1.
Old Havana
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Old Havana is the city-center and one of the 15 municipalities forming Havana, Cuba. It has the second highest population density in the city and contains the core of the city of Havana. The positions of the original Havana city walls are the boundaries of Old Havana. Old Havana is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Havana Vieja was founded by the Spanish in 1519 in the natural harbor of the Bay of Havana. It became a point for the treasure laden Spanish Galleons on the crossing between the New World and the Old World. In the 17th century it was one of the shipbuilding centers. The city was built in baroque and neoclassic style, many buildings have fallen in ruin in the later half of the 20th century, but a number are being restored. The narrow streets of Old Havana contain many buildings, accounting for perhaps as many as one-third of the approximately 3,000 buildings found in Old Havana and it is the ancient city formed from the port, the official center and the Plaza de Armas. In 1555 Old Havana was destroyed and burned by the French corsair Jacques de Sores, the pirate had taken Havana easily, plundering the city and burning much of it to the ground. After limiting the scarce defenders, De Sores left without obtaining the wealth that he was hoping to find in Havana. The city remained devastated and set on fire, since the incident, the Spanish brought soldiers and started building fortresses and walls to protect the city. Castillo de la Real Fuerza was the first fortress built, initiated in 1558, Old Havana resembles Cadiz and Tenerife. Alejo Carpentier called it de las columnas, but it could also be named for the gateways, the revoco, the deterioration and the rescue, the intimacy, the shade, the cool, the courtyards. In her there are all the big ancient monuments, the forts, the convents and churches, the palaces, the alleys, the arcade, the human density. The Cuban State has undertaken efforts to preserve and to restore Old Havana through the efforts of the Office of the Historian of the City. The Malecón is the avenue runs along the seawall at the northern shore of Havana. The Paseo del Prado, Havana is the street forms the western edge of Old Havana. Castillo del Morro, picturesque fortress guarding the entrance to Havana bay, the construction of the castle Los Tres Reyes del Morro owed to the step along in Havana of the English pirate Sir Francis Drake
2.
Cuba
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Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and it is south of both the U. S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital, other cities include Santiago de Cuba. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of 109,884 square kilometres, prior to Spanish colonization in the late 15th century, Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes. It remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish–American War of 1898, as a fragile republic, Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Further unrest and instability led to Batistas ousting in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. A point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear war broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America, Cuba is a Marxist–Leninist one-party republic, where the role of the vanguard Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Independent observers have accused the Cuban government of human rights abuses. It is one of the worlds last planned economies and its economy is dominated by the exports of sugar, tobacco, coffee, according to the Human Development Index, Cuba is described as a country with high human development and is ranked the eighth highest in North America. It also ranks highly in some metrics of national performance, including health care, the name Cuba comes from the Taíno language. The exact meaning of the name is unclear but it may be translated either as where fertile land is abundant, authors who believe that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese state that Cuba was named by Columbus for the town of Cuba in the district of Beja in Portugal. Before the arrival of the Spanish, Cuba was inhabited by three distinct tribes of indigenous peoples of the Americas, the Taíno, the Guanajatabey, and the Ciboney people. The ancestors of the Ciboney migrated from the mainland of South America, the Taíno arrived from Hispanola sometime in the 3rd century A. D. When Columbus arrived they were the dominant culture in Cuba, having a population of 150,000. The name Cuba comes from the native Taíno language and it is derived from either coabana meaning great place, or from cubao meaning where fertile land is abundant. The Taíno were farmers, while the Ciboney were farmers as well as fishers and hunter-gatherers, Columbus claimed the island for the new Kingdom of Spain and named it Isla Juana after Juan, Prince of Asturias. In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa, other towns soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana, founded in 1515, which later became the capital
3.
Stock exchange
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A stock exchange or bourse is an exchange where stock brokers and traders can buy and/or sell stocks, bonds, and other securities. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for issue and redemption of securities and other financial instruments, Securities traded on a stock exchange include stock issued by listed companies, unit trusts, derivatives, pooled investment products and bonds. Stock exchanges often function as continuous auction markets, with buyers and sellers consummating transactions at a central location, to be able to trade a security on a certain stock exchange, it must be listed there. Trade on an exchange is restricted to brokers who are members of the exchange, the initial public offering of stocks and bonds to investors is by definition done in the primary market and subsequent trading is done in the secondary market. A stock exchange is often the most important component of a stock market, supply and demand in stock markets are driven by various factors that, as in all free markets, affect the price of stocks. There is usually no obligation for stock to be issued via the exchange itself. Such trading may be off exchange or over-the-counter and this is the usual way that derivatives and bonds are traded. Increasingly, stock exchanges are part of a securities market. The idea of debt dates back to the ancient world, as evidenced for example by ancient Mesopotamian clay tablets recording interest-bearing loans, there is little consensus among scholars as to when corporate stock was first traded. Some see the key event as the Dutch East India Companys founding in 1602, economist Ulrike Malmendier of the University of California at Berkeley argues that a share market existed as far back as ancient Rome. One such service was the feeding of geese on the Capitoline Hill as a reward to the birds after their honking warned of a Gallic invasion in 390 B. C. Participants in such organizations had partes or shares, a concept mentioned various times by the statesman, in one speech, Cicero mentions shares that had a very high price at the time. Such evidence, in Malmendiers view, suggests the instruments were tradable, the societas declined into obscurity in the time of the emperors, as most of their services were taken over by direct agents of the state. Tradable bonds as a used type of security were a more recent innovation, spearheaded by the Italian city-states of the late medieval. While the Italian city-states produced the first transferable government bonds, they did not develop the other ingredient necessary to produce a fully fledged capital market, the Dutch East India Company became the first company to offer shares of stock. Control of the company was held tightly by its directors, with shareholders not having much influence on management or even access to the companys accounting statements. However, shareholders were rewarded well for their investment, the company paid an average dividend of over 16 percent per year from 1602 to 1650. Financial innovation in Amsterdam took many forms, by the 1620s, the company was expanding its securities issuance with the first use of corporate bonds
4.
Cuban Revolution
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The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt conducted by Fidel Castros 26th of July Movement and its allies against the right-wing authoritarian government of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. The revolution began in July 1953, and continued sporadically until the rebels finally ousted Batista on 1 January 1959, the 26th of July Movement later reformed along communist lines, becoming the Communist Party in October 1965. Castro’s organized attack set up on the end of Santiago de Cuba against the military barracks ended in despair. The Cuban Revolution had powerful domestic and international repercussions, in particular, it transformed Cubas relationship with the United States. Efforts to improve diplomatic relations have gained momentum in recent years, in the immediate aftermath of the revolution, Castros government began a program of nationalization and political consolidation that transformed Cubas economy and civil society. The revolution also heralded an era of Cuban intervention in military conflicts, including the Angolan Civil War. Although Batista had been relatively progressive during his first term, in the 1950s he proved far more dictatorial, Batista developed a powerful security infrastructure to silence political opponents. In the months following the March 1952 coup, Fidel Castro, then a lawyer and activist, petitioned for the overthrow of Batista. However, Castros constitutional arguments were rejected by the Cuban courts, after deciding that the Cuban regime could not be replaced through legal means, Castro resolved to launch an armed revolution. Striking their first blow against the Batista government, Fidel and Raúl Castro gathered 123 Movement fighters, on 26 July 1953, the rebels attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago and the barracks in Bayamo, only to be decisively defeated by government soldiers. The staged attack was in hope to spark a revolt against Batista’s government. He had around 150 factory and farm workers, after an hour of fighting the rebel leader fled to the mountains. Due to the large number of men, Hunt revised the number to be around 60 members taking at the opportunity to flee to the mountains along with Castro. Among the dead was Abel Santamaría, Castros second-in-command, who was imprisoned, tortured, numerous key Movement revolutionaries, including the Castro brothers, were captured shortly afterwards. In a highly political trial, Fidel spoke for four hours in his defense, ending with the words Condemn me. Through Castro’s defense he used nationalism, the representation and beneficial programs for the non-elite Cubans, Fidel was sentenced to 15 years in the Presidio Modelo prison, located on Isla de Pinos, while Raúl was sentenced to 13 years. However, in 1955, under political pressure, the Batista government freed all political prisoners in Cuba. Fidels Jesuit childhood teachers succeeded in persuading Batista to include Fidel, soon, the Castro brothers joined with other exiles in Mexico to prepare for the overthrow of Batista, receiving training from Alberto Bayo, a leader of Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War
5.
Brazil
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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama
6.
Havana
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Havana is the capital city, largest city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city extends mostly westward and southward from the bay, which is entered through a narrow inlet, the sluggish Almendares River traverses the city from south to north, entering the Straits of Florida a few miles west of the bay. King Philip II of Spain granted Havana the title of City in 1592, walls as well as forts were built to protect the old city. The sinking of the U. S. battleship Maine in Havanas harbor in 1898 was the cause of the Spanish–American War. Contemporary Havana can essentially be described as three cities in one, Old Havana, Vedado and the suburban districts. The city is the center of the Cuban government, and home to various ministries, headquarters of businesses, the current mayor is Marta Hernández of the Communist Party of Cuba. In 2009, the city/province had the third highest income in the country, the city attracts over a million tourists annually, the Official Census for Havana reports that in 2010 the city was visited by 1,176,627 international tourists, a 20% increase from 2005. Old Havana was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982, the city is also noted for its history, culture, architecture and monuments. As typical of Cuba, Havana also features a tropical climate, in May 2015, Havana was officially recognized as one of the New7Wonders Cities together with Vigan, Doha, La Paz, Durban, Beirut, and Kuala Lumpur. Most native settlements became the site of Spanish colonial cities retaining their original Taíno names, an alternate theory is that Habana is derived from the Middle Dutch word havene, referring to a harbour, etymologically related to the English word haven. All attempts to found a city on Cubas south coast failed, however, an early map of Cuba drawn in 1514 places the town at the mouth of this river. The town that became Havana finally originated adjacent to what was then called Puerto de Carenas, the quality of this natural bay, which now hosts Havanas harbor, warranted this change of location. Pánfilo de Narváez gave Havana – the sixth town founded by the Spanish on Cuba – its name, the name combines San Cristóbal, patron saint of Havana. Shortly after the founding of Cubas first cities, the served as little more than a base for the Conquista of other lands. Havana began as a port, and suffered regular attacks by buccaneers, pirates. The first attack and resultant burning of the city was by the French corsair Jacques de Sores in 1555, ships from all over the New World carried products first to Havana, in order to be taken by the fleet to Spain. The thousands of ships gathered in the bay also fueled Havanas agriculture and manufacture, since they had to be supplied with food, water. On December 20,1592, King Philip II of Spain granted Havana the title of City, later on, the city would be officially designated as Key to the New World and Rampart of the West Indies by the Spanish Crown
7.
Bacardi Building (Havana)
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The Bacardi Building is an Art Deco building in Havana, Cuba. It is located at Avenida de Bélgica No.261 between Empedrado y San Juan de Dios, in Old Havana, the building was designed by architects Rafael Fernández Ruenes, Esteban Rodríguez Castell and José Menéndez, for the Bacardi rum company. The art deco landmark was completed in 1930 and was at the time the largest building in the city, after the Cuban revolution and the departure of Bacardi from Cuba, the building continued to be used for offices. At the end of the 1990s it was renovated by the city historians office, in 1963 Bacardi opened their US head office in a building in Miami
8.
Coppelia (ice cream parlor)
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Coppelia is an ice cream parlor chain in Cuba. Coppelia is state-run and sells in both Cuban pesos and Cuban convertible pesos, havanas Coppelia, for instance, employs more than 400 workers and serves 4,250 US gallons of ice cream to 35,000 customers each day. When business started in 1966, it ran with a count of 26 flavors and 25 combinations. Today, lines are long and the supply and selection of flavors is scarce. Havanas Coppelia is a Cuban Revolution modernist building from 1966, the flying-saucer-shaped building represents a UFO that has landed in Havana. Is one of the largest ice cream parlors in the world, the original aim was to produce more ice cream flavors than the big American brands, buying the best machines from the Netherlands and Sweden. Fidels longtime secretary, Celia Sánchez, named Coppelia after her favorite ballet Coppélia, the site of Coppelia Havana was the Hospital Reina Mercedes, functioning from 1886–1954. The hospital was demolished and originally there were plans to build another hospital on the site, the plans then changed and a 50-story skyscraper was to be built on the site, but these plans fell through. A tourism promotion pavilion, Parque INIT, then occupied the site, mario Girona was the architect of the new ice cream palace built on the site in 1966. Populist ideology helped shape the design and use of the public space, the park area surrounding the building features lush groundcover and a canopy of towering Banyan trees which provide shade for open-air dining areas. Curvilinear paths lead to a circular pavilion inside of which the only indoor seating is located. In March 2012 Venezuela announced plans to cooperate with Cuba to build a Coppelia ice cream plant in the country, among the problems were broken freezers. Location, 1st avenue, between 44 &26 streets, Varadero, Matanzas, originally designed as a multipurpose solution for beach goers. Varadero, though it was a vacation spot with several stay-in hotels. To solve this problem, Varaderos Coppelia included a floor with 8000 lockers. At ground level, it has a cafeteria and the ice cream parlor surrounded by a park and this level offers view into the gardens using a double curving rail of hyperbolic paraboloids, frequent in the Latin American architecture of the 1950s and 1960s. The complex was first called the 8000 lockers park, the complex was revitalized in 2008 following a project led by architect Noriel Santamaría Sánchez. For the rescue of this landmark the Magazine Obras granted a first prize in restoration to its authors, location, Corner of Mujica and Colón streets, Santa Clara, Villa Clara
9.
El Capitolio
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El Capitolio, or National Capitol Building in Havana, Cuba, was the seat of government in Cuba until after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and is now home to the Cuban Academy of Sciences. El Capitolio has a size of 681 by 300 ft and its design and name recall the United States Capitol in Washington, D. C. Completed in 1929, it was the tallest building in Havana until the 1950s, the project began on April 1926, during the Gerardo Machado administration. Construction was overseen by the U. S. firm of Purdy, prior to the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the Cuban Congress was housed in the building. When the Congress was abolished and disbanded following the Cuban Revolution in 1959, later it ended up as the headquarters of the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment. As of 2013, the Government of Cuba is restoring the building for use again as the home of Cubas National Assembly. According to its designer, Eugenio Rayneri Piedra, who had studied architecture in the United States, in the original design the dome was to be decorated with stylised palm leaves but this addition was never executed. At almost 92 m high, the dome was the highest point in the city of Havana until the 1950s and it was the third highest cupola in the world at the time of its construction. Around the building are laid out by French landscape architect. Based on the designs of some of the beautiful simple European gardens they consist of areas of lawn bordered by paths, four groups of Royal Palms accent the design. The 55 steps leading to the entrance, known as La Escalinata are flanked on either side by 6.5 m statues by the Italian artist Angelo Zanelli. To the left is Work and to the right The Tutelary Virtue, the steps lead up to the central portico, which is 36 m wide and more than 16 m tall. There are 12 granite Roman style columns arranged in two rows and each over 14 m tall, beyond the portico, three large bronze doors with bas-reliefs by Zanelli allow access to the main hall. The inside of the hall under the cupola is dominated by the huge Statue of the Republic. The statue, also by Zanelli, was cast in bronze in Rome in three pieces and assembled inside the building after its arrival in Cuba and it is covered with 22 carat gold leaf and weighs 49 tons. At 15 m tall, it was the second highest statue under cover in the world at the time, the statue stands on a plinth 2.5 m high bringing the total height to 17.54 m. A Creole Cuban, Lily Valty served as the model for the body for Zanelli, and the inspiration for the statue came from Athena, embedded in the floor in the centre of the main hall is a replica 25 carat diamond, which marks Kilometre Zero for Cuba. To either side of the hall is the Salón de Pasos Perdidos
