Potted History

The Spanish invaded in the 14th century and slaughted all the natives. Realising they had killed all the workforce, they imported some slaves from Africa to make up the numbers.

There were various conflicts until the Americans intervened in 1898 and decided to take over the country whilst pretending not to.

Castro and his sidekick Che Guevara kicked up a bit of a fuss and took control of the island in the 1930s.

The Americans tried to overthrow them, much to the amusement of the Russians, who joined in on Castro's side purely to piss them off.

They're still pissed off to this day - witness the boy Elian Gonzalez.