Geography

Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, and nearly as big as all the rest put together.  It is located some 100 miles south of Key West, Florida.  Forested mountains make up a quarter of the island, and fertile plains much of the rest.  The porous limestone geology means large lakes and rivers do not exist.  The climate is subtropical.

Forests are making a comeback under the Castro regime, but the increasingly impoverished Cuban citizens appear to be putting a growing strain on the country's formerly rich coral reefs.

History

Cuba was from the beginning Spain's most important base in the New World, and remained so for over 400 years.  Although Cuba itself was gold-poor, Mexico and Peru had plenty, and it passed through Havana on its way to Spain.  As the riches declined, cattle ranching, tobacco and sugar succeeded one another as the source of Cuba's wealth; the latter required slave labor from Africa, thus accounting for Cuba's ethnic makeup today.

Although Spain lost most of its New World possessions in the early 19th century, it held on to Cuba until the bitter end.  An increasingly violent independence struggle brought matters to a head in 1898; the US declared war on Spain, which put up a token resistance before being ushered off the world stage.  Over time, the Cubans gained an independence of sorts, but always with Uncle Sam looking on.  Discontent swelled under the corrupt dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, and a loquacious lawyer named Fidel Castro stepped forward as leader of the resistance by the early 1950s.

The success of Castro's revolution in 1959 coincided with the height of the Cold War, and the US saw red.  Relations worsened, culminating in Cuba's nationalization of US businesses and US support of a counter-revolutionary force during the Bay of Pigs invasion.  The Cuban Missile Crisis didn't help, nor did the CIA's attempt to assassinate Castro with exploding cigars.  In the end, Castro announced he really was a communist and has been thumbing his nose at Uncle Sam ever since.  The Soviet Union may be long gone, but the revolution lives on in Cuba, at least according to the billboards.

People

Cuban men are so crazy about baseball that they congregate in city parks to argue about it.  They're also quite keen on cigars, a local invention.  As for the women, they are as outgoing and liberated as any of their European or American counterparts, a striking contrast with the rest of Latin America.

The UN ranks Cuba in the 68th percentile in terms of quality of life, based on life expectancy, education and income; this is near the top of Latin American countries (only Argentina, Chile and Mexico rank higher).  

Economy

Cuba's economy is largely state-controlled.  While individuals may, say, own their own personal or family business or small farm, the government owns everything that's big, and tries very hard to direct all foreign currency to its coffers.  Salaries for the (majority) state employees are pathetic ($10 equivalent per month), but in return the government promises a wide array of subsidized goods and services (including universal education and health care).  Unfortunately, these are increasingly being rationed out of existence.  The good news is, nearly anything is available for those with access to US dollars; the bad news is, many people have to make do with the official system, which is to say not much.

Tourism is the fastest growing sector of the economy and now the largest foreign-exchange earner.  There were 1.4 million arrivals in 1998, most of them resort-bound sun-worshippers from Canada and Europe.  The US government maintains tight travel restrictions on its citizens which, when lifted, will likely result in a gringo flood.

Sources:  World Bank (1998 data), Dorling Kindersley World Reference Atlas, UNDP Human Development Report, Lonely Planet