Timeline of Cuba and the Americas
Ten periods, each changing the map and the relationships. Future scenarios are labeled as scenarios, not predictions.
Indigenous Caribbean world — movement and exchange among the Greater Antilles, Bahamas and Florida.
Cuba becomes a staging base for Spanish expansion toward Mexico, Florida and Central America.
Havana matures as the fleet assembly point between the Americas and Europe.
Havana at imperial scale — shipbuilding, population and strategic weight.
After the British occupation, Spain fortifies Havana; sugar and export economy grows.
Sugar, tobacco and coffee gravity — and the human cost of enslavement and colonial extraction.
Wars of independence; deep commercial integration with the United States.
One regional economy across the Florida Straits — people, cigars and goods in constant motion.
Political rupture and isolation reshape the connections.
Hypotheses, not guarantees — where reconnection could occur if conditions allow.