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Los españoles fueron sorprendidos y vencidos, debido, fundamentalmente, a errores estratégicos cometidos por la Junta de Guerra encargada de la defensa de la ciudad. / The Spaniards, who had been taken aback, were defeated, especially as a result of strategic mishaps made by the Board of war that was tasked with pro-tecting the city

FOR AN 11-MONTH PERIOD, THE ISLAND NATION’S CAPITAL WAS BRITISH. IN THAT SPAN OF TIME, IT PANNED OUT TO BE THE CENTER STAGE OF TRADE BETWEEN EUROPE AND THE AMERICAS

Cuba, the so-called Key to the Americas, was put in the crosshairs of European powers from the early going of the colonization, viewed as one of the jewels of the Spanish crown. Since the 16th century, there were several attempts to lay hands on it and ransack its treasures. For that reason, the Spanish colonial rule saw the need to fortify its capital and come up with an effective defense system.
In the morning of June 6, 1762, while the city’s illustrious people celebrated the festivities of the Holy Corpus Christi in the Main Parish Church –attended by Gov. Juan del Prado- a British fleet showed up in the bay. Early the next day, the British frigates fired cannon shots against the Cojimar and Bacuranao towers, a move that paved the way for the landing of 8,000 troops. A contingent of 5,000 men in arms hailing from North America –it was still a British colony at the time- marched toward the Morro Castle with the help of a well-outfitted fleet of over 40 gunships.
The Spaniards, who had been taken aback, were defeated, especially as a result of strategic mishaps made by the Board of War that was tasked with protecting the city. As the Spanish troops surrendered on August 12, the two sides inked the capitulation of Havana, which included the handing of the west side of town to the British for eleven months. Once the new government was sworn in, the occupiers settled down in the houses left behind by the families that had fled the armed conflict. They also forced the residents to hand over their homes to the British troops or to share them with the newcomers.
They seized hospitals and churches. According to local chroniclers, the clergy feared the Brits more for being heretics than for their nationality. One particular historic record goes like this: “Shrines were vandalized and desecrated (…) and there was even “politeness” between soldiers and the locals filled with patriotic feelings, that apparently abused the drinking of liquor by selling booze to the troops and putting bananas and pine kernels inside the bottles to make them fall sick and even kill them.”
Mocked and scoffed by the locals, the troops or red smocks were nicknamed “the mammies” for their reddish uniforms. So, every day as the curfew was imposed at nightfall or whenever the Brits used to storm into any place, people used to say that “the mammies’ hour” had arrived. Also as a result of the heroic defense put on by the alderman of the Guanabacoa village, José Antonio Gómez Bullones (Pepe Antonio), a catchy phrase popped up to describe when some does something no matter what: to act Pepe-like. In the same breath, when someone’s fidelity was at stake or his faithfulness to the Spanish crown was quite in doubt, people used to ask: you’re not working for the Brits, are you?
The tribulations of the slaves got worse off. Some Havana residents made a fast buck by capturing freed Negroes and selling them to homeowners. During that period of time, slave smuggling ramped up and as many as 10,700 Africans were shipped in by John Kennion, an Irish-origin merchant the local authorities gave the green light to trafficking slaves from Africa and Jamaica.
The government put in power on the heels of the occupation favored commerce with Havana. Flour and other raw materials were imported from the British colonies since Cuba was not a wheat-growing country –all the wheat used to be brought from Spain and Veracruz. The price of foreign goods got cheaper as local products hit their best values ever.
Following the end of the British occupation, nothing was the same anymore. The city underwent a sea change. New social works and another marketplace were built. In the early 19th century, the port of Havana opened up to world trade as ordered by King Fernando VII.
Masonry set in during that course of time. As the British troops left the country in 1763, masons followed suit. Yet after the 1791 Haitian Revolution, French settlers moved out to Havana and eventually founded Cuba’s first Masonic Loggia on December 17, 1804.