Mining in Cuba

Welcome!

Having found your way to this page, I’m sure you’re either interested in the Cuban mining industry, or are about to be after you’ve perused the article below. There is much to examine when endeavoring to understand the inner workings of any countries extractive sectors, and Cuban mining is no different. Over the course of the last five centuries, foreign involvement in Cuba crippled the country’s independence and rendered them under constant control of other nations. In the mid-20th century, they were finally able to capture control and, after years of independence, are ready to reconnect with the United States and much of the western world again. Such a tumultuous history raises many questions: How exactly did the United States establish control over Cuba? What were the implications of Cuba regaining their independence? Now that Cuba is seeking more foreign involvement, how can they avoid repeating history, and keep their own control?  What follows is a collection of works focused on different time periods of this industry that aim to answer these questions and gather a deeper understanding of the sector, so that it can be used as a basis to understand international relations specifically between the United States and Cuba, but also between Latin America and the western world as a whole.

Controlling Cuba: How an Evolving Mining Industry Facilitated Neo-Colonialist Dominance.

 Source: HistoryLapseOne major goal shared by many civilizations over their respective lifetimes has been to acquire more land. The implications for any country of increasing the physical amount of land under their control include maximizing farming ability, opening up previously untapped trade routes, increasing the worldwide breadth of military power and political influence, and much more. Because of this, land has proven itself to be one of the most vigorously sought after resource in the world. However, because it is clearly a finite resource, and because people rarely are receptive to their land being taken away from them, its acquisition is extremely competitive, often leading to wars that rarely fare well for native inhabitants. Because of the expectation of pushback, countries often seek out weaker, more underdeveloped locations to invade, knowing that they will be easier to control. The problem with this, however, is that once under control, these weaker, underdeveloped locations rarely have sufficient infrastructure to take advantage of the potential resources within their borders. To change this, the invading country must transfer both people and capital to their newly acquired land to build infrastructure, and develop a colony. From this, the term colonialism is used to describe the tendencies associated with one country taking over land outside of their borders. To narrow the focus so that a more descriptive evaluation of these tendencies may be achieved, this essay will focus specifically on the colonization of Cuba by Spain in the early 1500’s and highlight notable changes in the following centuries that affected not only Cuba directly, but also reshaped the political topography of European colonialism, eventually concluding with the transition to a completely new type of colonization, referred to as neo-colonialism, or “new colonialism.” In the case of Cuba, the resources that have garnered the most attention in historical documents, are sugar and tobacco. However to focus solely on these two crops would be to miss a pivotal, and equally transformative development in Cuba and Latin America in general: the evolution of mining. Discoveries of deposits, and changes in the political and economic structures governing the mines caused colonialist powers, such as the United States, to change the way they took power in new locations, focusing more on financial dominance, than military control. This essay will show how these strategy changes were caused by the evolution of Cuban mining in the late 19th to early 20th centuries and how this parallels the transition from western colonialism to neo-colonialism during the same time period, exemplifying a deeply rooted connection between mining andpolitics alike in Cuba.

 

The story of the colonization of Cuba is one plagued with tremendous violence and exploitation. Initially discovered by the Spanish during a stop on Christopher Columbus’ famous exploratory journey in 1492, Cuba maintained relatively little attention from Spain because it had only small deposits of gold, especially compared to its neighbor, Hispaniola, which the Spaniards had already begun to colonize.[1] This put Cuba in a sort of waiting period in terms of its inevitable conquest and for roughly the next two decades, Spanish visits to the island were primarily only “in search of able-bodied Indians to work as slaves in Hispaniola’s gold mines and in its newly established towns and plantations.”[1] In 1511, however, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar was named to lead the expedition to conquer Cuba, with 300 men under his control. Upon arrival in Baracoa, the conquistador and his men were met with aggressive resistance from the native Taíno population. Lead by the cacique (“chieftain”) Hatuey, the Taíno guerilla campaign to resist the Spaniards consisted of occasional, targeted attacks on the Spanish camp, followed by a swift retreat to the hills and was marked by extensive bloodshed, predominantly on the natives’ side. During the conflict, Spanish soldiers captured and tortured natives for information and eventually a traitor lead them to the Hatuey, who was promptly captured. Furthermore, to send a very clear message to all those who would resist the Spanish, Hatuey, and several other chieftains captured by the Spanish were “tied to a stake and burned alive at Yara, near the present-day City of Bayamo.”[2] However, even this was only a small part of the brutality with which the Spaniards treated the native Taínos. Villages were overrun by Spanish soldiers and individuals who weren’t promptly disemboweled were transported to the mines as slaves. As Bartolomé de las Casas states, for those sent to the mines, the Spanish “required of them tasks utterly beyond their strength, bending them to the earth with crushing burdens, harnessing them to loads which they could not drag, and with fiendish sport and mockery, hacking off their hands and feet, and mutilating their bodies in ways which will not bear description.”[3]

By 1519, only 8 years after the arrival of Velázquez de Cuéllar, through a combination of slavery and sheer extermination, the native population was down from its original size of 112,000 to just 19,000.[1] The effect of this unrelenting cruelty was that the Spanish acquired an indisputable and complete control over the island. It was early colonialism in its purest form: control through fear. It exemplified the Spaniard’s ability to conquer a land and twist it entirely to serve their needs and with the tremendous decrease in population, they were also able to impart Spanish culture and religion dominantly on the island so that any remaining resistance had little to cling to. However, as the colonialist presence of the Spaniards developed and the mining industry in Cuba evolved, power structures would change form and such brutality would cease to be as effective at establishing colonialist control as it once was.

Though mining had been an economic player in Cuba since Spain colonized the island, the Spaniards had only set up a few minor operations. It wasn’t until around 1880 that the industry began to flourish and experience immense growth[4] that gave impetus to political implications, such as foreign control over a domestic industry. Of note during this time, three major changes occurred that will be explored over the following three paragraphs in this essay. These three events, coinciding with Cuba’s acquisition of independence, drastically changed the mining industry in Cuba, and made way for a new type of colonialist control.

The first of these events is the transition from copper and gold, to iron as the most desirable mineral to mining firms moving into Cuba. During the 10 Years’ War which started in 1868, many of the copper mines in Cuba were destroyed[5] which, in the final years of Spanish rule, opened the industry up for iron to dethrone copper and become the premier Cuban mineral[4]. Due to widespread industrialization of not only the United States, but also countries with which the U.S. conducted trade, there was an immense increase in the demand for steel. Because iron is a key component in producing steel, U.S.-based firms would be clamoring over the land rights to iron deposits in Cuba. The influx of these firms into Cuba, and the general increase of U.S. interest in Cuba gave rise to the second of the three notable events, which would make the newly increased demand more easily exploitable to U.S. mining firms.

The second event, more specifically, involved each successive government in Cuba endeavoring to increase the attractiveness of mining in Cuba through the passing of new laws in favor of foreign mining operations. Of note, the legislature under Spanish rule exempted mining companies from any surface taxes as well as from any taxes on the exportation of the minerals for the following two decades[4] and suspended all import duties on coal and machinery utilized in the mining operations.[6] Additionally, the U.S. provisional military government, which controlled the island from 1899 until 1902, continued similar policies and even went as far as to suspend – in terms of mining – the Foraker resolution which, “adopted by the U.S. Congress early in 1899 under pressure from anti-annexionist forces, sought to limit U.S. involvement in Cuba by prohibiting the granting of special concessions or franchises during the period of U.S. authority over the islands.”[4] Such obvious favorability towards mining and specifically U.S.-based operations meant that any U.S. firm with the capital to do so, could easily establish an operation and make immense profits. Such lenient legislature (emphasized by the United States provisional military government) meant that control over the island was becoming a game of money, rather than of politics. This distinction is invariably what lead to the third event in the mining industry in Cuba which would truly upheave the status quo and usher in a new era of fiscal dominance in Cuba.

This third event was an influx of (predominantly U.S.) capital into the Cuban mining industry so enormous that it established the U.S. as the indisputable foreign power in Cuba. One reason for this influx was that, because it was so cheap to acquire mining rights and export/import goods, investing in Cuban mining proved extremely profitable to U.S. investors. However, sheer profitability alone would not necessarily have resulted in an influx of capital as immense as the one we see in Cuba around this time, meaning some other factor must have been involved in order to achieve such levels of investment. That factor was the relatively odd nature of Cuban iron ore deposits that necessitated greater amounts of capital than typical mining operations. The deposits were typically located at or near the surface so that the ore was excavated out of open pits and from the sides of the hills with the use of steam shovels, drilling, and, in some cases, blasting with dynamite.[4] The specific implications of this type of system are important. Firstly, because the quantity of ore in each location was unknown, any firm wishing to have a sizeable operation needed to purchase a far larger plot of land. This made opening a mine a much more expensive and financially risky operation, only truly viable to those with the deepest of pockets. Furthermore, once an operation had begun at one of these large plots of land, the spread out nature of the ore within that plot necessitated more labor and machinery to achieve profitable levels of extraction. This made even the mining of the iron an expensive process. The result of these two factors was that while immense profits were achievable, equally immense investment was needed to achieve them. Those who could reach such levels of investment took advantage of the opportunity and the iron mining industry in Cuba exploded. Additionally, given the especially relaxed laws imposed on U.S.-based firms, this capital came primarily in the form of U.S. Dollars. So much so in fact that all iron mining operations in Cuba were owned and run exclusively by U.S.-based firms. In no other Cuban industry did American companies exercise such complete financial dominance and control. Furthermore, this monopolistic tendency was so great that by 1920, the iron mining industry was under complete control not just by U.S. firms, but by just one U.S. firm, which over the prior decade had slowly swallowed up every mining operation in Cuba under the name Bethlehem Cuba Iron Mines Company[4]. This firm had complete control of all iron coming out of Cuba and from raw materials to finished goods, owned the entire process in a vertically integrated monopoly, the likes of which have rarely been rivaled in history.

But what did all of this mean for Cuba as a now independent country? I argue that, with such complete control over one of the island’s most lucrative industries, the U.S. was essentially able to seize a major political and economic stake in Cuba’s future and before anyone could realize the implications, the momentum had already been gained and could not be halted. This process exemplifies what is now called neo-colonialism: the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries. While centuries ago, powerful countries simply invaded other territories, taking land and resources through violent force with few international repercussions, a continually growing global conversation has given rise to international organizations and laws that make this far less acceptable. However, despite this being a step in the right direction, it has not proved to be as effective as one would hope. Though said organizations and laws have reduced the violence which a foreign power typically uses to establish control over a smaller territory, they have done little in halting the actual progression of that control as the colonialist powers have simply changed their methods. This is exemplified in the development of U.S. control in Cuba. Set up on a legal foundation which they built themselves, the U.S. was able to acquire immense power, not through the brutality and fear which the Spanish had used many years before, but through steady financial growth towards dominance. However, simply because they did all of this without the short term violence typically associated with colonialism, does not mean in any way that the U.S. is innocent. Because even without that violence, the negative implications for a smaller country of being overrun by a foreign power are vast and have lasting effects. Neocolonialism is still colonialism and, though it may be slightly less barbaric than its older counterpart, it is still just as destructive to the long-term future of a country. If anything, the transition to neocolonialism presents a more dangerous future as it represents the ability of colonialist powers to adapt to a changing political landscape in order to continue their reign. Thus, to truly end the colonialist tendencies that have plagued countless countries across the world for centuries, the focus must not be on the smaller-scale symptoms such as short-term violence, but on the bigger picture of the tendencies as a whole.

[1] “Colonization of Cuba: The Spanish Empire Colonizes Cuba.” Colonization of Cuba, History Lapse, en.historylapse.org/colonization-of-cuba.
[2] Barreiro, Jose “A Note on Taino,” in Akwe, Cornell, View From the Shore, Pon Press, 1990
[3] Sierra, Jerry A. “The Legend of Hatuey.” The Legend of Hatuey, from the History of Cuba, History of Cuba, www.historyofcuba.com/history/oriente/hatuey.htm.
[4] “Iron Mining and Socio-Demographic Change in Eastern Cuba.” Journal of Latin American Studies, by Lisandro Perez, 2nd ed., vol. 14, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 381–405.
[5] 22 The Engineering and Mining Journal, Vol. 66, No. 9 (27 August, I898), p. 252.
[6] Robert P. Porter, Industrial Cuba (N.Y., G. P. Putnam’s Sons, I899), pp. 319-20; and ‘Mining Regulations in Cuba,’ The Engineering and Mining Journal, Vol. 41, No. 22 (31 May, 1890), p. 612.
All images credited to HistoryLapse

 

The Extent of US Dominance in Cuban Mining in the Early 20th Century

From the graphic above, it is quite clear to see the intensity of the United States’ involvement in Cuban mining. Though there were smaller-scale mines which aren’t pictured, – some of which were not U.S.-owned – the above locations represented a vast majority of the mineral output of Cuba at this time and are entirely U.S.-owned. Furthermore, as stated in the footnote on the graphic, not only were all these mines U.S.-owned, but by 1920, they were all owned by the same U.S.-based firm: Bethlehem Steel. Having read the above essay, this information is particularly pertinent, as it shows visually the U.S. involvement that facilitated their financial control over Cuba.

 

POST: A Current and Future-state examination of U.S.-Cuban Relations

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About the Author

Colin Hussey is a second year student at Lehigh University double majoring in Analytical Finance and Business Information Systems. He was born and raised in Wilton, Connecticut. He attended Wilton High School and subsequently, The Hotchkiss School for his high school years where he was on the track team and a member of numerous clubs, including the Economics club, and the debate team. At Lehigh, Colin serves as co-captain of the Squash team, and is an avid member of other clubs and organizations on Lehigh’s campus including the Cryptocurrency Club, the Lehigh Consulting Group, and was elected the social chair of his fraternity. Colin enjoys interacting with many other Lehigh students and sees diversity in his day-to-day life as an invaluable benefit. Colin prides himself in a proficient eye for design and aesthetics and endeavors to take that ability and apply it holistically to his work.