The national atlas of Cuba

Summary

Published for the tenth anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, the National Atlas of Cuba was jointly produced by the geographical institutes of the Cuban and Soviet Academies of Sciences. Based mainly on data from 1966–1969, it synthesizes post-revolutionary knowledge while supporting future research, economic restructuring, and socialist development. Most principal maps use a scale of 1:1,500,000, and several place Cuba within the wider Caribbean context. Physical geography occupies roughly half the atlas, with detailed and often innovative treatments of relief, tectonics, seismicity, karst, coasts, soils, climate, biological resources, and marine environments. Human and economic maps document demographic changes, land use, agriculture—especially sugar production—industry, water management, fisheries, education, public health, and sports, thereby highlighting achievements after the revolution. The atlas nevertheless has limitations: rapid socioeconomic change quickly dates its information, some geomorphological methods are debatable, and the treatment of regionalization is weakened by the absence of adequate maps of population mobility, urbanization, urban networks, and Havana. Despite these shortcomings, the historical and revolutionary map series completes a valuable and graphically accomplished reference work. The atlas demonstrates how geographical knowledge and cartography can contribute to economic planning and social transformation in a developing country.