How Did The American Revolution Lead To The Cuban Revolution

The Cuban Revolution was touchy topic for the United States and Cuba. America’s alienation of Cuba didn’t help when communism from the USSR was brewing over the revolution. When the revolution gained Castro as its leader, the worry and hatred from the United States was unbearable, especially when the Soviet Union landed in Cuba to interest Castro in its aid. The US’s fear of communism, Fidel Castro, and aid from the Soviet Union was significant because it changed the US’s political role in Cuba during the Cuban Revolution.

After it became officially globally acknowledged that Cuba was in fact a communist state and was being led through a dictatorship run by Castro, it did not take long before powerful enemies and essential allies were formed. The act of seizing all foreign land with none or very little compensation was received with great hostility amongst those who lost in their property through this process, and probably the reaction that had the biggest impact on Cuba’s economy was that of the US. Castro’s communistic policies did not of course help calm this resentment and also took part in leading to the establishment of trade embargos with Cuba from the US. This meant that Cuba would now lose a very valuable buyer of their precious sugar, [5] but they did however gain another one, a powerful nation that shared quite similar Marxist ideals and were quick to form an alliance with the Cubans, the USSR.

To begin, it is important to know about the history of Cuba to fully comprehend how things came to be as they are today. Since the Conquest and Colonization Era (1492-1898), many of the prominent European countries and the powerful neighbor to the north of Cuba, the United States of America, have attempted to take control of the land. It first began with the Spanish conquistadors, specifically Diego Velázquez, who was the first to explore and settle the land. Up until the end of the 19th century, the Spanish monarch was the authoritative figure overseeing the land and

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.

1902: Cuba becomes independent with Tomas Estrada Palma as its president. But the Platt Amendment keeps the island under US protection and gives the US the right to intervene in Cuban affairs.

Until sugar production made Cuba the wealthiest agricultural region on earth in the nineteenth century, the island was considered relatively diverse, compared to others in the Caribbean. The quality of soil was universally unparalleled, and gained countries interest. Although the French and Spanish were in feud over the island, merchants from Portugal, England, and Holland participated in trade, which brought diversity to Cuba. At the end of the eighteenth century, the Haitian Revolution changed the racial, social, and economical demographics on Cuba. Seeing that the Haitian revolution was a triumph of colossus proportions, the individuals who started it, embodied the spirit that initiated the great uprising. From the late eighteenth century, into the nineteenth century, formally freed slaved from Haiti migrated to Cuba in astonishing numbers. This not only altered the demographics on the island, it brought in a new workforce that proliferated local sugar production. Within a short period of time, Cuba became the biggest sugar cane producer in the world. The United States gained interest in capitalizing from the islands newfound wealth, and being close in proximity made the temptation of interfere with France and Spain irresistible. In the late nineteenth century, the United States interfered with Cuba’s fight for independence and increased their investments tenfold. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the US gained control of the island through ownership,

The Platt Amendment of 1901, gave permission to the United States to intervene in Cuban affairs if necessary and to rent land to the United States for naval bases on the island. Cuba had a strong relationship with the United States, but then the Cuban Revolution came and everything changed. On Jan. 1, 1959 Fidel Castro accompanied by guerrillas overthrew the government of President General Fulgencio Batista. The US supported Castro and his group by providing them with arms. During this period, the Castro government was very efficient which worried the American government, since Castro could turn against it. That's why in 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the CIA to attack Cuba. In April 1961, thousands of armed Americans disembarked

The Cuban revolution had great domestic and international influences and reshaped Cuba’s relationship with the world, especially with United States, which continues an embargo against Cuba as of this very day. Immediately after the revolution, Cuban government started a program of nationalization and political consolidation, which ultimately transformed Cuba’s economy and society.

When the revolution was over the peasants had more freedom such as having there own land. In Castro’s Speech to Peasants in 1959,Castro states “These peasants were given the land and they shall keep it, nobody shall take them away from there. We have now to take care if the procedure, the Rebel Army did not have time to give legal form to this act. But this is easy to do, and the peasants shall stay in the land they own now.” ( paragraph #8). This evidence proves that the Cuban citizens finally got freedom and are allowed to make their own choices. Castro say that nobody shall take the peasants land away shows that there is no longer social oppression caused by a dictator. However, when the revolution was over there was also consequences. One of them being that the relationship between the U.S and Cuban was bad. In Biography.com published in 2011 states “Relations between the United States and Cuba deteriorated rapidly as the Cuban Government expropriated U.S. properties and moved toward adoption of a one-party communist system. In response, the United States imposed an embargo on Cuba in October 1960, and, in response to Castro's provocations, broke diplomatic relations on January 3, 1961.” ( effects paragraph #2). This evidence shows that Castro’s and the U.S were having trouble finding a compromise. Therefore Cuban lost one of their allies by separating and disowning the U.S from the Cuban

The people of the nation, disgruntled by Batista’s militaristic regime, turned to revolution in order to regain control over their slowly dissolving country. Ultimately, the course and aftermath of the Cuban Revolution had a markedly negative impact on Cuba due to reactionary trade embargoes caused by the United States’s discontent for Communist regimes, palpable decreases in the export potential of the country as a result of the inherent instability of its trading partners, and the constant food shortages and looming famines which led to the deaths of innumerable Cuban citizens.

The time of the Cuban Revolution was a great deal of turmoil, not just in Cuba but in almost every corner of the world. It was 1945, shortly after the end of World War Two, and the Cold War was taking off between the United States and the Soviet Union. Cuba, in the middle of its own war, was caught up in the international politics of the Cold War. The interaction between international and domestic politics played a major role in the outcome of the revolution. The result of the revolution left Fidel Castro in charge of Cuba.

While Felgenico Batista was running Cuba many American companies grew rich off of Cuban resources while the Cuban people remained poor. An American mobster named Meyer Lansky came to Cuba to open a hotel. The mobster gave Batista 10% of the profits of the hotel and casino, so Batista became wealthy off of that. Batista became very wealthy off of American business and also organized crime. Meyer Lansky also turned Havana into a drug port. Batista did very little to help the Cuban citizens. While running Cuba Batista did not offer the people neither health care nor education. So many Cubans lived in poverty. When they became ill they wouldn’t be able to go to a doctor because they wouldn’t be able to afford it. When Batista took over the country in

In 1940 to 1944, communist Fulgencio Batista withheld power as the president of Cuba and then from 1952 to 1959, United States backed dictator until fleeing Cuba because of Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement. Socialist Fidel Castro governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President from 1976 to 2008. Fidel Castro’s intent was to provide Cuba with an honest democratic government by diminishing the corrupt way in which the country was run, the large role the United States played in the running of Cuba as well as the poor treatment & the living conditions of the lower class.

The Cuban revolution was one that transformed Cuba into an independent socialist society. This revolution sent a message around the globe. The message: “ Socialism can be achieved and capitalism, with its culture stripping mechanism’s can be supplemented”. However, the revolution did leave its mark on Cuba. This can be seen in the events that took place during the early stages of the revolution. The effects of the revolution were positive for certain sections of the population and negative for others.

Many changes in Cuba caused tensions to mount between the United States, Cuba, and Russia. At the time before the Bay of Pigs incident, Cuba had a corrupt