prominent notice, this period has been chosen as the line of division
between the Old and the New Cuba.

Compared with the wonderful fertility of Cuba, New England is a sterile
area. Yet in 1790, a hundred and seventy years after its settlement, the
latter had a population a little exceeding a million, while the former, in
1792, or two hundred and eighty years after its occupation, is officially
credited with a population of 272,300. Of these, 153,559 were white and
118,741 were colored. Several forces came into operation at this time, and
population increased rapidly, to 572,363 in 1817, and to 704,465 in 1827.
In 1841, it was a little more than a million. But the increase in colored
population, by the importation of African slaves, outstripped the increase
by the whites. In 1841, the population was divided into 418,291 whites and
589,333 colored. The importation of slaves having declined, the year 1861
shows a white preponderance, since continued and substantially increased.
Among the forces contributing to Cuba's rapid growth during this period
were a somewhat greater freedom of trade; the revolution in the neighboring
island of Haiti and Santo Domingo, that had its beginning in 1791 and
culminated, some ten years later, in the rule of Toussaint L'Ouverture; and
an increased demand for sugar. One result of the Haitian disorder was the
arrival, in eastern Cuba, of a large number of exiles and emigrants who
established extensive coffee plantations. During the first hundred and
fifty years of Cuba's history, the principal industry of the island was
cattle raising, aside from the domestic industry of food supply. The
proprietors lived, usually, in the cities and maintained their vast estates
in the neighborhood. To this, later on, were added the production of
honey and wax and the cultivation of tobacco. With the period now under
consideration, there came the expansion of the coffee and sugar industries.
The older activities do not appear to have been appreciably lessened; the
others were added on.