Havana celebrates 500 years of foundation
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Re: Havana celebrates 500 years of foundation
#2Panama City is 500 years old too this year.
Re: Havana celebrates 500 years of foundation
#3umm, can someone explain how significant this is?
Re: Havana celebrates 500 years of foundation
#4umm, can someone explain how significant this is?
At least 3 significant digits, since we know the exact year; but given we seem to know the exact day you could probably claim it's more like 5 significant digits (500.00 years).
Re: Havana celebrates 500 years of foundation
#5In the context of the (european) New World, this is positively ancient. It's actually a bit disorienting (I'm betraying a bit of an US-centric perspective here, apologies) to think of Havana thriving for HUNDREDS of years before many American metropolises. Very cool.
Re: Havana celebrates 500 years of foundation
#6At one point Cuba exported 60% of the world's sugar. If not for a trade embargo with the US (its most important trade partner) for the last 70 years, Cuba would be a very different place. Who knows if many of these architectural relics would be in better shape (arguably "progress" might have meant they would have been demolished for newer buildings). They have an amazing literacy rate (99.7%, one of the highest in the world) and incredible doctors, but yet have terrible poverty and a repressive state. I always wonder whether this will be the year that the country opens up and connects with the rest of the world.
Re: Havana celebrates 500 years of foundation
#7umm, can someone explain how significant this is?
These are the oldest 'Western' cities in the colonial New World. They were established just after 'contact', just as Byzantine (i.e. E. Roman Empire) finally fell to the Ottomans, at the dawn of the Reformation, before the Enlightenment ... just at the very start of the 'modern period' in Europe. To give some context, Napoleon was 100 years closer to 'our time' than he was to 'that time'. The last English king to die in battle was about this time. The French were not yet a real power. Europe's borders as we know them were just taking shape, and the 'Americas' were entirely Aboriginal.
So they are very intesting cities born at a major turning point in civilisation.
Re: Havana celebrates 500 years of foundation
#8At one point Cuba exported 60% of the world's sugar. If not for a trade embargo with the US (its most important trade partner) for the last 70 years, Cuba would be a very different place. Who knows if many of these architectural relics would be in better shape (arguably "progress" might have meant they would have been demolished for newer buildings). They have an amazing literacy rate (99.7%, one of the highest in th…
There is no 'blockade' of Cuba, they are free to trade with the other 186 or so nations on planet earth, and can buy/sell most American goods via other destinations. They are a member of the WTO (!!) Since commodity markets are fungible there isn't a huge reason for sugar to be seriously devalued.
It's hard to 'blame America' for the totalitarian rule of Castro Inc. in Cuba, this subject makes me wonder deeply about the nature of perspective of populist leftists, anti-Americans etc.. Cuba is always an interesting litmus test for those who are willing to completely look the other way so long as the 'red flag' is on the pole.
The revolution made a few leaps and then failed miserably, as so many do, which is a real shame, because it's such a wonderful country otherwise. It'd be amazing to see what that country would be under some kind of normal leadership - I suggest it would be the richest in Latin America.
Re: Havana celebrates 500 years of foundation
#9umm, can someone explain how significant this is?
These are the oldest 'Western' cities in the colonial New World. They were established just after 'contact', just as Byzantine (i.e. E. Roman Empire) finally fell to the Ottomans, at the dawn of the Reformation, before the Enlightenment ... just at the very start of the 'modern period' in Europe. To give some context, Napoleon was 100 years closer to 'our time' than he was to 'that time'. The last English king to die…
but... since you mentioned the french, isn't french cities like paris more than thousands of years old. thanks for replying though, i was just curious why havana is suddenly singled out because it seems still a young city.
Re: Havana celebrates 500 years of foundation
#10umm, can someone explain how significant this is?
These are the oldest 'Western' cities in the colonial New World. They were established just after 'contact', just as Byzantine (i.e. E. Roman Empire) finally fell to the Ottomans, at the dawn of the Reformation, before the Enlightenment ... just at the very start of the 'modern period' in Europe. To give some context, Napoleon was 100 years closer to 'our time' than he was to 'that time'. The last English king to die…
> just as Byzantine (i.e. E. Roman Empire) finally fell to the Ottomans
The Fall of Constantinople was in 1453, the Empire of Trebizond fell in 1461, and the Principality of Theodoro in 1475, which marked the final end of any state claiming to have been the "true" successor to the Byzantine Empire after its defeat in 1204 in the Fourth Crusade. All of these dates markedly predates Columbus's contact voyage in 1492.