ipl-logo

The Cuban Embargo

1152 Words5 Pages

Cuba is a nation that has been conquered by many people over the years and because of decolonization it is hard for the Cuban people to get rid of the rulers who wanted to influence their history. Fidel Castro gave the Cuban people independence. He was a forceful and cunning dictator who controlled the country and negatively effected the economy. The United States did not support the arrogant dictator’s establishment of communism which led to an economic downfall. Due to Castro 's insistence on practicing communism, the Cuban economy suffered as the government nationalized businesses while the United States implemented a trade embargo which resulted in homelessness and unemployment. Cuba has dramatically changed since the end of World War …show more content…

The United States did not support the dictatorship of Castro and as a result they embargoed Cuba, completely cutting off trade between the countries. “In the 1950s more than two-thirds of Cuban foreign trade was with the United States. By 1961 Cuban-U.S. trade was down to 4 percent, and it soon ceased entirely under U.S. government embargo policies (Levinson).” The country of Cuba heavily relied on the United States for exporting their main goods. The embargo had a negative impact on the Cuban economy because Cuba could no longer export their goods to their biggest foreign country of trade, resulting in money loss. Castro wanted the embargo to be lifted, so the Cuban economy could thrive again. The fact Castro wanted the embargo to be lifted demonstrated how impactful the embargo was on the Cuban economy. “Castro began pressing the United States to lift the trade embargo it had imposed upon Cuba since the revolution. The U.S. government remained firm, however, refusing to negotiate with Cuba on trade matters until Castro ended his dictatorial regime (Newsmakers).” The fact that Castro began to press the United States to lift the trade embargo shows how desperate Castro was and how impactful the embargo was. Castro realized how the embargo was causing the economy to spiral downhill and wanted it to be lifted so his …show more content…

With a communist government, the government controlled everything and it aggravated the Cuban people. Nothing could be privately owned because majority of property and businesses were publicly owned by the government. “The government’s control of several key sectors of the economy—including transportation, construction, agriculture, and retail sales- was significantly reduced… as a continuation of the economic reforms (Levinson).” Castro established a communism government in hopes for it to be beneficial and help the economy thrive even more. He instituted harsh business enforcement which made the people unhappy and caused them to lose money and status. Because of extreme business enforcement, many people became unemployed, homeless, and starving. The government was too controlling and it resulted in the downfall of the economy. With the establishment of communism, many people’s businesses were put to an end and many Cubans lost a lot of their wealth and property. Other Cubans that got to keep their businesses had to share their earnings with the government, making little money for themselves. “They lost everything they owned to Communist Cuba, which seized private property for the state in order to build a socialist regime (Tkacik).” The initiation of communism in Cuba lead to Cuban businesses being destroyed and taken over. Because of communism,

Show More
Related
747 Words | 3 Pages

The embargo really messed with Badilon’s business, and in a month he was broke/not making a profit. Badilon was sad that his business was failing, so he contacted the World Trade Organization to try and get rights to sell his product in Cuba. He went to court and won, so once again Badilon’s business was thriving, and on the hot, muggy days with no wind everyone could go swim at the beach without having to worry about getting water in their

Read More
755 Words | 4 Pages

The Cuban Revolution had many lasting impacts. One area that was greatly influenced from 1959 to 1990 was gender relations. From the start to the end of the revolution women in Cuba faced many difficulties in gaining civil rights, some people were against it while others fought fiercely for equality, but in the end the quality of these women's lives were changed for the better. Before and during the revolution, Cuban Women were treated unequally and some of the population saw this as a problem and others did not. Throughout this time many people were against women's rights, even women themselves.

Read More
709 Words | 3 Pages

Cuba became a communist country under the dictatorship of Fidel Castro, the united states did attempt to stop it but they failed. (Doc D) The United States late on discovered that there was a range of nuclear missiles sites in Cuba, the United States responded to this by announcing a quarantine. (Doc D) A quarantine is a place of isolation in which people or even animals are placed after coming from somewhere else, this was usually practiced to stop pesticides and other infections.

Read More
1776 Words | 8 Pages

With the death of longtime dictator Fidel Castro what is going to happen to Cuba’s government. Cuba is a Communist country and it has been like that for many years. Fidel Castro was a dictator for nearly five centuries until he became ill and relinquished presidency to his brother Raul Castro. This research will be comparing and contrasting Cuba’s and the United States government.

Read More
371 Words | 2 Pages

We ended up cutting off trade with Cuba because of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This was a time where Russia sent nuclear weapons to Cuba that was in reach of the United States. The States got scared and demanded Cuba to give the missiles back to Russia. However, Cuba did not like that idea so the United States cut off all forms of communication. Cuba kept the missiles and the United States went along on their day.

Read More
653 Words | 3 Pages

For instance, Cuba has been established as a dictatorship while Puerto Rico has been established as a republic. Under these conditions each of the countries have developed in complete different ways. For example, in Cuba, the citizens have had to live under the constant rules of their leader Fidel Castro. Castro used his power to create the structure of Cuba in the same structure as that of the Soviet Union, which in return caused him to lock up or execute anyone who went against what he said. Due to those reasons, Cuba 's economy was gravely wounded and the entire country was forced to grow under strained conditions,

Read More
522 Words | 3 Pages

The Cuban Revolution was successful in toppling the corrupt Batista dictatorship and getting the Cosa Nostra (a major crime syndicate in Sicily) out of Cuba. The Cuban Revolution was and is not successful however, in making Cuba a free land and a good place to live for everyone. It benefited just the communist party leaders. At first the Cuban people thought they were fighting from freedom, and that they were trying to free themselves from Batista and the United States. However, what most of the cuban people didn 't know it was that it was all a lie.

Read More
727 Words | 3 Pages

The ongoing embargo between Cuba and America started even before the embargo was set into place. It all began when the United States of America declared war on Spain in 1898; the U.S had won the war. America winning against Spain made them ceded Cuba to America. In 1908 Cuba had taken their independence with their new president, Tomas Palma but the U.S kept them under their protection through the platts amendment. After years passed Cuba goes through a lot of change forced upon by the Cuban Revolution.

Read More
989 Words | 4 Pages

It’s safe to say Fidel Castro’s communist rule failed Cuba and the economy. Fidel Castro has made Cuba’s economy based solely on its government, this includes food, education, health and employment. According to Tim Worstall, a writer for Forbes, “In 1959, when Castro took power, GDP per capita for Cuba was some $2,067 a year. In other Latin

Read More
1747 Words | 7 Pages

This alliance, within the context of Cold War politics, influenced the United States’ decision to minimize and even halt trade with Cuba; this was damaging to economic stability. Loss of stable trade with the United States created a deficit and, when the USSR finally collapsed, economic stability faltered in the wake. Another drawback of creating a socialist regime was the fact that it was extremely expensive to finance programs that could lead to successful political, economic, and social structures. Since Cuba’s main export was sugar, which was not a reliable industry due to Cuba’s minimal comparative advantage over the exports of other countries in South America, foreign investment and support was necessary for stability (Prevost, 379). Overall, taking a socialist approach was the most important way that Cuba managed to re-establish stability, but this approach led to US opposition and economic stability was relatively short-lived after foreign support

Read More
216 Words | 1 Pages

The Cuban Revolution had started in 1953 which had a negative effect on Cuba ever since Castro came into power. Castro’s intentions were to make Cuba better by overthrowing Batista, a military leader, but didn’t prove so. The Cuban revolution affected Cuba negatively both politically and economically. Cuba was affected economically, due to the emigration that was occurring with the higher class people, and Cuba was also trading goods with the Soviet Union, which the Soviet Union had backed off. The Soviet Union had left Cuba, because Politically people had less rights in general, as the Cubans didn’t even have the permission to speak up, or do any changes to their own properties as they were nationalized.

Read More
1071 Words | 5 Pages

The whole idea of having this embargo act and what comes with it like the trading is so that Cuba can adopt the democratic government, but yet the United States still trades with countries who have communism as government (Rangel,332), countries

Read More
1141 Words | 5 Pages

Late president Nikita Khrushchev (from USSR), agreed to assist Castro and took immediate action. He installed missiles in Cuba, which the US thought was a threat to the security of their nation. In summary, I think that this was a defensive move by the Cubans. I most definitely agree with

Read More
1146 Words | 5 Pages

Children attending school in Cuba start their day with a chant, “¡Seremo como el Che!”, meaning we will be like Che. To this day, revolutionary character is played upon as a central element to Cuba. Ideology, and popular support are the two central factors in any revolutionary government. Castro is no different in needing to establish both in order to gain power. Or is he?

Read More
1012 Words | 5 Pages

If Cuba wishes to follow its own ideological commitment to revolution for the people and the people for the revolution, it needs to recognize and allow the entrepreneurship of its own citizens, instead of treating them with contempt. In building up their own arsenal of Cuban entrepreneurs they can raise the quality of living as well as continue on in their struggle for economic and social

Read More

More about The Cuban Embargo

Related Topics

Open Document