History Essay – Fidel Castro Castro’s Social Policies
After coming to power in 1959 with the aim of making radical change to the country. He promised to end inequality, corruption and the economic dependency on USA. With these aims, he implemented economic policies to generate economic growth. The ups and downs of Cuba’s economic performance had not affected the state’s considerable investment in social reform, foreign aid and military involvement. Underpinned by long term credit and trade agreements with USSR, the Cubans had achieved standards of health and literacy rivaling those of developed countries.
After his coming to power, Castro had managed to reduce the infant mortality rate, a yardstick of development of development
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To facilitate this change and support the women, Castro facilitated the opening of an increasing numbers of daycare centers for working women to help them join the work force.
Under Castro, women were expected to work for long hours in the agricultural fields leaving alone their homes and families for long intervals however this most often made conflicts with their husbands. To solve this problem, Castro came up with a new family code which stipulated equality of both the sexes at home and work. Men were expected to share their household duties and the education of children. Despite this Castro had to admit that the presence of women on work fields was always lower than expected.
The policies made by Castro were aimed towards encouraging of equality of women seem to have been focused more towards increasing the workforce than gender equality. More than 600,000 Cubans who were idle migrated from the island in 1960’s and hence to fill up the vacancies, women were brought n picture. They were trained for these works which they had denied before and they also played an important part in education and health campaigns.
Cuba in the Batista’s regime had acess to only limited education that too in varied geographical regions, being more restricted in the rural arean and the ghettos of the poor. Hence it was also limited by economic status. In the years
Many of these factors had either been introduced or improved by Castro and just the idea of having a country that is third world having these factors so long ago is an indication of how beneficial Fidel Castro was to Cuba. The extent to which the US — a superpower — felt threatened by a third world country like Cuba is also an indication of how beneficial Fidel Castro was to Cuba. This source further explains how under Castro there were food shortages, increased rationing and growing scarcities. The introduction of sanctions under Castro’s rule is said to have been damaging because the source these sanctions upset and disadvantaged the middle-class and therefore were a social disadvantage. This source also explores how the suspension of US exports under Castro was damaging as these badly affected people like retail merchants, manufacturers and industrialists and many of them found it difficult to remain in Cuba. Therefore, this particular policy under Fidel Castro proved to be both socially and economically
Fulgencio Batista was elected President of Cuba between 1940 and 1940. In 1952 Batista declared that constitutional guarantees and the right to strike will be suspended. He became a dictator with absolute power over Cuba. Batista turned the Cuban capital of Havana into one of the largest gambling cities in the world. Batista reorganised the Cuba’s treasury so that political representatives and himself can take freely from the riches. Under Batista’s rule, education and health care wasn’t free to the general public. The Cuban public were not satisfied with Batista and how he was ruling Cuba, the people didn’t have a say in decisions in government, were treated unfairly with high taxes, selling/giving the peoples land to American business owners.
On January 8th, 1959, Fidel Castro and his rebel army marched triumphantly into Havana, Cuba, having overthrown corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista the week earlier. It was the fruition of the Cuban Revolution, and the dramatic shift in power was about to radically alter the country’s political, social and economic course forever. The positive and negative effects of the revolution on the Cuban people, however, as well as the condition of Cuba’s economy pre and post-revolution, is subject to heated debate. Castro’s iron-fisted regime was the introduction of communism into the western hemisphere, and now, over fifty years later, the Cuban Revolution continues to be one of the most controversial events of the twentieth century. Despite the criticism levelled at Fidel Castro and his communist regime, however, the Cuban Revolution was necessary in improving the quality of life for the majority of Cuban citizens. The four fundamental categories on which to assess this are healthcare, education, economy and governance. By comparing the country’s overall performance under Fulgencio Batista versus under Fidel Castro in these areas crucial to a fully-functioning nation, it can be shown that the Cuban Revolution was a necessary and positive change in Cuban society which benefitted the majority of citizens.
For many Cubans the Batista government was simply a puppet regime with the puppet masters being wealthy Americans. This was because his economic policies favoured foreign investors and did little for the development of domestic industries, which resulted in the wealth of the country being concentrated in the hands of a wealthy whtite minority. Consequently, in the 1950s, this harsh regime caused political resistance to reach to its boiling point. In response to these high levels of frustration, Fidel Castro and a small rebel group led a successful revolutionary army into Havana in 1959. This was the first step on the road to a new era in the lives of many Cubans.
Cuba’s colorful history can be documented to before the days of the American Revolution in 1776, but today, American policy directly affects many Cubans’ lifestyles because of a nearly 45-year-old trade embargo that has been placed on the island nation. It is crucial to analyze the development of Cuba and its neighboring island nations in order to discern the reasons for Cuba’s current political situation with the United States. The following paper will discuss the events that shaped Cuba and larger Caribbean nations like Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica; next, a detailed description of Cuba’s turbulent history will help in explaining the Cuban transformation into a
Cuba and the United States of America have completely opposite economies. Cuba’s economy is based on the few natural resources that the country owns while the economic system in The United States is capitalist and can be recognized for its noticeable development in agriculture, energy, and other resources that keep the country expanding and provides jobs as well as a good quality of life for its residents. On the other hand, Cuba’s economy, is predominantly poor, to the point where a very huge percent of its population suffers from
At first glance, Cuba is a paradise, surrounded by green landscapes and shimmering oceans, yet internally the fight for power takes over the country. In the 19th century, many Cuban’s wanted to be in power, although all for different reasons. Fulgencio Batista was known as a dictator, seen as the enemy by many, but an ally to the United States. On the other hand, Fidel Castro was fighting against Batista -- opposing everything Batista fought for. These two leaders were conflicting, both in their goals for the country of Cuba, and their allies.
Cuba’s early history is characterized by colonization, agricultural capitalism, the introduction of African slave labor, and a class system that divided the island (Mintz, 1971). Beginning in the 1800’s the Catholic Church ideology saturated Cuban society, which was the standard of Spanish-speaking Latin America at that time. Education at this time was an opportunity experienced by elite, white, males and centered on rigid Catholic tenets of philosophy. The base economy was agriculture, and African slaves
In the long and turbulent history between Cuba and the United States, it can well be argued that Cuba did not turn out quite like its other Latin American peers. Things seemed to be on the right track in the early 1900’s, when it appeared that Cuba was destined for a future of “independence”, like its neighbour Puerto Rico and it was yet another South American nation rife with the now atypical blend of affluent American investors and poor workers usually native to the land herself. However, following a coup d’état that saw the fall of the American-backed Fulgencio Batista in favour of his social antithesis in communist Fidel Castro, the situation rapidly turned sour. The American government, finding themselves
In 1959, Fidel Castro seized control of Cuba and the country turned from dictatorship to a communist state. The Cuban socioeconomics follow that of other Communist cultures for example the Soviet Union, where the government is in control all parts of its citizen’s way of life. In most recent years, Raul Castro has setup many reforms that benefit the people. The reforms are:
After Cuba’s economic separation from the United State after a long history of reliance, Cubans began to receive economic support from the Soviet Union. Many a credit this alliance for improving economic conditions in Cuba, from supplying petroleum and helping to provide state of the art appliance. However, this golden period of economic success was not continues after the Soviet Union fell and withdrew it support. According to the CIA Fact book “the country faced severe economic down turn in 1990 following the withdrawal of former soviet subsidies worth 4-16 billion annually”. Even though the Cuba did reform it’s economy, the positive effects of the reform only lasted a short duration of Cuban history. Thus making the revolution unsuccessful because the goal of a communist country is to create a stable economy through socialism was not
This chapter will serve to outline the Cuban revolution and its impact on social movements in Latin America and around the world. The two key leaders of the Cuban Revolution was Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Their rhetoric is still regarded as inspiration to many around the world. This chapter will look at their goals and mobilization of the Cuban Revolution with emphasis on the importance of their discourse. The symbolism of Che Guevara that the revolution brought to the forefront of the imaginations of young people is important to understanding the influence the Cuban Revolution had on future revolutions. The Cuban Revolution and the writings and speeches that it produced are filled with instructions for future movements. It is these
Cuba is a nation that has been conquered by many people over the years and because of decolonization it is hard for the Cuban people to get rid of the rulers who wanted to influence their history. Fidel Castro gave the Cuban people independence. He was a forceful and cunning dictator who controlled the country and negatively effected the economy. The United States did not support the arrogant dictator’s establishment of communism which led to an economic downfall. Due to Castro 's insistence on practicing communism, the Cuban economy suffered as the government nationalized businesses while the United States implemented a trade embargo.
Major improvements took effect following the 1959 revolution lead by Castro. Batista’s inadequate education system came to a complete halt as one, if not the first, positive changes brought in by Castro was to ensure equal access to education for every individual regardless of one’s class, gender, race,
Cuban leader, Fidel Castro (1926-) established the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere after he and his forces began a campaign of guerrilla warfare to successfully overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Following this Castro became the country's new leader. He ruled over Cuba for nearly five decades, until recently handing over power to his younger brother Raúl in 2008. During Castro’s political rule several reforms took place, policies were formulated and implemented that have had significant impact on the social structure of the nation of Cuba. Impact; still felt today that has been both