Cuba

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Indeed, this drop in fertility is among the largest in the Western Hemisphere and is attributed largely to unrestricted access to legal abortion: Cuba's abortion rate was 58,6 per 1000 pregnancies in 1996, compared to an average of 35 in the Caribbean, 27 in Latin America overall, and 48 in Europe

In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa

Other towns soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana, founded in 1515, which later became the capital

In 1529, a measles outbreak in Cuba killed two-thirds of those few natives who had previously survived smallpox

On 18 May 1539, Conquistador Hernando de Soto departed from Havana at the head of some 600 followers into a vast expedition through the Southeastern United States, starting at La Florida, in search of gold, treasure, fame and power

The University of Havana was founded in 1728 and there are a number of other well-established colleges and universities

Seven Years' War - The Seven Years' War, which erupted in 1754 across three continents, eventually arrived in the Spanish Caribbean

Spain's alliance with the French pitched them into direct conflict with the British, and in 1762 a British expedition of five warships and 4,000 troops set out from Portsmouth to capture Cuba

They were afraid because of the prospect that slaves might revolt in Cuba, too, and numerous prohibitions during the 1790s on the sale of slaves in Cuba that had previously been slaves in French colonies underscored this anxiety

" Estimates suggest that between 1790 and 1820 some 325,000 Africans were imported to Cuba as slaves, which was four times the amount that had arrived between 1760 and 1790

In 1812 the Aponte Slave Rebellion took place but it was suppressed

The population of Cuba in 1817 was 630,980, of which 291,021 were white, 115,691 free people of color , and 224,268 black slaves

In the 1820s, when the rest of Spain's empire in Latin America rebelled and formed independent states, Cuba remained loyal

In the antebellum years, after Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion of 1831, Virginia discouraged manumissions and strengthened restrictions against free blacks, as did other Southern states

Ten Years' War - The 1868 rebellion resulted in a prolonged conflict known as the Ten Years' War

Full independence from Spain was the goal of a rebellion in 1868 led by planter Carlos Manuel de Céspedes

On 27 December 1868, he issued a decree condemning slavery in theory but accepting it in practice and declaring free any slaves whose masters present them for military service

Slavery in Cuba was abolished in 1875 but the process was completed only in 1886

In 1878, the Pact of Zanjón ended the conflict, with Spain promising greater autonomy to Cuba

An exiled dissident named José Martí founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party in New York in 1892

In January 1895 Martí traveled to Montecristi and Santo Domingo to join the efforts of Máximo Gómez

Fighting against the Spanish army began in Cuba on 24 February 1895, but Martí was unable to reach Cuba until 11 April 1895

Martí was killed in the battle of Dos Rios on 19 May 1895

Cuba gained formal independence from the U.S. on 20 May 1902, as the Republic of Cuba

Following disputed elections in 1906, the first president, Tomás Estrada Palma, faced an armed revolt by independence war veterans who defeated the meager government forces

In 1908, self-government was restored when José Miguel Gómez was elected President, but the U.S. continued intervening in Cuban affairs

In 1924, Gerardo Machado was elected president

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 led to a collapse in the price of sugar, political unrest, and repression

Protesting students, known as the Generation of 1930, turned to violence in opposition to the increasingly unpopular Machado

The period from 1933 to 1937 was a time of "virtually unremitting social and political warfare"

A general strike , uprisings among sugar workers, and an army revolt forced Machado into exile in August 1933

In September 1933, the Sergeants' Revolt, led by Sergeant Fulgencio Batista, overthrew Cespedes

Grau resigned in 1934, leaving the way clear for Batista, who dominated Cuban politics for the next 25 years, at first through a series of puppet-presidents

A new constitution was adopted in 1940, which engineered radical progressive ideas, including the right to labour and health care

As a fragile republic, in 1940 Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in a coup and subsequent dictatorship under Fulgencio Batista in 1952

Batista adhered to the 1940 constitution's strictures preventing his re-election

Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including the right to strike

After finishing his term in 1944 Batista lived in Florida, returning to Cuba to run for president in 1952

Batista was elected president in the same year, holding the post until 1944

In the 1950s, various organizations, including some advocating armed uprising, competed for public support in bringing about political change

Batista outlawed the Cuban Communist Party in 1952

In 1956, Fidel Castro and about 80 supporters landed from the yacht "Granma" in an attempt to start a rebellion against the Batista government

By late 1958 the rebels had broken out of the Sierra Maestra and launched a general popular insurrection

In 1958, Cuba was a relatively well-advanced country by Latin American standards, and in some cases by world standards

After the 1959 revolution, the government started a national literacy campaign, offered free education to all and established rigorous sports, ballet and music programs

Before Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, Cuba was one of the most advanced and successful countries in Latin America

From 1959 to 1966 Cuban insurgents fought a six-year rebellion in the Escambray Mountains against the Castro government

Its roots predate Castro's victory in 1959 and lie in the Cubans' widespread identification with the struggle of the Algerian people

Lesser known actions include the 1959 missions to the Dominican Republic

The U.S. State Department has estimated that 3,200 people were executed from 1959 to 1962

The vast majority of those executed directly following the 1959 revolution were policemen, politicians, and informers of the Batista regime accused of crimes such as torture and murder, and their public trials and executions had widespread popular support among the Cuban population

Open corruption and oppression under Batista's rule led to his ousting in January 1959 by the 26th of July Movement, which afterwards established communist rule under the leadership of Fidel Castro

After Castro's fighters captured Santa Clara, Batista fled with his family to the Dominican Republic on 1 January 1959

Fidel Castro's forces entered the capital on 8 January 1959

Disease and infant mortality increased in the 1960s immediately after the revolution, when half of Cuba's 6,000 doctors left the country

In February 1960, Castro signed a commercial agreement with Soviet Vice-Premier Anastas Mikoyan

In March 1960, Eisenhower gave his approval to a CIA plan to arm and train a group of Cuban refugees to overthrow the Castro regime

Although the country's population has grown by about four million people since 1961, the rate of growth slowed during that period, and the population began to decline in 2006, due in the country's low fertility rate coupled with emigration

" In 1961 the Cuban government had imposed broad restrictions on travel to prevent the mass emigration of people after the 1959 revolution; it approved exit visas only on rare occasions

The country was a point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, and a nuclear war nearly broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962

In January 1962, Cuba was suspended from the Organization of American States , and later the same year the OAS started to impose sanctions against Cuba of similar nature to the US sanctions

Since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba

Tareke refers here to the training given to 10 members of the Eritrean Liberation Front in 1968 during the Eritrean struggle for independence

During the 1970s, Fidel Castro dispatched tens of thousands of troops in support of Soviet-supported wars in Africa

Fidel Castro admitted the failures of economic policies in a 1970 speech

The standard of living in the 1970s was "extremely spartan" and discontent was rife

From 1975 until the late 1980s, Soviet military assistance enabled Cuba to upgrade its military capabilities

In 1975 the OAS lifted its sanctions against Cuba, with the approval of 16 member states, including the U.S. The U.S., however, maintained its own sanctions

The Constitution of 1976, which defined Cuba as a socialist republic, was replaced by the Constitution of 1992, which is "guided by the ideas of José Martí and the political and social ideas of Marx, Engels and Lenin

Recovery occurred by the 1980s, and the country's health care has been widely praised

Religious freedom increased through the 1980s,

Despite U.S. hostility toward Cuba, a U.S. government document stated in 1982 that the 'Cuban Revolution has managed social achievements, especially in education and health care, that are highly respected in the Third World

Havana was the heart of the rap scene in Cuba when it began in the 1990s

In the 1990s, Human Rights Watch reported that Cuba's extensive prison system, one of the largest in Latin America, consists of 40 maximum-security prisons, 30 minimum-security prisons, and over 200 work camps

The government's relaxation of restrictions on house churches in the 1990s led to an explosion of Pentecostalism, with some groups claiming as many as 100,000 members

Castro's rule was severely tested in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse in 1991

Like the rest of the Cuban economy, medical care suffered from severe material shortages following the end of Soviet subsidies in 1991, and a tightening of the U.S. embargo in 1992

For discussion of the 1992 amendments, see

The United States continues an embargo against Cuba "so long as it continues to refuse to move toward democratization and greater respect for human rights", though the UN General Assembly has, since 1992, passed a resolution every year condemning the ongoing impact of the embargo and claiming it violates the Charter of the United Nations and international law

Cuba signed the Rio Convention on Biological Diversity on 12 June 1992, and became a party to the convention on 8 March 1994

After the loss of Soviet subsidies, Cuba scaled down the numbers of military personnel, from 235,000 in 1994 to about 60,000 in 2003

On 5 August 1994, state security dispersed protesters in a spontaneous protest in Havana

On 9 September 1994, the U.S. and Cuban governments agreed that the U.S. would grant at least 20,000 visas annually in exchange for Cuba's pledge to prevent further unlawful departures on boats

Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI visited Cuba in 1998 and 2011, respectively, and Pope Francis visited Cuba in September 2015

In 2003, the European Union accused the Cuban government of "continuing flagrant violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms"

In 2003, the government arrested and imprisoned a large number of civil activists, a period known as the "Black Spring"

Oil exploration in 2005 by the US Geological Survey revealed that the North Cuba Basin could produce about to of oil

Despite less than half of the population identifying as Catholics in 2006, it nonetheless remains the dominant faith

In 2006, Cuba started to test-drill these locations for possible exploitation

Cuba had the second-highest number of imprisoned journalists of any nation in 2008 according to various sources, including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Human Rights Watch

In 2008, the European Union and Cuba agreed to resume full relations and cooperation activities

It was announced in 2008 that wage caps would be abandoned to improve the nation's productivity

It has subsequently produced a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, with one revision, that the convention received on 24 January 2008

In February 2008, Fidel Castro announced his resignation as President of Cuba

In 2009, United States President Barack Obama stated on 17 April, in Trinidad and Tobago that "the United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba", and reversed the Bush Administration's prohibition on travel and remittances by Cuban-Americans from the United States to Cuba

In March 2009, Raúl Castro removed some of his brother's appointees

According to the official census of 2010, Cuba's population was 11,241,161, comprising 5,628,996 men and 5,612,165 women

In July 2010, the unofficial Cuban Human Rights Commission said there were 167 political prisoners in Cuba, a fall from 201 at the start of the year

In 2011, the Cuban state denounced reggaeton as degenerate, directed reduced "low-profile" airplay of the genre and banned the megahit "Chupi Chupi" by Osmani García, characterizing its description of sex as "the sort which a prostitute would carry out

In 2011, the party stated that there were 800,000 members, and representatives generally constitute at least half of the Councils of state and the National Assembly

The vaccine has been available for free to the Cuban population since 2011

On 2 August 2011, "The New York Times" reported that Cuba reaffirmed its intent to legalize "buying and selling" of private property before the year's end

At the end of 2012, tens of thousands of Cuban medical personnel worked abroad, with as many as 30,000 doctors in Venezuela alone via the two countries' oil-for-doctors programme

In August 2012, a specialist of the "Cubaenergia Company" announced the opening of Cuba's first Solar Power Plant

" In December 2012, the Cuban government officially banned sexually explicit reggaeton songs and music videos from radio and television

As a member of the Cubasolar Group, there was a mention of 10 additional plants in 2013

As of 2013 the top emigration destinations were the United States, Spain, Italy, Puerto Rico, and Mexico

Prior to 13 January 2013, Cuban citizens could not travel abroad, leave or return to Cuba without first obtaining official permission along with applying for a government issued passport and travel visa, which was often denied

Effective 14 January 2013, Cuba ended the requirement established in 1961, that any citizens who wish to travel abroad were required to obtain an expensive government permit and a letter of invitation

In February 2013, Cuban president Raúl Castro announced he would resign in 2018, ending his five-year term, and that he hopes to implement permanent term limits for future Cuban Presidents, including age limits

In October 2013, Raúl said he intended to merge the two currencies, but , the dual currency system remains in force

On 17 December 2014, United States President Barack Obama announced the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba, pushing for Congress to put an end to the embargo

In 2015, Cuba became the first country to eradicate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, a milestone hailed by the World Health Organization as "one of the greatest public health achievements possible"

This was realized on 30 June 2015, when Cuba and the U.S. reached a deal to reopen embassies in their respective capitals on 20 July 2015 and reestablish diplomatic relations

After Fidel Castro died on 25 November 2016, the Cuban government declared a nine-day mourning period

Hurricane Irma hit the island on 8 September 2017, with winds of 260 kilometres per hour, at the Camagüey Archipelago; the storm reached Ciego de Avila province around midnight and continued to pound Cuba the next day

Some tourist facilities were extensively damaged on 8 September 2017 when Hurricane Irma hit the island

On 17 September 2017, the United States considered closing its Cuban embassy following mysterious sonic attacks on its staff