The complicated Cuban topography and geology have produced at least 13 distinct groups of soils, the majority of which are fertile and cultivated throughout the year. Highly fertile red limestone soil extends from west of Havana to near Cienfuegos on the southern coast and lies in extensive patches in western Camagüey province, providing the basis for Cuba’s main agricultural output. Another area of fertile soil is north of Cienfuegos between the Sierra de Sancti Spíritus and the Caribbean coast. Camagüey province and the Guantánamo basin have some arable land, although of lower fertility. Areas of sandy soil in Pinar del Río, Villa Clara, and portions of Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey provinces cannot hold moisture and are marginally fertile, as are the soils of the mangrove-dotted coastal swamps and cays.

Climate

Cuba lies in the tropics. Because it is located on the southwestern periphery of the North Atlantic high atmospheric pressure zone, its climate is influenced by the northeast trade winds in winter and by east-northeast winds in summer. The warm currents that form the Gulf Stream have a moderating influence along the coasts.

The annual mean temperature is 79 °F (26 °C), with little variation between January, the coolest month, at 73 °F (23 °C) and August, the warmest month, at 82 °F (28 °C). The November–April dry season abruptly changes to the May–October rainy season. Annual precipitation averages 54 inches (1,380 mm). From June to November the country is often exposed to hurricanes, whose strong winds and heavy rains can cause widespread damage and suffering.

Plant and animal life

Cuba’s lush tropical plant life includes thousands of flowering plant species, half of which may be endemic to the archipelago. Much of the original vegetation has been replaced by sugarcane, coffee, and rice plantations, made possible by the wide-scale and indiscriminate destruction of forests. However, the government has replanted many areas since the 1960s, and forests now cover about one-fourth of the surface area. The most extensive forests in Cuba are in the Sagua-Baracoa highlands, which adjoin the easternmost portion of the Cauto River valley. Among the native trees is the ceiba (kapok) tree, which plays a role in many local legends. The extremely rare cork palms (Microcycas calocoma) of the western regions are “living fossils”—representatives of a genus of cycads thought to have existed for more than 100 million years. The abundant royal palm, reaching heights of 50 to 75 feet (15 to 23 metres), is the national tree and a characteristic element of the rural landscape. Mangrove swamps cover the lower coasts and shoals of the archipelago. Cuba’s national flower is the mariposa (“butterfly”; Hedychium coronarium Koenig), whose long, green stems can grow higher than 5 feet (1.5 metres) and produce fragrant, white, butterfly-like petals.

Animal life is abundant and varied in Cuba, which is the habitat of numerous small mammals and reptiles, more than 7,000 insect species, and 4,000 species of land, river, and sea mollusks. Sponges are found off the southwestern coast, and crustaceans abound. Tarantulas, scorpions, and other arachnids are similarly profuse. There are more than 500 fish species and numerous types of sharks. Freshwater fishes are less abundant. About 300 bird species are found on the island, some two-thirds of which are migratory; notable indigenous birds include flamingos, royal thrushes, and nightingales. The endemic forest-dwelling tocororo (Trogon temnurus, or Priotelus temnurus), which is similar in appearance to the Guatemalan quetzal, was designated the national bird of Cuba because its bright plumes of red, white, and blue correspond to the colours of the Cuban flag; the tocororo is reputed to survive only in the wild. Reptiles are distributed equally among sea, river, and land species. Marine species include tortoises and hawkbill turtles; mud turtles inhabit the rivers; and the marshes contain two types of rare crocodiles. Land reptiles include the iguana and the majá de Santa María (Epicrates angulifer), the largest of Cuba’s snakes, none of which is venomous. Amphibians are similarly varied, with 60 types of frogs and toads, including plantain frogs (Hyla septentrionalis) and bullfrogs. Solenodons (Atopogale cubana), which are nearly extinct ratlike insectivores, are found only in the remotest eastern regions. Other mammals include hutias (edible rodents) and manatees, or sea cows, which inhabit river mouths. Several types of bats prey on mosquitoes and insects harmful to agriculture, and in their roosting caves the bats leave droppings (guano) that are valued as fertilizer.

Cuba has numerous protected areas, including national parks at Turquino Peak, Cristal Peak, Romano Caye, part of Juventud Island, and the Viñales valley. Desembarco del Granma National Park features a series of verdant limestone terraces that range from 1,180 feet (360 metres) above sea level to 590 feet (180 metres) below. Both Desembarco del Granma and Viñales were designated UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1999.

Ethnic groups

The Guanahatabey and Ciboney peoples were among the original hunter-gatherer societies to inhabit Cuba by about 4000 bce, the former living in the extreme west of the island and the latter mainly on the cays to the south, with limited numbers in other places. The Taino (Arawakan Indians) arrived later, probably about 500 ce, and spread throughout Cuba, the rest of the Greater Antilles, and the Bahamas. They developed rudimentary agriculture and pottery and established villages that were unevenly distributed but mainly concentrated in the western part of the island. By the time of the Spanish conquest, the Taino constituted nine-tenths of Cuba’s inhabitants. Estimates of the total indigenous population at the beginning of the 16th century vary widely and range as high as 600,000; however, the most likely total was about 75,000. By the 1550s only some 3,000 scattered individuals remained, their communities having been wiped out by European diseases, severe treatment and unhealthy working conditions (particularly in the Spanish gold mines), starvation resulting from low agricultural productivity, and suicides. Their only surviving descendants today may be a few families based in the Sierra del Purial of easternmost Cuba.

Diverse ethnic groups have been settling in Cuba since the time of European contact—including Spaniards and Africans and smaller groups of Chinese, Jews, and Yucatecan Indians (from the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico)—who have created a heterogeneous society by superimposing their cultural and social characteristics on those of earlier settlers.

About one-fourth of Cubans are of mixed ethnic lineage and are identified as mulattoes or mestizos, and some two-thirds are descendants of white Europeans, mainly from Spain. Whites have been the dominant ethnic group for centuries, monopolizing the direction of the economy as well as access to education and other government services. Although mulattoes have become increasingly prominent since the mid-20th century, some mulattoes and blacks (of African heritage) still face racial discrimination.

Blacks make up about one-tenth of the population. In the early 16th century, Spaniards began to import African slaves as a substitute for the drastically reduced supply of Indian labourers. As many as 800,000 Africans eventually arrived to work on sugar plantations, the vast majority during the late 18th and 19th centuries. They were shipped mainly from Senegal and the Guinea Coast but originated in such diverse groups as the Yoruba and Bantu peoples. During the period 1906–31 tens of thousands of black Antillean labourers, nine-tenths of whom were Haitian or Jamaican, arrived as contract labourers. However, many returned home or were expelled by 1931. Blacks and mulattoes have had a considerable influence on Cuban culture, especially in music and dance.

Cubans of Asian descent now account for only a tiny fraction of the population and are largely concentrated in Havana’s small Chinatown district. When Great Britain disrupted the transatlantic slave trade in the 19th century, Hispano-Cuban landholders imported indentured Chinese labourers, nearly all of them Cantonese. Some 125,000 arrived during the period 1847–74, but, because of harsh living conditions, many left for the United States or other Latin American countries or returned to China after their contracts expired; by 1899 only 14,000 remained in Cuba. In the 1920s an additional 30,000 Cantonese and small groups of Japanese also arrived. The immigrants, who were overwhelmingly male, readily intermarried with white, black, and mulatto populations. Significant Chinese immigration continued until 1945; however, many middle- and upper-class Asians left the country after the revolution of 1959, as did other relatively affluent people.