The so-called Cuban revolution of 1959 refers to the popular movement that managed to overthrow Fulgencia Batista from the government. A revolutionary movement that led to Fidel Castro leading the government and establishing a socialist regime in the country. In this article, we tell you in more detail this part of the history of Cuba.
Cuba before the 1959 revolution
Cuba was one of the Spanish coloniessy was one of the last to complete emancipation. To achieve this, at the end of the 19th century, a war broke out against Spain and the Cubans had the support of the United States, who were interested in this island, as well as in other Spanish colonies such as the Philippines or Puerto Rico.
Finally, in 1898 Spain ended up defeated and Cuba came under US influence, both at the level of occupation on the island itself and at the political level, since they did not have a completely independent government. One of the examples is that the Cubans had to incorporate in their Constitution the «Platt Amendment» which gave the Americans the right to intervene if the country was in a situation of political instability; another example was that in 1903 they had to grant them 117 square km in the Bay of Guantanamowhere there is an American naval base and its famous prison.
Their influence not only appeared geographically and politically, they also exerted their weight economically. To give you an idea, the economy of the island was the production of sugar and almost half of its production was controlled by North American capital. At the same time, the 80% of the imports they made were from the US. Everything, absolutely everything, was under the influence of North America.
Why did the Cuban Revolution occur?
To understand the Cuban Revolution it is essential to take into account the historical context that we have mentioned previously:
- The sugar industries were dominated by North American businessmen.
- Hotels, tourism and casinos were also dominated by American businessmen.
- Politically they were under strong North American influence since they always supported the presidents who were in favor of their strong presence on the island.
- The type of economy that the island could sustain was based on a strong dependence on the United States.
- Cubans suffered from great social inequality, many of them living in poverty (the majority) and the rich were getting richer.
- Fulgencio Batista, president (dictator) since 1952, staged a coup d’état, ruling with support and supporting the US at all levels, neglecting the Cubans for all of the above, and was known for brutally repressing his opponents.
- A high percentage of the population was illiterate and the country’s policy did nothing to deal with this.
History of the Cuban revolution of 1959
began to emerge riots and strikes by the working class together with the student movement in the year 1953. Specifically, on July 26 of that year they tried to take the Moncada barracks, in Santiago de Chile, but without success. These first actions ended with the deaths of several students and other combatants, as well as arrests. One of the people arrested was Fidel Castrowho has just graduated as a lawyer from the University of Havana.
After two years in prison, Fidel Castro was released and went into exile in Mexico. From a distance he organized a guerrilla group called the revolutionary movement July 26 or M-26-7, made up of 80 people including Ernesto Guevara (Che), his brother Raúl Castro, Camino Cienfuegos, Juan Almeida, among many others. This movement was built on the ideals of equality, socialism, nationalism and anti-Americanism.
The movement, in 1956, settled in the forests of Sierra Maestra from where they began to fight with the government, which caused deaths and arrests. Although the number of combatants was reduced, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara continued their fight and began to spread their revolutionary ideas by radio broadcasts among the population, which led to more and more Cuban population supporting them.
One of the initiatives proposed and launched by the Che Guevara was to use this forest as a means of feeding the troops, using the land to produce bread and meat. In turn, a small press was created to publish his manifestos and even a newspaper. Che had declared himself a Marxist and his voice had great relevance for the population, in turn he was known for his exemplary behavior and for demanding the same from his soldiers.
The constant disillusionment with the Batista government and the affinity with the ideas of the movement led to an increase in the number of combatants, adding peasants and workers from the countryside and the cities who were looking for something better, better conditions for all. The number of actions began to increase, the conquest began, at the same time that lives were also being lost in the government army. These events weakened the governmentBatista began to perceive how his management and his strength were weakening.
In 1958, the United States withdrew support for the Batista regime. The revolutionary movement intercepted a train full of war material that never reached its destination, which also dealt a heavy blow to the government army. Finally, the January 1, 1959 the revolutionaries took Havana led by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, who had broad support from the population. This supposed that finally the Cuban revolution had been successful.
In parallel, Fulgencio Batista fled by plane, along with his leadership, to the Dominican Republic.
The after the Cuban Revolution
The January 8 Fidel Castro arrives in Havana, there he was received with great popular acclaim. He became prime minister and, little by little, he ended up concentrating all the power. He carried out important reforms for the island in agrarian matters and nationalizing foreign (North American) companies.
In 1961 North America breaks diplomatic and economic ties with Cuba (import and export). An attack against Fidel’s government was attempted by them but they managed to neutralize it, this fact caused Fidel Castro to declare Cuba as a socialist nation and lined it up Soviet Union.
With the implementation of the socialist model, reforms and changes continued to be made in the fields of education and health, which were highly praised. The other face of this government was (and has been) harshly criticized for the repression of freedom of expression, the poverty of the population, the impossibility of having an opposition party.