Britain gets Cuba after 7YW. Now what?

I always thought the decision to trade Cuba for Florida at the end of the 7YW was an awful decision. Obviously, Havana was a much more important port than anything in Florida, and would bring in tons of revenue. Leaving Florida for the Spanish would keep a foreign threat on the southern colonies, so they would need more British protection than OTL. And appeasement doesn't work against a coalition that "knows" it's better than you.

But I'm having a hard time imagining how Britain would keep control of Cuba. First, Spain would be hell-bent on getting it back. They'd start coordinating with France for a war of revenge, and Havana would be the #1 target. Second, the British would control an island populated by sworn enemies. "Guerrilla" might enter the English language a few decades earlier if the British have to pacify the island.

So I think you'd want to:

  • Encourage as much trade as possible with the colonies and England in order to integrate the economy with the empire. Now Cuba (and the colonies) might hesitate to rebel if that trade will be disrupted.
  • Put forth something like the Quebec Act. Keep Spanish law, Catholicism, no oaths of allegiance referencing the Protestant faith.
Any other ideas? The loss of income to Spain would make it less effective in the next war, but I don't think that would stop them if they have French support.
 
As I recall there was an economic boom in Cuba (or at least Havana) during the occupation due to the sudden new trade options being controlled by the British entailed. This sewed some seeds of resentment towards the Spanish that plagued them in the 1800s. Additionally somewhere I saw that slavery really took off even more so during the occupation, but I don't know why.
 
Hmm, if you keep Cuba out of USAmerican hands, then there would be a start. Apart from that, I could more or less see the old race-based class system in Cuba being retained for a while longer, which means that abolitionism in the UK will fall on deaf ears.
 
Hmm, if you keep Cuba out of USAmerican hands, then there would be a start. Apart from that, I could more or less see the old race-based class system in Cuba being retained for a while longer, which means that abolitionism in the UK will fall on deaf ears.

No way the US is getting Cuba in this scenario. But after the CSA becomes independent, a few hundred filibusters will magically defeat the Royal Navy and annex the island. :D

The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 didn't exempt Jamaica or any other sugar island. I guess if Cuban merchants throw enough money at the issue, the law might be delayed by a few years, but they won't be able to resist as long as the RN is around.
 
so we would see a richer but more unequal cuba if Britain kept control of it?

Cuba didn't abolish slavery in OTL until 1886. Emancipation will happen decades earlier if you have the Brits in charge. Imports of slaves would be largely cut off starting from 1807 (as opposed to the 1820s in OTL), so the existing slaves would be treated better earlier. Post-emancipation, there would be smaller farms, with former slaves being sharecroppers or yeoman farmers. I'd expect a middle class to develop after slavery. So society would be more equal from those perspectives.

If British, you'd have investments pouring in from the rest of the Empire at an earlier stage than when the Americans started investing in OTL. Sugar mills would be owned by the few wealthy plantation owners or large corporations. So Cuba would definitely be wealthier, more equal in terms of human rights, and probably less equal in terms of wealth concentration.
 
No way the US is getting Cuba in this scenario. But after the CSA becomes independent, a few hundred filibusters will magically defeat the Royal Navy and annex the island. :D

The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 didn't exempt Jamaica or any other sugar island. I guess if Cuban merchants throw enough money at the issue, the law might be delayed by a few years, but they won't be able to resist as long as the RN is around.
The US might not, but what about Spain? They would certainly want it back, and the US would presumably be happy to let them (we made no effort to keep them from retaking Florida, and that actually borders Georgia, whereas here Cuba would be an isolated island while the US has no Gulf shore).

Now whether Spain could retake Cuba is a different question, but given that they basically timed their declaration to the point at which they could immediately go on the offensive OTL, I expect they would do the same. Would it succeed? No clue; I imagine it would depend on the disposition of the Royal Navy at the time. Certainly the British efforts to defend Florida were utterly ineffective, but maybe Cuba would be tougher.
 
As I recall there was an economic boom in Cuba (or at least Havana) during the occupation due to the sudden new trade options being controlled by the British entailed. This sewed some seeds of resentment towards the Spanish that plagued them in the 1800s. Additionally somewhere I saw that slavery really took off even more so during the occupation, but I don't know why.

That's the conflict: the Cuban plantation owners want a sovereign that will look out for its best interests. That includes free trade (Britain) and support of slavery (Spain). It's politically much easier for Spain to open up trade than for Britain to grant an unlimited extension on slaving. So my feeling is that the Cubans would prefer a Spanish sovereign, and they'd continually be worried about the enlightenment ideas coming out of Westminster.
 
Cuba didn't abolish slavery in OTL until 1886. Emancipation will happen decades earlier if you have the Brits in charge. Imports of slaves would be largely cut off starting from 1807 (as opposed to the 1820s in OTL), so the existing slaves would be treated better earlier.

Not if the peninsulares and criollos remain in charge of the colony (which the British would have to anyway; it's much too different from the rest of their colonies to be governed exactly like its other Caribbean colonies). As much as free trade would have helped out the economy, it would only entrench slavery as a basic necessity in the Cuban economy. I don't see Cuba abolishing slavery any earlier than OTL in this scenario, and even the merchants and plantation owners will do the best they can to get more slaves and illegally import them. As such, I don't see any improvement in the treatment of the slaves. Even more so if you have the slaveowners fleeing Saint-Domingue à la OTL due to the slave rebellion there. What I do see is a more aggressive attempt by Havana to "whiten" the population; i.e. get as many White immigrants coming into Cuba as possible. Once that happens, slavery will no longer be an issue as Havana will try to keep their lower classes a minority of the population.

Post-emancipation, there would be smaller farms, with former slaves being sharecroppers or yeoman farmers. I'd expect a middle class to develop after slavery. So society would be more equal from those perspectives.

Not necessarily. Whilst Havana wouldn't mind having farmers in their society, the colonial government will try to ensure that none of them are black or mulatto. (Tied in with trying to "whiten" the population.)

If British, you'd have investments pouring in from the rest of the Empire at an earlier stage than when the Americans started investing in OTL. Sugar mills would be owned by the few wealthy plantation owners or large corporations. So Cuba would definitely be wealthier, more equal in terms of human rights, and probably less equal in terms of wealth concentration.

Wealthier, yes. Less equal in terms of wealth concentration, yes. More equal in terms of human rights? Only if one's white.
 
Would it succeed? No clue; I imagine it would depend on the disposition of the Royal Navy at the time. Certainly the British efforts to defend Florida were utterly ineffective, but maybe Cuba would be tougher.

OTL, 2/3 of the Luisiana force that recaptured Florida came from Cuba. Most of the rest came (I think) from PR. Now Spain will have to ship soldiers from Spain. Expensive, but worth it to get Cuba back.

If it goes back to Spain after the ARW, then Britain won't land in Argentina in 1806-07. All those guys are going back to Cuba.

If Britain keeps control of Cuba, the whole Caribbean could be British by the Congress of Vienna.
 
Not if Britain can successfully defend it, and if they can get the élite behind Britain. After all, France never got Canada back from Britain.

Canada was near worthless and had a tiny population. Cuba was a vital strategic location, I think a net benefit for the Spanish Crown economically and actually defendable long term.
 
Not if Britain can successfully defend it, and if they can get the élite behind Britain. After all, France never got Canada back from Britain.
France didn't even try to take Canada, and had no interest in getting it back. Indeed, the Treaty of Alliance with the US more or less explicitly granted Canada to the US if either party captured it.

Spain, on the other hand, would desperately want Cuba back, and probably make it one of its key wargoals. Now obviously recapturing Cuba would be more difficult than the Florida campaign was, but the Spanish performed extremely well in the OTL Revolution and had excellent leadership in the colonies, so I expect they would at least make an attempt.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
The social issues in Cuba are going to be challenging for the British

1. Everyone is Catholic;
2. The elites (pensinsulares and criollos) don't speak English, generally;
3. Neither does anyone else;

It's not insurmountable, but the population is much larger and much more "settled" than that of Trinidad, which is about the closest example chronologically of the British taking control of a different European powers' colony in the Caribbean and retaining it I can think of; Jamaica was in the 1650s, after all.

I suppose Gibraltar and the Balearics are a similar situation, but the populations are very different and the British ended up surrendering Minorca for strategic reasons.

Best,
 
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