Cuba will continue to prosper throughout the…

Cuba will continue to prosper throughout the second half of the nineteenth century.

The progressive changes known as the Bourbon Reforms, initiated throughout Latin America by Charles III (King of Spain, 1759-88), had quickened economic and political activities and started a complete transformation of Cuban society.

Population increased, agricultural production and profits expanded, and contacts with various Spanish ports as well as with the rest of Europe became closer, leading to the introduction of new ideas into the colony.

The old order began to decay.

To the forefront of Cuban society has come a new and active class of Creole hacendados (hacienda owners) and entrepreneurs, who base their prosperity on sugar, coffee, land speculation, and the slave trade.