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The eastern part of the island had significant deposits of cop- per. Other than that, however, Cuba had little Spain coveted. During the first decades of colonization, the Spanish forced the island’s indigenous population—mostly a people called the Taíno—to grow crops and work in mines. But mistreatment, violence, and disease decimated the Taíno population. So the colonists turned to enslaved blacks taken from West Africa. Until the late 1700s, though, the scope of slavery in Cuba remained relatively limited, as the island had no need for a vast supply of labor. That changed when a variety of factors made large-scale sugarcane cultivation in Cuba highly profitable. Huge plantations were established, and large numbers of enslaved Africans were needed to work them. Between 1800 and 1867, when the slave trade to Cuba finally ended, more than a million captive Africans were brought to Cuba in chains. Slavery itself wasn’t completely abolished on the island until 1886. By that time, Spanish forces had put down several Cuban attempts to gain independence. Spain finally lost its Cuba colony in 1898, as a result of its defeat at the hands of the United States in the Spanish-American War. In 1902, after a U.S. military occupation, the independent Republic of Cuba was officially proclaimed. Diverse Roots Cuba’s colonial culture had deep roots in both Europe and Africa. And while there was a significant degree of racial inter- mixing on the island, for a long time the white and black com- munities maintained separate music and dance traditions.

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Cuban Music, Dance, and Celebrations