Fun with Maps ISSUE 2025-090

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (May 20, 2025) – In today’s edition of Fun with Maps, we recognize Cuba’s independence from the US, but…is it real independence?    

Fidel’s Place

Cuba was claimed by the Spanish in the 15th century.  The colony was then ceded to the US in 1898 as a result of the Spanish-American war.  Cuba declared independence from the US on May 20, 1902.

Political unrest followed, and eventually two dictatorships ruled Cuba for the past 70-plus years. First, the dictatorship headed by Batista lasted just seven years when a small band of communists, headed by Fidel Castro,  overthrew the government in 1959.  The Castro regime has ruled the island nation ever since.

The Cuban missile crisis was inadvertently enabled in part by the US as various assassination attempts on Castro and invasion attempts, like the Bay of Pigs, was supposedly sponsored by Washington, pushing Cuba closer to the Soviet Union.  In 1962 the Soviets created missile sites in Cuba leading to a stare down between President Kennedy and Khruschev. The latter blinked first.

Now there are reports that Cuba is “cozying-up” to China. 

This map of Cuba by May is from 1850 and shows island life in the various vignettes.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.