4000 BC to 1491

The first Cubans

People first reached Cuba around six thousand years ago, travelling by canoe. These early fishers and foragers, ancestors of the Guanahatabey of the far west, left shell tools and painted caves. Much later, farming peoples from Hispaniola, the Taino, spread across the east and centre of the island, growing cassava and living in villages ruled by chiefs called caciques.