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Show Cuba s Four Periods Exciting and Interesting Epochs in History of the Unfortunate Island, the expulsion of Spain in 1S98. This might be called the revolutionary period. pe-riod. More than 10,000 negroes perished per-ished in the insurrection of 1S48. The uprisings of 1849 and of 1S51 were led by American adventurers. The Spanish Span-ish revolution of 1868 led to an effort for Cuban independence, which continued con-tinued with varying fortunes for 12 years. In 1SS0 the insurrection was put down, but it had saddled upon the islantt a dbt of ?85,000,000. The revolutionary movement which ended in American occupation may be said to date in its more active manifestations from about 1893. When the Maiua went down in Havana harbor the bell rang for the curtain which was to fall for once and for all on four centuries of Spanish misrule. The ensuing four years form an epoch by themselves the period of American occupation. While much of the work done by our representatives there is for all time, some of it is already in peril from Cuban Cu-ban incompetence and unrest. The island is accordingly entering upon another an-other stage of its existence. Since Cuba became known to the world 400 years ago her story is one of romantic incidents and tragic events and may be divided into four epochs. The first one can be described de-scribed as that of discovery, colonization coloniza-tion and conquest. For 200 years it was the spoil of foreign foes. Columbus Colum-bus on his first voyage discovered the island, and by 1553 practically the entire en-tire native population had been exterminated exter-minated by Spanish cruelty. In 1534 and 1554 Havana was destroyed by the tfrench; in 1624 it was taken by the Dutch; from 1650 to 1700 it was often ravaged by filibusters, and in 1762 it was taken by the English. At no time prior to 1700 was the island safe from attack by European governments or by pirates. Then for 150 years or so ensued au era of comparative peace. Except for the single incident of English Eng-lish occupation in 1762 the island prospered pros-pered mightily in tobacco and the slave trade, of which it was the center for Spanish America. . It is said that in the sixty halcyon years of this traffic traf-fic no fewer than 550,000 slaves were brought into Cuba. Along about 1840 began that epoch of Cuban history which ended only in |