As it gained independence from Spain, Cuba signed the Platt Amendment with the US.  The Cuban population experienced economic and social inequalities and governments were notorious for high levels of corruption. However, it was under the pro-US dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista that conditions worsened and the scene was set for the Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro.

When Batista took power in 1952 he was supported by the US and in return continued to allow the US to dominate the economy.

After the Moncada attack, Batista's government proclaimed martial law.  There followed a violent crackdown on dissent and the imposition of strict censorship. Government propaganda spread misinformation about the event, claiming that the rebels were communists who had killed hospital patients. However, real news and photographs spread of the army's use of torture and executions.

This extract from History Will Absolve Me set out Castro's aims

• 'Restoration of the Constitution of 1940 ‘until such time as the people should decide to modify or change it’
• 'Full ownership of small farms worked by tenants, share croppers and squatters'
• 'The right of workers and employees ‘to share 30 per cent of the profits of all large industrial, mercantile, and mining enterprises as well as sugar mills’
• 'The right of agricultural workers on sugar plantations ‘to share 55 per cent of the value of sugarcane produced’
• 'Confiscation of ‘all property and wealth secured through politically protected fraud and graft during previous regimes’

The 26th July movement was named after the date of the attack on the Moncada barracks.  Castro presented his movement as ‘martyrs of the dictatorship’ and Batista’s brutal response to the attack further undermined his regime and galvanised support for the 26th July movement in Cuba.

• The guerrillas were supported by an urban underground which provided arms, money and recruits. The urban leaders were known as the ‘Llano’. They also helped to spread strikes and sabotage across the island
• Castro did not associate himself with the Cuban Communist Party or with any one political group – he maintained a broad-based consensus front against Batista
• Castro did interviews with American journalists and magazines where he stressed the importance of ending corruption

• allow sugar plantation workers to have a 55 per cent share of profits 

• bring an end to corruption. 


He also promised pensions, hospitals, public education, nationalisation of utilities, and rent controls.

• In May 1959, Castro decreed The Law of Agrarian Reform which restricted the size of land holdings and gave the government the right to expropriate private holdings in excess of state limits; owners of the land received bonds in compensation.
• Eighty-five percent of of all Cuban farms fell under the jurisdiction of the reform law because landownership had been so highly concentrated under the old regime. Note that this was to be followed by second Agrarian Law in 1963 under which thousands of medium-size farms were expropriated to prevent the existence of 'rich' peasants.
• State farms now became the dominant form of agriculture, controlling 70 per cent of the land and controlling the export of all major crops.
• The small farmers who remained were forced to sell their crops to the government at low cost.

• In 1961 Kennedy extended the terms of sanctions, and tension further escalated when Castro nationalised US oil refineries.
• The economic blockade form the US meant that spare parts from the US became a problem, especially in the sugar industry.

In addition:

• Cuba was excluded from the OAS [it had been a founding member]
• All OAS members bar Mexico cut trade and diplomatic ties with Cuba
• Kennedy worked to stop NATO members trading with Cuba
• Kennedy launched the Alliance for Progress – a program to aid Latin American development
• Operation Mongoose involved the CIA carrying out acts of sabotage against the Cuban economy. 


Review the causes and impact of the Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

Cuba became even more tied to the Soviet economy:

• Castro went to Moscow to finalise a 15-year economic agreement with Brezhnev that gave Cuba even more subsidies, including an increase in price for sugar, deferment of debt, and $350 million of investment.
• Soviet advisers recommended the setting up of the System of Direction and Planning of the Economy, and the adoption of Cuba’s first ‘five-year plan’.

The Family Code of 1975 established in law the equality of women

• economically: 'salaries, wages, pensions and other income obtained by husband and wife during marriage belongs to both'
• in the home:  'both parties must care for the families they have created. They must participate in the running of the home..'
• equality in right to divorce

However, there was limited genuine change in women's status in society:

• Expectation women still did all housework and care of children remained - so women found themselves working a 'double shift'. Ultimately many women had to give up work.
• Women faced discrimination in the workplace and numbers of women in workforce remained lower than government would have wanted. 
• Only 13.2% of the membership of the Communist Party were women
• In the new assemblies introduced in 1976, the percentage of women was extremely low.

Castro commented that 'The result demonstrates just how women still suffer from discrimination and inequality ....and how in the corners of our consciousness live on old habits of the past.'

• Practising Catholics and other believers were viewed with suspicion and not allowed to join the Communist Party.

The 1976 constitution made it clear that:

It is illegal and punishable by law to oppose one’s faith or religious belief to the Revolution, to education or to the fulfillment of the duty  to work, defend the country with arms, show reverence for its symbols and fulfill other duties established by the Constitution

Batista's supporters were arrested, imprisoned or executed. 

The regime persecuted dissidents, for example poet Herberto Juan Padilla was imprisoned for criticising the regime. 

However, Castro also tolerated opponents leaving Cuba for example: in the early years of the regime 250,000 left, the Peruvian embassy siege 1980 and Mariel boat lift.

The 1976 constitution was an attempt to make government more responsive to the people and provided for a pyramid of elected bodies.

However

• Only the PCC was allowed to campaign and all nominees to elections at any level had to be chosen by the party.
• Castro remained the dominant force in the government as the First Secretary General of the Communist party, head of Government, and president of the Council of State.
• There was little practical change to the political system.