The ancient map of Cuba shows evolutions of Cuba. This historical map of Cuba will allow you to travel in the past and in the history of Cuba in Caribbean - Americas. The Cuba ancient map is downloadable in PDF, printable and free.

On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on Cuba northeastern coast near what is now Baracoa on October 27 or 28 as its shown in Ancient Cuba map. He claimed the ancient island for the new Kingdom of Spain and named Isla Juana after Juan, Prince of Asturias. In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa; other towns soon followed including the future capital of San Cristobal de la Habana which was founded in 1515. The native Taínos were working under the encomienda system, which resembled a feudal system in Medieval Europe. Within a century the indigenous people were virtually wiped out due to multiple factors, including Eurasian infectious diseases aggravated in large part by a lack of natural resistance as well as privation stemming from repressive colonial subjugation.

In 1529, a measles outbreak in Cuba killed two-thirds of the natives who had previously survived smallpox. On September 1, 1548, Dr. Gonzalo Perez de Angulo was appointed governor of ancient Cuba. He arrived in Santiago, Cuba on November 4, 1549 and immediately declared the liberty of all natives. He became Cuba first permanent governor who resided in Havana instead of Santiago, and he built Havana first church made of masonry as you can see in Ancient Cuba map. After the French took Havana in 1555, the governor son, Francisco de Angulo, went to Mexico. Cuba remained a Spanish possession for almost 400 years (1511–1898), with an economy based on plantation agriculture, mining, and the export of sugar, coffee, and tobacco to Europe and later to North America. The work was done primarily by African slaves brought to the island.

In the 1820s, when the rest of ancient Spain empire in Latin America rebelled and formed independent states, Cuba remained loyal. Although there was agitation for independence, the Spanish Crown gave Cuba the motto La Siempre Fidelísima Isla ("The Always Most Faithful Island") as its mentioned in Ancient Cuba map. This loyalty was due partly to Cuban settlers dependence on Spain for trade, their desire for protection from pirates and against a slave rebellion, and partly because they feared the rising power of the United States more than they disliked Spanish rule. After the Spanish-American War, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris (1898), by which Spain ceded Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam to the United States for the sum of $20 million. Under the same treaty, Spain relinquished all claim of sovereignty over Cuba. Theodore Roosevelt, who had fought in the Spanish-American War and had some sympathies with the independence movement, succeeded McKinley as U.S. President in 1901 and abandoned the treaty. Cuba gained formal independence from the U.S. on May 20, 1902, as the Republic of Cuba.