Cold War Dbq Essay

The U.S.’s relationship with Cuba has been arduous and stained with mutual suspicion and obstinateness, and the repeated U.S. interventions. The Platt agreement and Castro’s rise to power, served to introduce the years of difficulty to come, while, the embargo the U.S. placed on Cuba, enforced the harsh feelings. The two major events that caused the most problems were the Bays of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis.

The United States has had a long history with Cuba. Within that long history came many arguments and accusations, such as the demand that Castro request that the U.S. embassy staff be reduced. Following that request came an outrageous accusation stating that the embassy was being used as a foundation for spies. This made U.S. officials think that Castro’s government was too anti-American to be trusted. Castro started nationalizing foreign property and companies as a response to the U.S., so the United States decided to cutback trades with Cuba. America tried to resolve the differences with Castro’s government through diplomacy. Seeing that they could not come to an agreement the united states decide to embargo trade with Cuba. Two months later, President John F. Kennedy unleashed the Cuban exile force which caused Castro’s military to kill or capture the exile troops.

America and Cuba have a very interesting history going back to the late 1800's. After the Spanish-American war ended, a peace treaty was signed and Spain had to give up Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam. However, the United States gave Cuba

The precise manner that American and Cuban relations would be operated was outlined in “The Platt Amendment, which was to govern American relations with Cuba down to the advent of Fidel Castro” which necessitated the input of the United States before the government of Cuba made any decision or attempted to take any action . The political landscape of Cuba was heavily influenced by the United States prominently supporting the military government of the dictator Fulgencio Batista following a coup in 1952 and the cancelling of elections on Cuba. As a result of their support to Batista’s military coup and government Batista was very pro United States business and government. This friendliness to large corporations and businesses from the United States created a very unstable and unsustainable economic model for long-term economic growth in Cuba because it was exclusively dependent on outside forces that could not be controlled by Cubans or the Cuban government. This is shown by the large presence of American sugar producers and corporations in Cuba as the main forces driving the economy of Cuba meaning “that it was at the mercy of external forces on the world market” making it impossible for Cuba to “plan its economy or to develop its standard of living on the basis of such dependence on capricious world forces which it could not hope to control” . American sugar corporations were so dominant and crucial to the Cuban economy that they held “about 75 per cent of Cuba’s arable land” and their sugar product made up “nearly 90 per cent of Cuba’s exports and 33 per cent of the country’s national income” . The dependence on outside corporations and the world market made only worse the condition for the majority of the Cuban population that was employed by

In 1962 the United States Embargo against Cuba was put into effect in response to “revolutionary communist” actions taken by the Cuban government in which the Cuban government commandeered control of United States land holdings. The United States government then determined that Cuba’s interests were incompatible with U.S. interests. Thus, the United States government decided to take advantage of Cuba’s economic dependence on them by restricting and ultimately banning transactions between the U.S. and Cuba in an attempt to damage the Cuban government and essentially the Cuban economy.

Throughout the late 1800’s and mid 1950’s American influence dominated Cuba’s markets. Cuban’s dictator, Fulgencio Batista had been corrupt and repressive dictator, however he was considered to be pro-American and an ally to U.S companies. By the mid 1890’s, The United States become one of Cuba’s principle markets. Over time, Americas influence continued to spread which led to them owning a majority of key manufacturing plants, retail stores, supermarkets, and major tourist facilities. They also owned 50 percent of public railway systems and 90 percent of telephone and power industries. As for Cuba, it was estimated that their short term assets and long-term investments in the United States were approximately $312 million dollars. Both

Following World War Two, two distant political governments emerged to dictate the direction the world would take. These two governments consisted of Communism and Democracy which stared untrustingly at each other and staunched economic growth with their excessive military budgets. In the end though, Democracy would prove to be the preferred government archetype for the general population of the world.

Cuba’s current gross national income per person of $5,890 (Talley), enormous debt, and other poor economic conditions can be explained by events tracing back post-World War II in 1945. The island of Cuba was inhabited by different Mesoamerican cultures but introduced to European cultures in 1492 with the arrival of Christopher Columbus. Spain began to colonize Cuba among other Caribbean islands in the 16th century and utilized the island as a stopping point before the New World. This all changed when the collapse of Haiti initiated a sugar boom causing Cuba to emerge as a major world sugar producer. Freedom from Spain was finally gained with the help of the United States after the Spanish American War when the Treat of Paris was signed. About three years later, the Platt Amendment was passed which provided the United States control and great influence in Cuba’s domestic and international affairs. The United States control was further strengthened after World War II when Fulgencio Batista became President of Cuba in 1952. But this created many issues which fueled the Cuban Revolution ending in 1959 when Fidel Castro overthrew Batista, propelling Cuba into a new era of communism. The period of decolonization for Cuba after World War II sparked a surge of nationalism which helped Fidel Castro dissolve American political, economic, and diplomatic ties as well as establish a communist regime after the Cuban Revolution.

The failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961 left Cuba feeling threatened with the possibility of the United States trying once more to invade them. The U.S. wanted to take Fidel Castro out of power. He was the nationalist leader that overthrew the dictatorial president of Cuba, Fulgencio Batista. During Batista’s time in power, American individuals and corporations owned most of the sugar plantations, cattle, ranches, mines, and utilities in Cuba. Batista allowed the Americans these privileges. Castro, on the other hand, did not agree with this American approach. He believed that Cubans should be in control of their nation. Once Castro was in power, he made

The political, economic, social and military facets of Cuba have been extremely volatile over the last six centuries, beginning with the settlement of the Spanish colonies in the 15th century. For several decades, Cuba desperately sought independence from Spain and after a series of rebellions the country was finally freed. From 1903 to 1959, Cuba was technically declared ‘independent’, but in reality was still a colony belonging to the United States. During this period, the U.S. provided little opportunity for the Cuban economy to grow; under the Platt Amendment, the provision that allowed the U.S. to maintain autonomous intervention on the island, the non-sugar industries were completely controlled by the U.S. Further, the U.S. instilled a “sugar quota” which directly mandated how much sugar Cuba was allowed to sell at a government subsidized price. By the 1950s, a majority of Cuba’s telephone and electrical services, public service railways, raw sugar production and non-sugar production were U.S. owned (Brenner, 2014). The U.S. provided itself a desperately needed economic crutch being Cuba’s largest export market.

Several generations of Americans have been taught to distrust Cuba, but the United States and Cuba have not always had such a rocky relationship. According to the article “Should the United States Maintain Its Embargo against Cuba?”, “in the late 1800’s, the United States were purchasing 87% of Cuba’s exports and had control over its sugar industry.” This all changed, however, on January 1st, 1959 as Fidel Castro overthrew the president at the time, Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar. Cuba became a Communist nation at a time when Communism was spreading and large communist countries such as the USSR and China threatened the US with their military strength. The weakening of US-Cuba relations intensified

Before Castro, Fulgencio Batista lead the country and, while he displayed himself as a corrupt and repressive dictator, he allowed American corporations and wealthy individuals to make their businesses in Cuba. While he ruled, Americans owned nearly half of Cuba’s sugar plantations and most of the cattle ranches, mines, and utilities. Batista was also reliably anti-communist, therefore, when Castro forcibly overthrew him in 1959, American officials began to worry. “Cuba Sí, Yanquis No” (yes Cuba, no Yankees) became Castro’s mantra as he looked to rid the island of American influence. Furthermore, he began to nationalize the sugar and mining industries as well as introducing land reform schemes to help boost Cuba’s industry. In response, President Eisenhower banned imported Cuban sugar in 1960, which, unfortunately, pushed Cuba to form a diplomatic relationship with Russia, a whole new problem. In addition to ridding Cuba of American influence, Castro began encouraging other Latin American countries to limit U.S. influence in their own countries. All in all, Castro’s acts to weaken America’s leverage and authority in Latin America gave him a sour reputation to American eyes and gave them reason to

In 1959 communist revolutionary Fidel Castro overthrew former pro-American Cuban Dictator, Fulgenico Batista. After previously living under the firm hand of American imperialism, where Cuba’s trade and economics were monopolised by the US government. Castro was determined to restore Cuba’s independence and promised to renounce their reliance on the US. President Eisenhower responded by placing an embargo on Cuba, banning the islands primary export of sugar. Also in an attempt to overthrow Castro and monopolise the government also, Eisenhower planned the ‘Bay of Pigs’ invasion of Cuba in 1960 that did not commence until 1961 when the new US President John Kennedy authorised the invasion. By this time Castro was aware of the US agenda and prepared for the invasion, and ultimately ending in a failure for the United States. Castro’s hostility towards the US grew and he severed US-Cuban relations completely. Subsequently Cuba was desperate for trade partners and feared impending US invasions. Castro pursued the Soviet Union who offered to purchase all Cuban sugar that was produced; thus creating conflict between both nations.

Numerous Cubans invited Fidel Castro's 1959 oust of the tyrannical President Fulgencio Batista, yet the new request on the island pretty much 100 miles from the United States made American authorities anxious. Batista had been a degenerate and harsh tyrant, however he was thought to be master American and was a partner to U.S. organizations. Around then, American companies and well off people possessed portion of Cuba's sugar manors and the dominant part of its dairy cattle farms, mines and utilities. Batista did little to limit their operations. He was likewise dependably anticommunist. Castro, by differentiate, objected to the approach that Americans took to their business and interests in

Before the rise of Cuban communism, the United states had established close economic ties with Cuba since the early 1800’s when Spanish-Controlled Cuba was a leading supplier of sugar cane and a thriving center for trade. Due to the Spanish American war, there was not much trade going through Cuba, which crushed its economy.