Introduction of Livestock and the Plantation Economy in Cuba

Timeline

1. 1521–1523Havana · CubaDiego Velázquez and the colonists brought European cattle, horses, and pigs from Hispaniola to Cuba. Around 1523 the animals multiplied rapidly on the island, providing the basis for a ranching economy and altering local ecology and modes of production.
2. 1523–1528Ranching areas of eastern Cuba · CubaSpanish colonists used the encomienda and land-grant systems to establish large ranching haciendas in Cuba, supplying beef, hides, and live cattle to the Caribbean islands and the Spanish fleets. Feral cattle herds multiplied across the grasslands, and ranching became one of Cuba's economic mainstays.
3. 1525–1530Western Cuba · CubaAs gold mines were exhausted, the colonial authorities turned to cash crops such as sugarcane. In the late 1520s small-scale sugarcane plantations appeared in Cuba, based on indigenous and African slave labor, establishing the model for the later great expansion of the Caribbean sugar industry.