Cuban Revolution

I

Introduction

Cuban Revolution, widespread uprising in Cuba that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and brought the government of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro to power. The revolution established the only communist state in the western hemisphere and produced profound changes in the economic and social structure of Cuban society. It also ended more than half a century of United States influence and interference in Cuban internal affairs.

Batista’s government, which came to power following a military coup in 1952, had become widely unpopular as a result of rampant corruption and harsh repression of dissent. Batista faced growing opposition to his rule from many segments of Cuban society. Fidel Castro, a political activist and former lawyer, led the best organized of a number of anti-Batista forces. He waged a successful guerrilla campaign from the mountains of eastern Cuba while steadily building a broad network of support both within Cuba and abroad. This coalition of opposition forces eventually persuaded Batista to flee the country.

Following the overthrow of Batista, Castro began changes that dramatically altered Cuba’s political, economic, and social structure. He confronted the United States, which had been involved in Cuba’s internal affairs for decades, and announced that Cuba would follow a socialist path. Castro aligned Cuba with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), then the leading power among the world’s communist nations.

The revolution also left a legacy of opposition among exiles who left Cuba rather than live under the Castro government. More than 1 million Cubans left the island for exile in the three years following the revolution. At first, many of these exiles were professional middle-class Cubans who saw their livelihoods threatened by Castro’s economic policies and objected to the political system that Castro imposed. Restrictions on political freedoms and economic hardships caused thousands of other Cubans to flee the island in the years after Castro seized power.

II

Background

Cuba had been a Spanish colony since 1492. In 1898 the United States declared war on Spain and captured Cuba along with several other Spanish possessions (see Spanish-American War). The Cuban Republic was founded in 1902. However, its independence was limited by the insistence of the United States that it had the right to intervene in Cuban internal affairs.

During the early part of the 20th century, US business investments in Cuba grew, and by the late 1930s it had become an important part of the Cuban economy. US influence in Cuban affairs and US business interests on the island were often resented by Cubans, especially when the worldwide economic depression of the early 1930s devastated Cuba’s economy. When Cuban leader Ramón Grau San Martín enacted legislation that reduced the influence of the US government and businesses in Cuba, the United States responded by supporting Cuban military officer Fulgencio Batista, who overthrew the Grau government in 1934.

As Cuba’s army chief, Batista functioned as the real power in Cuba, installing a series of puppet presidents. He served a four-year term as president himself from 1940 to 1944 and returned to the presidency in 1952 when he organized a military coup that overthrew the elected government. During his second regime, Batista’s government grew increasingly repressive and corrupt.

Batista’s relationship with US businesses was complex. He promoted investments by US companies, but he also encouraged the growth and diversification of Cuban businesses to reduce Cuba’s dependence on sugar production, which had dominated the economy since the late 18th century. During Batista’s regime US businesses owned 35 per cent of the Cuban sugar industry. This represented the smallest proportion of US ownership since the 19th century. Nevertheless, a growing number of Batista’s opponents came to see him as a symbol of continued US economic dominance over the island.

Resistance to Batista’s government developed among university students and gradually spread to include varied segments of Cuban society. Because the Cuban economy was growing in the mid-1950s, the opposition to Batista focused mainly on the repressive nature of the dictatorship and Batista’s suspension of constitutional government. A number of Cuban revolutionaries, however, advocated major social and economic reforms to end peasant land evictions, to reduce chronically high seasonal unemployment in Cuba’s important sugar industry, and to narrow social and economic inequalities.

One of the people opposing Batista was Castro. On July 26, 1953, Castro and several dozen associates attacked the army’s Moncada barracks in Cuba’s second largest city, Santiago. The attack failed. Castro was captured following the attack, but the bravery of his actions and the edited version of the speech he gave in his defence at his trial won him widespread attention. Castro was sentenced to prison, but a confident Batista released him from jail in 1955. Castro went to Mexico and to the United States to gather forces and to raise funds for an invasion of Cuba. While in Mexico he met Argentine revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, who would prove a valuable ally in the coming revolution.

III

The Victory Over Batista

In 1956 Castro, Guevara, and about 80 other revolutionaries sailed from Mexico aboard the yacht Granma. The yacht was wrecked as they landed on Cuba. Batista’s soldiers killed most of the guerrillas, and the remainder fled to the Sierra Maestra mountains of eastern Cuba and began fighting an improvised guerrilla war. The guerrillas adopted the name 26th of July Movement, after the date of Castro’s attack on the Moncada barracks.

The guerrillas’ programme was moderate, promising elections, constitutional government, and land reform according to the constitution. Castro affirmed that he was not a Communist. By mid-1958 the guerrillas under Castro’s command numbered just 400. Batista’s army proved inept, however, and 12,000 government troops failed to defeat Castro’s small band of guerrillas. The 26th of July Movement also had important support among the organized anti-Batista forces in the cities, where revolutionaries engaged in many acts of sabotage and acquired weapons and supplies for the guerrillas in the mountains.

In late 1958 Castro despatched an invasion force led by Guevara and fellow revolutionary Camilo Cienfuegos to central Cuba to coordinate activities with guerrillas independent of Castro’s organization. In December of 1958 the only pitched battle of the war took place for control of the city of Santa Clara in central Cuba. Following the battle, Batista’s army retreated and disintegrated, and Batista’s regime collapsed. In the early morning hours of January 1, 1959, Batista fled the country.

IV

Break with the United States

Victorious revolutionary forces established a new government, which disbanded Batista’s army, prohibited political parties, and deferred elections. As the leader of the best-known and most powerful revolutionary group, Castro exercised the greatest influence on government policies, and he became prime minister in February. Castro visited the United States in April, where the US government offered him assistance as well as criticism. In May the new Cuban government enacted a major land reform law that nationalized most farms larger than about 400 hectares (1,000 acres). This action appropriated much of the Cuban property held by large US agricultural firms.

Seeking to break the hold that the United States had on Cuba, Castro sought foreign support to counter the traditional influence of the United States. In late 1959 Castro approached the USSR for support. Although Cuba’s Communist Party had joined the insurgency against Batista quite late, its leaders had increasingly assumed key roles in the new order. In May 1960 Castro re-established diplomatic relations with the USSR, which had been severed under Batista’s regime, and made an agreement to import Soviet oil. In June the Cuban government took over foreign-owned petroleum refineries that refused to process Soviet oil. Within days the US government outlawed the purchase of Cuban sugar, the mainstay of Cuba’s economy. Cuba then assumed control of all US property on the island and established a military alliance with the USSR. In January 1961 the United States broke diplomatic relations with Cuba. As Cuban policy shifted to the left, many moderate leaders resigned from the government or were forced out of office.