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.
Alejandro de la Fuente is University Center for International Studies Research Professor of History and Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.
"Literally sets a new standard as the first study to analyze any Spanish Caribbean port city prior to 1650 within an "Atlantic" framework. . . . Should be indispensable reading for any serious student of colonial Cuba, or of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Caribbean in general. This book represents a major contribution to the historical literature on the early modern Iberian Atlantic world, and should be of considerable interest to scholars." -- H-Caribbean "Provides remarkably broad coverage of a town undergoing dizzying transformation of its economy, demography, social structure, politics, urban form and racial order. . . . A major accomplishment." -- H-NET "A contribution to Atlantic history. . . . Recommended." -- CHOICE "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 "An exciting and pioneering work. . . . Meticulous research in reconstructing Havana's initial economic, population, and urban growth." -- Colonial Latin America 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 "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 "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 "Provides a wealth of detail. . . . Serves as an urgent call to broaden our collective intellectual horizons." -- The Americas "With this impressively researched and delightfully written publication, the early history of Havana is not only meticulously recaptured but also propelled into the category of exemplary studies for Cuba, the Caribbean, the Americas and the Atlantic World. . . . An enthralling, comprehensive and complex story of Havana in its formative stage. . . . An exceptional contribution to the entire history of the Americas." -- International Journal of Maritime History
