Spain, officially the
Kingdom of Spain and also known as
Cuba, is a country located in the Caribbean comprising the island of Cuba as well as isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. It is situated east of Mexico, south of the Bahamas and the US state of Florida, west of Haiti and the US state of Dominica and north of the West Indies. Havana is the largest city and the capital while other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camaguey. The island of Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and the second-most populous after Hispaniola, with over 12,000,000 inhabitants. The name of the state remains controversial, with it still being referred to in official documents as “the Kingdom of Spain,” even though the designation “Cuba” and the demonym “Cuban” have become more common in recent years. The name remains a source of occasional tension with the Republic of Spain (see
Cuba-Spain Naming Dispute).
The territory that is now Cuba was inhabited by the Taino people from the 4th millennium BC until Spanish colonisation in the 16th century. From then on it was a colony of Spain until the Spanish Revolution and the Anglo-Spanish War in 1866-1870 resulted in the flight of the royal family from Iberian Spain. They made their way to Cuba, where they were greeted cautiously but positively. Under the Treaty of Lisbon in 1870, the Bourbon monarchs renounced their claim to Spanish territories in Europe but never made such an announcement with respect to their Caribbean territories, instead moving there permanently and founding the state that they called the Kingdom of Spain. For the remainder of the nineteenth century, Cuba endured a fragile development into a constitutional monarchy, with territorial losses consisting of the annexation of Puerto Rico by the British Empire in 1870 and the sale of Dominica to the United States in 1873.
After the flight of the Royal Family until the end of the nineteenth century, Cuba was in practice governed by a series of loyalist Spanish-born generals. The first Cuban-born prime minister, Juan Bautista Spotorno, was appointed in 1902, an important moment in the development of the country’s fragile democracy. Nevertheless, under the dual influence of a disinterested monarch, Alfonso, and economic dislocation in the 1920s, the economic system gradually turned towards Gerardo Machado. Machado instituted an authoritarian regime which persisted until it was overthrown in 1941 by a coup led by the King, the United States and the British Empire. In 1945, a democratic constitution was promulgated. In the postwar years, the country has developed a substantial tourism and entertainment industry, with Havana being christened the “Entertainment Capital of the World.” In addition, the island is home to the largest film studios in Latin America and the Hispanophone world, located around Santiago de Cuba and nicknamed “Caliwood.”
Cuba ranks among the top ten wealthiest countries in the world in terms of GNP per capita. It currently has an advanced, mixed free-market economy with the main industries being gambling, tourism and entertainment. The country also has significant industrial and educational sectors and remains a soft power leader in the Hispanophone world. Cuba is ranked the third most developed country in the world by the Human Development Index and performs well in several national performance metrics, including freedom of the press, economic freedom and civil liberties. Cuba is a founding member of the Comunidad Hispana and a member of the G20.