Cuba
Cuba is a multiracial society with a population of mainly Spanish
and African origins. The largest organized religion is the Roman
Catholic Church, but evangelical protestant denominations continue
to grow rapidly. Afro-Cuban religions, a blend of native African
religions and Roman Catholicism, are widely practiced in Cuba.
Officially, Cuba has been an atheist state for most of the Castro
era. In 1962, the government of Fidel Castro seized and shut down
more than 400 Catholic schools, charging that they spread dangerous
beliefs among the people. In 1991, however, the Communist Party
lifted its prohibition against religious believers seeking
membership, and a year later the constitution was amended to
characterize the state as secular instead of atheist. |
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Spanish settlers established the raising of cattle, sugarcane, and
tobacco as Cuba's primary economic pursuits. As the native Indian
population died out, African slaves were imported to work the
ranches and plantations. Slavery was abolished in 1886.
Cuba was the last major Spanish colony to gain independence,
following a lengthy struggle begun in 1868. Jose Marti, Cuba's
national hero, helped initiate the final push for independence in
1895. In 1898, the United States entered the conflict after the USS
Maine sank in Havana Harbor on February 15 due to an explosion of
undetermined origin. In December of that year, Spain relinquished
control of Cuba to the United States with the Treaty of Paris. On
May 20, 1902, the United States granted Cuba its independence but
retained the right to intervene to preserve Cuban independence and
stability in accordance with the Platt Amendment. In 1934, the Platt
Amendment was repealed. The United States and Cuba concluded a
Treaty of Relations in 1934 which, among other things, continued the
1903 agreements that leased the Guantanamo Bay naval base to the
United States.
Independent Cuba was often ruled by authoritarian political and
military figures who either obtained or remained in power by force.
Fulgencio Batista, an army sergeant, organized a non-commissioned
officer revolt in September 1933 and wielded significant power
behind the scenes until he was elected president in 1940. Batista
was voted out of office in 1944 and did not run in 1948. Both those
elections were won by civilian political figures with the support of
party organizations. Running for president again in 1952, Batista
seized power in a bloodless coup 3 months before the election was to
take place, suspended the balloting, and began ruling by decree.
Many political figures and movements that wanted a return to the
government according to the constitution of 1940 disputed Batista's
undemocratic rule.
On July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro, who had been involved in
increasingly violent political activity before Batista's coup, led a
failed attack on the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba in
which more than 100 died. After defending himself in a trial open to
national and international media, he was convicted and jailed, and
subsequently was freed in an act of clemency, before going into
exile in Mexico. There he organized the "26th of July Movement" with
the goal of overthrowing Batista, and the group sailed to Cuba on
board the yacht Granma, landing in the eastern part of the island in
December 1956.
Batista's dictatorial rule fueled increasing popular discontent and
the rise of many active urban and rural resistance groups, a fertile
political environment for Castro's 26th of July Movement. Faced with
a corrupt and ineffective military--itself 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. Although he had promised a return to constitutional
rule and democratic elections along with social reforms, Castro used
his control of the military to consolidate his power by repressing
all dissent from his decisions, marginalizing other resistance
figures, and imprisoning or executing thousands of opponents. An
estimated 3,200 people were executed by the Castro regime between
1959-62 alone. As the revolution became more radical, hundreds of
thousands of Cubans fled the island.
Castro declared Cuba a socialist state on April 16, 1961. For the
next 30 years, Castro pursued close relations with the Soviet Union
and worked in concert with the geopolitical goals of Soviet
communism, funding and fomenting violent subversive and
insurrectional activities, as well as military adventurism, until
the demise of the U.S.S.R. in 1991.
Relations between the United States and Cuba deteriorated rapidly as
the Cuban regime expropriated U.S. properties and moved toward
adoption of a one-party communist system. In response, the United
States imposed an embargo on Cuba in October 1960, and, in response
to Castro's provocations, broke diplomatic relations on January 3,
1961. Tensions between the two governments peaked during the October
1962 missile crisis. |
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