Havana (La Habana) city (state capital), history - - Pictures
The Spanish founded Havana at its present site on the western margin of Havana Bay in 1519, after attempts to found a city by the same name on Cuba's south coast failed. The city's location was adjacent to a superb harbor at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico and with easy access to the Gulf Stream—an ocean current that navigators followed when traveling from the Americas to Europe. This location led to Havana's early development as the principal port of Spain's New World colonies.
The city and its port quickly became the staging site for the departure and arrival of Spain's trading fleets, which sailed twice a year in massive convoys to and from Spain. Although not originally the capital of the Cuban colony, Havana became the effective capital in 1592 when the Spanish moved the governor's residence there from the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba. In 1607 it was named as the official capital.
