Cuba

Cuba

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This page is dedicated to Carlos. I worked with Carlos for a brief period in 2005 and I was impressed by his knowledge, intellect, technical competence and, most of all, his humanity.

PAGE CONTENTS:

Colonial Cuba

Cuba Before Castro

Fidel Castro

Guantanamo

Colonial Cuba

Cuba is a Caribbean island roughly the size of Pennsylvania, strategically located just 90 shark-infested miles (145 shark-infested km) from Florida. Its earliest inhabitants arrived thousands of years ago and lived an island-style hunting and gathering life (which sounds a lot better than, say, an Arctic-style hunting and gathering life).

By the late 15th century, the island was home to perhaps 100,000 people, most of whom lived in thatched houses and survived by hunting, fishing, and working simple farms. Then, in 1492, a mysterious stranger named Christopher Columbus showed up and started charting Cuba's coast.

Columbus may have "discovered" Cuba, but he thought the place was an Asian peninsula. Cuba's colonial era really got going in 1511, when Spanish settlers led by the conquistador Diego Velázquez began to arrive in force--and promptly forced the native Cubans to do their bidding.

By the 1550s, European guns, germs, and greed had savaged the indigenous population, which fell to perhaps 3,000 people. Meanwhile, stories of easily mined precious metals enticed many Spaniards to the American mainland. To keep their own mines and farms working, Cuba's remaining Spaniards relied increasingly on African slaves.

The 17th century produced epidemics, pirate raids, colonial power grabs, and a racially mixed Cuban population. Few Spanish women settled in Cuba, and African slaves were legally empowered to buy their freedom. Before long, biracial babies were common, and so were fertile mixtures of music, language, and other cultural traditions.

During the 18th century, sugar became Cuba's main cash crop, and the plantations that produced it began to expand. Other foreign trade picked up, too, especially after the British captured Havana in 1762. The British gave the port back to Spain after just 10 months, but Havana's importance as a commercial center continued to grow.

So did Cuba itself. Over the next century, the island's population increased nearly tenfold. The biggest boom came after 1791, when a slave revolt in Haiti destroyed many of that nation's sugar plantations--and so made Cuba the world's chief sugar producer.

By the mid-19th century, Cuba's slave-powered plantations fed steam-powered sugar mills that generated nearly one-third of the world's sugar. For sugar tycoons, life was sweet. For slaves, it was miserable. For others, including a population of free blacks nearly as large as the population of slaves, it was somewhere in between.

As "Big Sugar" boomed, some U.S. planters took a keen interest in Cuba, which traded more with the United States than with mother Spain. In 1848, the United States offered to buy Cuba for $100 million. In 1854, the offer increased to $130 million. But Spain wasn't selling.

Of course, Cuban revolutionaries had their own ideas about who should own Cuba. Eventually, they won Cuba's independence with help from the United States--which sent Spain packing from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines after the Spanish-American War of 1898. Cuba's colonial era ended. But America's influence waxed as Spain's waned, and a new era of contentious relations began.

--Steve Sampson

Cuba Before Castro

Cuba is an island roughly the size of Pennsylvania, strategically located in the Caribbean Sea, just 90 shark-infested miles (145 shark-infested km) from Florida. Its earliest inhabitants arrived thousands of years ago and lived an island-style hunting and gathering life (which sounds a lot better than, say, an Arctic-style hunting and gathering life).

By the time the first Europeans arrived--at the start of the 16th century--the island was home to perhaps 100,000 people. Most of those folks lived in thatched houses and survived by hunting, fishing, and growing crops, especially corn, beans, sweet potatoes, pineapples, and tobacco.

Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba in 1492, and charted its southern coast in 1494, but he thought the place was an Asian peninsula. In 1511, Spanish settlers led by the conquistador Diego Velàzquez began to arrive in force--and promptly forced the native Cubans to do their bidding.

By the 1550s, European guns, germs, and ruthless exploitation had decimated the indigenous population, which fell to perhaps 3,000 people. At the same time, stories of easily mined precious metals enticed many Spaniards to the American mainland. To keep their own mines and farms working, Cuba's remaining Spaniards relied increasingly on African slaves.

The 17th century produced epidemics, pirate raids, and attempts by other European powers to capture Cuban spoils. It also produced a racially mixed Cuban population. Few Spanish women settled in Cuba, and African slaves were legally empowered to buy their freedom. Before long, biracial babies were common, and so were fertile mixtures of music, language, and other cultural traditions.

During the 18th century, sugar became Cuba's main cash crop, and the plantations that produced it began to expand. Other foreign trade picked up, too, especially after the British captured Havana in 1762. The British turned the port back over to Spain after just 10 months, but Havana's importance as a commercial center continued to grow.

So did Cuba itself. In fact, over the next century, the island's population increased nearly tenfold. The biggest boom came after 1791, when a slave revolt in Haiti destroyed many of that nation's sugar plantations--and so made Cuba the world's chief sugar producer.

By the mid-19th century, Cuba's slave-powered plantations fed steam-powered sugar mills that generated nearly one-third of the world's sugar. For sugar tycoons, life was sweet. For slaves--many of whom were literally worked to death--it was miserable. For others, including a population of free blacks nearly as large as the population of slaves, it was somewhere in between.

Meanwhile, some U.S. planters took a keen interest in Cuba, which traded more with the United States than with mother Spain. In 1848, the United States offered to buy Cuba for $100 million. In 1854, the offer increased to $130 million. But Spain wasn't selling. Cuba stayed Spanish--until Cubans and Americans made Cuba Cuban.

In 1868, a planter from eastern Cuba, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, started the first large-scale fight for Cuban independence, later known as the Ten Years' War. Spain responded by sending in tens of thousands of well-trained, well-armed troops.

Outmanned and outgunned, Céspedes's machete-wielding patriots nevertheless held out for (you guessed it) 10 years, and the Spanish promised political reforms in return for peace. Most of the rebels agreed to Spain's terms in 1878, but a few retreated to the United States, regrouped, and returned to revolt again the next year. The Spanish squashed that effort, too, but Cuban nationalism was waxing as loyalty to Spain waned.

By the early 1890s, pro-independence forces had again begun to organize in exile. This time they were led by José Martí, a Cuban poet based in New York City. In 1895, Martí's revolutionaries invaded and declared the Republic of Cuba. Spain responded with 200,000 troops, who forced tens of thousands of Cubans into "reconcentration" camps, where many died of disease and starvation.

News of Spanish atrocities won the Cuban rebels sympathy at home and abroad--notably in the United States, where journalists (especially those at William Randolph Hearst's newspapers) churned out anti-Spanish copy. Then, in 1898, a mysterious explosion sank the Maine, a U.S. battleship in Havana's harbor. Many Americans blamed the Spanish--though it likely wasn't them--and Congress declared war.

The Spanish-American War lasted just months and ended with U.S. forces in control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Spain relinquished any claim to Cuba. Yet Cuba wasn't fully independent. The U.S. military occupied the island until 1902, by which time the United States had won constitutional concessions that enabled it to oversee Cuban affairs and to establish a permanent naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

Heavy U.S. influence would help define the early decades of the Cuban republic. Marines returned to protect U.S. interests in 1906, 1912, and 1917. In 1920, the sugar market collapsed, and U.S. banks, businesses, and entrepreneurs bought huge swathes of Cuban property on the cheap. Meanwhile, Cuba's government became increasingly corrupt.

In 1933, with support from the U.S. government, a Cuban army sergeant, Fulgencio Batista, seized power in a coup. Batista held power for a decade, first through a series of puppet presidents, and later by getting elected himself. In 1944, he retired quietly to the United States, but returned to Cuba in 1952 and seized control once again.

This time, opposition groups cried foul, and new organizations opposed to Batista cropped up across the island. One such group, led by a young lawyer named Fidel Castro, raided a military base in the city of Santiago de Cuba on July 26, 1953. The attack failed, and Castro was arrested, but he used his trial as a platform to promote his political cause. Though sentenced to 15 years in prison, Castro was released along with other political prisoners in 1955.

After regrouping in Mexico, Castro and his "26th of July Movement" invaded Cuba in December 1956. Many of his 80 or so men were killed in an ambush as soon as they landed, but a handful--including Fidel, his brother Raul, and the iconic revolutionary Che Guevara--escaped into Cuba's Sierra Maestra Mountains and launched a guerrilla war.

Meanwhile, Batista's hold on power was slipping. Urban guerrilla groups joined forces with Castro's movement, and a variety of civic groups openly supported the developing revolution. Students protested, workers struck, and fractures began to show in the Cuban military.

In 1958, the United States stopped shipping arms to Batista. Later that year, the rebels won a series of key battles, and Batista saw the writing on the wall. After an annual New Year's Eve party, he and his close advisers skipped town for the Dominican Republic. Castro entered Havana in January 1959. He's been in charge of Cuba ever since.

Steve Sampson

Fidel Castro

by Jennifer Rosenberg

In the late 1950s, Fidel Castro took control of Cuba by force and has remained its dictatorial leader for over four decades. As the leader of the only communist country in the Western Hemisphere, Castro has been the focus of international controversy.

Also Known As: Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz

Fidel Castro was born near his father's farm, Birán, in southeast Cuba in what was then the Oriente Province. Castro's father, Angel Castro y Argiz, was an immigrant from Spain who had prospered in Cuba as a sugarcane farmer. Although Castro's father, Angel, was married to Maria Luisa Argota (not Castro's mother), he had five children out of wedlock with Lina Ruz González (Castro's mother), who worked for him as a maid and cook. Years later, Angel and Lina did marry.

Fidel Castro spent his youngest years on his father's farm, but spent most of his youth in Catholic boarding schools, excelling at sports.

In 1945, Castro began law school at the University of Havana and quickly became involved in politics. In 1947, Castro joined the Caribbean Legion, a group of political exiles from Caribbean countries who planned to rid the Caribbean of dictator-led governments. When Castro joined, the Legion was planning to overthrow Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic but the plan was later cancelled because of international pressure.

In 1948, Castro traveled to Bototá, Colombia with plans to disrupt the Pan-American Union Conference, when country-wide riots broke out in response to the assassination of Jorge Eliecer Gaitán. Castro grabbed a rifle and joined the rioters. While handing out anti-U.S. pamphlets to the crowds, Castro gained first-hand experience of popular uprisings. After returning to Cuba, Castro married co-student Mirta Diaz-Balart in October 1948. Castro and Mirta had one child together.

In 1950, Castro graduated from law school and began practicing law. Retaining a strong interest in politics, Castro became a candidate for a seat in Cuba's House of Representatives during the election of June 1952. However, before the elections could be held, a successful coup led by General Fulgencio Batista toppled the previous Cuban government, canceling the elections.

From the beginning of Batista's rule, Castro fought against him. At first, Castro took to the courts to try legal means to oust Batista. However, when that failed, Castro began to organize an underground group of rebels.

In the morning of July 26, 1953, Castro, his brother Raúl, and a group of about 160 armed men attacked the second-largest military base in Cuba - the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Confronted with hundreds of trained soldiers at the base, there was little chance that the attack could have succeeded. Although 60 of Castro's rebels were killed, Castro and Raúl were captured and then given a trial.

After delivering a speech at his trial which ended with, "Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me," Castro was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was released two years later, in May 1955.

Upon his release, Castro went to Mexico where he spent the next year organizing the "26th of July Movement" (based on the date of the failed Moncada Barracks attack).

On December 2, 1956, Castro and the rest of the 26th of July Movement rebels landed on Cuban soil with the intention of starting a revolution. Met by heavy Batista defenses, nearly everyone in the Movement was killed, with merely a handful escaping, including Castro, Raúl, and Che Guevara.

For the next two years, Castro continued guerilla attacks and succeeded in gaining large numbers of volunteers.

Using guerilla warfare tactics, Castro and his supporters attacked Batista's forces, overtaking town after town.

Batista quickly lost popular support and suffered numerous defeats. On January 1, 1959, Batista fled Cuba.

In January, Manuel Urrutia was selected as president of the new government and Castro was placed in charge of the military. However, by July 1959, Castro had effectively taken over as leader of Cuba, which he remained for the next four decades.

During 1959 and 1960, Castro made radical changes in Cuba, including nationalizing industry, collectivizing agriculture, and seizing American-owned businesses and farms. Also during these two years, Castro alienated the United States and established strong ties with the Soviet Union. Castro transformed Cuba into a communist country.

The United States wanted Castro out of power. In one attempt to overthrow Castro, the U.S. sponsored the failed incursion of Cuban-exiles into Cuba in April 1961 (known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion). Over the years, the U.S. has made hundreds of attempts to assassinate Castro, all with no success.

In 1961, Castro met Dalia Soto del Valle. Castro and Dalia had five children together and finally married in 1980.

In 1962, a year after the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Cuba was the center of world focus when the U.S. discovered the construction sites of Soviet nuclear missiles. The struggle that ensued between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the Cuban Missile Crisis, brought the world the closest it ever came to nuclear war.

Over the next four decades, Castro ruled Cuba as a dictator. While some Cubans benefited from Castro's educational and land reforms, others suffered from the food shortages and lack of personal freedoms. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans have fled Cuba to live in the United States.

Having relied heavily on Soviet aid and trade, Castro found himself suddenly alone after the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1991. With the U.S. embargo against Cuba still in effect, Cuba's economic situation suffered greatly in the 1990s.

In July 2006, Castro announced that he was temporarily handing over power to his brother, Raúl, while he underwent gastrointestinal surgery. Since then, complications with the surgery have caused infections for which Castro has undergone several additional surgeries. As of January 2007, Castro is reportedly in very bad health.

Guantanamo

The U.S. military detainment camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, continues to cause controversy. Everyone has an opinion. But not everyone knows how the United States wound up with beachfront property in communist Cuba to begin with--or why it keeps the property now.

The United States first took an interest in Guantanamo Bay because the Spanish were there. At the end of the 19th century, Spain had imperial outposts throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, and the United States was increasingly unwilling to give a European power authority in its backyard.

That tension culminated in the Spanish-American War. After the two nations declared war on each other in 1898, American forces intervened in a struggle between Spanish forces and Cuban revolutionaries, who had been fighting for independence. On June 10, 1898, a battalion of marines landed in Guantanamo Bay on Cuba's southeast coast. Americans have been there ever since.

Guantanamo Bay is one of the largest in the world and deep enough to accommodate even the most massive modern vessels. With a position there, America could respond quickly to crises throughout the region. What's more, Guantanamo Bay commands the "Windward Passage" between Cuba and Haiti, which links the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea. Control it, and you control access to the entire area (including, today, access to the Panama Canal).

With these interests in mind, American negotiators made sure to secure indefinite rights to Cuba's valuable port. On February 23, 1903, Tomás Estrada Palma, the first president of newly independent Cuba, signed a treaty in which America gained rights to Guantanamo Bay for as long as it wanted to stay there. In return, Cuba would get 2,000 gold coins (roughly $4,000) per year. How's that for rent control?

The base grew steadily until 1959, when Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. The victorious communist rebels wanted the Yankees off the island. But President Dwight Eisenhower told Castro that wasn't going to happen. The dispute marked the start of decades of tension and mutual hostility.

Castro has threatened to seize the base several times, but to no avail. In 1964, he cut off the base's water supply, but the United States countered by building desalinization plants. Today, "Gitmo" is entirely self-reliant. In addition to desalinated water, the base produces its own electricity with diesel generators and wind turbines.

The U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay is now America's oldest overseas military installation, and the only one on communist soil. It's home to about 10,000 military personnel, who support the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet, perform training exercises, and engage in anti-drug operations.

In the last decades of the 20th century, Guantanamo Bay often served as temporary housing for refugees from Haiti and other areas. It first served as a prison in 2002, when captives taken during the war in Afghanistan were transferred there. The prisoner population now stands at around 400 suspected terrorists.

Mark Diller

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