Caribbean History From
Colonialism to Independence
AM217
David Lambert
Lecture: The Cuban
Revolution
Tuesday 9th February,
11am-12pm
Lecture: The Cuban
Revolution
Tuesday 9th February,
11am-12pm
The Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution
Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara
The Cuban Revolution
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The Caribbean and international relations
US-dominated Cuba
Prelude to the revolution
The early revolution
Wider consequences
The Caribbean and
international relations
[T]he popular stereotype does not portray the
Caribbean states as active participants in
international affairs. Instead, the conventional
image of the West Indies, especially in the minds
of people from the more developed countries who
are seeking relief from the rigors of northern
winters, is usually that of a vacation playground.
In short, this perspective tends to define the
region’s essential role in the larger global
community as that of providing foreign tourists with
ready access to its three abundant s’s: sun, sand,
and surf.
Erisman, ‘International relations’ (2003), p. 149.
The Caribbean in the Cold War
The onset of the Cold War heightened U.S.
sensitivity to the potential for instability and
communist insurgency within the region. Seeking
to forestall revolutionary change that might
threaten its interests, the United States supported
self-professed anticommunist
dictatorships…‘giving the Monroe Doctrine new
life’ (Maingot, 1994:87)…[T]he Caribbean again
took center stage in the struggle between the
world’s great powers.
D’Agostino, ‘Caribbean politics’ (2003), p. 97.
US intervention in the Caribbean
and Central America
Cuba
US investment in Cuba (US$)
1,400,000,000
1,200,000,000
1,000,000,000
800,000,000
600,000,000
400,000,000
200,000,000
0
1912
1928
Tourism in Cuba
• Tourism developed in
Cuba in the early
twentieth century in the
context of the increasing
US military presence.
• Sex tourism was the
seedy side of Havana’s
club culture and the city
came to be known as the
commercial sex capital of
the Western Hemisphere
Anti-US feeling in Cuba
The historical economic factors were reasons enough for
strong anti-US feelings: the earlier thwarted revolution
against Spain, Cuban dependence on US markets for its
agriculture and mineral production, the misery of the
seasonal tiempo muerto related directly to Cuba’s fatal
reliance on the US sugar quota, the lavish dwellings of the
few rich Cubans compared with the country's grinding
poverty…Thousands of American tourists visited Cuba in
all seasons of the year, and the island became well-known
as a naughty playground featuring vice and gambling,
activities enriching gangsters and corrupt local officials.
B. Richardson, The Caribbean in the
wider world (1992), pp 90-91.
Fulgencio Batista
Batista’s rule
Batista cultivated ties with the United States, which
maintained close scrutiny over Cuban affairs given
its proximity and the extensive U.S. business
interests on the island. Cuba, compared to other
Caribbean nations, was relatively prosperous, yet
there were considerable disparities in the
distribution of wealth as well as between urban
areas and impoverished rural areas. Thus, broad
opposition to Batista’s increasingly repressive
regime emerged.
T. D’Agonstino, ‘Caribbean politics’ (2003), p. 98.
Fidel Castro
Map of Cuba
Chronology of the early Cuban
Revolution
1956 – Fidel Castro leads a guerrilla insurgency
against the Batista regime, which is only part of
broader opposition.
Castro’s guerrilla insurgency
Chronology of the Cuban
Revolution
1956 – Fidel Castro leads a guerrilla insurgency
against the Batista regime, which is only part of
broader opposition.
January 1959 – Castro marches triumphantly in
Havana.
The Castro regime
The Castro regime immediately set about dismantling the
country’s dependent capitalist economy, nationalizing
property of both domestic and foreign owners. This action,
coupled with the movement toward an authoritarian singleparty state, led to the exodus of thousands of upper- and
middle-class Cubans…Land redistribution, educational
reform, a literacy campaign, and improvements in health
care and other services were introduced to raise the
standard of living of Cuba’s masses and to ensure that their
basic daily needs would be met.
T. D’Agonstino, ‘Caribbean politics’ (2003), p. 99-100.
Chronology of the Cuban
Revolution
1956 – Fidel Castro leads a guerrilla insurgency
against the Batista regime, which is only part of
broader opposition.
January 1959 – Castro marches triumphantly in
Havana.
1960 – US imposes economic embargo. Remains
to this day (e.g. Helms-Burton Act, 1996).
1961 – US-backed invasion by Cuban exiles at
Bay of Pigs fails.
Map of Cuba
Chronology of the Cuban
Revolution
1956 – Fidel Castro leads a guerrilla insurgency
against the Batista regime, which is only part of
broader opposition.
January 1959 – Castro marches triumphantly in
Havana.
1960 – US imposes economic embargo. Remains
to this day (e.g. Helms-Burton Act, 1996).
1961 – US-backed invasion by Cuban exiles at
Bay of Pigs fails.
Cuba as Soviet base
‘Now the United
States is not so
unreachable as she
once was’ (Nikita
Khrushchev, Soviet
premier, 1960).
Chronology of the Cuban
Revolution
1956 – Fidel Castro leads a guerrilla insurgency
against the Batista regime, which is only part of
broader opposition.
January 1959 – Castro marches triumphantly in
Havana.
1960 – US imposes economic embargo. Remains
to this day (e.g. Helms-Burton Act, 1996).
1961 – US-backed invasion by Cuban exiles at
Bay of Pigs fails.
1962 – Soviet plans to install missile bases on
island brings world to brink of nuclear war.
Consequences of the Cuban
Revolution
• Provided USSR with a strategic presence in the Western
Hemisphere.
• Cuba became a key Soviet ally in the Third World:
– Cuban-backed insurgencies operated across Central and South
America.
– Cuban forces fought in Africa (Angola, 1975; Ethiopia, 1977).
• Provided an alternative economic model in the region.
• Aroused US fears of the potential for revolutionary
change throughout the Americas. US was determined to
prevent ‘another Cuba’.
US interventions in the Caribbean
The USA has attempted to support friendly regimes
and undermine those held to be unfriendly (usually leftleaning governments) through…
• Economic aid (e.g. Caribbean Basin Initiative from
1982).
• Economic sanctions (e.g. undermining Michael
Manley’s first administration in Jamaica, 19721980).
• Provision of military equipment and ‘advisors’.
• Covert operations by CIA.
• Military intervention and invasion (e.g. Dominican
Republic, 1965; Grenada, 1983).
Michael Manley and Fidel Castro
US interventions in the Caribbean
The USA has attempted to support friendly regimes
and undermine those held to be unfriendly (usually leftleaning governments) through…
• Economic aid (e.g. Caribbean Basin Initiative from
1982).
• Economic sanctions (e.g. undermining Michael
Manley’s first administration in Jamaica, 19721980).
• Provision of military equipment and ‘advisors’.
• Covert operations by CIA.
• Military intervention and invasion (e.g. Dominican
Republic, 1965; Grenada, 1983).
Consequences of the Cuban
Revolution
• Provided USSR with a strategic presence in the Western
Hemisphere.
• Cuba became a key Soviet ally in the Third World:
– Cuban-backed insurgencies operated across Central and South
America.
– Cuban forces fought in Africa (Angola, 1975; Ethiopia, 1977).
• Provided an alternative economic model in the region.
• Aroused US fears of the potential for revolutionary
change throughout the Americas. US was determined to
prevent ‘another Cuba’.
• Since the collapse of the Soviet bloc, Cuba has entered
a prolonged crisis period.
Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro
Post-Castro Cuba?
Post-Castro Cuba?