A Brief Cubic History Challenge Quiz

Answer: Arawak

The Taino and Ciboney (also spelled Siboney) were Arawak, a group that colonized a large part of the Caribbean prior to the 16th century. They were themselves not the first inhabitants of Cuba, however - that honor would go to the Guanahatabey whom the Arawak had mostly displaced towards the westernmost quarter of Cuba.

Columbus' first encounter with any New World natives was with the Taino in 1492.

Answer: Smallpox and measles

The first epidemic to strike the local populace was smallpox, almost immediately after the arrival of the first Europeans who had explored and mapped all of Cuba by 1509. This was followed by a devastating measles epidemic in 1529, wiping out more than two thirds of those who survived the smallpox outbreak.

The native population and culture were effectively eliminated less than a generation later, by the year 1550.

Answer: Sugar

Cuba's agriculture mostly consisted of two crops - sugar and tobacco - through all the time. Out of these, sugar was the dominant source of income at all times, whether exported as such or fermented and distilled into rum. At the time slavery was abolished in the 1880s, slaves and their descendants outnumbered those of European descent 2 to 1.

Answer: England

While the French and Dutch ran some attacks on Cuba in the late 16th and early 17th century, it was the English who conducted several coordinated attacks. While their initial attempts were met with little success, their invasion of Havana during the Seven Years' War was successful and captured a large part of the island.

However, British dominance was short-lived as they traded their share of Cuba for Florida in the 1763 Treaty of Paris.

Answer: A United States protectorate

The Cuban War of Independence lasted from 1895 to 1898, starting as an uprising led by José Martí. Martí himself was killed just days after the uprising began, but the tide was not to be stopped and by 1897, the rebels were in a promising position. Events were pushed forward by the loss of the USS Maine, a United States ship that was destroyed with all hands in January 1898. US retaliation was swift and all Spanish troops were removed from Cuba by the end of the year.

Answer: May 20, 1902

The US protectorate lasted for not even three and a half years, never having been planned as a lasting institution. A constitution was drafted for Cuba by early 1901 and the transition to an elected government and president took another year. However, in spite of formal independence, the United States reserved several crucial rights of intervention and executed them multiple times over the next fifty years, resulting in the first Cuban Republic rarely being fully functional.

Answer: Democratic election in 1940, military coup in 1952

In 1940, Batista ran for president of Cuba supported by a left-wing coalition that ranged from moderate social democrats to communists and enjoyed a very successful four-year term. Keeping a promise and the constitutional provisions adopted in 1940, he did not stand for reelection in 1944 and emigrated to the United States.

That was to change radically in 1952 when Batista returned to stand for reelection, aiming to end the successful and popular, but also corrupt rule of his two successors in office. He then took power in a military coup before elections could happen and enjoyed another six years of effectively absolute power during which Cuba was generally well off but more and more of the wealth was consumed by a tiny elite.

Answer: Ernesto "Che" Guevara

It could only have been Guevara as the other three were all long dead by the 1950s. Guevara, used to guerilla warfare, was an indispensable asset to Castro's growing movement against Batista's government that ultimately proved successful in the first days of 1959 when Batista fled the country and Castro was able to install and lead a communist government of his choice. Relations with the United States who initially supported Castro quickly deteriorated, however, as Castro was not willing to establish a rule compatible with US ideals nor cooperated with the United States on international issues.

Answer: None at all

While the invasion was planned and supported by the United States, all of the actual attack was executed by Cuban exiles trained and equipped by the CIA. Some American pilots engaged in reconnaissance and diversionary missions, resulting in four deaths on the US side, but no Americans actively engaged in battle. Nonetheless, the US involvement in and planning of the invasion quickly became public knowledge, leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Answer: The Special Period

With 80% of both its exports and imports depending on the Soviet Union, the end of socialism in Europe hit Cuba extremely hard. With Cuban agriculture not having been diversified or self-sufficient, famines broke out across the country, with pets and even most zoo animals indiscriminately slaughtered for meat. Stringent rationing and massive agricultural reforms followed, but the standard of life in Cuba dropped considerably even in the long term, only gradually improving since Fidel Castro handed over power to his brother Raúl, who pursues a policy of limited, gradual and slow opening towards some market economy principles, in 2006.

As of 2015, Cuba has reattained a high human development index and living standards are adequate, similar to those in other Caribbean countries.