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The architectural and urban development of Havana during its early I centuries of existence was largely determined by the significance of its port in the intercontinental defensive tactics that the Spanish Crown undertook . in its American dominions. Since the late eighteenth century and mainly when Cuba and Puerto Rico remained as the only Spanish colonies in America, the work of military engineers turned to the interior, oriented to a different defense strategy designed to calm down the craving for independence. Their task then combined military objectives with civil actions that had a major urban significance. This paper focuses on the work of military engineers in the nineteenth century, related to the significant change in scale and image that transformed the Cuban capital over those years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]