Fidel Castro: The Cuban Revolution

Fidel Castro was able to play on Cuba’s history in order to produce and maintain the revolution. Castro was not only able to use the current conditions in Cuba to shape the conditions for a successful revolution, but he was able to prolong the revolutionary movement for decades. Cuba has a lengthy and complex history, filled with many missteps, and wrongdoings against the Cuban people that Castro drew from during the revolutionary period. Preceding 1959, Fulgencio Batista was in office, and he represented imperialistic powers to the citizens of Cuba. Castro was able to use the anti-imperialism present in both Cuba and Latin America to manufacture conditions for revolution. Following the revolution, while Cuba was under a trade embargo, the

Cuba has a history of mistreated people and minorities. From the banning of a book promoting the abolition of slavery, to a popular artist being turned away by a hotel due to the color of her skin, many people in Cuba were mistreated and oppressed., Much of the Cuban population was not benefitting from the government before the revolution and had not been benefitting for decades. There was a low quality of life for many Cubans, many did not own land, and lacked proper education, or if they did have education, lacked the ability to get a job in their respective field. Castro drew from these frustrations of the Cuban people in order to gain the support. At the time Castro and the revolutionaries came, many were willing to give Castro a chance to see if life would

Following the revolution in 1959, the Castro regime was able to perpetuate the anti-imperialist, and specifically, the anti-United States ideology within Cuba. In 1961, the United States executed a plan to inspire revolution from within Cuba. Unfortunately for the United States, the ploy failed miserably, with the Cuban army defeating the invaders with ease. With the United States failure, the Castro regime was able to further establish legitimacy both within Cuba, as well as within the international community. Additionally, Castro was able to prove he could take on the superpower of the United States. He was able to make the United States look weak to the Cuban