(no subject)
I am considering submitting a paper to the undergraduate history conference, but I am terrified.
Attempts to define ‘early-modernity’ are often wrought with ambiguity. Historians such as Jack A. Goldstone and Joseph Fletcher have questioned and deconstructed this term, with Goldstone representing a historian who is willing to go so far as to argue that “the ‘early modern’ world wasn’t.” Clossey tentatively dates the ‘Early-Modern World’ as beginning in the year 1405, with the death of Timur and Zheng He’s naval expeditions, and ending in the late eighteenth century due to the advent of the Industrial and French revolutions, stating that these dates represent “only the vaguest consensus” among historians. There are numerous processes and parallels to be found when exploring global history during this time period, but the very use of the term ‘Early- Modern World’ suggests that all regions and peoples were undergoing a phase of early- modernity around the same time. This raises the question of whether or not all societies and cultures went through an early-modern period, when they experienced this stage of development, and also what characterizes these regional early-modernities, if they do in fact exist.
The Caribbean island of Cuba is a region which has not, as of yet, been recognized to have undergone a period of early-modernity. Thorough library and Internet searches revealed no literature on ‘Early-Modern Cuba,’ with the majority of information focusing on Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary Cuba. While some surveys of colonial Cuba and the history of Cuba from the eve of the Spanish conquest to the present, there is, in fact, little information concerning Cuba prior to 1959. While there is reasonable probability that the reason for this lack of information lies in the fact that searches for information were preformed in Canada and in the English language, as opposed to a geographically adjacent area or in the Cuban national language of Spanish, there is also the point that Cuba, as a small colony of the Spanish Empire, was of minimal historical significance on a global scale prior to the Revolution of 1959. This perception of lesser historical significance, however, should not undermine the value of the history of the island, as its place in the Atlantic legal regime and development in relation to other Caribbean colonies reveal much about the global interconnectedness of the period often characterized as ‘early-modern.’ Cuba was, as a colony within the South Atlantic legal regime as described by Benton, a part of the ‘Early-Modern World.’ A global perspective, then, is necessary in an examination of Cuba and early-modernity in order to assess the role of Cuba as an outpost of the Spanish Empire affected by goings-on around the world.
In this paper, I am going to apply the aforementioned global perspective and argue that Cuba did, in fact, experienced a short period of early-modernity. The definitive factors in determining what is and isn’t ‘early-modern’ have been derived from writings by Fletcher, Goldstone, and Palmie identify certain features associated with early- modernity. It should be noted that no single overarching definition of early-modernity has been applied in this discussion, but rather a syncretic definition derived from the writings of Fletcher, Goldstone, and other theorists. The beginning and end of this period in Cuba is definitively marked by the British occupation of Havana in 1762 and Cuba’s abolishment of slavery in 1886. Cuba’s period of early-modernity is characterized by population growth due to natural increase, the development of an incipient capitalism closely tied to the emergence of sugar as an economic mainstay of the island, and an elevated importance of African slavery and the Atlantic slave trade.
Before delving into the characterization of Cuban early-modernity, it is important to explain why the dates of 1762 and 1886 have been chosen as the start and end points of the early-modern period in Cuban history, as they are not the same as Clossey’s dates for the Early-Modern World, which have been previously noted as representative of an ambiguous agreement among historians as to the dating of the period in question. Cuba, though a part of the Early-Modern World, did not undergo an early-modern period until the recognized era of the Early-Modern World was actually over. One of the main reasons for this discrepancy in chronology is the fact that Cuba was not ‘discovered’ by Europeans until 1492. The reason why the date of this ‘discovery’ is significant in the definition of Cuban early-modernity is the fact that Cuba was not a part of the Old World global system prior to her discovery by Europeans, thus she was not developing in the same direction as the ‘early-modern’ European powers of the time. Cuba’s development in the direction of ‘modernity’ did not commence until Europeans arrived, thus it makes sense that she did not arrive at early-modernity at the same time as Old World regions, which began their development in this direction much earlier.
1762 has been selected as the beginning of the Cuban early-modernity because it marks the event of the British occupation of Havana. The eleven-month occupation of the city, by the British which ended in 1763 when Havana was returned to Spanish control through the Treaty of Paris, marks the beginning of the early-modern period in Cuba because it represents Cuba’s entry into the world economic system. New trading opportunities emerged with English control, making Cuban exposure to British and North American markets a possibility. This exposure led to British and North American interest in Cuba, as well as Cuban interest in North American economic opportunities. After control of Havana was relinquished to Spain eleven months after the British capture, it became clear that Cuba, the port city of Havana in particular, had become “a bone of contention among European powers.” This is significant in the characterization of Early-Modern Cuba because it marks the end of a stage of stagnation during which Cuba was little more than “an abandoned backwater outpost of the Spanish New World empire,” a phase which had begun in the mid-sixteenth century when colonists began to abandon Cuba for the mainland colonies, where precious metals had been discovered, leaving Cuba to languish in fluctuating degrees of “depression, destitution, and depopulation.” The British occupation finally “shocked the Cuban society out of its lethargic sleep,” bringing about an acceleration of economic change, as will be demonstrated later in this discussion. This acceleration of development is one of the parallelisms that Fletcher identifies as being a feature of early-modernity. The 1762 English occupation of Havana, then, significant in its bringing about of characteristically early-modern accelerated economic change, is recognized as the beginning of early- modernity in Cuba.
1886 has been selected as the endpoint of Cuban early-modernity because it marks the end of the legal institution of slavery in Cuba. The significance of this event lies in two areas. First of all, Palmie recognizes an international historical pattern in which the abolishment of slavery and the emergence of the “so-called ‘modern capitalist world system’” coincide. This suggests that the abolishment of legal slavery is a typically late-modern, as opposed to early-modern, development. It is highly unlikely that a society which condones the enslavement of other human beings would be considered ‘modern,’ as the institution of slavery, in addition to violating modern ideas of equality and human rights, prevents the establishment of skilled wage labor and greater productivity, as is demonstrated by the ascension of the French and British sugar industries after their respective abolitions of slavery. The abolition of slavery, then, marks a significant signpost on the road to modernity, and thus the end of Cuban slavery also indicates the end of Cuban early-modernity.
The second reason why the end of Cuban slavery in 1886 has been selected as the end of early-modernity in Cuba is the significance that the institution of slavery holds in Cuban history up until 1886. Though Early-Modern Cuba sees a marked rise in the importance of African slavery, unpaid labor was a feature of Cuban society from the beginning of Spanish occupation, as will be shown later in this discussion. The end of slavery in Cuba signifies not only the end of early-modernity, but also the end of a much longer tradition of enslavement which is incompatible with modern development.
Now that the dates of Cuba’s early-modern period have been established, characteristics which have been found to be exemplary of this era in Cuban history will be extrapolated. In this section I will argue that population growth due to natural increase, the development of an incipient capitalism due in large part to the growth of the sugar industry, and the increased importance of the Atlantic slave trade and the institution of slavery are features which distinguish Early-Modern Cuba from earlier and later periods, as well as explaining why these qualities are characteristically ‘early-modern’ through the use of writings on early-modernity attributed to Fletcher and Goldstone, as well as work by Palmie which concerns modernity.
The first attribute of Early-Modern Cuba to be discussed is that of population growth due to natural increase, as opposed to increasing demographic figures as a result of immigration. In the case of Early-Modern Cuba, it is important to differentiate between these two sources of population growth because, as demonstrated by estimates from the seventeenth century, there are instances found in Cuba’s earlier colonial history which exhibit a steady population growth which is largely attributable to immigration. This distinction is significant in this discussion because a natural rise in population is attributed to those Old World populations which are usually included in the ‘Early- Modern World.’ Population increases which are the result of immigration, then, would not be ‘early-modern’ because migrations might represent the natural population growth, and possibly the early-modernity, of other regions, as opposed to Cuba herself, since immigrants must emigrate from somewhere.
A second point to consider when examining the population growth characteristic of Early-Modern Cuba is the fact that there is no official demographic data for the island prior to 1744, and that, because of this, population figures which are applied prior to the mid-eighteenth century are largely educated guesses and estimates. While the nature of population figures prior to 1744 is recognized as hypothesis, it is the only information that is available, and thus will be used for lack of other, more verifiable material.
According to available data, the indigenous population of Cuba on the eve of the Spanish conquest in 1492 was around 60,000. The majority of this population, like other indigenous peoples encountered by the Spanish in their occupation of the New World, were, as put by one historian, “annihilated, absorbed, or died out as a result of the shock of conquest.” This decline in population is exemplified in the estimated demographic figures for 1544, which place the number of aboriginal residents of Cuba at only 5,000. These same figures, however, also include significant populations of both Europeans and African slaves, with approximations of 660 and 800, respectively. This demonstrates an increasingly diverse population with origins lying prior to the Cuban early-modern period, but not population growth due to natural increase.
Natural increase emerges as a definitive force behind population growth in Cuba in the eighteenth century, with rapid growth exhibited throughout the century. Disease, a strong force in the decimation of the indigenous peoples, continued to play a definitive role in regulating the population of Cuba throughout the eighteenth century.
If, then, population growth as a result of natural increase began in the eighteenth century, why is it considered to be characteristic of an early-modern period that does not begin until 1762? The answer lies in the fact that, due to the destruction of the indigenous population of Cuba, the population was, in fact, regenerating rather than growing up until the mid-to-late eighteenth century. As the estimate of aboriginal Cubans in 1492 places the population of Cuba at 60,000 prior to Spanish arrival, and the total population of Cuba, including indigenous, European, and African individuals, is estimated to be only about 7,000 in the mid-sixteenth century, there has been, overall, a massive decrease in population in these fifty years. Several historians have ventured guesses of 50,000 Cuban residents in 1700, meaning that the Cuban population still had yet to reach its previous estimated high of 60,000. Systematic estimates for the year 1757 place the island’s population at 160,000. The census of 1774, which is the first official census of Cuba, counted 171,620 Cuban residents. Census figures from the nineteenth century demonstrate a continuation of this dramatic population growth, with the Cuban population reaching 729,957 by 1862. These figures demonstrate a dramatic growth of the Cuban population, with an increase of over 450% between 1757 and 1862, beginning in the eighteenth century, which is when I have placed the onset of the early-modern period. Prior to this era, any increases in population would actually be regeneration, as opposed to growth, since the island experienced a massive loss of population in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. While the regenerated population of Cuba represented a totally different demographic makeup than pre-contact Cuba (largely Africans and Europeans, as opposed to the earlier indigenous peoples), it will still be regarded as population regeneration.
Population growth due to natural increase is a distinctive feature of the early- modern period in Cuba. While the population of the island had been growing in years prior to the advent of Cuban early-modernity, this growth has been characterized as regenerative as opposed to actual exponential growth due to the decimation of the indigenous peoples residing on the island prior to the occupation of Spanish imperialist forces. It is important to separate population growth due to natural increase as opposed to immigration when examining population in Early-Modern Cuba because population growth through immigration might represent the early-modernities of other regions, as opposed to Cuba’s stage of development. A second demographic feature of Cuban early- modernity is increasing ethnic diversity among residents, as Europeans and Africans gradually composed greater and greater components of the Cuban population as a whole. Early-Modern Cuba is characterized, as well as tied to the early-modern periods of other regions, by a population growth attributable to natural increase.
The development of an incipient capitalism is a second characteristic of Early- Modern Cuba. The emergence of what Goldstone refers to as “merchant capitalism” is a feature of Marxist interpretations of early-modernity, which emphasize the transition from feudal to capitalist society. This “merchant capitalism” is defined as a form of capitalism in which “goods were produced for markets, and in which profits were made by market trading of commodities, and accrued mainly to non-members of the dominant class, as the latter were still feudal…in their economic outlook and practices.” In this section I will show that Cuba underwent a transition to this early-modern form of capitalism in her early-modern period.
In the earlier years of Cuba’s life as a colony of the Spanish Crown, mercantilist policies were imposed upon the island and her inhabitants. The object of these policies was to better the economic and strategic position of the imperial power, in this case Spain, as opposed to the development of an independent economy for Cuba herself. It was not until the eleven-month English occupation of Havana in 1762-1763, which brought with it access to new markets and exposure to different economic policies which Cubans were not eager to give up, that Spain finally eased mercantilist policies and opened Cuba to the emerging world trade system.
The removal of restrictive mercantilist policies is important to the discussion of the development of Cuban capitalism in the early-modern period because of the implications this economic ideology creates for the general economic maturation of a society. Marx asserts that any power that pursues policies which are purely mercantilist while other nations, in this case those of France and Britain, are making the transition to manufacturing production thus dooms itself to economic backwardness. With the application of this perspective, it becomes clear that the end of the era of Spanish-imposed mercantilism in the latter half of the eighteenth century removed barriers to the development of capitalism in Cuba, paving the way for a burgeoning capitalism to grow during the early-modern period.
This lifting of restrictive economic policies coincides with another important event in the development of capitalism in Cuba: the Haitian Revolution. In the late eighteenth century, Haiti experienced a revolution in which the large population of enslaved Africans rebelled, devastating the plantation economy of the colony. As a direct result of this upheaval in the social order, Haiti’s stake of the international sugar market dropped from over 50% to zero between the years of 1791 and 1792. Here emerged an opportunity for Cuba to take advantage of the void in the world sugar market, placing Cuban sugar planters of the 1790s in an “advantageous position to pick up the slack created by the demise of the Haitian industry.” Cubans took advantage of this favorable position, managing to bring about the most affluent era in the history of the Cuban sugar industry.
Generally, this period of about thirty years between 1790 and the 1820s is known as “the dance of the millions” due to the immense wealth acquired by sugar barons during this time. One historian notes the influence of the growing sugar industry on the island, describing the resulting transformations in the organization of sugar estates as “a major revolution in the island with the small plantation giving way to the large sugar estate and the small entrepreneurs being replaced by the large capitalist.” This emergence of sugar plantations as a lucrative business option for inclined individuals, and the subsequent capacity of these individuals to accumulate vast fortunes, represents an emerging capitalism in Cuba, a type of capitalism which corresponds with Goldstone’s characterization of merchant capitalism due to the wealth accumulation of dominant members of society (sugar barons) through the use of non-dominant members (African slaves) through the production of goods (sugar) for the international market.
The easing-off of restrictive economic policies imposed by the Spanish Crown and the development of the Cuban sugar industry both contributed to the emergence of capitalism in Cuba. The advent of the sugar industry allowed for the accumulation of fortune and the building of wealth, and the removal of economic restrictions in favor of Spain made the advent of the sugar boom possible through the opening up of Cuba to international markets.
It is important to recognize that the two major occurrences to influence the development of Cuban merchant capitalism in the early-modern period, the easing of Spanish mercantilism and the emergence of sugar as an economic mainstay, were both the direct result of conflict in areas geographically removed from Cuba. The British occupation of Havana is seen as the trigger for the lifting of Spanish economic restrictions in Cuba. This occupation was a result of the Seven Years War, which represents an instance of conflict between European powers exerting a direct effect on the island. The sugar industry in Cuba was able to grow due to the demand created by the Haitian Revolution of the late eighteenth century. The occupation of Havana and the Haitian Revolution represent two instances in which global events dramatically influenced the development of Early-Modern Cuba in general, and Cuban capitalism in particular. Through the examination of this evidence, there emerges a strong argument for the importance of globalization in the growth of early-modern Cuban capitalism.
The development of a typically early-modern merchant capitalism is one of the characteristics of Cuba’s early-modern period. International events, largely the Spanish entry into the Seven Years War and the Haitian Revolution, play vital roles in the development of this capitalism, as they led to the gradual easing of Spanish economic restrictions and the opening up of opportunities in the international sugar market, respectively. These global developments created the opportunity for economic development in Cuba, and this possibility allowed for the advent of a period of material prosperity for capitalist organizations and individuals, particularly those involved with the rapidly-growing sugar industry. This economic transformation led to an increase in the necessity of African slaves, thus revealing a close relationship between the development of capitalism and a third characteristic of Cuban early-modernity: the increased importance of the institution of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade.
While slavery is being discussed in relation to the period of early-modernity in Cuba, it is in no way exclusively linked to the years of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. During the feudal era of the encomienda, the indigenous population of Cuba was used as a source of labor, with some encomenderos ruthlessly exploiting the labor of the individuals they were meant to Christianize and ‘civilize.’ The indigenous peoples of Cuba were the “principle labor force” of the colony during the earlier period of Spanish rule. As the indigenous population of Cuba rapidly decreased throughout the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there emerged a problem in procuring suitable labor on the island. The decline of the indigenous population corresponds with a rise in the numbers of African slaves in Cuba, strongly suggesting that Africans were used to replace the disappearing indigenous labor force.
While population estimates reveal that there is a strong African presence in Cuba centuries prior to the advent of early-modernity on the island, the rise of the sugar plantation economy brought about a new necessity for the import of African slaves. As demonstrated by the graph contained in Appendix 1, the relative number of African slaves increased exponentially between the sugar boom years of 1774 and 1827, a time span in the beginning of Cuba’s early-modern period. This graph also demonstrates the continuing increase in the number of African slaves until 1862.
The graph contained in Appendix 2 displays the percentage of the total Cuban population composed of African slaves between 1774 and 1862. This visual representation reveals that, while the real numbers of African slaves increased throughout the earlier years of Cuba’s early-modern period, the proportion of the general population that they compose decreases. The reason for this decrease in the relative amount of African slaves lies, again, in the influence of the Haitian Revolution on Cubans. In 1825, the African population surpassed the European one, but Cuban planters took the message of events in Haiti to heart, and ensured that, for the rest of the period of slavery, the enslaved population would never exceed that of free people of colour and Europeans.
Through these figures, two trends are recognized. The first being the increase in real numbers of African slaves in Cuba, and the second being the rise and then decline in the representation of enslaved Africans in the overall population. Both of these trends illustrate the increasing importance of slavery after the sugar boom and the influence of the Haitian Revolution on Cuban demographics. The reason why this information is important is because it is demonstrative of the increasing influence of the slave trade and the institution of slavery through evidence of increases in real numbers and the concern among Cuban slaveholders for the collective power of their owned labor.
As it has been recognized that slavery is not exclusively linked to the early- modern period in Cuba, why is slavery identified as characteristic of Early-Modern Cuba? Palmie identifies the abolition of slavery by various nations throughout the course of the nineteenth century as coinciding with the emergence of the “modern capitalist world system.” He recognizes the trappings of a late-modern economy and world system as emerging in conjunction with the trend of the abolition of slavery. While Cuba curtailed her slave trade rather late in comparison with other societies, her early- modern period is also later than these other populations. Prior to the early-modern period, African slaves were imported into Cuba, but they were of lesser importance and fewer numbers than during and after the sugar boom years. After the abolishment of the trade in 1886, slavery was no longer recognized to be in existence. The early-modern period, then, is the time during which slavery was at its height in Cuba, as the sugar plantation economy increased the economic importance of the institution of slavery and the end of forced labor in Cuba eliminated the economic role of African slavery, as well as bringing an end to Cuba’s early-modern era.
The African slave trade is also a major vehicle of globalization in Early-Modern Cuba. The slave trade represents exchanges of goods, people, and ideas across the Atlantic resulting from interaction between the global regions of Africa, Europe, and the Americas. In “The Collaboration of Labour: Slaves, Empires, and Globalizations in the Atlantic World, c. 1600-1850,” Richard Drayton characterizes the significance of the importation of African slaves in the plantation economies of the New World as having “generated global circuits of bullion, sugar, cotton, wheat, beef, and debt, and cycles of colonial expansion and European settlement on every continent.” Appendix 3 contains a map presented along with Drayton’s article which clearly communicates the extent of these exchanges and the level of global interaction through this international trading network. These “global circuits” are the result of the Atlantic slave trade, and the escalation of the trade during Cuba’s early-modern period increased the intensity of these exchanges. The Atlantic slave trade, then, represents a major instance of global exchange in Cuba, and cannot be understood without the recognition of the trade as a strong force of globalization.
An increased importance of the institution of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade represents a defining characteristic of Early-Modern Cuba. While slavery is not exclusively tied to the early-modern period in Cuba, the inflated influence of the practice, which is shown through increasing numbers of slaves and effective efforts to maintain control over these individuals, marks a difference between earlier phases of slavery on the island. The Atlantic slave trade signifies the role of globalization in Cuban history, emphasizing the fact that global exchange played a major role in Cuban development during her early-modern period.
The escalation of the slave trade and the increased importance of slavery, the emergence of a developing or “merchant” capitalism, and population growth, as opposed to regeneration, due to natural increase are all defining characteristics of Early-Modern Cuba, which I have recognized as having taken place between 1763 and 1886. This short period of early-modernity does not coincide with the common dating of the Early-Modern World, but characteristics displayed by Cuba during this time period coincide with developments which have been recognized by historians as being typically ‘early- modern.’ The recognition of these continuities is what has led to the classification of the 124 years between 1762 and 1886 as Early-Modern Cuba. This periodization of Cuban history is important because it allows for the analysis of Cuban history on a global scale, placing the history of the island among other histories in order to allow for comparison and categorization, thus leading to a greater understanding of global patterns and interconnectedness during the period of the Early-Modern World as well as during periods of regional early-modernities.
Somebody read and lemme know, honestly.
I got a B+ on this but it was top three in the class and the prof is the hardest marker ever
Attempts to define ‘early-modernity’ are often wrought with ambiguity. Historians such as Jack A. Goldstone and Joseph Fletcher have questioned and deconstructed this term, with Goldstone representing a historian who is willing to go so far as to argue that “the ‘early modern’ world wasn’t.” Clossey tentatively dates the ‘Early-Modern World’ as beginning in the year 1405, with the death of Timur and Zheng He’s naval expeditions, and ending in the late eighteenth century due to the advent of the Industrial and French revolutions, stating that these dates represent “only the vaguest consensus” among historians. There are numerous processes and parallels to be found when exploring global history during this time period, but the very use of the term ‘Early- Modern World’ suggests that all regions and peoples were undergoing a phase of early- modernity around the same time. This raises the question of whether or not all societies and cultures went through an early-modern period, when they experienced this stage of development, and also what characterizes these regional early-modernities, if they do in fact exist.
The Caribbean island of Cuba is a region which has not, as of yet, been recognized to have undergone a period of early-modernity. Thorough library and Internet searches revealed no literature on ‘Early-Modern Cuba,’ with the majority of information focusing on Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary Cuba. While some surveys of colonial Cuba and the history of Cuba from the eve of the Spanish conquest to the present, there is, in fact, little information concerning Cuba prior to 1959. While there is reasonable probability that the reason for this lack of information lies in the fact that searches for information were preformed in Canada and in the English language, as opposed to a geographically adjacent area or in the Cuban national language of Spanish, there is also the point that Cuba, as a small colony of the Spanish Empire, was of minimal historical significance on a global scale prior to the Revolution of 1959. This perception of lesser historical significance, however, should not undermine the value of the history of the island, as its place in the Atlantic legal regime and development in relation to other Caribbean colonies reveal much about the global interconnectedness of the period often characterized as ‘early-modern.’ Cuba was, as a colony within the South Atlantic legal regime as described by Benton, a part of the ‘Early-Modern World.’ A global perspective, then, is necessary in an examination of Cuba and early-modernity in order to assess the role of Cuba as an outpost of the Spanish Empire affected by goings-on around the world.
In this paper, I am going to apply the aforementioned global perspective and argue that Cuba did, in fact, experienced a short period of early-modernity. The definitive factors in determining what is and isn’t ‘early-modern’ have been derived from writings by Fletcher, Goldstone, and Palmie identify certain features associated with early- modernity. It should be noted that no single overarching definition of early-modernity has been applied in this discussion, but rather a syncretic definition derived from the writings of Fletcher, Goldstone, and other theorists. The beginning and end of this period in Cuba is definitively marked by the British occupation of Havana in 1762 and Cuba’s abolishment of slavery in 1886. Cuba’s period of early-modernity is characterized by population growth due to natural increase, the development of an incipient capitalism closely tied to the emergence of sugar as an economic mainstay of the island, and an elevated importance of African slavery and the Atlantic slave trade.
Before delving into the characterization of Cuban early-modernity, it is important to explain why the dates of 1762 and 1886 have been chosen as the start and end points of the early-modern period in Cuban history, as they are not the same as Clossey’s dates for the Early-Modern World, which have been previously noted as representative of an ambiguous agreement among historians as to the dating of the period in question. Cuba, though a part of the Early-Modern World, did not undergo an early-modern period until the recognized era of the Early-Modern World was actually over. One of the main reasons for this discrepancy in chronology is the fact that Cuba was not ‘discovered’ by Europeans until 1492. The reason why the date of this ‘discovery’ is significant in the definition of Cuban early-modernity is the fact that Cuba was not a part of the Old World global system prior to her discovery by Europeans, thus she was not developing in the same direction as the ‘early-modern’ European powers of the time. Cuba’s development in the direction of ‘modernity’ did not commence until Europeans arrived, thus it makes sense that she did not arrive at early-modernity at the same time as Old World regions, which began their development in this direction much earlier.
1762 has been selected as the beginning of the Cuban early-modernity because it marks the event of the British occupation of Havana. The eleven-month occupation of the city, by the British which ended in 1763 when Havana was returned to Spanish control through the Treaty of Paris, marks the beginning of the early-modern period in Cuba because it represents Cuba’s entry into the world economic system. New trading opportunities emerged with English control, making Cuban exposure to British and North American markets a possibility. This exposure led to British and North American interest in Cuba, as well as Cuban interest in North American economic opportunities. After control of Havana was relinquished to Spain eleven months after the British capture, it became clear that Cuba, the port city of Havana in particular, had become “a bone of contention among European powers.” This is significant in the characterization of Early-Modern Cuba because it marks the end of a stage of stagnation during which Cuba was little more than “an abandoned backwater outpost of the Spanish New World empire,” a phase which had begun in the mid-sixteenth century when colonists began to abandon Cuba for the mainland colonies, where precious metals had been discovered, leaving Cuba to languish in fluctuating degrees of “depression, destitution, and depopulation.” The British occupation finally “shocked the Cuban society out of its lethargic sleep,” bringing about an acceleration of economic change, as will be demonstrated later in this discussion. This acceleration of development is one of the parallelisms that Fletcher identifies as being a feature of early-modernity. The 1762 English occupation of Havana, then, significant in its bringing about of characteristically early-modern accelerated economic change, is recognized as the beginning of early- modernity in Cuba.
1886 has been selected as the endpoint of Cuban early-modernity because it marks the end of the legal institution of slavery in Cuba. The significance of this event lies in two areas. First of all, Palmie recognizes an international historical pattern in which the abolishment of slavery and the emergence of the “so-called ‘modern capitalist world system’” coincide. This suggests that the abolishment of legal slavery is a typically late-modern, as opposed to early-modern, development. It is highly unlikely that a society which condones the enslavement of other human beings would be considered ‘modern,’ as the institution of slavery, in addition to violating modern ideas of equality and human rights, prevents the establishment of skilled wage labor and greater productivity, as is demonstrated by the ascension of the French and British sugar industries after their respective abolitions of slavery. The abolition of slavery, then, marks a significant signpost on the road to modernity, and thus the end of Cuban slavery also indicates the end of Cuban early-modernity.
The second reason why the end of Cuban slavery in 1886 has been selected as the end of early-modernity in Cuba is the significance that the institution of slavery holds in Cuban history up until 1886. Though Early-Modern Cuba sees a marked rise in the importance of African slavery, unpaid labor was a feature of Cuban society from the beginning of Spanish occupation, as will be shown later in this discussion. The end of slavery in Cuba signifies not only the end of early-modernity, but also the end of a much longer tradition of enslavement which is incompatible with modern development.
Now that the dates of Cuba’s early-modern period have been established, characteristics which have been found to be exemplary of this era in Cuban history will be extrapolated. In this section I will argue that population growth due to natural increase, the development of an incipient capitalism due in large part to the growth of the sugar industry, and the increased importance of the Atlantic slave trade and the institution of slavery are features which distinguish Early-Modern Cuba from earlier and later periods, as well as explaining why these qualities are characteristically ‘early-modern’ through the use of writings on early-modernity attributed to Fletcher and Goldstone, as well as work by Palmie which concerns modernity.
The first attribute of Early-Modern Cuba to be discussed is that of population growth due to natural increase, as opposed to increasing demographic figures as a result of immigration. In the case of Early-Modern Cuba, it is important to differentiate between these two sources of population growth because, as demonstrated by estimates from the seventeenth century, there are instances found in Cuba’s earlier colonial history which exhibit a steady population growth which is largely attributable to immigration. This distinction is significant in this discussion because a natural rise in population is attributed to those Old World populations which are usually included in the ‘Early- Modern World.’ Population increases which are the result of immigration, then, would not be ‘early-modern’ because migrations might represent the natural population growth, and possibly the early-modernity, of other regions, as opposed to Cuba herself, since immigrants must emigrate from somewhere.
A second point to consider when examining the population growth characteristic of Early-Modern Cuba is the fact that there is no official demographic data for the island prior to 1744, and that, because of this, population figures which are applied prior to the mid-eighteenth century are largely educated guesses and estimates. While the nature of population figures prior to 1744 is recognized as hypothesis, it is the only information that is available, and thus will be used for lack of other, more verifiable material.
According to available data, the indigenous population of Cuba on the eve of the Spanish conquest in 1492 was around 60,000. The majority of this population, like other indigenous peoples encountered by the Spanish in their occupation of the New World, were, as put by one historian, “annihilated, absorbed, or died out as a result of the shock of conquest.” This decline in population is exemplified in the estimated demographic figures for 1544, which place the number of aboriginal residents of Cuba at only 5,000. These same figures, however, also include significant populations of both Europeans and African slaves, with approximations of 660 and 800, respectively. This demonstrates an increasingly diverse population with origins lying prior to the Cuban early-modern period, but not population growth due to natural increase.
Natural increase emerges as a definitive force behind population growth in Cuba in the eighteenth century, with rapid growth exhibited throughout the century. Disease, a strong force in the decimation of the indigenous peoples, continued to play a definitive role in regulating the population of Cuba throughout the eighteenth century.
If, then, population growth as a result of natural increase began in the eighteenth century, why is it considered to be characteristic of an early-modern period that does not begin until 1762? The answer lies in the fact that, due to the destruction of the indigenous population of Cuba, the population was, in fact, regenerating rather than growing up until the mid-to-late eighteenth century. As the estimate of aboriginal Cubans in 1492 places the population of Cuba at 60,000 prior to Spanish arrival, and the total population of Cuba, including indigenous, European, and African individuals, is estimated to be only about 7,000 in the mid-sixteenth century, there has been, overall, a massive decrease in population in these fifty years. Several historians have ventured guesses of 50,000 Cuban residents in 1700, meaning that the Cuban population still had yet to reach its previous estimated high of 60,000. Systematic estimates for the year 1757 place the island’s population at 160,000. The census of 1774, which is the first official census of Cuba, counted 171,620 Cuban residents. Census figures from the nineteenth century demonstrate a continuation of this dramatic population growth, with the Cuban population reaching 729,957 by 1862. These figures demonstrate a dramatic growth of the Cuban population, with an increase of over 450% between 1757 and 1862, beginning in the eighteenth century, which is when I have placed the onset of the early-modern period. Prior to this era, any increases in population would actually be regeneration, as opposed to growth, since the island experienced a massive loss of population in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. While the regenerated population of Cuba represented a totally different demographic makeup than pre-contact Cuba (largely Africans and Europeans, as opposed to the earlier indigenous peoples), it will still be regarded as population regeneration.
Population growth due to natural increase is a distinctive feature of the early- modern period in Cuba. While the population of the island had been growing in years prior to the advent of Cuban early-modernity, this growth has been characterized as regenerative as opposed to actual exponential growth due to the decimation of the indigenous peoples residing on the island prior to the occupation of Spanish imperialist forces. It is important to separate population growth due to natural increase as opposed to immigration when examining population in Early-Modern Cuba because population growth through immigration might represent the early-modernities of other regions, as opposed to Cuba’s stage of development. A second demographic feature of Cuban early- modernity is increasing ethnic diversity among residents, as Europeans and Africans gradually composed greater and greater components of the Cuban population as a whole. Early-Modern Cuba is characterized, as well as tied to the early-modern periods of other regions, by a population growth attributable to natural increase.
The development of an incipient capitalism is a second characteristic of Early- Modern Cuba. The emergence of what Goldstone refers to as “merchant capitalism” is a feature of Marxist interpretations of early-modernity, which emphasize the transition from feudal to capitalist society. This “merchant capitalism” is defined as a form of capitalism in which “goods were produced for markets, and in which profits were made by market trading of commodities, and accrued mainly to non-members of the dominant class, as the latter were still feudal…in their economic outlook and practices.” In this section I will show that Cuba underwent a transition to this early-modern form of capitalism in her early-modern period.
In the earlier years of Cuba’s life as a colony of the Spanish Crown, mercantilist policies were imposed upon the island and her inhabitants. The object of these policies was to better the economic and strategic position of the imperial power, in this case Spain, as opposed to the development of an independent economy for Cuba herself. It was not until the eleven-month English occupation of Havana in 1762-1763, which brought with it access to new markets and exposure to different economic policies which Cubans were not eager to give up, that Spain finally eased mercantilist policies and opened Cuba to the emerging world trade system.
The removal of restrictive mercantilist policies is important to the discussion of the development of Cuban capitalism in the early-modern period because of the implications this economic ideology creates for the general economic maturation of a society. Marx asserts that any power that pursues policies which are purely mercantilist while other nations, in this case those of France and Britain, are making the transition to manufacturing production thus dooms itself to economic backwardness. With the application of this perspective, it becomes clear that the end of the era of Spanish-imposed mercantilism in the latter half of the eighteenth century removed barriers to the development of capitalism in Cuba, paving the way for a burgeoning capitalism to grow during the early-modern period.
This lifting of restrictive economic policies coincides with another important event in the development of capitalism in Cuba: the Haitian Revolution. In the late eighteenth century, Haiti experienced a revolution in which the large population of enslaved Africans rebelled, devastating the plantation economy of the colony. As a direct result of this upheaval in the social order, Haiti’s stake of the international sugar market dropped from over 50% to zero between the years of 1791 and 1792. Here emerged an opportunity for Cuba to take advantage of the void in the world sugar market, placing Cuban sugar planters of the 1790s in an “advantageous position to pick up the slack created by the demise of the Haitian industry.” Cubans took advantage of this favorable position, managing to bring about the most affluent era in the history of the Cuban sugar industry.
Generally, this period of about thirty years between 1790 and the 1820s is known as “the dance of the millions” due to the immense wealth acquired by sugar barons during this time. One historian notes the influence of the growing sugar industry on the island, describing the resulting transformations in the organization of sugar estates as “a major revolution in the island with the small plantation giving way to the large sugar estate and the small entrepreneurs being replaced by the large capitalist.” This emergence of sugar plantations as a lucrative business option for inclined individuals, and the subsequent capacity of these individuals to accumulate vast fortunes, represents an emerging capitalism in Cuba, a type of capitalism which corresponds with Goldstone’s characterization of merchant capitalism due to the wealth accumulation of dominant members of society (sugar barons) through the use of non-dominant members (African slaves) through the production of goods (sugar) for the international market.
The easing-off of restrictive economic policies imposed by the Spanish Crown and the development of the Cuban sugar industry both contributed to the emergence of capitalism in Cuba. The advent of the sugar industry allowed for the accumulation of fortune and the building of wealth, and the removal of economic restrictions in favor of Spain made the advent of the sugar boom possible through the opening up of Cuba to international markets.
It is important to recognize that the two major occurrences to influence the development of Cuban merchant capitalism in the early-modern period, the easing of Spanish mercantilism and the emergence of sugar as an economic mainstay, were both the direct result of conflict in areas geographically removed from Cuba. The British occupation of Havana is seen as the trigger for the lifting of Spanish economic restrictions in Cuba. This occupation was a result of the Seven Years War, which represents an instance of conflict between European powers exerting a direct effect on the island. The sugar industry in Cuba was able to grow due to the demand created by the Haitian Revolution of the late eighteenth century. The occupation of Havana and the Haitian Revolution represent two instances in which global events dramatically influenced the development of Early-Modern Cuba in general, and Cuban capitalism in particular. Through the examination of this evidence, there emerges a strong argument for the importance of globalization in the growth of early-modern Cuban capitalism.
The development of a typically early-modern merchant capitalism is one of the characteristics of Cuba’s early-modern period. International events, largely the Spanish entry into the Seven Years War and the Haitian Revolution, play vital roles in the development of this capitalism, as they led to the gradual easing of Spanish economic restrictions and the opening up of opportunities in the international sugar market, respectively. These global developments created the opportunity for economic development in Cuba, and this possibility allowed for the advent of a period of material prosperity for capitalist organizations and individuals, particularly those involved with the rapidly-growing sugar industry. This economic transformation led to an increase in the necessity of African slaves, thus revealing a close relationship between the development of capitalism and a third characteristic of Cuban early-modernity: the increased importance of the institution of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade.
While slavery is being discussed in relation to the period of early-modernity in Cuba, it is in no way exclusively linked to the years of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. During the feudal era of the encomienda, the indigenous population of Cuba was used as a source of labor, with some encomenderos ruthlessly exploiting the labor of the individuals they were meant to Christianize and ‘civilize.’ The indigenous peoples of Cuba were the “principle labor force” of the colony during the earlier period of Spanish rule. As the indigenous population of Cuba rapidly decreased throughout the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there emerged a problem in procuring suitable labor on the island. The decline of the indigenous population corresponds with a rise in the numbers of African slaves in Cuba, strongly suggesting that Africans were used to replace the disappearing indigenous labor force.
While population estimates reveal that there is a strong African presence in Cuba centuries prior to the advent of early-modernity on the island, the rise of the sugar plantation economy brought about a new necessity for the import of African slaves. As demonstrated by the graph contained in Appendix 1, the relative number of African slaves increased exponentially between the sugar boom years of 1774 and 1827, a time span in the beginning of Cuba’s early-modern period. This graph also demonstrates the continuing increase in the number of African slaves until 1862.
The graph contained in Appendix 2 displays the percentage of the total Cuban population composed of African slaves between 1774 and 1862. This visual representation reveals that, while the real numbers of African slaves increased throughout the earlier years of Cuba’s early-modern period, the proportion of the general population that they compose decreases. The reason for this decrease in the relative amount of African slaves lies, again, in the influence of the Haitian Revolution on Cubans. In 1825, the African population surpassed the European one, but Cuban planters took the message of events in Haiti to heart, and ensured that, for the rest of the period of slavery, the enslaved population would never exceed that of free people of colour and Europeans.
Through these figures, two trends are recognized. The first being the increase in real numbers of African slaves in Cuba, and the second being the rise and then decline in the representation of enslaved Africans in the overall population. Both of these trends illustrate the increasing importance of slavery after the sugar boom and the influence of the Haitian Revolution on Cuban demographics. The reason why this information is important is because it is demonstrative of the increasing influence of the slave trade and the institution of slavery through evidence of increases in real numbers and the concern among Cuban slaveholders for the collective power of their owned labor.
As it has been recognized that slavery is not exclusively linked to the early- modern period in Cuba, why is slavery identified as characteristic of Early-Modern Cuba? Palmie identifies the abolition of slavery by various nations throughout the course of the nineteenth century as coinciding with the emergence of the “modern capitalist world system.” He recognizes the trappings of a late-modern economy and world system as emerging in conjunction with the trend of the abolition of slavery. While Cuba curtailed her slave trade rather late in comparison with other societies, her early- modern period is also later than these other populations. Prior to the early-modern period, African slaves were imported into Cuba, but they were of lesser importance and fewer numbers than during and after the sugar boom years. After the abolishment of the trade in 1886, slavery was no longer recognized to be in existence. The early-modern period, then, is the time during which slavery was at its height in Cuba, as the sugar plantation economy increased the economic importance of the institution of slavery and the end of forced labor in Cuba eliminated the economic role of African slavery, as well as bringing an end to Cuba’s early-modern era.
The African slave trade is also a major vehicle of globalization in Early-Modern Cuba. The slave trade represents exchanges of goods, people, and ideas across the Atlantic resulting from interaction between the global regions of Africa, Europe, and the Americas. In “The Collaboration of Labour: Slaves, Empires, and Globalizations in the Atlantic World, c. 1600-1850,” Richard Drayton characterizes the significance of the importation of African slaves in the plantation economies of the New World as having “generated global circuits of bullion, sugar, cotton, wheat, beef, and debt, and cycles of colonial expansion and European settlement on every continent.” Appendix 3 contains a map presented along with Drayton’s article which clearly communicates the extent of these exchanges and the level of global interaction through this international trading network. These “global circuits” are the result of the Atlantic slave trade, and the escalation of the trade during Cuba’s early-modern period increased the intensity of these exchanges. The Atlantic slave trade, then, represents a major instance of global exchange in Cuba, and cannot be understood without the recognition of the trade as a strong force of globalization.
An increased importance of the institution of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade represents a defining characteristic of Early-Modern Cuba. While slavery is not exclusively tied to the early-modern period in Cuba, the inflated influence of the practice, which is shown through increasing numbers of slaves and effective efforts to maintain control over these individuals, marks a difference between earlier phases of slavery on the island. The Atlantic slave trade signifies the role of globalization in Cuban history, emphasizing the fact that global exchange played a major role in Cuban development during her early-modern period.
The escalation of the slave trade and the increased importance of slavery, the emergence of a developing or “merchant” capitalism, and population growth, as opposed to regeneration, due to natural increase are all defining characteristics of Early-Modern Cuba, which I have recognized as having taken place between 1763 and 1886. This short period of early-modernity does not coincide with the common dating of the Early-Modern World, but characteristics displayed by Cuba during this time period coincide with developments which have been recognized by historians as being typically ‘early- modern.’ The recognition of these continuities is what has led to the classification of the 124 years between 1762 and 1886 as Early-Modern Cuba. This periodization of Cuban history is important because it allows for the analysis of Cuban history on a global scale, placing the history of the island among other histories in order to allow for comparison and categorization, thus leading to a greater understanding of global patterns and interconnectedness during the period of the Early-Modern World as well as during periods of regional early-modernities.
Somebody read and lemme know, honestly.
I got a B+ on this but it was top three in the class and the prof is the hardest marker ever