Santiago de Cuba Province is the second most populated province in the island of

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. The largest city

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains t ...

is the main administrative center. Other large cities include

Palma Soriano Palma Soriano is a Cuban city and municipality in the Santiago de Cuba Province. With a population of 125,385 in the city proper, it is the second-largest in the province and the 16th-largest in Cuba. History The city was founded in 1825, uniti ...

Contramaestre Contramaestre (Spanish for "boatswain") is a Cuban town and municipality in the Santiago de Cuba Province. Geography The municipality is located in the western part of the province, neighboring the provinces of Granma and Holguín; and borders ...

, San Luis and Songo-la Maya.

History

Santiago de Cuba province has been the site of many

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

s, both during the war for independence and the 1959

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...

, where much of the guerrilla fighting took place in the mountainous province. Prior to 1976, Cuba was divided into six historical provinces. One of these was

Oriente province Oriente (, "East") was the easternmost province of Cuba until 1976. The term "Oriente" is still used to refer to the eastern part of the country, which currently is divided into five different provinces. Fidel and Raúl Castro were born in a sm ...

, which was, prior to 1905, known as Santiago de Cuba province. The present day province comprises the south-central region of Oriente.

Economy

The province is rich in material resources such as

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

and

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

. The economy, however, relies mostly on

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

, with large plantations growing

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

s, cacao, and

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

dotting the landscape. Industry is growing around the capital, as is

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

. The natural environment of the province attracts tourists from elsewhere in Cuba and from overseas.

Municipalities

:''Source: Population from 2004 Census.'' ''Area from 1976 municipal re-distribution.''

Demographics

In 2004, the province of Santiago De Cuba had a population of 1,043,202. With a total area of , the province had a population density of .

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Santiago de Cuba Province is twinned with: *

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, Italy

References

External links

Santiago.cu (in Spanish)Travel info on Santiago de Cubasantiagoencuba.com (in Spanish)Santiago de Cuba City (in English and Spanish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santiago De Cuba Province Provinces of Cuba States and territories established in 1976