Jump to content

History of Cuba: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
m Reverting possible vandalism by Hagani96 to version by DARTH SIDIOUS 2. Questions, comments, complaints -> BRFA Thanks, ClueBot NG. (16575) (Bot)
m Undid revision 395194403 by ClueBot NG (talk)
Tag: possibly non-minor edit
Line 1: Line 1:
[Cuba is a fun place that a lot of people go to cause they like to explore national countries and I, as being Wikipedia, advises you to visit the wonderful country of Cuba sometime soon.
[[Image:Moll - A Map of the West-Indies.png|thumb|285px|Map of the [[West Indies]], [[Mexico]] and "[[New Spain]]" with Cuba in the center drawn by [[Herman Moll]] in 1736.]]
The '''history of <font color=0>[[Cuba]]</font>''', the largest of [[Caribbean]] islands, includes being inhabited by [[indigenous peoples]] when [[Christopher Columbus]] sighted the island during his first voyage of discovery on 27 October 1492, and claimed it for Spain. Cuba subsequently became a [[Spanish colony]] to be ruled by the [[Colonial Heads of Cuba|Spanish governor]] in [[Havana]], though in 1762 this city was briefly held by [[Kingdom Great Britain|Britain]] before being returned in exchange for [[Florida]]. A series of [[rebellions]] during the 19th century failed to end Spanish rule. However, increased tensions between Spain and the United States, resulting in the [[Spanish-American War]], finally led to Spanish [[withdrawal]], and in 1902, Cuba gained formal independence.
In his book ''A History of Cuba and its relations with The United States'', historian Philip S. Foner writes that Cuba's history:
: "has a significance out of proportion to its size. The story of Cuba's struggle for liberatio from four-hundred years of Spanish domination is one of the great epics in history. The struggle for over half a century to change its status from a theoretically independent state, dominated by American imperialism, into a truly independent country is equally inspiring."<ref>Foner, Philip S., A History of Cuba and its relations with The United States, Vol. 1.,1962</ref><!--undue weight (WP:UNDUE) to have this rare quotation in the lede section.-->


- Alexander Daniel Hagani
Further evidence suggests that the Guanajatabeyes were driven to the west of the island by the arrival of two subsequent waves of migrants, the [[Taíno]] and Ciboney. These groups are sometimes referred to as [[neo-Taíno nations]].<ref name="Gott">[[Richard Gott|Gott, Richard]] Cuba: A new history, Yale University Press: 2004, Chapter 1.</ref> The new had migrated north along the Caribbean island chain used of stone, yet they were familiar with gold (caona) and copper (guanín).
The Taíno and Ciboney were a part of a cultural group commonly called the [[Arawak]], which extended far into South America. Initially the new arrivals inhabited the eastern area of [[Baracoa]] before expanding across the island. Traveling Dominican clergyman and writer [[Bartolome de las Casas]] estimated that the Cuban population of the neo-Taíno people had reached 350,000 by the time of the late 15th century. The Taíno cultivated the [[cassava|yuca]] root, harvested it and baked it to produce cassava bread. They also grew [[cotton]] and tobacco, and ate [[maize]] and [[sweet potatoes]]. According to Las Casas, they had "everything they needed for living; they had many crops, well arranged".<ref>''Historia de las Indias'', vol 3 Biblioteca Ayacucho, Caracus, 1986, pp. 81–101.</ref>

===Early Spanish colonization===
[[Image:Havana 1639b.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Havana Bay, c. 1639.]]
The first sighting of a Spanish boat approaching the island was on 28 October 1492, probably at Baracoa on the eastern point of the island.<ref name="Gott"/> [[Christopher Columbus]], on his first voyage to the Americas, sailed south from what is now [[The Bahamas]] to explore the northeast coast of Cuba and the northern coast of [[Hispaniola]]. Columbus discovered the island believing it to be a peninsula of the Asian mainland.<ref>{{Cite book
|title=The Worlds of Christopher Columbus
|author=Carla Rahn Phillips
|edition=reprint, illustrated
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|year=1993
|isbn=9780521446525
|page=[http://books.google.com/books?id=tVAxgY0sUpEC&pg=RA2-PA205 205]
|url=http://books.google.com/?id=tVAxgY0sUpEC}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book
|title=Early Mapping of Southeast Asia
|author=Thomas Suarez
|publisher=Tuttle Publishing
|year=1999
|isbn=9789625934709
|page=[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZG7ZMAbv_jAC&pg=PA109 109]
|url=http://books.google.com/?id=ZG7ZMAbv_jAC
}}</ref>

During a second voyage in 1494, Columbus passed along the south coast of the island, landing at various inlets including what was to become [[Guantánamo Bay]]. With the [[Inter caetera|Papal Bull of 1493]], [[Pope Alexander VI]] commanded Spain to conquer, colonize and convert the [[Paganism|Pagans]] of the [[New World]] to [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholicism]].<ref>Bakewell, Peter. ''A History of Latin America''. Blackwell Publishers, pp. 129–130.</ref> On arrival, Columbus observed the Taíno dwellings, describing them as “looking like tents in a camp. All were of palm branches, beautifully constructed”.<ref>Willis Fletcher Johnson, ''The History of Cuba'' Volume 1, New York, 1920 p. 228.</ref>

The Spanish began to create permanent settlements on the island of [[Hispaniola]], east of Cuba, soon after Columbus's arrival in the Caribbean, but it wasn't until 1509 that the coast of Cuba was fully mapped by [[Sebastián de Ocampo]].<ref name="historia_naval">[http://www.ipen.org.br/webpages/noticiasS.htm Historia de la Construcción Naval en Cuba]</ref> In 1511, [[Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar]] set out with three ships and an army of 300 men from Hispaniola to form the first Spanish settlement in Cuba, with orders from Spain to conquer the island. The settlement was at Baracoa, but the new settlers were to be greeted with stiff resistance from the local Taíno population. The Taínos were initially organized by [[cacique]] (''chieftain'') [[Hatuey]], who had himself relocated from Hispaniola to escape the brutalities of Spanish rule on that island. After a prolonged [[guerrilla]] campaign, Hatuey and successive chieftains were captured and burnt alive, and within three years the Spanish had gained control of the island. In 1514, a settlement was founded in what was to become [[Havana]].

Clergyman [[Bartolomé de Las Casas]] observed a number of massacres initiated by the invaders as the Spanish swept over the island, notably the massacre near [[Camagüey, Cuba]], of the inhabitants of [[Caonao]]. According to his account, some three thousand villagers had traveled to Manzanillo to greet the Spanish with loaves, fishes and other foodstuffs and were "without provocation, butchered".<ref>Las Casas, ''A Short Account'', p.29</ref> The surviving indigenous groups fled to the mountains or the small surrounding islands before being captured and forced into reservations. One such reservation was [[Guanabacoa]], which is today a suburb of Havana.<ref name="Thomas1">Thomas, Hugh: ''Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom'', 2nd edition, p.14.</ref>
[[Image:Hatuey monument, Baracoa, Cuba.JPG|thumb|200px|A monument to Taíno chieftain Hatuey, in [[Baracoa]], Cuba]]
In 1513, [[Ferdinand II of Aragon]] issued a decree establishing the [[encomienda]] land settlement system that was to be incorporated throughout the Spanish Americas. Velázquez, who had become Governor of Cuba relocating from Baracoa to [[Santiago de Cuba]], was given the task of apportioning both the land and the indigenous Cubans to groups throughout the new colony. The scheme was not a success, however, as the Cubans either succumbed to diseases brought from Spain such as [[measles]] and [[smallpox]], or simply refused to work preferring to slip away into the mountains.<ref name="Gott"/> Desperate for labor to toil the new agricultural settlements, the Conquistadors sought slaves from surrounding islands and the continental mainland. But these new arrivals followed the indigenous Cubans by also dispersing into the wilderness or suffering a similar fate at the hands of disease.<ref name="Gott"/>

Despite the difficult relations between the local Cubans and the new Europeans, some cooperation was in evidence.{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}} The Spanish were shown by the Native Cubans how to nurture [[tobacco]] and consume it in the form of [[cigar]]s. There were also many unions between the largely male Spanish colonists and indigenous women. Their children were called [[mestizo]]s, but the Native Cubans called them ''Guajiro'', which translates as "one of us". Modern day studies have revealed traces of Taíno DNA in individuals throughout Cuba,<ref>[http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/41/310.html Cuban Site Casts Light on an Extinct People] Anthony DePalma, The New York Times, 5 July 1998</ref> the population was largely destroyed as a culture and civilization after 1550. With the Spanish New Laws (1552), Cuban Indians were freed from encomienda and some seven Indian towns were set up. There are descendant Cuban Indian (Taino) families in several places, mostly in eastern Cuba. The Indian community at Caridad de los Indios, Guantanamo, is one such nuclei. An association of Indian families in Jiguani, near Santiago, is also active. The local Indian population left their mark also on the language with some 400 Taino terms and placenames of the island. Among various cults and religions, such as Danza del Cordon and in Afro-Cuban religion incorporate Taino spiritual practices. The name of ''Cuba'' itself, ''Havana',' "Camagüey," and many others were derived from neo-Taino languare, and Indian words such as ''Tobacco'', ''Hurricane'' and ''Canoe'' transferred to English and are used today.<ref name="Thomas1"/>

===Arrival of African slaves===
{{Ref improve section|date=August 2009}}
The Spanish established kurtrice and [[tobacco]] as [[Cuba|Cuba's]] primary products, and the island soon supplanted Hispaniola as the prime Spanish base in the Caribbean.<ref>Peter Bakewell. A History of Latin America. Bakewell books. p.74.</ref> Further field labor was required. African [[Slavery|slaves]] were then imported to work the plantations as field labor. However, restrictive Spanish trade laws made it difficult for Cubans to keep up with the 17th and 18th century advances in processing [[sugar cane]] pioneered in British [[History of Barbados|Barbados]] and French [[Saint Domingue]] ([[Haiti]]). Spain also restricted Cuba's access to the [[slave trade]], which was dominated by the British, French, and Dutch. One important turning point came in the [[Seven Years' War]], when the British conquered the port of Havana and introduced thousands of slaves in a ten month period. Another key event was the [[Haitian Revolution]] in nearby Saint-Domingue, from 1791 to 1804. Thousands of French refugees, fleeing the slave rebellion in Saint Domingue, brought slaves and expertise in sugar refining and [[coffee]] growing into eastern Cuba in the 1790 and early 19th century.

In the 19th century, Cuban sugar plantations became the most important world producer of sugar, thanks to the expansion of slavery and a relentless focus on improving the island's sugar technology. Use of modern refining techniques was especially important because the British [[Slave Trade Act 1807]] abolished the [[slave trade]] in the [[British Empire]] (but [[slavery]] itself remained legal until the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833]]). Cubans were torn between the profits generated by sugar and a repugnance for slavery, which they saw as morally, politically, and racially dangerous to their society. By the end of the 19th century, slavery was abolished.

However, leading up to the abolition of slavery, Cuba gained great prosperity from its [[sugar trade]]. Originally, the Spanish had ordered regulations on trade with Cuba, which kept the island from becoming a dominant sugar producer. The Spanish were interested in keeping their trade routes and slave trade routes protected. Nevertheless, Cuba's vast size and abundance of natural resources made it an ideal place for becoming a booming sugar producer. When Spain opened the Cuban trade ports, it quickly became a popular place. New technology allowed a much more effective and efficient means of producing sugar. They began to use water mills, enclosed furnaces, and steam engines to produce a higher quality of sugar at a much more efficient pace than elsewhere in the Caribbean.

The boom in Cuba's sugar industry in the 19th century made it necessary for Cuba to improve its means of transportation. Planters needed safe and efficient ways to transport the sugar from the plantations to the ports, in order to maximize their returns. Many new roads were built, and old roads were quickly repaired. Railroads were built early and changed the way that perishable sugar cane (within one or two days after the cane is cut easily crystallizable sucrose sugar has "inverted" to turn into far less recoverable glucose and fructose sugars) is collected and allowing more rapid and effective sugar transportation. It was now possible for plantations all over this large island to have their sugar shipped quickly and easily. The prosperity seen from the boom in sugar production is a major reason that Cuban ethnicity became further enriched by new influx of Spanish migrants. Many Spaniards immigrated to Cuba, calling it a place of refuge.

===Sugar plantations===
Cuba failed to prosper before the 1760s due to Spanish trade regulations. Spain had set up a monopoly in the Caribbean and their primary objective was to protect this. They did not allow the islands to trade with any foreign ships. Spain was primarily interested in the Caribbean for its gold. The Spanish crown thought that if the colonies traded with other countries it would not itself benefit from it. This slowed the growth of the Spanish Caribbean. This effect was particularly bad in Cuba because Spain kept a tight grasp on it. It held great strategic importance in the Caribbean. As soon as Spain opened Cuba's ports up to foreign ships, a great sugar boom began that lasted until the 1880s. The Island was perfect for growing sugar. It is dominated by rolling plains, with rich soil and adequate rainfall. It is the largest island in the Caribbean. Its relatively low mountains and large plains are suitable for roads and railroads, and it has the best ports in the area. By 1860, Cuba was devoted to growing sugar. The country had to import all other necessary goods. They were dependent on the United States who bought 82 percent of the sugar. Cubans resented the economic policy Spain implemented in Cuba, which was to help Spain and hurt Cuba. In 1820, Spain abolished the slave trade, hurting the Cuban economy even more and forcing planters to buy more expensive, illegal, and troublesome slaves (as demonstrated by the events surrounding the ship [[Amistad (case)|Amistad]]).<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/discovery/story/havana.html
|title=The Cuban Slave Market
}}</ref>

==Cuba under attack==
[[Image:British fleet entering Havana.jpg|thumb|250px|The British fleet closing in on Havana in 1762]]
[[Image:El Morro.jpg|250px|thumb|[[Morro Castle (fortress)|El Morro fortress]] in Havana, built in 1589]]
Cuba had long been a target of [[buccaneer]]s, [[pirate]]s and French [[corsair]]s seeking Spain's [[new world]] riches. Repeated raids meant that defences were bolstered throughout the island during the 16th century and Havana was furnished with the [[Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro]] (El Morro fortress) to deter potential invaders which included English [[privateer]] [[Francis Drake]], who sailed within sight of Havana harbour but did not disembark on the island.<ref name="Drake">Gott, Richard: Cuba, A A new history, Yale University Press: 2004, p 32</ref> Havana's inability to resist invaders was dramatically exposed in 1628, when a Dutch fleet led by [[Piet Heyn]] plundered the Spanish fleet in the city's harbor.<ref name="Heyn and Myngs">Gott, Richard: Cuba, A A new history, Yale University Press: 2004, p 34-35</ref> In 1662, on the eastern part of the island, English admiral and pirate [[Christopher Myngs]] captured and briefly occupied [[Santiago de Cuba]] in an effort to open up Cuba's protected trade with neighbouring [[Jamaica]].<ref name="Heyn and Myngs"/>

Nearly a century later, English were to invade in earnest taking [[Guantánamo Bay (Cuba)|Guantánamo Bay]] during the [[War of Jenkins' Ear]] with Spain. [[Edward Vernon]], the British Admiral who devised the scheme, saw his 4,000 occupying troops capitulate to local guerilla resistance, and more critically, debilitating disease, forcing him to withdraw his fleet to British owned Jamaica.<ref name="Vernon">Gott, Richard: Cuba, A new history, Yale University Press: 2004, p 39-41</ref> Seven years later, in 1748, tensions between the three dominant colonial powers; Britain, France and Spain, were transported to the Caribbean. A skirmish between a British squadron and a Spanish squadron off the coast of Cuba became known as the [[Battle of Havana (1748)|Battle of Havana]].<ref name="Vernon"/>

The [[Seven Years' War]], which erupted in 1754 in three continents, eventually arrived at the Spanish Caribbean. Spain's alliance with the French pitched them in direct conflict with the British, and in 1762 an [[British expedition against Cuba|expedition]] set out from [[Portsmouth]] of 5 warships and 4000 troops to capture Cuba. The British arrived on 6 June and by August had Havana under [[siege]].<ref name="Siege">Thomas, Hugh: Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom 2nd edition. Chapter One</ref>
When Havana surrendered, British Admiral of the fleet [[George Keppel, 3rd Earl of Albemarle|George Keppel]], the 3rd [[Earl of Albemarle]], entered the city as conquering new governor, taking control of the whole western part of the island.
The arrival of the British immediately opened up trade with their North American and Caribbean colonies, causing a rapid transformation of Cuban society. Food, horses and other goods flooded into the city, and thousands of slaves from West Africa were transported to the island to work on the under manned sugar plantations.<ref name="Siege"/> Though Havana, which had become the third largest city in the new world, was to enter an era of sustained development and closening ties with North America, the British occupation was not to last. Pressure from London by sugar merchants fearing a decline in sugar prices forced a series of negotiations with the Spanish over colonial territories. Less than a year after Havana was seized, the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)|Peace of Paris]] was signed by the three warring powers thus ending the Seven Years' War. The treaty gave Britain [[Florida]] in exchange for Cuba on the recommendation of the French, who advised that declining the offer could result in Spain losing [[Mexico]] and much of the South American mainland to the British.<ref name="Siege"/> This led to disappointment in Britain, as many believed that Florida was a poor return for Cuba and [[Great Britain in the Seven Years War|Britain's other gains in the war]].

==The 19th century: Years of upheaval==
In the early 19th century three different currents characterizing the political struggles of that century took shape: '''reformism''', '''annexation''' and '''independence'''. In addition to that there were spontaneous and isolated actions carried out from time to time and growing in organization, adding a current of '''abolitionism'''.
The [[declaration of independence]] by the 13 British colonies of North America and the victory of the [[French Revolution]] of 1789 as well as the revolt of black slaves in Haiti influenced early Cuban liberation movements. One of the first, headed by the free Black, [[Nicolás Morales]], and aimed at the equality between "mulattos and whites" and the abolition of sales taxes and other burdens that oppress the poor, was discovered in 1795 in [[Bayamo]] and the conspirators were jailed.

===Reform, autonomy and separatist movements===
As a result of the political upheavals caused by the [[Peninsular War]] (Iberian Peninsula) and the removal of [[Ferdinand VII of Spain|Ferdinand VII]] from the throne, the first separatist rebellion emerged among the Creole aristocracy in 1809 and 1810. One of its leaders, [[Joaquín Infante]] drafted Cuba's first constitution considering the island a sovereign state, presuming the rule of the countries' wealthy, maintaining slavery as long as it was necessary for agriculture, establishing a social classification based on skin colour and declaring Catholicism the official religion. This conspiracy also failed and the main leaders were sentenced to prison and deported to Spain.<ref name = "xrhsoz">Cantón Navarro, José and Juan Jacomino. ''History of Cuba: The Challenge of the Yoke and the Star: Biography of a People''. Havana, Editoral SI-MAR, 1998, p. 35, ISBN 959-705-419-1.</ref>
In 1812, a mixed race abolitionist conspiracy arose, organized by [[José Antonio Aponte]], a free black carpenter in Havana. He and others were executed.<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.coconutxchange.com/literature/show_item.php?id=50&section_id=1072234946
|title=Cuba
|date=December 24, 2003
|publisher=coconutxchange.com
|accessdate=2007-11-02}}</ref>

The main reason for the lack of support was that the vast majority of Creoles, especially the plantation owners, rejected any kind of separatism, considering Spain's power essential to maintain a slavery system and to prevent the [[Cádiz Cortes]], which began deliberations in 1808. The [[Spanish Constitution of 1812]] and the legislation passed by the Cortes created a number of liberal political and commercial policies, which were welcomed in Cuba but also curtailed a number of previous liberal political and commercial liberties. Between 1810 and 1814 the island elected six representatives to the Cortes, in addition to forming a locally-elected Provincial Deputation.<ref>Rieu-Millan, Marie Laure. ''Los diputados americanos en las Cortes de Cádiz: Igualdad o independencia.'' Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1990, 41. ISBN 978-8400070915</ref> Nevertheless, the liberal regime and the Constitution proved to be ephemeral: they were suppressed by Ferdinand VII when he returned to the throne in 1814. Therefore, by the end of the decade some Cubans were inspired by the successes of [[Simón Bolívar]] despite the fact that the Spanish Constitution was restored in 1820. Numerous secret societies emerged, of which the most important was the so-called "'''Soles y Rayos Bolívar'''", founded in 1821 and led by [[José Francisco Lemus]]. Its aim was to establish the free Republic of Cubanacán, and the society had branches in five districts of the island. In 1823 the leaders were arrested and condemned to exile. In the same year in Spain, Ferdinand VII, with French help and the approval of the [[Quintuple Alliance]], managed to abolish constitutional rule yet again and reestablish [[Absolute monarchy|absolutism]]. As a result, in Cuba the national militia established by the Constitution and a potential instrument for liberal agitation was dissolved, a permanent executive military commission under the orders of the governor was created, newspapers were closed, elected provincial representatives were removed and other liberties suppressed.

This suppression and the success of independence in the former Spanish colonies on the mainland lead to a rise of Cuban nationalism and a number of independence conspiracies took place during the 1820s and 1830s, but all failed. Among others there were many "Expedición de los Trece" (Expedition of the Thirteen) in 1826, the "Gran Legión del Aguila Negra" (Great Legion of the Black Eagle) in 1829, the "Cadena Triangular" (Triangular Chain) and "Soles de la Libertad" (Suns of Liberty) in 1837. Leading national figures in these years were Félix Varela and Cuba's first revolutionary poet, [[José María Heredia]].<ref>Navarro, José Cantón: History of Cuba, La Habana, 1998, p. 36-38, ISBN 959-705-19-1</ref> The US also opposed possible agreements between Spain and England.

===Antislavery and independence movements===
In 1836, the first armed uprising for independence took place in Puerto Príncipe ([[Camagüey]] Province), led by [[Francisco de Agüero]] and [[Andrés Manuel Sánchez]]. Agüero (white) and Sánchez (mulato, of mixed African and European ancestry) were executed, becoming the first martyrs of Cuban independence.<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.coconutxchange.com/literature/show_item.php?id=50&section_id=1072234946
|title=Cuba
|date=24 December 2003
|publisher=coconutxchange.com
|accessdate=2007-10-30}}</ref>
Among others there were the "Expedición de los Trece" (Expedition of the Thirteen) in 1826, the "Gran Legión del Aguila Negra" (Grand Legion of the Black Eagle) in 1829, the "Cadena Triangular" (Triangular Chain) and "Soles de la Libertad" (Suns of Liberty) in 1837. Leading national figures in these years were Félix Varela and Cuba's first revolutionary poet, [[José María Heredia]].<ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 36-38.</ref>
The 1830s saw a surge of the reformist movement, whose main leader was José Antonio Saco, standing out for his criticism of Spanish despotism and slave trade. Nevertheless, this surge brought no fruit; instead, Cubans remained deprived of the right to send representatives to the Spanish parliament and Madrid stepped up repression.

Spain had been under pressure to end trade of slaves. In 1817 it signed a first treaty to which it did not adhere. With the abolishment of slavery altogether in their colonies the British forced Spain to sign another treaty in 1835. With this background Black revolts in Cuba increased and were put down with massive killings and executions.
One of the most significant was the [[Conspiración de La Escalera]] (Ladder Conspiracy), which started March 1843 and continued to 1844. The conspiracy took its name from a torture method, blacks being tied to a ladder and whipped until they confessed or died. It included free Blacks and slaves as well as white intellectuals and professionals. It is estimated that 300 Blacks and mulattos died from torture, 78 were executed, over 600 were imprisoned and over 400 expelled from the island.<ref name = "kotrhz">Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba''. La Habana, 1998, p. 40, ISBN 959-705-419-1.</ref><ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.afrocubaweb.com/eugenegodfried/placidoenglish.htm
|title=Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés – Plácido
|publisher=afrocubaweb.com
|accessdate=2007-11-02}}</ref> (See comments in new translation of Villaverde's "Cecilia Valdés".) Among the executed was one of Cuba's greatest poets, [[Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés]], now commonly known as "Placido".<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.damisela.com/literatura/pais/cuba/autores/placido/
|title=Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés “Plácido” (1809-1844)
|language=Spanish
|publisher=damisela.com
|accessdate=2007-10-30}}</ref> [[José Antonio Saco]], one of Cuba's foremost thinkers, was expelled from Cuba.<ref>{{Cite book
|url=http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y03/jun03/18a8.htm
|title=Algo más que un sabio maestro
|language=Spanish
|publisher=Cubanet Independente
|date=18 June 2003
|accessdate=2007-10-30}}</ref>

Following from the 1868-1878 rebellion [[Ten Years' War]], all slavery was abolished by 1884, making it the second to last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery (Brazil was the last). Instead of Blacks, slave traders looked for others sources of cheap labour, such as Chinese colonists and Indians from Yucatán. Another feature of the population was the number of ''peninsulares'' (Spaniards from Spain), mostly adult males; they numbered between ten and twenty per cent of the population between the middle of the 19th century and the great depression of the 1930s.

===The possibility of annexation by the USA===
Black unrest and British pressure to abolish slavery motivated many Creoles to advocate Cuba's annexation to the United States, where slavery was still legal. Other Cubans supported the idea because they longed for what they considered higher development and democratic freedom. Annexation of Cuba was repeatedly supported by the US. In 1805 President [[Thomas Jefferson]] considered possessing Cuba for strategic reasons, sending secret agents to the island to negotiate with Governor Someruelos.

In April 1823 [[US Secretary of State]] [[John Quincy Adams]] discussed the rules of political gravitation, in a theory often referred to as the "ripe fruit theory". Adams wrote, “There are laws of political as well as physical gravitation; and if an apple severed by its native tree cannot choose but fall to the ground, Cuba, forcibly disjoined from its own unnatural connection with Spain, and incapable of self-support, can gravitate only towards the North American Union which by the same law of nature, cannot cast her off its bosom.” <ref>“Worthington, Chauncey Ford: Writings of John Quincy Adams vol. VII,
Boston, MA, 2001, p372"</ref>
Adams described Cuba as “incapable” and described its separation from Spain as inevitable. He specified the islands gravitation towards North America rather than Europe. As he explained that, “the transfer of Cuba to Great Britain would be an event unpropitious to the interest of this Union.”<ref>“Worthington, Chauncey Ford: Writings of John Quincy Adams vol. VII, Boston, MA, 2001, p373"</ref> Adams voiced concern that a country outside of North America would attempt to occupy Cuba upon its separation from Spain. He wrote, “The question both of our right and our power to prevent it, if necessary, by force, already obtrudes itself upon our councils, and the administration is called upon, in the performance of its duties to the nation, at least to use all the means with the competency to guard against and forefend it.” <ref>"Worthington, Chauncey Ford: Writings of John Quincy Adams vol. VII, Boston, MA, 2001, p379"</ref>

On December second of that year US president [[James Monroe]] specifically addressed Cuba and other European colonies in his proclamation of the [[Monroe Doctrine]]. Cuba located in the [[Western Hemisphere]] just {{convert|94|mi}} from the US city [[Key West]] was of interest to the doctrine’s founders as they warned European forces to leave "America for the Americans".<ref>"Díez de Medina, Raul: Autopsy of the Monroe doctrine’ The strange story of inter-American relations, New York, NY, 1934, p.21”</ref>

The most outstanding attempts in support of annexation were made by Spanish Army General [[Narciso López]], who prepared four [[filibuster (military)|filibuster]] expeditions to Cuba in the US. The first two in 1848 and 1849 already failed before departure due to US-opposition. The third one, made up of some 600 men, managed to land on Cuba and take the central city of Cárdenas. Lacking popular support, this expedition failed. His fourth expedition landed in Pinar del Río province with around 400 men in August 1851; the invaders were defeated by Spanish troops and López was executed.

===The independence struggle resumed===
{{See also|Little War (Cuba)}}
In the 1860s Cuba had two more liberal minded governors, Serrano and Dulce, who even encouraged the creation of a Reformist Party, despite the fact that political parties were forbidden.But a reactionary governor, Francisco Lersundi, followed, who suppressed all liberties granted by the previous ones and maintaining a pro-slavery regime with all its rigour.<ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 42.</ref> On 10 October 1868, landowner [[Carlos Manuel de Céspedes]] made the "Grito de Yara", the "Cry of Yara", declaring Cuban independence and freedom for his slaves. This began the "[[Ten Years' War]]" which lasted from 1868 to 1878. Leading them to go after Cuba and freedom for his slaves.

==The War of 1895==
===Changes===
{{See also|Cuban War of Independence}}
In the years of the so-called “Rewarding Truce”, lasting for 17&nbsp;years from the end of the Ten Years War in 1878, there were fundamental social changes in Cuban society. With the abolition of slavery in October 1886 former slaves joined the ranks of farmers and urban working class. Most wealthy Cubans lost their properties and many of them joined the urban middle class. The number of sugar mills dropped and efficiency increased with only companies and the most powerful plantation owners owning them. The numbers of [[Peasant|campesinos]] and tenant farmers rose considerably. It is the period when U.S. capital began flowing into Cuba, mostly into the sugar and tobacco businesses and mining. By 1895 investments reached 50&nbsp;million U.S. dollars. Although Cuba remained Spanish politically, economically it started to depend on the U.S.<ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 53-55.</ref>

Although the conditions were very difficult, these changes entailed the rise of labour movements; the first organisation was created in 1878 being the Cigar Makers Guild, followed by the Central Board of Artisans in 1879 and many more across the island.<ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 55-57.</ref>

After his second deportation to Spain in 1878, [[José Martí]] moved to the U.S. in 1881 where he took up mobilizing the support of the Cuban exile community, especially in [[Ybor City]] in the Tampa, Florida, area and [[Key West]], Florida. He was working for a revolution and independence from Spain, but also lobbying to oppose U.S. annexation of Cuba, which some American and Cuban politicians desired. After deliberations with patriotic clubs across the U.S., the Antilles and Latin America "El Partido Revolucionario Cubano" (The Cuban Revolutionary Party), with the purpose of gaining independence for both Cuba and Puerto Rico, was officially proclaimed on April 10, 1892. Martí was elected delegate, the highest party position. By the end of 1894 the basic conditions for launching the revolution were set.<ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 59-60.</ref>“Martí’s impatience to start the revolution for independence was affected by his growing fear that the imperialist forces in the United States would succeed in annexing Cuba before the revolution could liberate the island from Spain.”<ref name = "wfbftj">Foner, Philip: The Spanish-Cuban-American War and the Birth of American Imperialism quoted in: http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/scaw/scaw1.htm</ref>

A new trend of aggressive U.S. ''influence'', evident by Secretary of State [[James G. Blaine]]’s expressed ideals that all of Central and South America would some day fall to the U.S. “That rich island,” Blaine wrote, on 1 December 1881, “the key to the Gulf of Mexico, is, though in the hands of Spain, a part of the American commercial system… If ever ceasing to be Spanish, Cuba must necessarily become American and not fall under any other European domination.” <ref name = "wqswxw">[http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/scaw/scaw1.htm Spanish-Cuban-American War - History of Cuba<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Blaine’s vision did not allow the existence of an independent Cuba. “Martí noticed with alarm the movement to annex Hawaii, viewing it as establishing a pattern for Cuba…”<ref name = "wfbftj"/>

On 25 December 1895, three ships loaded with fighters and weapons, the ''Lagonda'', the ''Almadis'' and the ''Baracoa'', set sail for Cuba from Fernandina Beach, Florida; they were loaded with weapons and supplies that had been difficult and costly to obtain. Two of the ships were seized by U.S. authorities in early January, who also alerted the Spanish government, but the proceedings went ahead.

The insurrection began on 24 February 1895, with uprisings all across the island. In Oriente the most important ones took place in Santiago, Guantánamo, Jiguaní, San Luis, El Cobre, El Caney, Alto Songo, Bayate and Baire. The uprisings in the central part of the island, such as Ibarra, Jagüey Grande and Aguada, suffered from poor co-ordination and failed; the leaders were captured, some of them deported and some executed. In the province of Havana the insurrection was discovered before it got off and the leaders detained. Thus, the insurgents further west in Pinar del Río were ordered to wait.

Martí, on his way to Cuba, proclaimed the [[Proclamation of Monecristi|Manifesto de Montecristi]] in [[Santo Domingo]], outlining the policy for Cuba’s war of independence: the war was to be waged by blacks and whites alike; participation of all blacks was crucial for victory; Spaniards who did not object to the war effort should be spared, private rural properties should not be damaged; and the revolution should bring new economic life to Cuba.<ref name = "wqswxw"/><ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 61</ref>

On April 1 and 11, 1895, the main Mambi leaders landed on two expeditions in Oriente: Major Antonio Maceo and 22 members near [[Baracoa]] and Martí, [[Máximo Gomez]] and four other members in Playitas. Around that time, Spanish forces in Cuba numbered about 80,000, of which 20,000 were regular troops,and 60,000 were Spanish and Cuban volunteers. The latter were a locally-enlisted force that took care of most of the ''guard and police'' duties on the island. Wealthy landowners would ''volunteer'' a number of their slaves to serve in this force, which was under local control and not under official military command. By December 98,412 regular troops had been sent to the island and the number of volunteers increased to 63,000 men. By the end of 1897 there were 240,000 regulars and 60,000 irregulars on the island. The revolutionaries were far outnumbered.<ref name = "wqswxw"/>

The Mambises were named after the Negro Spanish officer, [[Juan Ethninius Mamby]], who joined the Dominicans in the fight for independence in 1846. The Spanish soldiers referred to the insurgents as ''the men of Mamby'' and ''Mambies''. When Cuba’s first war of independence (known as the Ten Year War) broke out in 1868, some of the same soldiers were assigned to the island, importing what had by then become a derogatory Spanish slur. The Cubans adopted the name with pride.

After the Ten-Year War possession of weapons by private individuals had been prohibited. Thus, from the very beginning of the war one of the most serious problems for the rebels was the acquisition of suitable weapons. This lack of arms led to the guerrilla-style war using the environment, the element of surprise, a fast horse and a machete. Most of the weapons were acquired in raids on the Spaniards. Between 11 June 1895, and 30 November 1897, out of 60 attempts to bring weapons and supplies to the rebels from outside the country, only one succeeded through the protection of the British. Twenty-eight were prevented already within U.S.territory; five were intercepted by the U.S. Navy, four by the Spanish Navy, two were wrecked, one was driven back to port by storm, the fate of another is unknown.<ref name = "wqswxw"/>

Martí was killed only shortly after his landing on 19 May 1895, at Dos Rios; but Máximo Gomez and Antonio Maceo fought on, taking the war to all parts of Oriente. By the end of June all of Camagüey was at war. Continuing west they were met by 1868 war veterans, Polish internationalists, Gen. [[Carlos Roloff]] and Serafín Sánchez in Las Villas, adding weapons, men and experience.

In mid-September representatives of the five Liberation Army Corps assembled in Jimaguayú, Camagüey, to approve the ''Jimaguayú Constitution''. This constitution established a central government, which grouped the executive and legislative powers into one entity named ''Government Council'', headed by [[Salvador Cisneros]] and [[Bartolomé Masó]].

After some time of consolidation in the three eastern provinces, the liberation armies headed for Camagüey and then Matanzas, outmanoeuvring and deceiving the Spanish Army several times, defeating the Spanish Gen. [[Arsenio Martínez Campos]], himself the victor of the Ten Year War, and killing his most trusted general at Peralejo. Campos tried the same strategy he had employed in the Ten Year War, constructing a broad belt across the island, called the ''trocha'', about {{convert|80|km}} long and {{convert|200|m}} wide. This defense line was to limit rebel activities to the eastern provinces. The belt consisted of a railroad, from Jucaro in the south to Moron in the north, on which to move armoured cars. Along this railroad, at various points there were fortifications, and at intervals of {{convert|12|m}} of posts and {{convert|400|m}} of barbed wire. In addition, [[booby trap]]s were placed at locations most likely to be attacked.

For the rebels it was essential to bring the war to the western provinces (Matanzas, Havana and Pinar del Rio) where the island's government and wealth was located. The Ten Year War failed because it had not managed to proceed beyond the eastern provinces.<ref name = "wqswxw"/> In a successful cavalry campaign, overcoming the trochas, they invaded every province. Surrounding all larger cities and well-fortified towns they arrived at the westernmost tip of the island on 22 January 1896, exactly three months after the invasion near Baraguá.<ref name=spanamwar-timeline>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.spanamwar.com/timeline.htm|title=Spanish American War Chronology|publisher=spanamwar.com|accessdate=2007-10-30}}</ref><ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 64-65.</ref>

Campos was replaced by [[Valeriano Weyler|Gen. Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau]] (nicknamed the ''butcher'') who reacted to these successes by introducing terror methods: periodic executions, mass exile, and destruction of farms and crops. These methods reached their height on October 21, 1896, when he ordered all countryside residents and their livestock to gather in various fortified areas and towns occupied by his troops within eight days. Hundreds of thousands of people had to leave their homes, creating appalling and inhumane conditions in the crowded towns and cities. It is estimated that this measure caused the death of at least one-third of Cuba’s rural population.<ref>Canalejas, José in Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 66.</ref> The forced relocation was maintained until March 1898.<ref name = "wqswxw"/>

Starting in the early '80s Spain was also suppressing an independence movement in the Philippines, which was intensifying; Spain was now fighting two wars, which were putting a heavy burden on its economy. Spain turned down offers, in secret negotiations, by the U.S. in 1896 (closely following the war) to buy Cuba from Spain.

Maceo was killed on 7 December 1896, in Havana province while returning from the west.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.spanamwar.com/maceodeath.htm|title= The Death Of Cuban General Antonio Maceo|publisher=spanamwar.com, Contributed by Larry Daley |accessdate=2007-11-02}}</ref>

As the war continued the major obstacle to Cuban success was weapons supply. Although weapons and funding came from within the U.S., the supply operation violated American laws, which were enforced by the U.S. Coast Guard; of 71 resupply missions only 27 got through, 5 were stopped by the Spanish and 33 by the U.S. Coast Guard.<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.spanamwar.com/chadwickcoastguard.htm
|title=The Role of US Coast Guard 1895-1898 before entry of US in the war
|author=French Ensor Chadwick|publisher=spanamwar.com, Contributed by Larry Daley |accessdate=2007-11-02}}</ref>

In 1897 the liberation army maintained a privileged position in Camagüey and Oriente, where the Spanish only controlled a few cities. Spanish Liberal leader Praxedes Sagasta admitted in May 1897: “After having sent 200,000 men and shed so much blood, we don’t own more land on the island than what our soldiers are stepping on”.<ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 69.</ref> The rebel force of 3,000 defeated the Spanish in various encounters, such as the battle of La Reforma or the surrender of Las Tunas on 30 August and the Spaniards were kept on the defensive. Las Tunas had been guarded by over 1,000 well-armed and well-supplied men.

As stipulated at the Jimaguayú Assembly two years earlier, a second Constituent Assembly met in La Yaya, Camagüey on 10 October 1897. The newly-adopted constitution stipulated that a military command be subordinated to civilian rule. The government was confirmed, naming Bartolomé Masó president and Dr. Domingo Méndez Capote vice president.

Madrid decided to change its policy toward Cuba, replaced Weyler, drew up a colonial constitution for Cuba and Puerto Rico, and installed a new government in Havana. But with half the country out of its control, and the other half in arms it was powerless and rejected by the rebels.

===The ''Maine'' incident===
[[Image:USSMaine.jpg|thumb|285px|right|Wreckage of the ''Maine'', 1898]]
The Cuban struggle for independence had captured the American imagination for years and newspapers had been agitating for intervention with sensational stories of Spanish atrocities against the native Cuban population, intentionally sensationalized and exaggerated. Americans believed that Cuba's battle with Spain resembled America's Revolutionary War.

This continued even after Spain replaced Weyler and changed its policies and American public opinion was very much in favour of intervening in favour of the Cubans.<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_journalism.html
|title=Crucible of Empire: The Spanish-American War
|author=PBS
|publisher=pbs.org
|accessdate=2007-12-15}}</ref>

In January 1898, a riot by Cuban Spanish loyalists against the new autonomous government broke out in Havana leading to the destruction of the printing presses of four local newspapers for publishing articles critical of Spanish Army atrocities. The US Consul-General cabled Washington with fears for the lives of Americans living in Havana. In response the battleship [[USS Maine (ACR-1)|USS ''Maine'']] was sent to [[Havana]] in the last week of January. On 15 February 1898 the Maine was rocked by an explosion, killing 268 of the crew and sinking the ship in the harbour. The cause of the explosion has not been clearly established to this day.

In an attempt to appease the US the colonial government took two steps that had been demanded by President [[William McKinley]]: it ended the forced relocation and offered negotiations with the independence fighters. But the truce was rejected by the rebels.

==The Spanish-American War / the Cuban theatre==
{{Main|Spanish-American War}}

The explosion of the Maine sparked a wave of indignation in the US. Newspaper owners such as [[William R. Hearst]] leapt to the conclusion that Spanish officials in Cuba were to blame, and they widely publicized the conspiracy although Spain could have had no interest in getting the US involved in the conflict.<ref name = "webhmz">Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 71.</ref> [[Yellow journalism]] fuelled American anger by publishing "atrocities" committed by Spain in Cuba. Hearst, when informed by [[Frederic Remington]], whom he had hired to furnish illustrations for his newspaper, that conditions in Cuba were not bad enough to warrant hostilities, allegedly replied, "You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."<ref>{{Cite web|url= http://academic2.american.edu/~wjc/wjc3/notlikely.htm|title=Not likely sent: The Remington-Hearst "telegrams"|author=W. Joseph Campbell|date=summer 2000|publisher=Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly}}</ref>
McKinley, Speaker of the House [[Thomas Brackett Reed]], and the business community opposed the growing public demand for war, which was lashed to fury by yellow journalism. The American cry of the hour became, ''Remember the Maine, To Hell with Spain!''

The decisive event was probably the speech of Senator [[Redfield Proctor]] delivered on 17 March, analyzing the situation and concluding that war was the only answer. The business and religious communities switched sides, leaving McKinley and Reed almost alone in their opposition to the war.<ref>Offner 1992 pp 131–35; Michelle Bray Davis and Rollin W. Quimby, "Senator Proctor's Cuban Speech: Speculations on a Cause of the Spanish-American War", ''Quarterly Journal of Speech'' 1969 55(2): 131–41. ISSN 0033-5630.</ref> “Faced with a revved up, war-ready population, and all the editorial encouragement the two competitors could muster, the US jumped at the opportunity to get involved and showcase its new steam-powered Navy”.<ref name = "wqswxw" /> On 11 April McKinley asked Congress for authority to send American troops to Cuba for the purpose of ending the civil war there. On 19 April Congress passed [[joint resolution]]s (by a vote of 311 to 6 in the House and 42 to 35 in the Senate) supporting Cuban independence and disclaiming any intention to annex Cuba, demanding Spanish withdrawal, and authorizing the president to use as much military force as he thought necessary to help Cuban patriots gain independence from Spain. This was adopted by resolution of Congress and included from Senator [[Henry Teller]] the [[Teller Amendment]], which passed unanimously, stipulating that “the island of Cuba is, and by right should be, free and independent”.<ref name = "webhmz"/> The amendment disclaimed any intention on the part of the US to exercise jurisdiction or control over Cuba for other than pacification reasons, and confirmed that the armed forces would be removed once the war is over. Senate and Congress passed the amendment on 19 April, McKinley signed the joint resolution on 20 April and the ultimatum was forwarded to Spain. War was declared on 20/21 April 1898.

“It's been suggested that a major reason for the US war against Spain was the fierce competition emerging between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal.” Joseph E. Wisan wrote in an essay titled "The Cuban Crisis As Reflected In The New York Press”, published in “American Imperialism” in 1898: “In the opinion of the writer, the Spanish-American War would not have occurred had not the appearance of Hearst in New York journalism precipitated a bitter battle for newspaper circulation.” It has also been argued that the main reason the U.S. entered the war was the failed secret attempt, in 1896, to purchase Cuba from a weaker, war-depleted Spain.<ref name = "wqswxw"/> {{See|Propaganda of the Spanish American War}}

Hostilities started hours after the declaration of war when a US contingent under Admiral William T. Sampson blockaded several Cuban ports. The Americans decided to invade Cuba and to start in Oriente where the Cubans had almost absolute control and were able to co-operate, e.g. by establishing a [[beachhead]] and protecting the US landing in Daiquiri. The first US objective was to capture the city of Santiago de Cuba in order to destroy Linares' army and Cervera's fleet. To reach Santiago they had to pass through concentrated Spanish defences in the San Juan Hills and a small town in [[El Caney]]. Between 22 and 24 June the Americans landed under General [[William R. Shafter]] at [[Daiquirí]] and [[Siboney, Cuba|Siboney]], east of Santiago, and established a base.
The port of Santiago became the main target of naval operations. The US fleet attacking Santiago needed shelter from the summer hurricane season. Thus nearby [[Guantánamo Bay]] with its excellent harbour was chosen for this purpose and attacked on 6 June ([[1898 invasion of Guantánamo Bay]]). The [[Battle of Santiago de Cuba]], on 3 July 1898, was the largest naval engagement during the Spanish-American War resulting in the destruction of the Spanish Caribbean Squadron (Flota de Ultramar).

Resistance in Santiago consolidated around Fort Canosa,<ref>Daley#, L. 2000. El Fortin Canosa en la Cuba del 1898. in Los Ultimos Dias del Comienzo. Ensayos sobre la Guerra Hispano-Cubana-Estadounidense. B. E. Aguirre and E. Espina eds. RiL Editores, Santiago de Chile pp. 161–71.</ref> all the while major battles between Spaniards and Americans took place at Las Guasimas ([[Battle of Las Guasimas]]) on 24 June El Caney [[Battle of El Caney]] and San Juan Hill [[Battle of San Juan Hill]] on 1 July 1898 outside of Santiago <ref>[http://www.homeofheroes.com/wallofhonor/spanish_am/10_sanjuan.html The Battles at El Caney and San Juan Hills] at HomeOfHeroes.com.</ref> after which the American advance ground to a halt. Spanish troops successfully defended Fort Canosa, allowing them to stabilize their line and bar the entry to Santiago. The Americans and Cubans forcibly began a bloody, strangling siege of the city<ref>{{Harvnb|Daley|2000|pp=161–71}}</ref> which eventually surrendered on 16 July after the defeat of the Spanish Caribbean Squadron. Thus, Oriente was under control of Americans and the Cubans, but US General [[Nelson A. Miles]] would not allow Cuban troops to enter Santiago, claiming that he wanted to prevent clashes between Cubans and Spaniards. Thus, Cuban General [[Calixto Carcía]], head of the mambi forces in the Eastern department, ordered his troops to hold their respective areas and resigned, writing a letter of protest to General Shafter.<ref name = "webhmz"/>

After losing the Philippines and Puerto Rico, which had also been invaded by the US, and with no hope of holding on to Cuba, Spain sued for peace on 17 July 1898.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.spanamwar.com/|title=The Spanish American War Centennial Website!| publisher=spanamwar.com|accessdate=2007-11-02}}</ref> On 12 August the US and Spain signed a protocol of Peace in which Spain agreed to relinquish all claim of sovereignty over and title of Cuba.<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.msc.edu.ph/centennial/pr980812.html|title=Protocol of Peace Embodying the Terms of a Basis for the Establishment of Peace Between the Two Countries|location=Washington, D.C., U.S.A.|date=12 August 1898
|accessdate=2007-10-30}}</ref> On 10 December 1898 the US and Spain signed the [[Treaty of Paris (1898)|Treaty of Paris]], recognizing Cuban independence<ref name=ToP>{{Cite book|url=http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/spain/sp1898.htm|title=Treaty of Peace Between the United States and Spain |date=10 December 1898|publisher=The Avalon project at Yale law School| accessdate=2007-10-30}}</ref> Although the Cubans had participated in the liberation efforts, the US prevented Cuba from participating in the Paris peace talks and signing the treaty. The treaty set no time limit for US occupation and the [[Isla de la Juventud|Isle of Pines]] was excluded from Cuba.<ref name="Cantón Navarro p. 77">Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 77.</ref>
Although the treaty officially granted Cuba's independence, US General William R. Shafter refused to allow Cuban General Calixto García and his rebel forces to participate in the surrender ceremonies in Santiago de Cuba.

==The first US occupation / Platt amendment==
After the Spanish troops left the island in December 1898, the government of Cuba was handed over to the United States on 1 January 1899. The first governor was General [[John R. Brooke]]. Unlike [[Guam]], [[Puerto Rico]], and the [[Philippines]], the United States did not annex Cuba because of the restrictions imposed in the [[Teller Amendment]].<ref>{{Cite book|url= http://www.etsu.edu/cas/history/docs/teller.htm|title=The Teller Amendment|year=1898|publisher=East Tennessee State University|accessdate=2007-10-30}}</ref>

===Political changes===
The US administration was undecided on Cuba’s future status. Once it had been pried away from the Spaniards it was to be assured that it moved and remained in the US sphere. How this was to be achieved was a matter of intense discussion and annexation was an option, not only on the mainland but also in Cuba. McKinley spoke about the links that should exist between the two nations.<ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 78.</ref>

Brooke set up a civilian government, also placed US governors in seven newly created departments and named civilian governors in the provinces as well as mayors and representatives in municipalities. Many Spanish colonial government officials were kept in their posts. People were ordered to disarm and, ignoring the Mambi Army, Brooke created the Rural Guard and municipal police corps at the service of the occupation forces. Judicial powers and courts remained legally based on the same codes of the Spanish government. Tomás Estrada Palma, successor of Martí as delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, dissolved the party a few days after the signing of the Paris Treaty in December 1898, claiming that the objectives of the party had been met. The revolutionary Assembly of Representatives was disregarded and also dissolved. Thus, the three representative institutions of the national liberation movement disappeared.<ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 74.</ref>

===Economic changes===
Already before the US officially took over the government, it had cut tariffs on US goods entering Cuba without granting the same rights to Cuban goods going to the US.<ref name="Cantón Navarro p. 75">Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 75</ref> Government payments had to be made in US dollars.<ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 77</ref> In spite of the [[Foraker Amendment]], prohibiting the US occupation government from granting privileges and concessions to US investors, the Cuban economy, facilitated by the occupation government, was soon dominated by US capital.<ref name="Cantón Navarro p. 75"/> The growth of US sugar estates was so quick that in 1905 nearly 10% of Cuba’s total land area belonged to US citizens. By 1902 US companies controlled 80% of Cuba’s ore exports and owned most of the sugar and cigarette factories.<ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 76</ref>

The US Army began a massive public health program to fight endemic diseases, mainly [[yellow fever]], and an education system was organized at all levels, increasing the number of primary schools fourfold.

Voices soon began to be heard, demanding a Constituent Assembly.<ref name="Cantón Navarro p. 77"/> In December 1899 the US War Secretary assured that the occupation was temporary, that municipal elections would be held, that a Constituent Assembly would be set up, followed by general elections and that sovereignty would be handed to Cubans. Brooke was replaced by General Leonard Wood to oversee the transition. Parties were created, including the [[Cuban National Party]], the [[Federal Republican Party of Las Villas]], the [[Republican Party of Havana]] and the [[Democratic Union Party (Cuba)|Democratic Union Party]].

[[Cuban local elections, 1900|The first elections]] for mayors, treasurers and attorneys of the country’s 110 municipalities for a one-year-term took place on 16 June 1900 but balloting was limited to literate Cubans older than 21 and with properties worth more than 250 US dollars. Only members of the dissolved Liberation Army were exempt from these conditions. Thus, the number of about 418,000 male citizens over 21 was reduced to about 151,000. 360,000 women were totally excluded. The same elections were held one year later, again for a one-year-term.

Elections for 31 delegates to a Constituent Assembly were held on 15 September 1900 with the same balloting restrictions. In all three elections pro-independence candidates including a large number of mambi delegates won the overwhelming majority.<ref name = "diwapu">Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 79.</ref> The Constitution was drawn up from November 1900 to February 1901 and then passed by the Assembly. It established the republican form of government, proclaimed internationally recognized individual rights and liberties, freedom of religion, separation between Church and State and the composition, structure and functions of state powers.

On 2 March 1901 the US-Congress passed the [[Army Appropriations Act (1901)|Army Appropriations Act]] stipulating the conditions for the withdrawal of United States troops remaining in [[Cuba]] since the [[Spanish-American War]]. As a [[rider (politics)|rider]] this act included the '''[[Platt Amendment]]''', which defined the terms of Cuban-US relations until 1934. It replaced the earlier [[Teller Amendment]]. The amendment provided for a number of rules heavily infringing on Cuba’s sovereignty:
*Cuba would not transfer Cuban land to any power other than the United States.
*Cuba would contract no [[foreign debt]] without guarantees that the interest could be served from ordinary revenues.
*The right to US intervention in Cuban affairs and military occupation when the US authorities considered that the life, properties and rights of US citizens were in danger,
*Cuba was prohibited from negotiating treaties with any country other than the United States "which will impair or to impair the independence of Cuba".
*Cuba was prohibited to "permit any foreign power or powers to obtain … lodgement in or control over any portion" of Cuba.
*The Isle of Pines (now called [[Isla de la Juventud]]) was deemed outside the boundaries of Cuba until the title to it was adjusted in a future treaty.
*The sale or lease to the United States of "lands necessary for coaling or naval stations at certain specified points to be agreed upon." The amendment ceded to the United States the naval base in Cuba ([[Guantanamo Bay Naval Base|Guantánamo Bay]]) and granted the right to use a number of other naval bases as coal stations.

As a precondition to Cuba’s independence the US demanded that this amendment be approved fully and without changes by the Constituent Assembly as an appendix to the new constitution. Faced with this alternative the appendix was approved after heated debating with a margin of 4 votes. Governor Wood admitted: “Little or no independence had been left to Cuba with the Platt Amendment and the only thing appropriate was to seek annexation”<ref name = "diwapu"/>

In the following presidential elections on 31 December 1901 [[Tomás Estrada Palma]], a US citizen still living in the United States, was the only candidate. His adversary, General [[Barolomé Masó]], withdrew his candidacy in protest against US favoritism and the manipulation of the political machine by Palma’s followers. Palma was elected to be the Republic’s first President and only returned to Cuba four months after the election. US occupation officially ended when Palma took office on 20 May 1902.<ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 81.</ref>

==Cuba in the early 20th century==
In 1902, the United States handed over control to a Cuban government that as a condition of the transfer had included in its constitution provisions implementing the requirements of the [[Platt Amendment]], which among other things gave the United States the right to intervene militarily in Cuba. [[Havana]] and [[Varadero]] became tourist resorts, adorned with casinos and strip-clubs.{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}} The Cuban population gradually enacted civil rights anti-discrimination legislation that ordered minimum employment quotas for Cubans.{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}}

President [[Tomás Estrada Palma]] was elected in 1902, and Cuba was declared independent, though [[Guantánamo Bay, Cuba|Guantanamo Bay]] was leased to the United States as part of the Platt Amendment. The status of the [[Isla de la Juventud|Isle of Pines]] as Cuban territory was left undefined until 1925 when the United States finally recognized Cuban sovereignty over the island. Estrada Palma, a frugal man, governed successfully for his four year term; yet when he tried to extend his time in office, a revolt ensued. In 1906, the United States representative [[William Howard Taft]], notably with the personal diplomacy of [[Frederick Funston]], negotiated an end of the successful revolt led by able young general [[Enrique Loynaz del Castillo]],<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.spanamwar.com/delcastillo.htm
|title=A Biography of General Enrique Loynaz del Castillo
|publisher=spanamwar.com, Contributed by Larry Daley
|accessdate=2007-11-02}}</ref> who had served under Antonio Maceo in the final war of independence. Estrada Palma resigned. The United States Governor [[Charles Magoon]] assumed temporary control until 1909.<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://library.thinkquest.org/18355/charles_magoon.html
|title=Charles Magoon (1861-1920)
|publisher=library.thinkquest.org
|accessdate=2007-11-02}}</ref> In this period in the area of Manzanillo, Agustín Martín Veloz, [[Blas Roca]], and Francisco (Paquito) Rosales founded the embryonic [[Popular Socialist Party (Cuba)|Cuban Communist Party]].<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.cnctv.cubasi.cu/manzanillo.php
|title=Manzanillo
|publisher=cnctv.cubasi.cu
|accessdate=2007-11-02}}</ref>

For three decades, the country was led by former [[List of Presidents of Cuba|War of Independence leaders]], who after being elected did not serve more than two constitutional terms. The Cuban presidential succession was as follows: [[José Miguel Gómez]] (1908–1912); [[Mario Garcia Menocal]] (1913–1920); [[Alfredo Zayas]] (1921–25).<ref>{{Cite web
|url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/zayas-bio.htm
|title=Alfredo Zayas
|publisher=latinamericanstudies.org
|accessdate=2007-11-02}}</ref>

In [[World War I]], Cuba declared war on [[Imperial Germany]] on 7 April 1917, the day after the US entered the war. Despite being unable to send troops to fight in Europe, Cuba played a significant role as a base to protect the West Indies from U-Boat attacks. A draft law was instituted, and 25,000 Cuban troops raised, but the war ended before they could be sent into action.

===After World War I===
President [[Gerardo Machado]] was elected by popular vote in 1925, but he was constitutionally barred from reelection. Machado, who determined to modernize Cuba, set in motion several massive civil works projects such as the Central Highway, but at the end of his constitutional term held on to power. The United States, despite the Platt Amendment, decided not to interfere militarily. The communists of the PCC did very little to resist Machado in his dictator phase; however, practically everybody else did. In the late 1920s and early 1930s a number of Cuban action groups, including some Mambí, staged a series of uprisings that either failed or did not affect the capital. After much complex rebellion, Machado was asked to leave by the Cuban Army and senior Cuban civil leaders in 1933. After Machado was deposed there was a confused short interregnum.

About six months later still, in September 1933, there was a successful mutiny by enlisted soldiers and non-commissioned officers, taking the lower ranks of the Cuban Army to power. A key figure in the process was [[Fulgencio Batista]], an army sergeant holding a key post as a telegraph officer. Batista, with his straight Taíno hair and very dark skin, often lightened in later photographs, was known as "El Mulato Lindo". He was the first and only mulatto leader in Cuban history.<ref>Argote-Freyre, Frank. 2006. ''Fulgencio Batista: Volume 1, From revolutionary to strongman''. Rutgers University Press, New Jersey. ISBN 0-8135-3701 0.</ref><ref>Chester, Edmund A. 1954. ''A Sergeant named Batista''. Holt, 1954. {{ASIN|B0007DPO1U}}</ref>

===The 1940 constitution===
[[Image:Prio Socarras 1948.jpg|thumb|right|120px|President [[Carlos Prío Socarrás]] (left), with US president [[Harry S. Truman]] in Washington, 1948.]]

In 1940, Cuba had free and fair elections.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba"/><ref name="Sweig-Inside">{{Cite book|title=Inside the Cuban Revolution|author=Julia E. Sweig|isbn=9780674016125|year=2004|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Mass.}}</ref> Batista, endorsed by Communists,<ref name="Dominquez-Cuba">{{Cite book|title=Cuba|author=Jorge I. Domínguez}}</ref> won the election. Communists attacked the anti-Batista opposition, saying that Ramón Grau and others were "fascists", "reactionaries", and "Trotskyists".<ref name="Dominquez-Cuba"/> The [[Constitution of Cuba|1940 Constitution]], which Julia E. Sweig describes as extraordinarily [[progressivist]], was adopted by Batista administration.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba">{{Cite book|title=Cuba|author=Leslie Bethell|isbn=9780521436823|year=1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge}}</ref><ref name="Sweig-Inside"/> Batista was voted out of office in 1944 elections.

Batista was succeeded by Dr. [[Ramón Grau San Martín]] in 1944, a populist physician, who had briefly held the presidency in the 1933 revolutionary process. President Grau made a deal with [[labor union]] to continue Batista's pro-labour policies.<ref name="Dominquez-Cuba"/> Grau's administration coincided with the end of World War II, and he inherited an economic boom as sugar production and prices rose. He inaugurated a program of public works and school construction. Social security benefits were increased, and economic development and agricultural production were encouraged. But increased prosperity brought increased corruption. Nepotism and favoritism flourished, and urban violence, a legacy of the early 1930s, reappeared now with tragic proportions.<ref>http://www.answers.com/topic/grau-san-mart-n-ram-n></ref><ref name="Dominquez-Cuba"/> The country was also steadily gaining a reputation as a base for organized crime, with the [[Havana Conference]] of 1946 seeing leading Mafia mobsters descend upon the city.<ref>[http://crimemagazine.com/havana.htm Havana Conference<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

Grau was followed by [[Carlos Prío Socarrás]], also elected democratically, but whose government was tainted by increasing corruption and violent incidents among political factions. Around the same time [[Fidel Castro]] had become a public figure at the University of Havana. [[Eduardo Chibás]] was the leader of the [[Partido Ortodoxo]] (Orthodox Party), a liberal democratic group, who was widely expected to win in 1952 on an anticorruption platform. Chibás committed suicide before he could run for the presidency, and the opposition was left without its major leader.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Batista, who was running for president in the 1952 elections, but was only expected to get a small minority of votes, seized power in an almost bloodless coup three months before the election was to take place. President Prío did nothing to stop the coup, and was forced to leave the island. Due to the corruption of the past two administrations, the general public reaction to the coup was somewhat accepting at first. However, Batista soon encountered stiff opposition when he temporarily suspended the balloting and the constitution, and attempted to rule by decree. Elections were held in 1953 and Batista was elected. Opposition parties mounted a blistering campaign, and continued to do so, using the Cuban free press during all of Batista's tenure in office. Although Batista was intent on lining his pockets, Cuba did flourish economically during his regime.

Cuba's wages were among the world's highest.<ref name="gonzalez"/> According to International Labor Organization, the average industrial salary in Cuba was the world's 8th highest in 1958. The average agricultural wages were higher than in Denmark, West Germany, Belgium, or France.<ref name="gonzalez">{{Cite book|title=The Secret Fidel Castro|author=Servando Gonzalez}}</ref><ref name="beforecastro"/> Although a third of the population still lived in poverty, Cuba was one of the five most developed countries in Latin America.<ref name="heroic">{{Cite news|title=The Cuban revolution at 50: Heroic myth and prosaic failure|date=30 December 2008|publisher=The Economist|url=http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12851254}}</ref> Only 44% of the population was rural.<ref name="Paterson-Contesting"/>

Gross domestic product per capita was already about equal to Italy and significantly higher than that of countries such as Japan, although 1/6 of the US.<ref name="gonzalez"/><ref name="garcia"/> According to the United Nations at the time, "one feature of the Cuban social structure is a large middle class".<ref name="garcia">{{Cite web|title=Andy Garcia's Thought Crime|url=http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=7F7FD12F-91C7-4DD3-8630-DA804216B600}}</ref> [[Eight-hour day]] had been established in 1933, long before other countries. Cuba had a months's paid holiday, nine days' sick leave with pay, six weeks' holiday before and after childbirth.<ref name="unnecessary"/>

Cuba had Latin America's highest per capita consumption rates of meat, vegetables, cereals, automobiles, telephones and radios.<ref name="beforecastro"/><ref name="unnecessary">{{Cite web|title=Cuba: The Unnecessary Revolution|url=http://www.neoliberalismo.com/unnecesary.htm}}</ref><ref name="Lewis"/>{{Rp|[http://books.google.com/books?id{{=}}LAvw-YXm4TsC&pg{{=}}PA186 186]}} Televisions per capita was the fifth highest in the world. Despite small size, it had the world's 8th highest number of radio stations (160). According to the United Nations, Cubans read 58 daily newspapers during the late 1950s, only behind three much more populous countries: Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.<ref name="cubafacts43"/> People migrated to Havana at fast pace. Havana was the world's fourth most expensive city.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba"/> Havana had more cinemas than New York.<ref name="heroic"/>

Cuba had one of the highest numbers of doctors per capita - more than in the United Kingdom. The mortality rate was the third lowest in the world. According to the World Health Organization, the island had the lowest infant mortality rate of Latin America and the 13th lowest in the world - better than in France, Belgium, West Germany, Israel, Japan, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.<ref name="beforecastro">{{Cite web|title=Cuba Before Fidel Castro|url=http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/cubaprecastro21698.html}}</ref><ref name="comparison">{{Cite web|url=http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/ca/cuba/asce/cuba8/30smith.pdf|format=PDF|title=Renaissance and decay: A comparison of socioeconomic indicators in pre-castro and current-day Cuba|author=Kirby Smith and Hugo Llorens|accessdate=2009-06-21}}</ref><ref name="stuckoncastro">{{Cite web|url=http://www.reason.com/news/show/125095.html|title=Still Stuck on Castro - How the press handled a tyrant's farewell}}</ref> Cuba had the highest rates of education spending in Latin America.<ref name="beforecastro"/> Cuba had the 4th highest literacy in the region at almost 80% according to the United Nations, higher than in Spain.<ref name="cubafacts43">{{Cite web|url=http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/FACTS_Web/Cuba%20Facts%20Issue%2043%20December.htm|title=Cuba facts issue 43|date=December 2008}}</ref><ref name="comparison"/><ref name="stuckoncastro"/> Economy could not always keep up with demand. Cuba had already the highest telephone penetration in Latin America - but thousands were still waiting, which caused frustration.<ref name="Paterson-Contesting"/>

However, United States was the frame of reference, not Latin America.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba"/><ref name="Paterson-Contesting"/> Cubans travelled to America, read American newspapers, listened to American radio, watched American television, and were attracted to American culture.<ref name="Paterson-Contesting"/> Middle class Cubans dreamed of American economy and the gap between Cuba and the US increasingly frustrated many in the mid-1950.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba"/> The middle class became increasingly dissatisfied with the administration, while labour unions supported Batista until the very end.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba"/><ref name="Dominquez-Cuba"/>

There were large income disparities that were a result of the fact that Cuba's unionized workers enjoyed perhaps the largest privileges in Latin America.<ref name="baklanoff"/> Cuban labour unions had established limitations on mechanization and the bans on dismissals.<ref name="unnecessary"/> The labour union privileges were obtained in large measure "at the cost of the unemployed and the peasants".<ref name="baklanoff">{{Cite journal|title=Cuba on the eve of the socialist transition: A reassessment of the backwardness-stagnation thesis|author=Eric N. Baklanoff|format=PDF|journal=Cuba in Transition|url=http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/ca/cuba/asce/cuba8/31baklanoff.pdf|accessdate=2009-06-21}}</ref>

Cuba's labour regulations caused economic stagnation. Hugh Thomas asserts that "militant unions succeded in maintaining the position of unionized workers and, consequently, made it difficult for capital to improve efficiency."<ref name="Thomas-Cuba">{{Cite book|title=Cuba, The Pursuit of Freedom|author=Hugh Thomas|page=1173)}}</ref> Between 1933 and 1958, Cuba increased economic regulation enormously.<ref name="Dominquez-Cuba"/> The regulation led to declining investment.<ref name="Dominquez-Cuba"/> World Bank also complained that the Batista administration raised tax burden without assessing its impact. Unemployment was large. Many graduates could not find jobs.<ref name="Dominquez-Cuba"/> Cuban gross domestic product grew at only 1% annual rate during 1950-1958.<ref name="Paterson-Contesting">{{Cite book|title=Contesting Castro|author=Thomas G. Paterson}}</ref>

==The Cuban revolution==
{{Main|Cuban Revolution}}

[[Fidel Castro]], a young lawyer from a rich family, who was running for a seat in the Chamber of Representatives for the Partido Ortodoxo, circulated a petition to depose Batista's government on the grounds that it had illegitimately suspended the electoral process. However, the petition was not acted upon by the courts. On 26 July 1953 Castro led a historic attack on the [[Moncada Barracks]] near [[Santiago de Cuba]], but failed. Many soldiers were killed by Castro's forces. Castro was captured, tried and sentenced to 15&nbsp;years in prison. However, he was released by the Batista government in 1956, when amnesty was given to many political prisoners, including the ones that assaulted the Moncada barracks. Castro subsequently went into exile in Mexico where he met [[Ernesto "Che" Guevara]]. While in Mexico, he organized the [[26th of July Movement]] with the goal of overthrowing Batista. A group of 82 men sailed to Cuba on board the yacht ''[[Granma (yacht)|Granma]]'', landing in the eastern part of the island in December 1956. Despite a pre-landing rising in Santiago by [[Frank Pais]] and his followers of the urban pro-Castro movement, most of Castro's men were promptly killed, dispersed or taken prisoner by Batista's forces.

Castro managed to escape to the [[Sierra Maestra]] mountains with about 12-17 effectives, aided by the urban and rural opposition, including Celia Sanchez and the bandits of Cresencio Perez's family, he began a guerrilla campaign against the regime. Castro's main forces supported by numerous poorly armed escopeteros, and with support from the well armed fighters of the [[Frank Pais]] urban organization who at times went to the mountains the rebel army grew more and more effective. The country was soon driven to chaos conducted in the cities by diverse groups of the anti-Batista resistance and notably a bloodily crushed rising by the Batista Navy personnel in Cienfuegos. At the same time, rival guerrilla groups in the Escambray Mountains also grew more and more effective. Castro attempted to arrange a general strike in 1958, but did not get support from Communists or labor unions.<ref name="Lewis">{{Cite book|title=Authoritarian regimes in Latin America|author=Paul H. Lewis}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2009}}

United States imposed trade restrictions on the Batista administration and sent an envoy which attempted to persuade Batista to leave the country voluntarily.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba"/> The middle class was dissatisfied with the unemployment and wanted to restore the 1940 constitution. Batista fled on 1 January 1959.

Castro took over. Within months of taking control, Castro moved to consolidate power by brutally marginalizing other resistance groups and figures and imprisoning and executing opponents and former supporters. As the revolution became more radical and continued its persecution of those who did not agree with its direction, hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled the island.

==Castro's Cuba==
===Politics===
Fidel Castro quickly purged political opponents from the administration. Loyalty to Castro became the primary criteria for all appointments.<ref name="Staten-Cuba"/> Groups such as labour unions were made illegal.<ref name="Lewis"/>{{Page needed|date=July 2009}}

By the end of 1960, all opposition newspaper had been closed down and all radio and television stations were in state control.<ref name="Lewis"/>{{Rp|[http://books.google.com/books?id{{=}}LAvw-YXm4TsC&pg{{=}}PA189 189]}} Teachers and professors were purged.<ref name="Lewis"/>{{Rp|[http://books.google.com/books?id{{=}}LAvw-YXm4TsC&pg{{=}}PA189 189]}} The Communist Party strengthened its one-party rule, with Castro as the supreme leader.<ref name="Lewis"/>{{Rp|[http://books.google.com/books?id{{=}}LAvw-YXm4TsC&pg{{=}}PA189 189]}} Moderates were arrested.<ref name="Lewis"/>{{Rp|[http://books.google.com/books?id{{=}}LAvw-YXm4TsC&pg{{=}}PA189 189]}} Fidel's brother Raul Castro became the army chief.<ref name="Lewis"/>{{Rp|[http://books.google.com/books?id{{=}}LAvw-YXm4TsC&pg{{=}}PA189 189]}} In September 1960, the neighborhood watch systems known as [[committees for the defense of the revolution]] (CDR) were created.<ref name="Lewis"/>{{Rp|[http://books.google.com/books?id{{=}}LAvw-YXm4TsC&pg{{=}}PA189 189]}}

In July 1961, two years after the 1959 Revolution, the ''[[Integrated Revolutionary Organizations]] (IRO)'' was formed by the merger of Fidel Castro's [[26th of July Movement]], the ''[[Popular Socialist Party (Cuba)|Popular Socialist Party]]'' led by [[Blas Roca]] and the ''[[Revolutionary Directory March 13th]]'' led by [[Faure Chomón]]. On March 26, 1962 the IRO became the ''United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution'' (PURSC) which, in turn, became the [[Communist Party of Cuba]] on October 3, 1965 with Castro as [[General Secretary|First Secretary]]. The Communist party remains the only recognized political party in Cuba. Other parties, though not illegal, are unable to campaign or conduct any activities on the island that could be deemed [[counter-revolutionary]].

===Break with the United States===
The US recognized the Castro government on 7 January only six days after Batista fled Cuba. President Eisenhower sent a new ambassador, [[Philip Bonsal]], to replace [[Earl Smith]], who had been close to Batista. The [[Eisenhower administration]], in agreement with the [[US media]] and the [[US Congress|Congress]] (Republicans and Democrats alike), did this with the assumption that “Cuba must remain in the US sphere of influence”. If Castro accepted these parameters, he would be allowed to stay in power. Otherwise he would be overthrown.<ref>Gleijeses, Piero: Conflicting Missions, Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959–1976, The University of North Carolina Press, 2002, p. 14.</ref>

Among the opponents of Batista there were many who wanted to accommodate the US. Castro belonged to a faction who, to the astonishment of Eisenhower and many [[North Americans]], was repulsed by US domination and paternalism. Castro did not forgive the US supply of arms to Batista during the revolution. On 5 June 1958, he wrote: “The Americans are going to pay dearly for what they are doing. When the war is over, I’ll start a much longer and bigger war of my own: the war I’m going to fight against them. That will be my true destiny.”<ref>Castro to Celia Sanches, 5 June 1958 in Franqui: Diary, p. 338.</ref> (The US had stopped supplies to Batista in March 1958, but left its Military Advisory Group in Cuba<ref>Paterson in: Contesting Castro, p. 242.</ref>). Thus, Castro had no intention to bow to the US. “Even though he did not have a clear blueprint of the Cuba he wanted to create, Castro dreamed of a sweeping revolution that would uproot his country’s oppressive socioeconomic structure and of a Cuba that would be free of the United States”.<ref>Quotations from “Unofficial Visit of Prime Minister Castro of Cuba to Washington – A Tentative Evaluation”, enclosed in Herter to Eisenhower, April 23, 1959, jFRUS 1958–60, 6:483, and Special NIE in: “The Situation in the Caribbean through 1959”, 30 June 1959, p. 3, NSA</ref>

Only six months after Castro seized power, the Eisenhower administration began to plot his ouster. The [[United Kingdom]] was persuaded to cancel the sale of [[Hawker Hunter]] [[fighter aircraft]] to Cuba.

At the same meeting [[Roy R. Rubottom, Jr.]], [[Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs|Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs]], summarized the evolution of [[Cuba–United States relations]] since January: "The period from January to March might be characterized as the honeymoon period of the Castro government. In April a downward trend in US-Cuban relations had been evident…In June we had reached the decision that it was not possible to achieve our objectives with Castro in power and had agreed to undertake the program referred to by Mr. Merchant. In July and August we had been busy drawing up a program to replace Castro. However some US companies reported to us during this time that they were making some progress in negotiations, a factor that caused us to slow the implementation of our program. The hope expressed by these companies did not materialize. October was a period of clarification… On 31 October in agreement with [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the Department had recommended to the President approval of a program along the lines referred to by Mr. Merchant. The approved program authorized us to support elements in Cuba opposed to the Castro government while making Castro’s downfall seem to be the result of his own mistakes."<ref>NSC meeting, 14 January 1960, FRUS 1958-60, 6:742–43.</ref> “It was probably as part of this program that Cuban exiles mounted sea borne raids against Cuba from [[Florida|US territory]] and that unidentified planes attacked economic targets on the island, leading the US to warn Washington that the population was “becoming aroused” against the United States”.<ref>Braddock to SecState, Havana, 1 February 1960, FRUS 1958–60, 6:778.</ref><ref>Gleijeses, Piero in: Conflicting Missions, Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959–1976, The University of North Carolina Press, 2002, pp. 14–5.</ref> In January 1960, CIA Chief [[Allen Dulles]] proposed to sabotage sugar refineries on Cuba. Eisenhower considered such undertakings timely and felt that more ambitious programs should be implemented. In his view “it was probably now the time to move against Castro in a positive and aggressive way which went beyond pure harassment”. He asked the CIA to develop an enlarged program which was presented in March 1960.<ref>Gray (Eisenhower’s special assistant for national security affairs) to Wilson (assistant director, DDEL), 3 December 1974, p. 1, Gray Papers, box 2, DDEL.</ref> This program led to the invasion in the Bay of Pigs.<ref>Kornbluh: Bay of Pigs.</ref><ref>Blight and Kornbluh in: Politics</ref><ref>Vandenbroucke in: Perilous Options, p. 9-50</ref><ref>Bissell: Reflections, pp. 152–204</ref> In February 1960, the [[France|French]] ship ''[[La Coubre]]'' was blown up in [[Havana Harbor]] as it unloaded munitions, killing dozens.

Relations between the United States and Cuba deteriorated rapidly as the Cuban government, in reaction to the refusal of [[Royal Dutch Shell]], [[Standard Oil]] and [[Texaco]] to refine [[petroleum]] from the [[Soviet Union]] in Cuban refineries under their control, took control of those refineries in July 1960. The Eisenhower administration promoted a [[boycott]] of Cuba by [[oil companies]], to which Cuba responded by nationalizing the refineries in August 1960. Both sides continued to escalate the dispute. Cuba expropriated more US-owned properties, notably those belonging to the [[ITT Corporation|International Telephone and Telegraph Company]] (ITT) and the [[United Fruit Company]].

In the Castro government’s first [[agrarian reform]] law, on 17 May 1959, it sought to limit the size of land holdings, and to distribute that land to small farmers in "Vital Minimum" tracts.

The US broke diplomatic relations on 3 January 1961 and imposed the [[US embargo against Cuba]] on 3 February 1962.

The [[Organization of American States]], under pressure from the United States, suspended Cuba's membership in the body on 22 January 1962, and the [[United States Government|US Government]] banned all US-Cuban trade a couple of weeks later on 7 February. The Kennedy administration extended this on 8 February 1963 making travel, financial and commercial transactions by US citizens to Cuba illegal.<ref>Priestland, Jane (editor) 2003 British Archives on Cuba: Cuba under Castro 1959-1962. Archival Publications International Limited, 2003, London ISBN 1-903008-20-4</ref>

In April 2009 [[Barack Obama]] expressed his intention to relax the existing travel restrictions by making it legal for Americans to travel to Cuba.

The embargo is still in effect {{As of|2008|lc=on}}, although some [[humanitarian]] trade in food and medicines is now allowed. At first, the embargo did not extend to other countries and Cuba traded with most [[Europe]]an, [[Asia]]n and Latin American countries and especially [[Canada]]. But now the United States pressures other nations and US companies with foreign subsidiaries to restrict trade with Cuba. Also, the [[Helms-Burton Act]] of 1996 makes it very difficult for companies doing business with Cuba to also do business in the United States, forcing internationals to choose between the two.

===Bay of Pigs invasion===
{{Main|Bay of Pigs Invasion}}
The '''Bay of Pigs Invasion''' (known as ''La Batalla de Girón'' in Cuba), was an unsuccessful attempt by a U.S.-trained force of [[Cuban exile]]s to invade southern Cuba with support from U.S. government armed forces to overthrow the Cuban government of [[Fidel Castro]]. The plan was launched in April 1961, less than three months after [[John F. Kennedy]] assumed the presidency in the [[United States]]. The Cuban armed forces, trained and equipped by [[Eastern Bloc]] nations, defeated the exile combatants in three days. The strained [[Cuban-American relations]] were exacerbated the following year by the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]].

===The Cuban missile crisis===
{{Main|Cuban missile crisis}}
Tensions between the two governments peaked again during the October 1962 [[Cuban missile crisis]]. The United States had a much larger arsenal of long-range nuclear weapons than the Soviet Union, as well as medium-range ballistic missiles ([[MRBM]]s) in Turkey, whereas the Soviet Union had a large stockpile of medium-range nuclear weapons which were primarily located in Europe. Cuba agreed to let the Soviets secretly place SS-4 ''Sandal'' and SS-5 ''Skean'' MRBMs on their territory. Reports from inside Cuba to exile sources questioned the need for large amounts of ice going to rural areas<!-- apparently the ships were reported as carrying ice? need source -->, which led to the discovery of the missiles, confirmed by [[Lockheed U-2]] photos. The United States responded by establishing a cordon in international waters to stop Soviet ships from bringing in more missiles (designated a [[quarantine]] rather than a [[blockade]] to avoid issues with [[international law]]). At the same time, Castro was getting a little too extreme for the liking of Moscow, so at the last moment the Soviets called back their ships. In addition, they agreed to remove the missiles already there in exchange for an agreement that the United States would not invade Cuba. Only after the fall of the Soviet Union was it revealed that another part of the agreement was the removal of US missiles from Turkey. It also turned out that some submarines that the US Navy blocked were carrying nuclear missiles and that communication with Moscow was tenuous, effectively leaving the decision of firing the missiles at the discretion of the captains of those submarines. In addition, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian government revealed that FROGs (Free Rocket Over Ground) armed with nuclear warheads and [[Ilyushin Il-28]] ''Beagle'' bombers armed with nuclear bombs had also been deployed in Cuba.

===Military build-Up===
In the 1961 New Year's Day parade, the Communist administration exhibited Soviet tanks and other weapons.<ref name="Staten-Cuba">{{Cite book|title=The history of Cuba|author=Clifford L. Staten}}</ref> The Revolution, by 1982, had created the second largest armed forces in Latin America, second only to [[Brazil]], though it was thought not to have the ability to invade another nation (apart from perhaps small Caribbean nations).<ref name="cubamilitary">{{Cite web|format=PDF|url=http://www.disam.dsca.mil/pubs/Vol%205-2/Cuban.pdf|title=CUBAN ARMED FORCES AND THE SOVIET MILITARY PRESENCE|accessdate=2009-06-21}}</ref>

===Repressions===
{{POV-section|date=July 2009}}

[[Military Units to Aid Production]] or UMAP’s (Unidades Militares para la Ayuda de Producción) ([[forced labor]] [[concentration camp]]s) were established in 1965 as a way to eliminate alleged "[[bourgeois]]" and "[[counter-revolutionary]]" values in the Cuban population. In July 1968 the name "UMAP" was erased and paperwork associated with the UMAP was destroyed. The camps continued as "Military Units".<ref name="castrogenocideplan">{{Cite web|url=http://www.amigospais-guaracabuya.org/oagaq003.php|title=UMAP: Castro's genocide plan|author=Agustín Blázquezwith the collaboration of Jaums Sutton}}</ref>

By 1970s the standard of living was "extremely spartan" and discontent was rife.<ref name="Bethell-Latin America">{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge History of Latin America|author=Leslie Bethell}}</ref> Castro changed economic policies in the first half of 1970s.<ref name="Bethell-Latin America"/> In the 1970s unemployment reappeared as problem. The solution was criminalize unemployment with 1971 Anti-Loafing Law; unemployed would be put into jail.<ref name="Lewis"/>{{Rp|[http://books.google.com/books?id{{=}}LAvw-YXm4TsC&pg{{=}}PA194 194]}} One alternative was to go fight Soviet-supported wars in Africa.<ref name="Lewis"/>{{Rp|[http://books.google.com/books?id{{=}}LAvw-YXm4TsC&pg{{=}}PA194 194]}}

In any given year, there were about 20,000 dissidents held and tortured under inhuman prison conditions.<ref name="Lewis"/>{{Rp|[http://books.google.com/books?id{{=}}LAvw-YXm4TsC&pg{{=}}PA194 194]}} Homosexuals were imprisoned in internment camps in the 1960s, where they were subject to medical-political "[[reeducation]]".<ref name="Hirschfeld-since1898">{{Cite book|title=Health, politics, and revolution in Cuba since 1898|author=Katherine Hirschfeld}}</ref> The ''[[Black Book of Communism]]'' estimates that 15,000-17,000 people were executed.<ref>Black Book of Communism. p. 664.</ref>

===Emigration===
{{Main|Cuban exile}}

The establishment of a [[socialist]] system in Cuba led to the fleeing of many hundreds of thousands of upper- and middle-class Cubans to the United States and other countries since Castro's rise to power.

By 1961, thousands of Cubans had fled Cuba for the United States. On 22 March an exile council was formed.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba"/> After defeating the Communist regime, the council planned to form a provisional government in which [[José Miró Cardona]] (who had become a noted leader in the civil opposition to President Fulgencio Batista) would have served as the temporary president until elections.

From 1959 through 1993, some 1.2&nbsp;million Cubans (about 10% of the current population) left the island for the United States,<ref>[http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/000797.html US Census Press Releases<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> often by sea in small boats and fragile rafts. In the early years a number of those who could claim dual Spanish-Cuban citizenship left for [[Spain]]. Over time a number of [[Cuban Jews]] were allowed to emigrate to [[Israel]] after quiet negotiations; the majority of the 10,000 or so Jews who were in Cuba in 1959 have left. After the collapse of the Soviet Union many Cubans now reside in a diverse number of countries, some ending up in countries of the [[European Union]]. A large number of Cubans live in [[Mexico]] and [[Canada]].

One major exception to the embargo was made on 6 November 1965 when Cuba and the United States formally agreed to start an airlift for Cubans who wanted to go to the United States. The first of these so-called [[Freedom Flights]] left Cuba on 1 December 1965 and by 1971 over 250,000 Cubans had flown to the United States. In 1980, another 125,000 came to US during six-months period in the [[Mariel boat lift]], some of them criminals and people with psychiatric diagnoses. It was discovered that the Cuban government was using the event to rid Cuba of the unwanted segments of its society. Currently, there is an immigration lottery allowing 20,000 Cubans seeking political asylum to go to the United States legally every year.

The closest points between Key West and Cuba are at a distance of ninety-four statue miles apart.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_West,_Florida</ref> The ocean separating the two destinations is known for its changing currents and high concentrations of sharks. [[Volusia County]] of Florida neighbors the Atlantic Ocean and is considered the "Shark Capital of the World".<ref>[http://volusia.org/beach/shark_facts.htm Shark Facts<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Nonetheless, a thousand or more Cuban natives take the risk of traveling by small raft or boat to [[Key West]], the southern most part of the continental US.

===Cuban involvement in third world conflicts===
From the very beginning the Cuban Revolution defined itself as [[internationalist]] and focused on the whole world. Thus, out of this idealism and also as a strategy for survival, already one year after the victory of revolution on Cuba the country took on civil and military assignments in the southern hemisphere. Although still a third world country itself Cuba supported African, Central American and Asian countries in the field of military, health and education. These “overseas adventures” not only irritated the USA but quite often were a “major headache” for the [[Kremlin]].<ref>Jim Lobe http://www.strategypage.com/militaryforums/50-9.aspx</ref>

The [[Sandinista National Liberation Front|Sandinista]] insurgency in [[Nicaragua]] which lead to the demise of the [[Somoza]]-Dictatorship in 1979, was openly supported by Cuba.

Quite the contrary was the case on the African continent, where Cuba garnered a number of successes in supporting 17 liberation movements or leftist governments, e. g. [[Ethiopia]], [[Guinea-Bissau]] and [[Mozambique]]. Among these countries Angola takes an exceptional position.

Fidel Castro was a friend of the [[Marxist-Leninist]] dictator [[Mengistu Haile Mariam]], whose Marxist-Leninist regime murdered millions during the [[Red Terror (Ethiopia)|Red Terror]] and was later convicted of [[genocide]] and [[crimes against humanity]]. Castro backed Mengistu Haile Mariam even when the latter had a war with the [[Somalia]]n [[Marxist-Leninist]] dictator [[Siad Barre]].<ref name="westad"/><ref>{{Cite book|title=Superpower diplomacy in the Horn of Africa|author=Samuel M. Makinda}}</ref> Castro described said to [[Erich Honecker]], communist dictator of [[East Germany]], that Siad Barre was "above all a chauvinist".<ref name="westad">{{Cite book|title=The global Cold War|author=Odd Arne Westad}}</ref>

Already in 1961 in its first mission Cuba supported the [[FLN]] in [[Algeria]] against France.<ref name="ReferenceA">Gleijeses, Piero: Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, (The University of North Carolina Press)</ref> Shortly after Algerian independence Morocco started a border dispute in October 1963 in which Cuba sent troops to help Algeria (see: [[Sand War]] ). From a Memorandum of 20 October 1963 by Major [[Raúl Castro]] it can be seen, that great importance was attached to the decent behaviour of the troops and good relations giving strict instructions on conduct.<ref>http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB67/gleijeses10.pdf (Document from the Centro de Informacion de la Defensa de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias, CIDFAR, [Information Centre of the Revolutionary Armed Forces])</ref>

In 1965 Cuba supported a rebellion of adherents of [[Lumumba]] (Simba Rebellion) in Congo-Leopoldville (today [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]]).<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Among the insurgents was also [[Laurent-Désiré Kabila]] who, 30&nbsp;years later, would overthrow long-time dictator [[Mobutu]]. This secret Cuban mission turned out to be a complete failure.<ref>Ernesto Che Guevara: "The African Dream" The Diaries of the Revolutionary War in the Congo. With an Introduction by Richard Gott (New York: Grove Press, 2001)</ref>

In the 1970s and 1980s Cuba stepped up its military presence abroad, especially in Africa. It had up to 50,000 men stationed in Angola, 24,000 in [[Ethiopia]] and hundreds in other countries. Cuban forces played a key role in the [[Ogaden War]] 1977/78 between Ethiopia and [[Somalia]] and kept a substantial garrison stationed in Ethiopia. In the [[Mozambican Civil War]] beginning in 1977 and in Congo-Brazzaville (today [[Republic of the Congo]]) Cubans acted as advisors. Congo-Brazzaville acted as a supply base for the Angola mission.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Cuba's [[Cuba in Angola|involvement in Angola]] began in the 1960s when relations were established with the leftist Movement for the Popular Liberation of Angola ([[MPLA]]). The MPLA was one of three organisations struggling to liberate Angola from Portugal, the other two being [[UNITA]] and the [[FNLA]]. In August and October 1975, South African Defence Forces (SADF) invaded Angola in support of the UNITA and FNLA. On 5 November 1975, without consulting the [[USSR]], the Cuban government opted for an all out intervention with combat troops ([[Operation Carlota]]) in support of the MPLA.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="France 2006">“Une Odyssee Africaine” (France, 2006, 59mn) directed by: Jihan El Tahri</ref> In 1987-1988, South Africa again sent military forces to Angola to stop an advance of Angolan government forces (FAPLA) against UNITA leading to the [[Battle of Cuito Cuanavale]], and again, without consulting the USSR, Cuba stepped in.

Cuba directly participated in the negotiations between Angola and South Africa. On 22 December 1988 Angola, Cuba and South Africa signed the [[Tripartite Accord (Angola)|Tripartite Accord]] in New York arranging for the retreat of South Africa, the withdrawal of Cuban troops within 30&nbsp;months and the implementation of the 10-year old [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 435|UN Security Council Resolution 435]] for the independence of [[Namibia]]. The Cuban intervention, for a short time, turned Cuba into a “global player” in the midst of the [[Cold War]]. It ended with the independence of [[Namibia]] and sounded the bell for the decline of the [[Apartheid]] regime in South Africa. The withdrawal of the Cubans ended 13&nbsp;years of military presence in Angola. At the same time they removed their troops from Pointe Noire [[Republic of the Congo]] and [[Ethiopia]].<ref name="France 2006"/><ref>[http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2886.htm Cuba (11/07)<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

===Cooperation between Cuban and Soviet intelligence services===
As early as September 1959, Valdim Kotchergin (or Kochergin), a [[KGB]] agent, was seen in Cuba.<ref>(British Foreign Office. Chancery American Department, Foreign Office, London 2 September 1959 (2181/59) to British Embassy Havana classified as restricted Released 2000 by among British Foreign Office papers FOREIGN OFFICES FILES FOR CUBA Part 1: Revolution in Cuba “in our letter 1011/59 May 6 we mentioned that a Russian workers' delegation had been invited to participate in the May Day celebrations here, but had been delayed. The interpreter with the party, which arrived later and stayed in Cuba a few days, was called Vadim Kotchergin although he was at the time using what he subsequently claimed was his mother's name of Liston (?). He remained in the background, and did not attract any attention..”</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.canf.org/2005/1es/noticias-de-Cuba/2005-nov-07-el-campo-de-entrenamiento.htm|publisher=Cuban American Foundation|title=El campo de entrenamiento "Punto Cero" donde el Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC) adiestra a terroristas nacionales e internacionales|accessdate=2008-01-08|date=7 November 2005}}
(English title: The training camp "Point Zero" where the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) trained national and international terrorists)<br /> “… Los coroneles soviéticos de la KGB Vadim Kochergin y Victor Simonov (ascendido a general en 1970) fueron entrenadores en "Punto Cero" desde finales de los años 60 del siglo pasado. Uno de los" graduados" por Simonov en este campo de entrenamiento es Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, más conocido como "Carlos El Chacal". Otro "alumno" de esta instalación del terror es el mexicano Rafael Sebastián Guillén, alias "subcomandante Marcos", quien se "graduó" en "Punto Cero" a principio de los años 80.”</ref> Jorge Luis Vasquez, a Cuban who was imprisoned in [[East Germany]], states that the [[Stasi]] trained the personnel of the [[Cuban Interior Ministry]](MINIT).<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.elnuevoherald.com/209/story/112259.html|last=Levitin|first=Michael|title=La Stasi entrenó a la Seguridad cubana|publisher=Nuevo Herald|date=4 November 2007|format= – <sup>[http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=author%3ALevitin+intitle%3ALa+Stasi+entren%C3%B3+a+la+Seguridad+cubana&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&btnG=Search Scholar search]</sup>}} {{Dead link|date=December 2008}}</ref> The relationship between the [[Soviet Union]]'s [[KGB]] and the Cuban [[Intelligence Directorate]] was complex and marked by times of extremely close cooperation and times of extreme competition. The Soviet Union saw the new revolutionary government in Cuba as an excellent proxy agent in areas of the world where Soviet involvement was not popular on a local level. [[Nikolai Leninov]], the KGB Chief in [[Mexico City]], was one of the first Soviet officials to recognize [[Fidel Castro]]'s potential as a revolutionary and urged the Soviet Union to strengthen ties with the new Cuban leader. The USSR saw Cuba as having far more appeal with new revolutionary movements, western intellectuals, and members of the [[New Left]] with Cuba's perceived [[Goliath (Bible)|David and Goliath]] struggle against [[US imperialism]]. Shortly after the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] in 1963, 1,500 DI agents, including [[Che Guevara]], were invited to the USSR for intensive training in intelligence operations.

==Cuba after the Soviet Union==
{{See also|Special Period}}
{{Ref improve section|date=June 2006}}
Starting from the mid-1980s and the collapse of Soviet Union,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Cuba's second economy|author=Jorge F. Pérez-López}}</ref> Cuba experienced a crisis referred to as the "[[Special Period]]". In 2008, Fidel Castro transferred power to his brother, [[Raúl Castro]]. Cuba remains one of the few [[socialist state]]s in the world. Although contacts between Cubans and foreign visitors were made legal in 1997,<ref name="rennie">Rennie, David. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/06/08/wcuba08.xml Cuba 'apartheid' as Castro pulls in the tourists], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 08/06/2002.</ref><ref name=corbett>{{Cite book|title=This Is Cuba: An Outlaw Culture Survives|first=Ben|last=Corbett|year=2004|publisher=Westview Press|isbn=0813338263|page=33}}</ref> [[Censorship in Cuba|extensive censorship]] has isolated it from the rest of the world.

When the Soviet Union broke up in late 1991, a major boost to Cuba's economy was lost, leaving it essentially paralyzed because of the economy's narrow basis, focused on just a few products with just a few buyers. Also, supplies (including oil) almost dried up. Over 80% of Cuba's trade was lost and living conditions worsened. A [[Special Period|"Special Period in Peacetime"]] was declared, which included cutbacks on transport and electricity and even food rationing. In response, the United States tightened up its trade embargo, hoping it would lead to Castro's downfall. But Castro tapped into a pre-revolutionary source of income and opened the country to tourism, entering into several joint ventures with foreign companies for hotel, agricultural and industrial projects. As a result, the use of US dollars was legalized in 1994, with special stores being opened which only sold in dollars. There were two separate economies, dollar-economy and the peso-economy, creating a social split in the island because those in the dollar-economy made much more money (as in the tourist-industry). However, in October 2004, the Cuban government announced an end to this policy: from November US dollars would no longer be legal tender in Cuba, but would instead be exchanged for [[Cuban convertible peso|convertible pesos]] (since April 2005 at the exchange rate of $1.08) with a 10% tax payable to the state on the exchange of US dollars cash — though not on other forms of exchange.

A [[Canadian Medical Association Journal]] paper states that "The famine in Cuba during the Special Period was caused by political and economic factors similar to the ones that caused a famine in North Korea in the mid-1990s. Both countries were run by authoritarian regimes that denied ordinary people the food to which they were entitled when the public food distribution collapsed; priority was given to the elite classes and the military."<ref name="cmaj"/> The government did not accept American donations of food, medicines and cash until 1993.<ref name="cmaj">{{Cite web|url=http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2474886|title=Health consequences of Cuba's Special Period|publisher=Canadian Medical Association Journal}}</ref>

Cubans had to resort to eating anything they could find. In the Havana zoo, the [[peacock]]s, the [[american bison|buffalo]] and even the [[Rhea (bird)|rhea]] were reported to have disappeared.<ref name="parrotdiplomacy"/> Cuban [[domestic cat]]s disappeared from streets to dinner tables.<ref name="parrotdiplomacy">{{Cite news|url=http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11792274|title=Parrot diplomacy|publisher=The Economist|date=24 July 2008}}</ref>

Extreme shortages of food and other goods as well as electrical blackouts led to a brief period of unrest, including numerous anti-government protests and widespread increases in crime. In response, the Cuban Communist party government formed hundreds of “rapid-action brigades” to confront protesters. According to the Communist Party daily, ''[[Granma (newspaper)|Granma]],'' "delinquents and anti-social elements who try to create disorder and an atmosphere of mistrust and impunity in our society will receive a crushing reply from the people."

The [[Tugboat massacre]] in July 1994 was a massacre of fleeing Cubans.<ref name="werlau-tugboatmassacre">{{Cite web|url=http://www.cubaarchive.org/13_DE_MARZO_TUGBOAT_MASSACRE.pdf|format=PDF|title=Cuba: The Tugboat Massacre of July 13, 1994|author=Maria C. Werlau|accessdate=2009-06-21}}</ref>

Thousands of Cubans protested in Havana and chanted "Libertad!" during the [[Maleconazo uprising]] on August 5, 1994. The regime's security forces dispersed them soon.<ref name="cancubachange">{{Cite journal|url=http://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/gratis/Gutierrez-20-1.pdf|title=Can Cuba Change?|author=Carl Gershman and Orlando Gutierrez|journal=Journal of Democracy January 2009, Volume 20, Number 1}}</ref> A paper published in the ''Journal of Democracy'' states this was the closest that the Cuban opposition could come to asserting itself decisively.<ref name="cancubachange"/>

In 1997, a group led by [[Vladimiro Roca]], a decorated veteran of the [[Angola]]n war and the son of the founder of the [[Cuban Communist Party]], sent a petition, entitled ''La Patria es de Todos'' ("the homeland belongs to all") to the Cuban general assembly requesting democratic and human rights reforms. As a result, Roca and his three associates were sentenced to jail, from which they were eventually released.

In 2001, a group of activists collected thousands of signatures for the [[Varela Project]], a petition requesting a referendum on the island's political process was openly supported by former US president [[Jimmy Carter]] during his historic 2002 visit to Cuba. The petition gathered sufficient signatures, but was rejected on an alleged technicality. Instead, a [[plebiscite]] was held in which it was formally proclaimed that Castro's brand of socialism would be perpetual.

In 2003, Castro cracked down on independent journalists and other dissidents, which became known as the "[[Black Spring (Cuba)|Black Spring]]".<ref name="longblackspring">{{Cite web|url=http://cpj.org/reports/2008/03/cuba-press-crackdown.php|title=Cuba's Long Black Spring|author=Carlos Lauria, Monica Campbell, and María Salazar|publisher=The Committee To Protect Journalists|date=18 March 2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cpj.org/blog/2009/03/the-black-spring-of-2003-a-former-cuban-prisoner-s.php|title=Black Spring of 2003: A former Cuban prisoner speaks|publisher=The Committee to Protect Journalists}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16771|title=Three years after "black spring" the independent press refuses to remain in the dark|publisher=The Reporters Without Borders}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/Cuba_report.pdf|title=Cuba - No surrender by independent journalists, five years on from “black spring”|format=PDF|publisher=The Reporters Without Borders|date=March 2008|accessdate=2009-06-21}}</ref> The government imprisoned 75 dissident thinkers, including 29 journalists,<ref name="longblackspring"/> librarians, human rights activists and democracy activists, on the basis that they were acting as agents of the United States by accepting aid from the US government.

In 2006 Fidel Castro took ill and moved out of the public light and into a hospital, and in 2007 Raul Castro became Acting President. In a letter dated 18 February 2008, Castro announced that he would not accept the positions of president and commander in chief at the 24 February 2008 National Assembly meetings, saying "I will not aspire nor accept—I repeat I will not aspire or accept—the post of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief." See [[Fidel Castro]].

==See also==
{{Portal|Cuba}}
*[[Timeline of Cuban history]]
*[[Spanish colonization of the Americas]]
*[[History of Cuban Nationality]]

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Further reading==
*Castillo Ramos, Ruben 1956 ''Muerto Edesio, El rey de la Sierra Maestra'' (Edesio the king of Sierra Maestra Is Dead 1914–1956), Bohemia XLVIII No. 9 (12 August 1956) pp.&nbsp;52–54 and 87
*Aviva Chomsky, Barry Carr, and Pamela Maria Smorkaloff (Eds.) ''The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics'' (2004)
*De Paz Sánchez, Manuel Antonio (en colaboración con José Fernández y Nelson López) 1993–1994. El bandolerismo en Cuba (1800–1933). ''Presencia canaria y protesta rural, Santa Cruz de Tenerife'', two, 2 vols.
*Franklin, Jame. ''Cuba and the United States: A Chronological History'', Ocean Press, 1997.
* Gleijeses, Piero. ''Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959–1976.'' U. of North Carolina Press, 2002. 552 pp.
* Richard Gott. ''Cuba: A New History'' (2004)
* Hernández, Rafael and Coatsworth, John H., ed. ''Culturas Encontradas: Cuba y los Estados Unidos'' Harvard U. Press, 2001. 278 pp.
* Hernández, José M. ''Cuba and the United States: Intervention and Militarism, 1868–1933'' U. of Texas Press, 1993. 288 pp.
* Johnson, Willis Fletcher, ''The History of Cuba'', New York : B.F. Buck & Company, Inc., 1920
* Kirk, John M. and McKenna, Peter. ''Canada-Cuba Relations: The Other Good Neighbor Policy.'' U. Press of Florida, 1997. 207 pp.
* McPherson, Alan. ''Yankee No! Anti-Americanism in U.S.-Latin American Relations.'' Harvard U. Press, 2003. 257 pp.
* Morley, Morris H. and McGillian, Chris. ''Unfinished Business: America and Cuba after the Cold War, 1989–2001.'' Cambridge U. Press, 2002. 253 pp.
* Offner, John L. ''An Unwanted War: The Diplomacy of the United States and Spain over Cuba, 1895–1898.'' U. of North Carolina Press, 1992. 306 pp.
* Paterson, Thomas G. ''Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution.'' Oxford U. Press, 1994. 352 pp.
* Pérez, Louis A., Jr. ''The War of 1898: The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography.'' U. of North Carolina Press 1998. 192 pp.
* Pérez, Louis A. ''Cuba and the United States: Ties of Singular Intimacy.'' U. of Georgia Press, 1990. 314 pp.
*Perez, Louis A. 1989 ''Lords of the Mountain: Social Banditry and Peasant Protest in Cuba'', 1878–1918 (Pitt Latin American Series) Univ of Pittsburgh Press ISBN 0-8229-3601-1
* Schwab, Peter. ''Cuba: Confronting the U.S. Embargo'' New York: St. Martin's, 1999. 226 pp.
* Staten, Clifford L. ''The History of Cuba'' (Palgrave Essential Histories) (2005), brief
* Thomas, Hugh . ''Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom'' (rev ed. 1998) ISBN 978-0306808272
* Tone, John Lawrence. ''War and Genocide in Cuba, 1895–1898'' (2006)
* Walker, Daniel E. ''No More, No More: Slavery and Cultural Resistance in Havana and New Orleans'' U. of Minnesota Press, 2004. 188 pp.
* Whitney, Robert W., ''State and Revolution in Cuba: Mass Mobilization and Political Change, 1920-1940'', Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. ISBN 0807826111
*Zeuske, Michael, Insel der Extreme. Kuba im 20. Jahrhundert (Island of Extremes. Cuba in the 20th Century), Zürich: Rotpunktverlag, 2004 ISBN 3-85869-208-5
*Zeuske, Schwarze Karibik. Sklaven, Sklavereikulturen und Emanzipation {Black Caribbean. Slaves, Slavery Cultures and Emnacipation}, Zuerich: Rotpunktverlag, 2004 ISBN 3-85869-272-7

==External links==
*[http://www.badley.org/history/Cuba.index.html History of Cuba - World History Database]
*[http://www.historyofcuba.com/main/hstintro.htm History of Cuba] Timeline
*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04558c.htm 1908 ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' entry on Cuba]
*[http://www.historyofnations.net/northamerica/cuba.html History of Cuba]
*[http://www.mycubavisit.com/history.html Online guide's History of Cuba]
*[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/03/04/petercoyote030409.DTL&type=printable Reflecting on Cuba's Bloody History] by Peter Coyote, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', 4 March 2009
*[http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/stryker/ Deena Stryker Photographs of Cuba, 1963-1964 - Duke University Libraries Digital Collections]

<br />{{History of North America}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Cuba}}
[[Category:History of Cuba| ]]

{{Link FA|he}}
[[cs:Dějiny Kuby]]
[[da:Cubas historie]]
[[de:Geschichte Kubas]]
[[es:Historia de Cuba]]
[[eu:Kubako historia]]
[[fr:Histoire de Cuba]]
[[gl:Historia de Cuba]]
[[ko:쿠바의 역사]]
[[hr:Povijest Kube]]
[[it:Storia di Cuba]]
[[he:היסטוריה של קובה]]
[[lb:Geschicht vu Kuba]]
[[lt:Kubos istorija]]
[[ms:Sejarah Cuba]]
[[ja:キューバの歴史]]
[[pt:História de Cuba]]
[[ru:История Кубы]]
[[sr:Историја Кубе]]
[[fi:Kuuban historia]]
[[sv:Kubas historia]]
[[uk:Історія Куби]]

Revision as of 17:06, 6 November 2010

[Cuba is a fun place that a lot of people go to cause they like to explore national countries and I, as being Wikipedia, advises you to visit the wonderful country of Cuba sometime soon.

- Alexander Daniel Hagani

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Cuba&oldid=395194738"