How Tourist, Business, and Colonization Maps Shaped North American Views of Cuba, 1898-1913

Abstract

This article will survey a selection of maps associated with North American investment, colonization, and tourism in Cuba during the first 15 years following the Spanish American War; during this period, the United States intermittently occupied Cuba and contemplated annexing the country. Indeed, various railroad, steamship, and land companies, as well as journals such as the Cuba Review began to publish maps of Cuba. The maps emphasized how seamless and effortless travel could be to Havana and beyond. This paper will further show how these maps helped to make certain towns and scenic areas tangible to the American traveling public. Maps were often part of promotional literature leading tourists, colonists, and investors to have certain expectations of a new Cuba in which they could experience a healthy, safe, modern, land of abundance, but whose long history with Spain and long experience with multi-culturalism were either minimized or erased.