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The original inhabitants of Cuba were Siboneys and Tainos (the Arawaks), who seem to have migrated to the island from North, Central and South America many centuries before. Tainos were farmers and Siboneyes were farmers and hunter-gatherers. When Spanish arrived to the island they claimed it for Spain and called it Isla Juana, on behalf of Juan, Prince of Asturias. 
Only in 1511,
Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founded the first Spanish settlement at a place that is now known as Baracoa. Later other towns were founded. It was only in 1515 that what was later the capital of the island was founded, San Cristobal de la Habana.
Most of the island’s native population soon died from European infectious diseases brought by sailors and settlers and the extreme working conditions they were forced to in search of gold. Then Africans were brought to the island to work as slaves on sugar plantations, agriculture and mining.
For about 400 years Cuba was a Spanish possession, then, on October 10th, 1868, Cuba’s fight for its independence began with what is known as the Ten Year War. At the end of the war, though many European and Latin American nations had recognized the new government, the U.S. declined to accept it. In 1878, the Pact of Zanjon put an end to the war with Spain and promised the island greater autonomy. Then, General Calixto Garcia tried to start another war, later known as the Little War, but he got no much support. Spain's promises of economic reform in the Pact of Zanjón were just promises, they were never kept.
In 1892, José Martí, who was in the exile, founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party in New York. He traveled to Montecristi, Santo Domingo to meet Máximo Gómez. There he wrote the Manifesto of Montecristi, where he expressed his political views. A new wa began in Cuba on 24 February 1895. On May 19, 1895 Martí was killed. In the countryside, General Valeriano Weyler, who was then the military governor of the island, herded Cuba’s rural population into a kind of fortified towns that he called reconcentrados. Something like a concentration camp. About 400,000 civilians died in these camps.
At the end of the Independence War the United States intervened in the island and in 1902 a pseudo republic was established. Cuba became an independent republic under U.S. “protection.” The U.S. occupation apparently ended in 1902, but Platt Amendment signed in 1901 allowed the U.S. to interfere in Cuba's affairs. Under the same Amendment, the U.S. established a naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba. This naval base is still in Cuba territory, though according to the amendment it was supposed to have been recalled from Cuba long ago.
Since then, different presidents ruled the country: Tomás Estrada Palma, the first president, Charles Edward Magoon, named Governor for three years by the US, José Miguel Gómez, Menocal, Gerardo Machado y Morales, who suspended the constitution, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes y Quesada, son of Cuba's Founding father (Carlos Manuel de Cespedes), Ramon Grau, Carlos Prio Socarras, Fulgencio Batista.
It was on January 1, 1959 when the Revolution commanded by Fidel Castro triumphed and essential transformations were introduced in country. Since then, till July 31, 2006 Fidel Castro was the President of the Council of State and the President of the Council of Ministers. He was also the First Secretary of Cuba’s Communist Party. It was then when he temporarily delegated his duties to his brother, Raul Castro, who was the Army Minister and First Vice President of the State Council. Finally, on February 2008, Fidel resignation as President of Cuba was announced, and some days later, on February 24, Raul was elected President of Cuba..