Cuba

Cuba is an island located in the Caribbean Sea, 90 miles south of Florida. It is the only Communist country in the American continent.

History

In 1492, Cuba was Christopher Columbus's first sight in his first and most famous voyage to the Americas. The Seven Years' War, which erupted in 1754 in three continents, eventually arrived at the Spanish Caribbean. Spain's alliance with the French pitched them in direct conflict with the British, and in 1762 an expedition set out from Portsmouth of 5 warships and 4000 troops to capture Cuba. The English arrived on June 6, and by August had Havana under siege. When Havana surrendered, British Admiral of the fleet George Keppel, the 3rd Earl of Albemarle, entered the city as conquering new governor, taking control of the whole western part of the island.

For many years, Cuba was an United States territory. During this time, Cuba relied on slavery longer than all nations in the Western Hemisphere except Brazil. Cuba had a slave trade from 1521 to 1884. In 1868, a Creole farmer started a revolution for racial equality, freedom of speech and association. It was then a colony of Spain, which put down the insurgency after a ten-year struggle. In 1880, the Spanish Cortes approved the abolition law, which provided for an eight-year period of patronato (tutelage) for all slaves liberated according to the law. This only amounted to indentured servitude as slaves were required to spend those eight years working for their masters at no charge. On October 7, 1884, slavery was finally abolished in Cuba by a royal decree that also made the patronato illegal.

By 1895 it took 200,000 Spanish soldiers to suppress the Cuban independence movement.^{[Citation Needed]} Americans were shocked at how Spain sent tens of thousands of Cubans to concentration camps, where many died of starvation or disease. After increasing tension between the United States and Spain, Spain, in a move that proved to be fatal, blew up the USS Maine and the United States declared the Spanish American War. President McKinley approved this Resolution of Congress:

Whereas the abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than three years in the island of Cuba, so near our own borders, have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, have been a disgrace to Christian civilization, culminating, as they have, in the destruction of a United States battle ship, with 266 of its officers and crew, while on a friendly visit in the harbor of Havana, and cannot longer be endured ...

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives ... That the people of the island of Cuba are and of right ought to be free.

Although the Teller Amendment prevented the United States from aquiring Cuba (in addition to Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines), the United States temporarily took control of Cuba until 1902, and when they handed over control to a Cuban Government, they required that the Platt Ammendment be passed, allowing the U.S. to still have some control over the island.

In 1952 elections were held, with the leading parties finishing as Roberto Agramonte, Ortodoxos party, followed by Dr. Aurelio Hevia with Batista being a far thrid place. This prompted Batista to stage a coup on 10 March 1952 and lead a military Junta for two years. In 1954 he agreed to elections, which were then rigged. His regime proved unpopular with high levels of corruption, poverty and police and violence.

In 1956 a party of rebels, including Fidel Castro, landed in a boat from Mexico and tried to start an armed resistance movement in the Sierra Maestra. In Mexico, his army got strengthened by revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara - who is later identified as one of the most important people in Cuban revolution. After the landing, Batista made launched a campaign of repression against the opposition, which only served to increase support for the insurgency.

Through 1957 and 1958, opposition to Batista grew, especially among the upper and middle classes and the students. In response to Batista's plea to purchase better arms from the U.S. in order to root out the insurgents in the mountains, the United States government imposed an arms embargo on the Cuban government on March 14, 1958. By late 1958, the rebels had succeeded in breaking out of the Sierra Maestra and launched a general insurrection, joined by hundreds of students and others fleeing Batista’s crackdown on dissent in the cities. When the rebels captured Santa Clara, east of Havana, Batista decided the struggle was futile and fled the country to exile in Portugal and later Spain. Castro’s rebel forces entered the capital on January 1 1959. Castro imposed Karl Marx's Communism, and this move has caused him to be a very polarizing figure. While many Cubans attempt to escape Cuba each year, the Cubans that choose to stay have turned Castro into their icon.

In 1962, the Soviet Union, in response to missiles placed in Turkey by the United States, placed missile in Cuba while the United States was under the rule of President John F. Kennedy. The high-pressure controvery that resulted quickly subsided when both sides withdrew. and has one of the best medical and educational systems in Latin America, all provided for by the state and available to any citizen of the island.