Synopses & Reviews
Havana in the 1550s was a small coastal village with a very limited population that was vulnerable to attack. By 1610, however, under Spanish rule it had become one of the best-fortified port cities in the world and an Atlantic center of shipping, commerce, and shipbuilding. Using all available local Cuban sources, including parish registries and notary, town council, and treasury records, Alejandro de la Fuente provides the first examination of the transformation of Havana into a vibrant Atlantic port city and the fastest-growing urban center in the Americas in the late sixteenth century.
De la Fuente argues that Havana was much more than a port servicing the Spanish imperial powers. Analyzing how slaves, soldiers, merchants, householders, and transient sailors and workers participated socially, economically, and institutionally in the city, he shows how local ambitions took advantage of the imperial design and how, in the process, Havana was turned into a Caribbean trading center with a distinctly Mediterranean flavor. By situating Havana within the slavery and economic systems of the colonial Atlantic, de la Fuente also contributes to the growing focus on port cities as contexts for understanding the early development of global networks for economic and cultural exchange.
Review
"A most welcome addition to the emerging field of Atlantic studies and to Cuban historiography. . . . Sets the ground and leads the way. . . . An invitation for more Atlantic-oriented urban studies and conversations."
William and Mary Quarterly
Review
"A most welcome addition to the emerging field of Atlantic studies and to Cuban historiography. . . . Sets the ground and leads the way. . . . An invitation for more Atlantic-oriented urban studies and conversations."
William and Mary Quarterly
Review
"Explores a critical but neglected milieu in the formation of the early Atlantic world. . . . Wonderfully researched and vividly documented social historical account of early Havana."
-- Hispanic American Historical Review
Review
"Complicates and enriches current Cuban historiography. . . . Researchers will return to this book time and again for precious details. . . . Belongs in any graduate seminar on the Atlantic not only because of its subject matter, but also as an example of patient, careful, and perceptive research and scholarship."
-Canadian Journal of History
Review
"A contribution to Atlantic history. . . . Recommended."
Choice
Review
"Based on impressive archival research. . . . The material is presented thematically, allowing the reader to develop a synthetic vision of how Havana's growth related to the emergent realities of the Atlantic world. . . . A lucid and definitive work."
-Journal of Latin American Studies"A contribution to Atlantic history. . . . Recommended."
Choice"Explores a critical but neglected milieu in the formation of the early Atlantic world. . . . Wonderfully researched and vividly documented social historical account of early Havana."
-- Hispanic American Historical Review"An exciting and pioneering work. . . . Meticulous research in reconstructing Havana's initial economic, population, and urban growth."
Colonial Latin America Review"Complicates and enriches current Cuban historiography. . . . Researchers will return to this book time and again for precious details. . . . Belongs in any graduate seminar on the Atlantic not only because of its subject matter, but also as an example of patient, careful, and perceptive research and scholarship."
-Canadian Journal of History"A most welcome addition to the emerging field of Atlantic studies and to Cuban historiography. . . . Sets the ground and leads the way. . . . An invitation for more Atlantic-oriented urban studies and conversations."
William and Mary Quarterly
Review
"A significant contribution to understandings of colonial trade . . . . De la Fuente has filled a long-neglected historiographical gap and provides historians with an engaging model for studying the interplay between local actors and larger imperial forces."
-American Historical Review
About the Author
Alejandro de la Fuente is associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is author of A Nation for All: Race, Inequality, and Politics in Twentieth-Century Cuba (from the University of North Carolina Press).