Cuban American Revolution Research Paper

Revolution in Cuba and Nicaragua

The birth of both the Cuban and Nicaraguan revolutions started from very similar significant factors, both international and domestic. The United States foreign policy, throughout the Cold War and much of the mid 20th Century, was aimed at stopping the spread of communism by any means. This intervention and support even extended to non-democratic military regimes such as in Cuba and Nicaragua, as the U.S. feared their unstable governments and dissatisfied people would turn to communism for change. Following the successful revolution in Cuba led by Fidel Castro and his implementation of marxist principles, as well as the loss of control in Nicaragua in 1979, U.S. fears were all but realized. U.S. interventionism,

Following the December 10th, 1899 peace treaty between U.S. and Spain, the United States established a military government in formerly Spanish occupied Cuba. By 1905, 13,000 United States nationals owned 60% of Cuban rural properties as well as 90% of the tobacco export trade. With a near monopoly in the Cuban economy, Cubans quickly realized that any decisions made, regarding the future of their country, would be made by foreigners. The United States built Cuban schools, roads, telegraphs, and declared the right to intervene in domestic policies .The United States came to own about 75% of the Cuban economy and contributed to huge numbers of unemployment and poverty for a large part of the Cuban population .As one of Cuba’s biggest customers, the United States even owned plantations which only increased Cuba’s dependency to the U.S.. This system of exploitative capitalism brought immense prosperity to some and inequality to many. Politically, Cuba was home to one of the most corrupt governments in the world between 1920 and 1930. Flogencio Batista reigned for 25 years through puppet presidents while collecting earnings from gangsters, tourists, and gamblers. The rich elites were typically tied in one way or another with U.S. influence while the rest of the country struggled. They enjoyed luxuries such as U.S. cars and clothing. Cuba’s ruling class was made up of only very wealthy individuals who supported the country’s pattern of corruption to further their own agenda’s. Meanwhile, due to U.S. and other foreign demand and influence, the Cuban economy’s reliance on sugar exports created an unstable socio-economic structure where those at the top were typically foreign entrepreneurs. Cuban sovereignty did not exist during this time period as it lacked any sense of political and economic autonomy. Additionally, corrupt Cuban