Cuba's Economic and Political Instability
Cuba’s political instability and sugar-centered economy were the result of U.S. influence through the Platt Amendment and the various Sugar Acts and reciprocity treaties. Marifeli Perez-Stable takes this stance in her book The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course, and Legacy in her interpretation of Cuban radical nationalism in the 1950’s. The domination of Cuba’s economy by the sugar industry was responsible for much of its wealth but also a great deal of its problems. While the sugar industry generally remained a profitable enterprise in the first half of the 20th Century, Cuba’s growth was hindered by her dependence on it. It fostered unemployment or underemployment, the standard of living was unable to rise, and attempts at diversification of the economy were unsuccessful. Yet without the income and investment sugar brought into Cuba, the economy would collapse. This is what Perez-Stable terms ‘the sugar conundrum’. The United States was the main market for Cuban sugar, and its trade policy perpetuated ‘the sugar conundrum’, discouraging diversification in agriculture or manufacturing.
The influence of the United States in the political affairs of Cuba is a vital part of Perez-Stable’s interpretation. There was a constant need to negotiate with the United States to preserve Cuba’s preferred sugar trading status, and decisions made by the U.S. were of critical economic importance to Cubans. Therefore, even after Roosevelt abrogated the Platt Amendment in 1934, the wishes of the U.S. government were more influential than what was in the best interests of Cuba. For instance, corruption became rampant as the most honest of all Cuban political groups, the communists, lost political clou...
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...n the words of Marti, that "The only fruitful and lasting peace and freedom are those accomplished by one’s own effort" (Manifesto, 130).
References
Castro, Fidel. "History Will Absolve Me", excerpt from The U.S., Cuba and the Cold War: American Failure or Communist Conspiracy? Ed. L. Langley, Lexington Mass, 1970.
26th of July Movement, "Program Manifesto of the 26th of July Movement", in Cuba in Revolution ed. R. Bonachea and Nelson Valdes, Garden City NJ, 1972.
Guevara, Ernesto Che. "One Year of Armed Struggle", from Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War, trans. Victor Ortiz, New York: Monthly Review Press, 1968.
Perez-Stable, Marifeli. The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course, and Legacy. Oxford University Press, NY 1993.
Paterson, Thomas G. Contesting Castro: The U.S. and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution. Oxford University Press, NY 1994.
People really do not have individual thoughts and just go along with the general opinions of others. Twain’s use of humor, rhetorical questions, everyday life examples, manners, literature, and outside influences present an effective argument for conformity. He believes that people like to imitate each other, so they can be accepted by the rest of society and agree with the public opinion. Without self-approval a person does not feel good about themselves and must always resign to be different. A person needs to conform to be a part of
On July 26, 1953, the war for Cuba’s independence began, and for 6 years many Cubans fought for their freedom. The most famous of these revolutionary icons being Fidel Castro, who led the main resistance against the Cuban government. On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro and the rest of the Cuban's succeeded. This revolutionary war went on to affect the entire world and Eric Selbin believes it is still affecting it. Throughout Eric Selbin's article, Conjugating the Cuban Revolution, he firmly states that the Cuban revolution is important in the past, present, and future. Selbin, however, is wrong.
The Platt Change forbade Cuba to let any international power to develop army angles on the area and limited the capability of Cubans to make diplomatic and professional choices that the U. S. considered as opposed to Cuba’s
Long before our involvement, the Cubans had been leading revolts and revolutions against Spain. The Spanish empire considered Cuba to be its jewel, not only for its beauty but also for its economics. Cuba’s main source of income was from its expansive sugar plantations that greatly contributed to its wealth (more so to the Spanish Empires wealth). Ironically, even due to the high regard to Cuba, it was neglected and oppressed, as the Spanish Empire began its decline in the middle of the nineteenth century. The Empire was falling due to it slowly loosing its control over its territories, closer to the US then to Spain, because of a lack of industrializing. The Spanish would claim ownership, but never contribute back to their land. This opened the door for what is known as the 10-year war and the struggle for Cuban Independence. The United States never got directly involved, but it sympathized greatly with the Cuban’s cause, for ...
Kennedy, John W. "Cuba’s next revolution: how Christians are reshaping Castro’s Communist stronghold." Christianity Today. 42.1 (1998): 18-33.
The U.S.’s relationship with Cuba has been arduous and stained with mutual suspicion and obstinateness, and the repeated U.S. interventions. The Platt agreement and Castro’s rise to power, served to introduce the years of difficulty to come, while, the embargo the U.S. placed on Cuba, enforced the harsh feelings. The two major events that caused the most problems were the Bays of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis.
One device Twain uses to develop his view on conformity is repetition. While discussing man’s inability of having a self-created opinion, but rather conforming to another opinion, he uses the phrase, “he must” (Twain, 718) five separate times. By repeating those two words, Twain shows how conformity is a requirement, not an option. Instead of reasoning out personal thoughts on a subject, people conform to the majority’s belief on that subject. People base opinions off on other people, which is Twain’s main point in his essay. Later on, he uses repetition once again to discuss the common changes in manners and man’s inability to think for themselves. Twain uses the pronoun “we” (719) to include everybody in his perspective on conformity. By ranging the settings, “…table manners, and company manners, and street manners…” (719), he shows how conformity impacts every aspect of life. Also, any...
The Americans were losing patience over the whole Cuban affair because Spain cut shipping and economic interests from Cuba. Americans wanted the economic situation resolved so they could get back to the economic fortunes they were used to; therefore, the worsening economy was one of the main causes of the War of 1898. When the United States finally denounced the dominance of the Spanish government in Cuba, Spain cut its economic ties with the United States. Trade for the United States was impacted greatly. Due to the sharp drop of sugar prices that took place from early 1884, the old Cuban “sugar nobility,” unable to mechanize and cut costs, began to disintegrate and lose its dominant role in the island’s economy and society (Hernandez). This facilitated the United States’ penetration of the Cuban economy, and the United States took over sugar estates and mining interests. It was American machinery, technicians, and capital that helped save the Cuban sugar mills.
In the first couple paragraphs of “Corn Pone Opinion” Twain uses the pronoun “I”. He then switches to the pronoun “we” in order to instill his main argument that people conform to what’s popular. In essence he is addressing everyone as part of a unified group all brought together by one simple idea that everyone has chosen to conform to. His use of the pronoun “we” in regards to his argument can best be seen when he states “we shall merely conform, and let it go at that” (719). By using “we” twain creates an emphasis of unity in his essay.
The United States embargo of Cuba has its roots planted in 1960, 53 years ago, when “the United States Congress authorized President Eisenhower to cut off the yearly quota of sugar to be imported from Cuba under the Sugar act of 1948… by 95 percent” (Hass 1998, 37). This was done in response to a growing number of anti-American developments during the height of the cold war, including the “expropriation of United States-owned properties on the island… [and] the Soviet Union [agreeing] to purchase sugar from Cuba and to supply Cuba with crude oil” (Hass 1998, 37). Bad sentiments continued to pile up as Cuba imposed restrictions on the United States Embassy and especially when, after the United States “officially broke off diplomatic ties with Cuba, and travel by United States citizens to Cuba was forbidden ... Castro openly proclaimed his revolution to be ‘socialist’” (Hass 1998, 38). The day after this, the Bay of Pigs invasion occurred, but it failed in its job to topple Castro (Hass 1998, 38). Left with no diplomatic options and a failed military attempt, the United States decided that the only way to end Castro’s socialist regime was to sever all ties, and from 1961 to 1996, a series of acts were passed prohibiting the majority of trade and interaction with Cuba. (Hass 1998, 38).
Joseph Stalin and Fidel Castro had very similar traits in the beginning of their climb to power. But unlike Castro, Stalin was not the leader of the revolutionary party. After Castro graduated from the University of Havana, he practiced law for two years before deciding to run for a position in the Cuban parliament. However, during the elections to see if Castro was going to be voted to a position in parliament, a different party led by Felgencio Batista over threw the corrupt government that was being run by Carlos Prio Sacarras. Not much time had passed when Castro tried to take legal action against Batista by indicting him for uprising the constitution, the petition failed. Castro was frustrated due to the lack of legal action, so he decided to take matters into his own hands and turned to violence. Castro led an attack on the Mancada Barracks and lost, he was later captured by Batista’s men and put on trial. While Castro was on trial he gave his now famous “History Will Absolve Me” speech. Castro was sentenced to 15 years in prison but went into voluntary exile after only serving two years. He spent time in parts of the U.S. and Mexico before returning to Cuba in 1956. Wh...
Twain’s novel was greatly influenced by the times and criticizes the imperfections in society. These errors in society were subjective to the current events during the Gilded Age. The following show the effects of the current times that influenced the context of the novel. One of America’s leading historians of America in the west, Patricia N. Limerick well elaborates on what happened in the Gilded Age. The following quote fro...
The. Heyck, Denis Lynn Daly. Life Stories of the Nicaraguan Revolution. New York: Routledge, 1990. Print. The.
The exodus of the majority of skilled workers brought about a rapid change in the methods employed in educating Cuba’s population. If the revolution was to be successful, Cuba needed to replace the skilled workers that left with other skilled workers in the shortest amount of time possible. In 1961, the revolutionary government developed a nationwide campaign to rid Cuba of illiteracy. The program was given slogans like “ The people should teach the people and If you don’t know learn; if you know teach”. This program consisted of volunteer teachers who would help illiterate Cubans increase their education by teaching them the fundamentals. According to Fitzgerald, “(The literacy campaign) helped to integrate town and county and to galvanize support for revolutionary goals by bringing urban and rural populations into direct contact. ( p. 41)” Also, according to Fitzgerald, “ Enrollment in adult education rose dramatically from 66,577 students in the 1960-1961 school year to a peak of 842,024 students in the 1964-1965 school year, but plummeted to 309,717 students in 1969-1970. (P. 42)” This program benefited the poorer citizens of Cuba who remained in Cuba. They w...
However the US played a much larger role in Cuba’s past and present than the building of casinos and the introduction of the first taints of corruption. In the past, even before Batista, Americans were resented by Cubans because the Americans made a lot of Cuba’s decisions. Under Batista, 80% of Cuban imports came from the US, and the US controlled at least 50% of sugar, utilities, phones and railroads. If Cuba was a business in the stock markets, then the US would have been close to owning 50% of its shares. When combined with a long history of US-backe...