Historical Considerations Regarding the Creation of the Cuban National Identity

Abstract

Abstract Although the revolutionary outbreak of the Spanish colonies in the Americas was sudden and apparently unplanned it was, in fact, a long process, during which colonial economies underwent growth, societies developed identities, ideas advanced to new positions and Spanish Americans began conscious of their own culture and jealous of their own resources. In Cuba the process of creating a national identity displays similarities with what happened in the former European colonies from the two Americas, turned into independent states but, on the other hand, shows different characteristics that make Cuba an exceptional case among the nations of the New World. A number of factors of different natures, as well as the vicinity of a state that from the second half of XIXth century is paving the way for a great power, helped to keep Cuba in Spanish hands until the end of the XIXth century long after the other colonies of the Spanish empire had fallen to local settler armies elsewhere. This short study aims to illustrate some aspects regarding the historical dynamics in the build up of a Cuban national identity.