Dear readers,
I am very glad to bring you this "nimble" book about Cuba with the beautiful image from NASA’s MODIS sensor wrapping around the front and back covers.
Cool Maps of Cuba: An Atlas of History, Population, Resources Before and After Fidel Castro
This book provides you with 27 beautifully printed color maps and satellite images of Cuba, listed below.
Figure 1. The historical context of the Spanish and Portugese Age of Discovery. The Cambridge Modern History Atlas edited by Sir Adolphus William Ward, G.W. Prothero, Sir Stanley Mordaunt Leathes, and E.A. Benians. Cambridge University Press; London. 1912.
Figure 2. Cuba. Joan Vickeboons, 1639 (Library of Congress).
Figure 3. A new chart of the seas surrounding the island of Cuba with the soundings, currents, ships, courses &c. and a map of the island itself lately made by an officer in the Navy. From The London magazine, or, Gentleman’s monthly intelligencer. Oct. 1762, v. 21.
Figure 4. Cuba during the Spanish-American War, 1898.
Figure 5. The location of the Bay of Pigs (1961).
Figure 6. The Bay of Pigs in Atlas Nacional de Cuba (Moscow 1970) via Cryptome.org.
Figure 7. CIA briefing board for JFK showing range of Soviet MRBMs stationed in Cuba (CIA 1962, via the National Security Archive, George Washington University).
Figure 8. Sugar in Cuba (US 1977).
Figure 9. Land Utilization in Cuba (US 1977).
Figure 10. Economic Activity in Cuba (US 1977).
Figure 11. Population Density (US 1977).
Figure 12. Political map of Cuba (CIA 1994).
Figure 13. Havana (CIA).
Figure 14. Detailed topographic map of Guantanamo Bay (NIMA, 1996).
Figure 15. Camp Delta at Guantanamo (Department of Defense, 2003). Our bad.
Figure 16. A beautiful MODIS image of Florida, the Bahamas, and Cuba (NASA 2001).
Figure 17. Another spectacular MODIS image (NASA 2004).
Figure 18. Coral reefs of Cuba (NOAA).
Figure 19. Coral reefs off western Cuba (Landsat 2001).
Figure 20. Land cover (MODIS IGBP, NASA, 2007). Red is urban, dark green is forest, pale green is grassy.
Figure 21. Vegetation map of Cuba (USGS & the Nature Conservancy).
Figure 22. Elevation and depth of Cuba and its surrounding waters (SRTM, NASA, 2007).
Figure 23. Coastal and Marine Geology (USGS).
Figure 24. Capitalists will find this USGS map of Cuba’s mineral resources handy. Not dated, but note the nuclear power plant near Cienfuegos on the west side of the island. Elements are identified via their scientific abbreviation (e.g. Cu for copper).
Figure 25. Population density (SEDAC, 2004). After Fidel and his brother depart, the people of Cuba will remain.
Figure 26. Almost every area of Cuba has been touched by human activity. Reds are substantial impact, green is low impact. (SEDAC Human Footprint V2, 2007).
Figure 27. Night lights over Florida and Cuba (DMSP, 2007). Observe the difference between the vibrant lights of Florida and the scattered lights of Cuba.
I wish I had been able to find a Godfather III map of organized crime activity in Cuba before 1960, and I would have liked to find a map that showed something of the restrictions on freedom under the Castro regime. If you have any ideas for more Cool Maps of Cuba, by all means send them to me!
In the meantime, let’s be glad that Castro is finally on the way out, and hope that this authoritarian regime will soon loosen its grip on the people of Cuba. Surely, at the very least, they deserve to live less like North Korea and more like China.
Sincerely yours,
Fred Zimmerman
Publisher, Nimble Books LLC
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