En Havana 2 million people live today, three-quarters of them under the age of 20. It is an old city, whose foundation dates back to 1754, although previously there were other settlements that did not run good luck.
Its full name was San Cristobal de la Habana and the city went through many situations due to its strategic location in the Caribbean Sea: it was burned and attacked by pirates and French corsairs for much of the XNUMXth century until Spain decided to concentrate its ships there from the American colonies before crossing the ocean to the Motherland.
It is here then where all the ships from Colombia, Peru or Guatemala full of gold, emeralds, leather, mahogany and spices gathered in convoys protected by the Spanish navy to then undertake the crossing across the Atlantic. That is why the city of La Haban begins to bustle with activity with merchants, officials, diplomats who come and go from Spain and many adventurers.
With such a move, in 1592, Havana it is finally considered a city and takes the place away from the city of Santiago. Of course, so much wealth does nothing but attract privateers and pirates and foreign powers, so that is why the city, "Key to the New World", is fortified and its buildings grow and expand, turning it into a larger city. In 1762 it was besieged and occupied by the English after an arduous battle, and the British only returned it to the Spanish a year later in exchange for Florida.
during 1800 Havana it experiences changes, it grows, it becomes a city of luxury, with theaters, tourists, mansions and palaces. It was already a free port and continued to flourish under the American government when this country pulled Spain out of there in the late XNUMXth century: more hotels, mansions, nightclubs, discos and casinos made it the antecedent of Las Vegas. Then came the Cuban Revolution and many of these sites were closed.
Today Havana it tries to survive with Herculean remodeling and restorations that try to prop it up to preserve the beauty of its architecture. And all this history is there, in the streets and houses of this city, the capital of Cuba.
Source - Hello Cuba
Photo - Panoramio
Good commentary on the history of Havana. I disagree on some points. Havana, they called it, The Key of the Gulf, not the Key of the New World. Today Havana is falling into pieces, (something that you do not mention.) All due to a tyrannical regime that has been misgoverning the Island of Cuba for 57 years.