Where is it and what is it like there?

 

Day 1

Demosntration: Geography

Geography of the Carribean

Exploration:

Geography of the Carribean Teachers Guide.pdf 

 

Cuba

Map of Cuba Republic of Cuba National name: República de Cuba President: Fidel Castro (1976) Current government officials Total area: 42,803 sq mi (110,860 sq km) Population (2007 est.): 11,416,987 (growth rate: 0.3%); birth rate: 11.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 6.1/1000; life expectancy: 77.6; density per sq mi: 267 Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Havana, 2,686,000 (metro. area), 2,343,700 (city proper) Other large cities: Santiago de Cuba, 554,400; Camagüey, 354,400; Holguin, 319,300; Guantánamo, 274,300; Santa Clara, 251,800 Monetary unit: Cuban Peso Language: Spanish Ethnicity/race: mulatto 51%, white 37%, black 11%, Chinese 1% Religions: predominantly Roman Catholic and Santería (Afro-Cuban syncretic religion) Literacy rate: 97% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2006 est.): $45.51 billion; per capita $4,000 . Real growth rate: 9.5%. Inflation: 5%. Unemployment: 1.9%. Arable land: 33%. Agriculture: sugar, tobacco, citrus, coffee, rice, potatoes, beans; livestock. Labor force: 4.82 million; note: state sector 78%, non-state sector 22% (2006 est.); agriculture 20%, industry 19.4%, services 60.6% (2006). Industries: sugar, petroleum, tobacco, construction, nickel, steel, cement, agricultural machinery, pharmaceuticals. Natural resources: cobalt, nickel, iron ore, copper, manganese, salt, timber, silica, petroleum, arable land. Exports: $2.956 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.): sugar, nickel, tobacco, fish, medical products, citrus, coffee. Imports: $9.51 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.): petroleum, food, machinery and equipment, chemicals. Major trading partners: Netherlands, Canada, China, Russia, Spain, Venezuela, U.S., Italy, Mexico (2004). Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 849,900 (2005); mobile cellular: 134,500 (2005). Radio broadcast stations: AM 169, FM 55, shortwave 1 (1998). Television broadcast stations: 58 (1997). . Internet hosts: 2,234 (2006). Internet users: 190,000 note: private citizens are prohibited from buying computers or accessing the Internet without special authorization; foreigners may access the Internet in large hotels but are subject to firewalls; some Cubans buy illegal passwords on the black market or take advantage of public outlets to access limited email and the government-controlled "intranet" (2005). Transportation: Railways: total: 4,226 km; in addition, 7,742 km of track is in private use by sugar plantations (2004). Highways: total: 60,858 km; paved: 29,820 km (including 638 km of expressway); unpaved: 31,038 km (1999 est.). Waterways: 240 km (2004). Ports and harbors: Cienfuegos, Cienfuegos, Havana, Matanza. Airports: 170 (2006 est.). International disputes: US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is leased to US and only mutual agreement or US abandonment of the area can terminate the lease. Major sources and definitions

Geography

The largest island of the West Indies group (equal in area to Pennsylvania), Cuba is also the westernmost—just west of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and 90 mi (145 km) south of Key West, Fla., at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. The island is mountainous in the southeast and south-central area (Sierra Maestra). It is flat or rolling elsewhere. Cuba also includes numerous smaller islands, islets, and cays.

Government

Communist state.

History

Arawak (or Taino) Indians inhabiting Cuba when Columbus landed on the island in 1492 died from diseases brought by sailors and settlers. By 1511, Spaniards under Diego Velásquez had established settlements. Havana's superb harbor made it a common transit point to and from Spain.

In the early 1800s, Cuba's sugarcane industry boomed, requiring massive numbers of black slaves. A simmering independence movement turned into open warfare from 1867 to 1878. Slavery was abolished in 1886. In 1895, the poet José Marti led the struggle that finally ended Spanish rule, thanks largely to U.S. intervention in 1898 after the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor.

An 1899 treaty made Cuba an independent republic under U.S. protection. The U.S. occupation, which ended in 1902, suppressed yellow fever and brought large American investments. The 1901 Platt Amendment allowed the U.S. to intervene in Cuba's affairs, which it did four times from 1906 to 1920. Cuba terminated the amendment in 1934.

In 1933 a group of army officers, including army sergeant Fulgencio Batista, overthrew President Gerardo Machado. Batista became president in 1940, running a corrupt police state.

In 1956, Fidel Castro Ruz launched a revolution from his camp in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Castro's brother Raul and Ernesto (Ché) Guevara, an Argentine physician, were his top lieutenants. Many anti-Batista landowners supported the rebels. The U.S. ended military aid to Cuba in 1958, and on New Year's Day 1959, Batista fled into exile and Castro took over the government.

The U.S. initially welcomed what looked like a democratic Cuba, but a rude awakening came within a few months when Castro established military tribunals for political opponents and jailed hundreds. Castro disavowed Cuba's 1952 military pact with the U.S., confiscated U.S. assets, and established Soviet-style collective farms. The U.S. broke relations with Cuba on Jan. 3, 1961, and Castro formalized his alliance with the Soviet Union. Thousands of Cubans fled the country.

In 1961 a U.S.-backed group of Cuban exiles invaded Cuba. Planned during the Eisenhower administration, the invasion was given the go-ahead by President John Kennedy, although he refused to give U.S. air support. The landing at the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961, was a fiasco. The invaders did not receive popular Cuban support and were easily repulsed by the Cuban military.

A Soviet attempt to install medium-range missiles in Cuba—capable of striking targets in the United States with nuclear warheads—provoked a crisis in 1962. Denouncing the Soviets for “deliberate deception,” on Oct. 22 Kennedy said that the U.S. would blockade Cuba so the missiles could not be delivered. Six days later Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev ordered the missile sites dismantled and returned to the USSR, in return for a U.S. pledge not to attack Cuba.

The U.S. established limited diplomatic ties with Cuba on Sept. 1, 1977, making it easier for Cuban Americans to visit the island. Contact with the more affluent Cuban Americans prompted a wave of discontent in Cuba, producing a flood of asylum seekers. In response, Castro opened the port of Mariel to a “freedom flotilla” of boats from the U.S., allowing 125,000 to flee to Miami. After the refugees arrived, it was discovered their ranks were swelled with prisoners, mental patients, homosexuals, and others unwanted by the Cuban government.

Cuba fomented Communist revolutions around the world, especially in Angola, where thousands of Cuban troops were sent in the 1980s.

Russian aid, which had long supported Cuba's failing economy, ended when Communism collapsed in eastern Europe in 1990. Cuba's foreign trade also plummeted, producing a severe economic crisis. In 1993, Castro permitted limited private enterprise, allowed Cubans to possess convertible currencies, and encouraged foreign investment in its tourist industry. In March 1996, the U.S. tightened its embargo with the Helms-Burton Act.

Christmas became an official holiday in 1997 for the first time since the revolution, in response to Pope John Paul II's 1998 visit to Cuba, which raised hopes for greater religious freedom.

In June 2000, Castro won a publicity bonanza when the Clinton administration sent Elian Gonzalez, a young Cuban boy found clinging to an inner tube near Miami, back to Cuba. The U.S. Cuban community had demanded that the boy remain in Miami rather than be returned to his father in Cuba. By many accounts, the influential Cuban Americans lost public sympathy by pitting political ideology against familial bonds.

In March and April 2003, Castro sent nearly 80 dissidents to prison with long sentences, prompting an international condemnation of Cuba's harsh crackdown on human rights.

The Bush administration tightened its embargo in June 2004, allowing Cuban Americans to return to the island only once every three years (instead of every year) and restricting the amount of U.S. cash that can be spent there to $50 per day. In response, Cuba banned the use of dollars, which had been legal currency in the country for more than a decade.

In July 2006, Castro—hospitalized because of an illness—turned over power temporarily to his brother Raúl. In October it was revealed that Castro has cancer and will not return to power.

In January 2008, 17 months after his emergency intestinal surgery, 81 year old Castro wrote a public statement that he was not healthy enough to campaign in the upcoming parliamentary elections, though he has not withdrawn from the election. Castro's announcement was followed by a national television broadcast showing a recent meeting between himself and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil where he told the Brazilian president that he was feeling very good.

In the January 2008 parliamentary elections, both Fidel and Raúl Castro were re-elected to the National Assembly as well as the other 614 unopposed candidates presented to voters.

See also Encyclopedia: Cuba

U.S. State Dept. Country Notes: Cuba

National Statistical Office (In Spanish Only) http://www.cubagob.cu/otras_info/estadisticas.htm .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Days 2 and 3

Demonstration: Guantanamo Bay ThinkQuest

Exploration:

Students discuss America's presence in Cuba in terms of our security and history.

Online Quiz

 

Geography: How does location shape culture?

 

Cuba is called a Gateway; it is the gateway to the Caribbean Sea.  This means people in this culture tend to be open to new ideas.  It is also a Seaport.  People meet people from cultures around the world.  These cultures tend to be cosmopolitan.

 

Geography: How do physical features shape culture?

 

Cuba is connected to the ocean.  The people of seafaring cultures tend to be cosmopolitan.  Cuba is also part of a strait, the Florida Strait.  This means it is in a strategic spot.  Every navy wants it.  Every army tries to seize it.  This culture is run like a military fort.  Cuba is an island.  When people live on an island, their culture tends to be insular.  Because of Cuba's Gateway status, it is not insular.  Cuba has rocky soil.  Farming is no fun on rocky soil and if you live by the sea, you become a seafaring nation.  Cuba is mountainous.  Mountain cultures value fierce independence and ignore the wealthier flatlanders.  Mountain cultures cater to tourism.  Cuba has grasslands.  Grasslands provide fertile soil for growing grain.  People in grasslands cultures tend to be wheat farmers.

 

Geography: How does geography shape the culture?

 

Cuba lies at the crossroads.  The culture tends to be open to new ideas and change.  Because of Cuba's recent communist past, this hasn't been true.  Cuba's climate is tropical and the typical diet is probably low in calories.  Cuba has both mountains and flat plains so its economy is probably geared toward farming, manufacturing, and tourism.  Cuba has access to the sea and the culture is probably oriented outward to trade with the world.  Cuba is faced with natural disasters, such as hurricanes.  Cubans probably live in one story houses.

 

Quality of Life:

 

The average man in Cuba lives to be in his 70s; this is very good.  The average woman in Cuba lives to be in her 70s; this is very good.  Out of 1,000 babies born in Cuba, less than 10 of them die.  This is excellent.  90% of people can read; this is excellent.  Cuba's per capita income is between $1,000 and $5,000.  This is good.  20% of the population is 15 years old or younger.  This is good.

 

Is Cuba Rich, Poor, or In-between?

 

Over 70% of Cuba's population lives in cities; this means they are urban.  Cuban's don't have much oil or steel.  Between 6-20% of Cubans work in agriculture and over 25% work in industry and commerce.  1 to 10% of people own cars and there is 1 TV for every 4 people.  All of this adds up to show that Cuba is almost a developed country.

 

 

 

 

Day 4

Demonstration:

Cuba

Cuban Music

Exploration:

Students create projects about cuban culture.  It could be poetry, posters, artwork or other creative ventures.