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CUBA
Cuba  is  so  near  to  us  and  our  commercial
and  political  relations  with  it  are  so  intimate
that  it  is  worthy  of  careful  study.  It  was
discovered  by  Columbus  on  his  first  trip  to
America  October  28,  1498,  and  in  1511  Diego
Velasquez  was  appointed  its  first  Spanish  governor. ­
  His  principal  task  was  the  subduing
of  the  warlike  Carib  Indians.  In  1762  when
Spain  was  fighting  England  and  France,
Havana  was  captured  by  the  English  who,
when  peace  was  finally  declared,  returned  it  to
Spain.
Many  sporadic  attempts  at  independence
were  made,  the  earliest  dating  from  the  beginning ­
  of  the  last  century  when  all  of  Spain’s
colonies  in  this  hemisphere  revolted.  None
was  successful,  however,  until  American  intervention ­
  in  1898  when  Cuba  became  free
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