Cuba

Cuba and its originally Amerindian population came under Spanish control in the 16th century. The colony's struggle for independence started in 1868 and continued during the 19th century until the [[United States intervened and sparked the Spanish-American War of 1898. The US then occupied the island until recognising independence in 1902, though limited by the Platt Amendment, after which the US continued to exercise considerable control over Cuban affairs.

Fidel Castro led a rebel army to victory in 1959 against dictator Fulgencio Batista and Castro has remained in power since. Relations with the US deteriorated after Castro initiated economic reforms and sought closer ties with the Soviet Union, leading to the failed US-sponsored Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban missile crisis, as well as a strict US trade blockade largely still in place today.

Cuba was subsequently involved in revolutionary wars in Africa and Latin America, while it enjoyed close economic ties with the Soviet bloc. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 however the country suffered an economic setback, but has recovered to an extent since then, though economic and political reforms have been made only haltingly.

Cuba is a republic led by a president who is elected by parliament together with the vice-president. Fidel Castro has been in power since 1959, first as prime minister and after the abolition of that office in 1976 as president. He is both head of state and head of government, as well as First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party, and commander in chief of the armed forces.

The unicameral Cuban parliament is the National Assembly of People's Power or Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular. Its 609 members are elected directly from slates approved by special candidacy commissions, and they serve five-year terms. The communist party is constitutionally recognised as Cuba's only legal political party. The party and its affiliated organisations monopolise all government positions, including judicial offices. Continuing political issues include illegal emigration, primarily to the US, and the government's attitude towards political dissidents.

Cuba is divided into 14 provinces (provincias, singular provincia) and 1 special municipality (municipio especial), marked by a *:

• Camagüey
• Ciego de Avila
• Cienfuegos
• Granma
• Guantánamo
• Havana (La Habana)
• Havana City (Ciudad de La Habana)
• Holguín
• Isle of Youth * (Isla de la Juventud)
• Las Tunas
• Matanzas
• Pinar del Río
• Sancti Spíritus
• Santiago de Cuba
• Villa Clara

The elongated island of Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and is bounded to the north by the Straits of Florida and the greater North Atlantic Ocean, to the northwest by the Gulf of Mexico, to the west by the Yucatan Channel, to the south by the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Windward Passage. The Republic comprises the entire island, including many outlying islands such as the Isle of Youth, with the exception of Guantanamo Bay, a naval base that has been leased by the United States since 1903.

The island consist mostly of flat to rolling plains, with more rugged hills and mountains primarily in the southeast and the highest point is the Pico Real del Turquino at 2,005 m. The local climate is tropical, though moderated by trade winds. There is a drier season from November to April, and a rainier season from May to October. Havana is the largest city and capital, other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey.

The government continues to balance the need for economic loosening against a concern for firm political control over the economy. It has undertaken limited reforms in recent years to stem excess liquidity, increase enterprise efficiency, and alleviate serious shortages of food, consumer goods, and services, but seems unlikely to implement extensive changes. A major feature of the economy is the dichotomy between relatively efficient export and tourism enclaves and inefficient domestic sectors.

The Cuban economy was hit hard in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Comecon economic bloc, with which it had traded predominantly. A continuing United States trade blockade has also had a detrimental effect on the economy since the early 1960s. More recent problems include high oil prices, recessions in key export markets such as sugar and nickel, damage from hurricanes, depressed tourism, and faltering world economic conditions.

Cuba is a multiracial society with a population of either mixed (mulatto) or more specific Spanish and African origins. There is also a small ethnic Chinese community. The largest organised religion is the Roman Catholic Church. Afro-Cuban or Santeria religions, a blend of native African religions and Roman Catholicism, are widely practiced in Cuba. Officially, Cuba had been an atheist state for most of the Castro era, but religious restrictions have been relaxed since 1991 and the state secularised. Smaller Protestant and Jewish minorities also exist.

• List of Cubans
• Music of Cuba

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Geography

Demographics

Geography

Demographics

Geography

Demographics

Geography

Demographics

Geography

Demographics

Geography

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Geography

Demographics

Cuba was the last major Spanish colony to gain independence, following a 50-year struggle begun in 1850. Jose Marti, Cuba's national hero, began the final push for independence in 1895, the same year that he died in the battle of Dos Rios. In 1896 Major General Jose Braulio Aleman, with contributions from others, wrote the Cuban Constitution at La Yara. This Constitution, which stood unamended until 1940, was completely revised by Fidel Castro in the 1960s. A significant feature of General Aleman's wording was that it gave women the right to vote, and re-affirmed the laws abolishing slavery that had been in effect in Cuba since 1886.

Before the USS Maine sank in Havana Harbor, came the much publicised letter to the Governor of Cuba from Enrique Dupuy De Lome, the Ambassador of Spain in the US. In the letter De Lome characterized American President William McKinley as more or less an idiot and a pawn of others. The letter was stolen by a Cuban revolutionary, and eventually made its way into the hands of an apparently sympathetic Randolph Hearst, whose hidden motives saw a Cuba free of Spanish rule as ripe for American business interests.

That same year, 1898, the USS Maine sank in Havana Harbor on February 15 due to an explosion of undetermined origin. Many years later the explosion was determined to be accidental, but at the time it was widely believed to have been the victim of a mine. The United States used this as a final pretext to enter a conflict (see: Spanish-American War), which was practically already won by Cuban revolutionaries. Spain sent over one million men to Cuba, and only about 200,000 returned. The rest either died in combat, succumbed to tropical diseases or stayed to avoid the widespread poverty in their home country.

In December of 1898, Spain relinquished control of Cuba to the United States with the Treaty of Paris.

Fulgencio Batista

A key figure in the process was Fulgencio Batista, an army sergeant, who originally organized a non-commissioned officer revolt in September 1933. After some time, he decided to become de-facto dictator, wielding significant power behind the scenes until he was elected president in 1940 in an election which many people considered to be rigged. His rule was marked by corruption and violence to opponents. Batista was voted out of office in 1944.

He was succeeded by Dr. Ramón Grau San Martín, a populist physician who had briefly held the presidency in the 1933 revolutionary process. President Grau passed a number of populist measures favoring workers and also was instrumental in passing the 1940 Constitution, which has been widely regarded as one of the most progressive ever written in terms of worker protection and human rights.

Grau was followed by Carlos Prío Socarrás, also elected democratically, but whose government was tainted by increasing corruption and violent incidents among political factions. Eduardo Chibás was the leader of the Ortodoxo Party, a liberal democratic group, who was widely expected to win in 1952 on an anticorruption platform. Chibás committed suicide before he could run for the presidency, and the opposition was left without its major leader.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Batista, who was running for president in the 1952 elections, but had only a small minority of votes, seized power in a bloodless coup three months before the election was to take place. President Prío did nothing to stop the coup, and was forced to leave the island as a result. Batista suspended the balloting and began ruling by decree.

Fidel Castro, a young lawyer from a wealthy family, who was running for a seat in the Chamber of Representatives for the Ortodoxo Party, circulated a petition to depose Batista's government on the grounds that it had illegitimately suspended the electoral process. However, the petition was not acted upon by the courts.

On July 26, 1953 Castro led a failed attack on the Moncada army barracks near Santiago de Cuba and was jailed until 1955, when his powerful family secured a pardon from Batista. Castro subsequently went into exile in Mexico. While in Mexico, he organized the 26th of July Movement with the goal of overthrowing Batista. A group of over 80 men sailed to Cuba on board the yacht "Granma", landing in the eastern part of the island in December 1956. Most of Castro's men were promptly killed or taken prisoner by Batista's forces. Castro managed to escape to the Sierra Maestra mountains with only 12 men, from where, aided by urban and rural opposition, he began a guerrilla campaign against the regime.

Batista's dictatorial rule fueled increasing popular discontent and the rise of active urban resistance groups, a fertile political environment for Castro's 26th of July Revolutionary Movement. The country was soon driven to chaos, particularly by a very effective sabotage and urban warfare campaign conducted in the cities by supporters of Castro.

Faced with a corrupt and ineffective military, dispirited by a U.S. Government embargo on weapons sales to Cuba and public indignation and revulsion at his brutality toward opponents, Batista fled on January 1, 1959. Within months of taking control, Castro moved to consolidate power by marginalizing other resistance figures and imprisoning or executing opponents. As the revolution became more radical, hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled the island.

See also: Cuban Revolution