Havana is the capital city, largest city, province, major port, and leading commercial center of Cuba. The city was founded by the Spanish in the 16th century and served as a springboard for the Spanish conquest of the Americas. The sinking of the U.S. battleship Maine in Havana’s harbor in 1898 was the immediate cause of the Spanish–American War.
About Havana, Cuba in brief
Havana is the capital city, largest city, province, major port, and leading commercial center of Cuba. The city was founded by the Spanish in the 16th century and served as a springboard for the Spanish conquest of the Americas. The sinking of the U.S. battleship Maine in Havana’s harbor in 1898 was the immediate cause of the Spanish–American War. In 2009, the cityprovince had the third highest income in the country. Havana attracts over a million tourists annually; in 2010 the city was visited by 1,176,627 international tourists, a 20% increase from 2005. Old Havana was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. It is also noted for its history, culture, architecture and monuments. In the 17th century Havana greatly expanded in the defensive infrastructures of the city. In 1649 the city would be officially designated as the New World and Rampart of the West Indies by the Crown of Spain. The name combines San Cristóbal, patron saint of Havana, and Habana, the name of the town’s patron saint, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, who founded the city in 1515. In 1519, the town that became Havana finally originated adjacent to what was then called Puerto de Carenas, in 1519. All attempts to found a city on Cuba’s south coast failed. However, an early map of Cuba drawn in 1514 places the town at the mouth of this river. The city extends mostly westward and southward from the bay, which is entered through a narrow inlet and which divides into three main harbors: Mari melena, Guanabacoa and Antares.
The sluggish Almendares River traverses the city from south to north, entering the Straits of Florida a few miles west of the bay. Havana is the largest city by area, the most populous city, and the fourth largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean region. It has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of 781. 58 km2 – making it the largestCity by area and the second largest province in Cuba, after the capital, Havana. The governor is Reinaldo García Zapata of the Communist Party of Cuba. The city is the center of the Cuban government, and home to various ministries, headquarters of businesses and over 100 diplomatic offices. It was the site of regular attacks by buccaneers, pirates, and French corsairs in 1555. Such attacks convinced the Spanish Crown to fund the construction of the first fortresses in the main cities – not only to counteract the pirates and corsair, but also to exert more control over commerce with theWest Indies, and to limit the extensive contrabando that had arisen due to the trade restrictions imposed by the Casa de Contratación of Sea de Señorville. The thousands of ships gathered in Havana also fueled Havana’s agriculture since they had to be supplied with food, water and other products needed to traverse the ocean.
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This page is based on the article Havana, Cuba published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
