HAVANA, CUBA , HISTORICAL CITY PLAN...

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Vintage-Views Antique Prints and Maps :: Antique Maps :: Caribbean :: HAVANA, CUBA , HISTORICAL CITY PLAN MAP,1894 Original Antique Wood Engraving

HAVANA, CUBA , HISTORICAL CITY PLAN MAP,1894 Original Antique Wood Engraving

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Havana (Spanish in full: San Cristóbal de La Habana, usually shortened to just La Habana; is the capital of Cuba and is located just over 90 miles (144 km) south-southwest of Key West, Florida. The city of Havana ("Ciudad de la Habana") is one of the 14 provinces of Cuba. It is located on the northwest coast of Cuba, facing the Straits of Florida, and is surrounded by the province of Havana to the south, east, and west.Conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founded Havana in 1515 on the southern coast of the island, near the present town of Surgidero de Batabanó. Havana moved to its current location on what was then called Carenas Bay in 1519. Havana was originally a trading port, and suffered regular attacks by buccaneer pirates and French corsairs. The city became the capital of the Spanish colony of Cuba in 1607, and the main port of the Spanish colonies in the New World. The city was officially designated as "Key of the New World and antemural of the West Indies" by the Spanish crown. Goods traded in Havana included gold and silver, alpaca wool from the Andes, emeralds from Colombia, mahoganies from Cuba and Guatemala, leather from the Guajira, spices, sticks of dye from Campeche, corn, manioc and cocoa. Shipments were received from large convoys of sailing ships guarded by Spanish military ships during the summer months. Havana expanded greatly in the 17th century. New buildings were constructed from the most abundant materials of the island, mainly wood, combining various Iberian architectural styles, as well as borrowing profusely from Canarian characteristics. During this period the city also built civic monuments and religious constructions. The convent of St Augustin, El Morro Castle, the chapel of the Humilladero, the fountain of Dorotea de la Luna in La Chorrera, the church of the Holy Angel, the hospital of San Lazaro, the monastery of Santa Teresa and the convent of San Felipe Neri were all completed in this era. In 1649 a fatal epidemic brought from Cartagena in Colombia, affected a third of the population of Havana. On November 30, 1665, Queen Mariana of Austria, widow of King Philip IV of Spain, ratified the heraldic shield of Cuba, which took as its symbolic motifs the first three castles of Havana: that of the Real Force, of Three Santos Reyes Magos del Morro and San Salvador de la Punta. The shield also displayed a symbolic golden key to represent the title of "Key of the Gulf". In the middle of the 18th century, Havana, which by now had more than seventy thousand inhabitants, was seized by the British navy. The city was subsequently governed by Sir George Keppel on behalf of Great Britain. The episode began on June 6, 1762, when at dawn, an impressive British fleet, containing more than fifty ships and fourteen thousand men, drew into Cuban waters. The British seized the city as part of the Seven Years' War, opening it to free trade and bringing thousands of enslaved Africans to the island. In the middle of 1763, only a year after invading, the British returned Havana to the Spanish in exchange for Florida. After regaining the city, the Spanish transformed Havana into the most heavily fortified city in the Americas. Construction began on what was to become the Fortaleza of San Carlos of the Hut, the biggest Spanish fortification in the New World. The work extended for eleven years and was enormously costly, but on completion the fort was considered an unassailable bastion and essential to Havana's defence. It was provided with a large number of cannons forged in Barcelona. Between 1789 and 1790 Cuba was apportioned into individual diocese by the Catholic Church. Shortly thereafter, Havana Cathedral was erected. On January 15, 1796, the remains of Christopher Columbus were transported to the island from Santo Domingo. As trade between Caribbean and North American states increased in the early 19th century, Havana became a flourishing and fashionable city. Havana's theatres received the most distinguished actors of the age, and prosperity amongst the burgeoning middle-class led to new expensive classical mansions being erected. During this period Havana became known as the Paris of the Antilles. The 19th century opened with the arrival in Havana of Alexander von Humboldt, who was impressed by the vitality of the port. In 1837, the first stretch of railroad was constructed, of 51 km, between Havana and Bejucal, which was used for transporting sugar from the valley of Guines to the port of the city. With this, Cuba became the fifth country in the world to have a railroad, and the first Spanish-speaking country. Throughout the century, Havana was enriched by the construction of additional cultural facilities, such as the theater Tacon, one of the most luxurious in the world, the Artistic and Literary Liceo (Lyceum) and the theater Coliseo. In 1863, the city walls were knocked down so that the metropolis could be extended. At the end of the century, the well-off classes moved to the quarter of the Vedado. Later, they emigrated towards Miramar, and today, increasingly on the west, they have settled in Siboney. At the end of the 19th century Havana saw the last moments of the Spanish colonization in America, which ended definitively when the United States warship Maine was sunk in its port, giving that country the pretext to invade the island. The 20th century began with Havana, and therefore Cuba, under occupation by the USA.

Published for Joseph Meyer Meyers Konversations

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SKU	0527579k6
Quantity in stock	1 item(s) available
Price:	US$15.00

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