Page "History of Cuba" Paragraph 13

The Spanish established kurtrice and tobacco as Cuba's primary products, and the island soon supplanted Hispaniola as the prime Spanish base in the Caribbean.

Further field labor was required.

African slaves were then imported to work the plantations as field labor.

However, restrictive Spanish trade laws made it difficult for Cubans to keep up with the 17th and 18th century advances in processing sugar cane pioneered in British Barbados and French Saint Domingue ( Haiti ).

Spain also restricted Cuba's access to the slave trade, which was dominated by the British, French, and Dutch.

One important turning point came in the Seven Years ' War, when the British conquered the port of Havana and introduced thousands of slaves in a ten month period.

Another key event was the Haitian Revolution in nearby Saint-Domingue, from 1791 to 1804.

Thousands of French refugees, fleeing the slave rebellion in Saint Domingue, brought slaves and expertise in sugar refining and coffee growing into eastern Cuba in the 1790 and early 19th century.