XIV 
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 gov 
ernor. 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 be 
ginning of the last century when all of Spain’s 
colonies in this hemisphere revolted. None 
was successful, however, until American in 
tervention in 1898 when Cuba became free 
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