The story starts with Columbus. But the explorer's October 27, 1492 landing on Cuba (after he had blundered about for a couple of weeks in the Bahamas), did not cause a sudden, disrupting change of the sort that has characterized much of Cuban history.
Convinced that he had found Marco Polo's fabled Asian island kingdom of Cipango (probably Japan), Columbus sent men inland seeking gold and "the Khan." They found neither, and he sailed on, leaving no settlement behind.
Britain's Hugh T...