Transcript The Cuba of Fidel Castro

IB Objectives
 The Cuban Revolution: political, social, economic
causes; impact on the region
 Rule of Fidel Castro: political, economic, social and
cultural policies; treatment of minorities; successes
and failures
IB Paper 3 Sample Questions
 Analyse the successes and failures of Castro’s social
and economic policies in the period 1960-1990.
 For what reasons, and with what results for the
economy of Cuba, did Castro become ruler of Cuba?
 “Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba because of the
weaknesses of Batista’s regime.” To what extent do you
agree with this statement?
 Assess the reasons for the long survival of Fidel
Castro’s regime in Cuba.
IB Paper 3 Sample Questions
 “By 1962 Castro’s domestic policy had successfully
transformed Cuba.” To what extent do you agree with
this statement?
 How and why did Fidel Castro rise to power in 1959?
Lecture Outline
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
Cuba before Castro
Cuba and the US
Rise of Castro
A. The July 26th Movement
B. Opposition to Batista
C. US Response
Castro and the Cold War
Castro Domestic and Foreign Policy
Effects of the Collapse of European Communism
Key Terms
 Fulgencio Batista
 July 26th Movement
 Cuban Democracy Act
 Helms-Burton Act
Cuba before Castro
 Fulgencio Batista governed Cuba from 1933-1944
 1952 he overthrew the government.
 Sugar production employed 25% of the labor force and
because of the seasonal nature of the sugar industry
these workers were unemployed 8 months out of the
year.
 The newest sugar mill had been built in 1925.
 Cuba’s sugar exports had decreased from 20% of the
world’s production in the late 1920s to 10% in the
1950s.
Cuba and the US
 US purchased more than ½ of Cuban sugar and
controlled 40% of its sugar production, 90% of its
utilities and telephones, and 50% of its railroads.
 80% of Cuba’s imports were from the US.
 Per capita income declined by 18% between 1952 and
1954.
July
th
26
Movement
 On July 26, 1953 Fidel Castro helped lead rebel attacks
on 2 army barracks with the objective of acquiring
arms and ammunition to use against the Batista
government.
 The attack failed and 68 of the attackers were
immediately captured, tortured, and executed.
 In May 1955, Batista granted a general amnesty to all
prisoners and Castro was released from prison.
 In July Castro and a group of supporters moved to
Mexico.
Opposition to Batista
 In April 1956 220 military officers were caught
conspiring against Batista.
 In early December 1956, Castro and 82 followers
landed in Cuba.
 Only 12 men escaped the ambush and made their way
into the Sierra Maestra Mountains.
 As late as the middle of 1958 Castro’s band only
numbered 160 men.
US Response
 In March 1958 the US stopped selling arms to Cuba,
effectively withdrawing its support from Batista.
 Batista tried one last major military campaign against
Castro during the summer of 1958 and when it failed
he fled Cuba for the Dominican Republic in the early
morning of New Year’s Day 1959.
 Castro and his 3,000 rebels entered Havana a week
later.
 Around 250,000 Cubans left for the US between 1959
and 1962.
Castro’s Victory
 Castro and his 3,000
rebels entered Havana a
week later.
 Around 250,000 Cubans
left for the US between
1959 and 1962.
Castro, the USSR and the US
 In February 1960 the Deputy Premier of the USSR
visited Cuba and Cuba agreed to sell the Soviets 1
million tons of sugar in exchange for $100 million in
credits and low priced Soviet crude oil.
 In the summer of 1959 the Eisenhower administration
instructed US refineries in Cuba to not refine Soviet
crude oil.
 In retaliation, Castro nationalized the refineries.
 Eisenhower than cancelled the Cuban sugar quota for
the rest of the year and the Soviet Union agreed to
purchase the sugar.
Castro, the USSR and the US
 Over the next few months, Castro nationalized all US
owned businesses in Cuba.
 In October Eisenhower embargoed all US exports to
Cuba.
 A few days before the presidential inauguration of
Kennedy the US cut its diplomatic relations with Cuba.
 April 1961 Bay of Pigs
 Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Economy under Castro
 In 1963 Castro decided to augment Cuba’s supply of
foreign currency by increasing sugar production to 10
million tons by 1970; this failed.
 In 1970 Cuba produced a record 8.5 million tons of
sugar, but the increased production caused a glut on
the market and the price of sugar fell to ½ of what it
was in 1963.
 Castro established a system of free education through
university level, healthcare, child care, social security
benefits, and government subsidized housing.
Cuban Economy Under Castro
 Cuba had the most equal distribution of income in all
of the Americas.
 In a 1994 poll by the Miami Hearld, 69% of Cubans
identified themselves as revolutionaries, socialists, or
communists and 58% believed the revolution had
bettered their lives.
 In 1974 41% of Cuba’s foreign trade was made up of
non-Communist nations.
 Cuba was still dependent on sugar and when its price
fell to 8 cents a pound in 1977 the country’s economic
growth stopped.
Cuba and Africa
 In 1975, Castro sent 20,000 troops to Angola and this




aid was decisive in allowing a Marxist regime to gain
control of the country.
About 20% of Cuba’s military served overseas in 1978,
most of it in Africa.
In 1978, 20,000 troops were sent to Ethiopia to help
prop-up that country’s leftist government.
In 1982 Cuban troops began building an airfield in
Grenada. The US invaded Grenada in 1983.
In 1979 more than 14,000 Cuban aid workers were
serving abroad.
Domestic Opposition
 In 1980 11,000 Cubans swarmed the Peruvian embassy
requesting political asylum.
 Castro allowed all who wished to leave the island to
emigrate by sea and about 125,000 Cubans fled to
Florida.
 Castro also sent 5,000 common criminals and mentally
ill people to the US.
Cuban Debt
 When interest rates increased in the 1980s, Cuba had
to restructure its foreign debt of $3.5 billion.
 Cuba also had to renegotiate its $7 billion debt with
the Soviet Union.
Effects of the Collapse of European
Communism
 In 1992 and 1993 7,000 people fled to the US from
Cuba.
 In 1993 the US dollar was legalized as a currency of
exchange thereby allowing the Cuban government to
use the $400 million a year that flowed into the island
from Cuban exiles.
 Food production increased by over 17% in 1996.
 In 2004 Cuba went off the duel dollar-peso system.
US and Cuba Relations
 In 1992 Congress passed the Cuban Democracy Act which
prevents subsidiaries of US companies that are located
outside the US from trading with Cuba even if the country
they were located in allowed trade with Cuba.
 In February 1996 the Cuban air force shot down 2 US
civilian aircraft over international airspace.
 Congress retaliated with the Helms-Burton Act which
allows US citizens to sue foreign corporations who profit
from trade or investment in any properties expropriated by
Castro and the US government can penalize foreign
companies that conduct business with Cuba.