The Cuba of Fidel Castro

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The Cuba of Fidel Castro
2
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

3
IB Paper 3 Sample Questions

• Analyse the successes and failures of Castros
  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 Batistas regime. To what
  extent do you agree with this statement?
• Assess the reasons for the long survival of Fidel
  Castros regime in Cuba.

4
IB Paper 3 Sample Questions

• By 1962 Castros 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?

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Lecture Outline

• 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

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Key Terms

• Fulgencio Batista
• July 26th Movement
• Cuban Democracy Act
• Helms-Burton Act

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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.
• Cubas sugar exports had decreased from 20 of
  the worlds production in the late 1920s to 10
  in the 1950s.

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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 Cubas imports were from the US.
• Per capita income declined by 18 between 1952
  and 1954.

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July 26th 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.

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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 Castros band only
  numbered 160 men.

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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 Years 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.

12
Castros Victory

• Castro and his 3,000 rebels entered Havana a week
  later.
• Around 250,000 Cubans left for the US between
  1959 and 1962.

13
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.

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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

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Cuban Missile Crisis
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Cuban Economy under Castro

• In 1963 Castro decided to augment Cubas 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.

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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 Cubas 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
  countrys economic growth stopped.

18
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 Cubas military served overseas in
  1978, most of it in Africa.
• In 1978, 20,000 troops were sent to Ethiopia to
  help prop-up that countrys 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.