic expansion of the island under these principles

1793
Trade with the United States was officially established, even though there already existed a large informal trade.

1820
The Spanish constitutional regime was re-established. The echoes of the independents ideals of the Spanish-speaking American colonies reached Cuba. The benefits of the Industrial Revolution were introduced in Cuba and the gap between Creoles and Spaniards widened, as a premise for the strengthening of the Cuban nationality. Father Félix Varela, an important intellectual figure in the island, became a symbol of the times. Revolutionary plots for independence began.

1827
There were one thousand small sugar mills in Cuba, which became one of the first sugar producing countries in the world.

1837(November 19)
The first railway was opened, the third in the world, especially for sugar exports.

1853(January 28)
Birth in Havana of José Martí, National Hero of the Cuban people, founder of the Revolutionary Cuban Party, politician, journalist and poet of universal significance.

1868(October 10)
The independence wars began with the Ten Years War, or Long War. The Republic in Arms was established shortly after.

1878(March 15)
Baraguá Protest. General Antonio Maceo and other rebel officers did not accept the peace without independence(Zanjón) offered by the colonial authorities.

1879
In spite of Spanish attempts to bring peace to Cuba, Cubans began the so called Short War.

1880
Formal abolition of slavery, implemented six years after with the establishment of "patronate".

1883
A sugar mill is bought by Americans and from that moment on U.S. capital entered this industry, devastated by the independence wars.

1892(April 10)
The Revolutionary Cuban Party for the independence of Cuba and Puerto Rico, a joint strategic effort conceive and organized by José Martí, was founded.

1895(February 24)
Beginning of the last of the independence wars against Spain, wit the uprising of the whole island.

1895(May 19)
José Martí died in combat.

1896(December 7)
Antonio Maceo died in combat.

1898(February 15)
The U.S. ship Maine was blown up in Havana Bay, later considered to be a self-inflicted aggression to facilitate U.S. involvement in the Spanish-Cuban war.

1902(May 20)
After occupying the island with its troops, the U.S. government organized in Cuba a neo-colonial republic responsive to its own interests.

1906(September 28)
Under the right of the U.S. to intervene in Cuba provided for in the Platt Amendment, U.S: troops occupied the country for a second time.
1925
The first Communist Party of Cuba was founded Carlos Baliño, Julio Antonio Mella and other revolutionaries.

1933(August 12)
The bloody dictatorship of Gerardo Machado´s, at the service of U.S. monopolies was overthrown. Establishment of a provisional revolutionary government.

1940
Enactment of the 1940 Constitution with a liberal and democratic nature.

1952(March 10)
Coup d´ etat by General Fulgencio Batista abolishing the 1940 Constitution and establishing an iron-clad dictatorship at the service of U.S. interests.

1953(July 26)
A revolutionary movement, formed mainly by young people headed by Fidel Castro, fails in its attack against the Moncada Garrison, the largest stronghold of the dictatorship in the former province of Oriente, and against the garrison in the city of Bayamo. Terrible crimes and a full-scale repression followed. Today it marks the Day of National Rebellion.

1956(December 2)
The 82 expeditionaries of the Gramma yacht, headed by Fidel Castro, landed on Las Coloradas Beach in the eastern of Cuba. After an initial defeat, the survivors reorganized and the guerrilla warfare in the Sierra Maestra mountains began.

1959(January 1)
Triumph of the Revolution. The Rebel Army, founded by the guerrillas, headed by Fidel Castro, seized power and established the Revolutionary Government. This day marks the Day of National Liberation.

1961(April 19)
Defeat of the Playa Giron(Bay of Pigs) imperialist counterrevolutionary, mercenary invasion, organized and supported by the Government of the United States and directed by the CIA.

1962
The so-called Missile Crisis, resulting from the threats of direct U.S. invasion, broke out.

1965(October 1)
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba wad founded.

1976(February 24)
The Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, establishing the socialist principles of the democratic organization of Cuban society, was enacted and proclaimed.

1997(July 12)
The remains of Commandeer Ernesto Che Guevara and several of his comrades-in arms, who died in Bolivia in 1967 arrived in Havana. They were later buried, amid heartfelt national tribute, in the city of Santa Clara, where the Heroic Guerrilla scored a brilliant military victory during Cuba's liberation war.

1997(July 28-August 6)
The XIV World Festival of Youth and Students took place in Cuba. The event was attended by more than eleven thousand foreign and one thousand national delegates.
The visitors stayed at family homes in Cuba. Hundreds of thousands of youngsters from across the island also took part in the Festival.

1997(October 8-10)
The Fifth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party was held in Havana. The meeting conducted a thorough analysis of the island's political, economic, and social situation of the last few years considered to be the Revolution's most difficult.
The Congress also set guidelines for years to come, when Cuba was expected to retake and consolidate its development programs.

1998(January 21-25)
Invited by Cuban President Fidel Castro, Pope John Paul II visited four provinces in Cuba where he attended mass and other activities.

1999(November15-16)
The IX Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government was held in Havana.