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In 1514, the first governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez, founded Trinidad, the island's third town (after Baracoa and Bayamo in the east), near the mouth of the Arimao River, an area with a native settlement called Guamuahaya. The famous defender of native people Fray Bartolomé de las Casas celebrated the foundational mass of La Villa de la Santísima Trinidad.
A few months later the neighboring town of Sancti Spíritus was founded with a population of 36, and Fray Bartolomé delivered his well-known sermon praising the natives and advocating better treatment for them. Hernán Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico, recruited men from these two settlements to carry out the expedition that started from the Guaurabo River in Trinidad in 1518. This event would be repeated during the 17th and 18th centuries when the town's economic stability depended on trading contraband with pirates. The naval forces of the British Caribbean Fleet tried to invade Puerto de Casilda in Trinidad in 1797, but they were repelled. This port began to import merchandise from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands, and tobacco became the region's most important crop, cultivated using slave labor.
This scene changed at the beginning of 19th century when Trinidad became the capital of the island's Departamento Central, and when hundreds of French fleeing the slave revolution in Haiti came here looking for refuge. These colonists immediately began to produce sugar cane. They baptized the northeastern valley of Trinidad Valle de Los Ingenios (Valle de San Luis), Valley of Ingenuity. The abundant profits of cane cultivation displaced other products and financed urban development. Buildings such as the Museo de la Torre Manaca Iznaga, Iglesia de la Santísima Trinidad and the Palacio Brunet, as well as the Plaza Mayor, were financed by the sugar industry. Around this time, the well-known German natural scientist Alexander Von Humboldt arrived. He carried out geographical and botanical research, as well as astronomical measurements, and he delivered his knowledge at social gatherings.
The splendor of the sugar industries was damaged by the Wars of Independence in the 19th century and by the end of slavery. Lots of cane plantations were devastated or abandoned. Core sugar production moved to Matanzas, Villa Clara and Cienfuegos, which became the most important cities of the region. During the years of the Republic, Trinidad suffered the same economic fortunes as the island as a whole, with periods of crisis and periods of recovery. Meanwhile, the sugar and coffee industries were modernized, the population grew and new urban zones developed out from the colonial center.
Trinidad witnessed scenes of the revolution, battles that took place on nearby Escambray Sierra, and the fight against counterrevolutionary bands, which arose on these mountains after 1959. In 1988, the Centro histórico de Trinidad of Trinidad and its Valle de los Ingenios were declared Patrimony of Humanity, for having one of the most complete architectural collections in the Americas, an ambience little affected by the passage of the years, a strong sense of unity, and also marked senses of time and place. These factors also make Trinidad one of Cuba's most popular areas for tourists.
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