Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The
Havaneros Or Natives Of The Havannah Were The First Among The Rich
Inhabitants Of The Spanish Colonies Who Visited Spain, France And
Italy; And At The Havannah The People Were Always Well Informed Of The
Politics Of Europe.
This knowledge of events, this prescience of
future chances, have powerfully aided the inhabitants of Cuba to free
themselves from some of the burthens which check the development of
colonial prosperity.
In the interval between the peace of Versailles
and the beginning of the revolution of San Domingo, the Havannah
appeared to be ten times nearer to Spain than to Mexico, Caracas and
New Grenada. Fifteen years later, at the period of my visit to the
colonies, this apparent inequality of distance had considerably
diminished; now, when the independence of the continental colonies,
the importation of foreign manufactures and the financial wants of the
new states have multiplied the intercourse between Europe and America;
when the passage is shortened by improvements in navigation; when the
Columbians, the Mexicans and the inhabitants of Guatimala rival each
other in visiting Europe; the ancient Spanish colonies - those at least
that are bathed by the Atlantic - seem alike to have drawn nearer to
the continent. Such are the changes which a few years have produced,
and which are proceeding with increasing rapidity. They are the
effects of knowledge and of long-restrained activity; and they render
less striking the contrast in manners and civilization which I
observed at the beginning of the century, at Caracas, Bogota, Quito,
Lima, Mexico and the Havannah.
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