Santiago of Cuba (city), considered population: 385 800 (1994). Capital of the province of Santiago of Cuba, in the Southeast of Cuba. Second bigger city of the country, Santiago is located on a cliff to the border of a bay. From minerals, agricultural products and wood are exported there. The city is in addition the final destiny to a main freeway and a railroad. Founded on 1514 by Diego Vela'zquez and transferred towards its present location in 1588, Santiago was by some time the capital of Cuba. In his origins, it was captured by pirates and privateering English French and and served as center for the contraband commerce with the British Antilles. French who fled from the revolt of slaves in Haiti, at the beginning of century XIX, seated in Santiago and strongly influenced the development of the city.

During the War Hispanic-American of 1898, ships military of the United States blocked the port of Santiago; when Spanish admiral Paschal Cervera and Topete, cornered in the port, desperately tried to escape, its fleet was destroyed. A bloody fight preceded the surrender of the city. Fidel I castrate began its revolutionary fight against Fulgencio Batista and Zaldívar with an attack to the Moncada Quarter of Santiago of Cuba the 26 of 1953 July. The city preserves many colonial relics between which they are remarkable the his cathedral, greatest of Cuba, and the demolished forts that are raised on high cliffs on the port. Also it has a university.