History UsefulNotes / Cuba

* ''Our Man in Havana,'' a 1958 novel by Grahame Greene is about a British vacuum cleaner salesman coerced into spying for England shortly before Fidel Castro came to power. It was made into a film starring Creator/AlecGuinness.

Cuba, officially the '''Republic of Cuba''' (Spanish: ''República de Cuba''), is the largest and second most populated country in UsefulNotes/TheCaribbean, as well as the sixth most populated country in the continent of UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica, after UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates, UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}}, UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}, UsefulNotes/{{Guatemala}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}}. A land where the music is good, the drink flows freely (at least where the tourists are) and the tourists come for both. Oh, and it's famous for its [[ItsCuban cigars]] and [[UsefulNotes/Socialism Communism]].

Cuba, officially the '''Republic of Cuba''' (Spanish: ''República de Cuba''), is the largest and second most populated country in UsefulNotes/TheCaribbean, as well as the sixth most populated country in the continent of UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica, after UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates, UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}}, UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}, UsefulNotes/{{Guatemala}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}}. A land where the music is good, the drink flows freely (at least where the tourists are) and the tourists come for both. Oh, and it's famous for its [[ItsCuban cigars]] and Communism.

Cuba, officially the '''Republic of Cuba''' (Spanish: ''República de Cuba''), is the largest and second most populated country in UsefulNotes/TheCaribbean, as well as the sixth most populated country in the continent of UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica, after UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates, UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}}, UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}, UsefulNotes/{{Guatemala}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}}. A land where the music is good, the drink flows freely (at least where the tourists are) and the tourists come for both. Oh, and it's famous for its [[ItsCuban cigars]] and [[DirtyCommunists Communism]].

Cuba, officially the '''Republic of Cuba''' ('''Spanish:''' ''República de Cuba''), is the largest and second most populated country in UsefulNotes/TheCaribbean, as well as the sixth most populated country in the continent of UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica, after UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates, UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}}, UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}, UsefulNotes/{{Guatemala}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}}. A land where the music is good, the drink flows freely (at least where the tourists are) and the tourists come for both. Oh, and it's famous for its [[ItsCuban cigars]] and [[DirtyCommunists Communism]].

* In ''Series/ILoveLucy'', Ricky is Cuban (as was his actor, Desi Arnaz). The series ended two years before Castro came to power. Following the U.S. embargo, the episode "The Ricardos Visit Cuba" was not shown in syndication for several years.

* ''Our Man in Havana,'' a 1958 novel by Grahame Greene is about a British vacuum cleaner salesman coerced into spying for England shortly before Fidel Castro came to power. It was made into a film starring Alec Guinness.

In 2015, there was a thawing of relations with the United States under UsefulNotes/BarackObama, amid increasing pressure to end the embargo. The US took Cuba off of its state sponsors of terrorism list, and embassies were established in each other's capitals. However, in 2017, many of these re-engagement policies were rolled back under UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump. The generational issue among Cuban-Americans meant that the decision had mixed reaction; people who fled the Castro regime or whose parents did are generally opposed to engagement, but younger Cuban-Americans tend to see the embargo as reflecting Cold War prejudices and favor full normalization. In the final days of his presidency, Trump also readded Cuba back to the US state sponsors of terrorism list, joining UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, North Korea, and UsefulNotes/{{Syria}}.

The status quo in Cuba tottered along until [[UsefulNotes/HoleInFlag the Soviet Union's collapse]] in [[TheEighties the late 1980s]]. Cuba's enormous social spending and foreign adventurism had only ever been sustainable due to heavy Soviet aid, and they had no real systems in place to account for said aid stopping. This had an immediate and devastating effect on the Cuban economy, since the Soviet Union was both the main commercial partner of Cuba for decades and the source of nearly a quarter of its entire economy via handouts in the form of [[https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/16/world/soviet-said-to-reduce-support-for-cuban-economy.html $4-5 billion in annual subsidies.]] Cuban GDP contracted by over 25% in less than three years, in a time where the rest of the developing world (including its neighbor, the formerly very poor UsefulNotes/DominicanRepublic) was rapidly getting richer. Like UsefulNotes/NorthKorea but unlike many other states from the Eastern Bloc after the fall of the UsefulNotes/BerlinWall, Cuba and the U.S did not normalize relations. The U.S. instead maintained its embargo, hoping that Castro's regime would eventually collapse. In what is known as "the Special Period" ([[TheNineties the early 90s]]), Cuba's economy suffered immensely, with simple necessities like toilet paper and food becoming even harder to find. Cuba started to focus more on tourism, and enough trade was attracted from Europe to slow the descent into the CrapsackWorld-ness of some of its Caribbean neighbors.

Cuba continues to suffer shortages of every day commodities, a situation not helped by the ongoing US embargo-fiercely maintained through every US Presidential Administration for the past fifty years-or the Castro government's refusal to display fiscal responsibility, failures to utilize the rest of the world market, and unstinting hostility towards the US. However, it did [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_economic_reforms partly recover]] from the hell of the 90s thanks to rolling back some communist policies (for example, 11,600 positions in 32 government ministries were eliminated in 1993, Soviet-style farms were abandoned, and farmers were now legally allowed to sell the surplus from their yield), cutting social spending as a direct result of the latter (the government also raised the rates for public services such as telephone, transportation and electricity), and instituting minor liberal reforms, such as legalizing self-employment, decriminalizing the possession and circulation of foreign exchange, and introducing bonuses based on work performance. This drew Castro heavy internal criticism for having "abandoned the socialist revolution", prompting him to respond that he had not abandoned the goals of socialism, but that Cuba "has to be ready to conduct necessary changes to adapt to present world conditions." However, on a separate occasion he bitterly described his reforms as "concessions to the enemy."

The status quo in Cuba tottered along until [[UsefulNotes/HoleInFlag the Soviet Union's collapse]] in [[TheEighties the late 1980s]]. Cuba's enormous social spending and foreign adventurism had only ever been sustainable due to heavy Soviet aid, and they had no real systems in place to account for said aid stopping. This had an immediate and devastating effect on the Cuban economy since the USSR both the main commercial partner of Cuba for decades and the source of nearly a quarter of its entire economy via handouts in the form of [[https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/16/world/soviet-said-to-reduce-support-for-cuban-economy.html $4-5 billion in annual subsidies.]] Cuban GDP contracted by over 25% in less than three years, in a time where the rest of the developing world (including its neighbor, the formerly very poor UsefulNotes/DominicanRepublic) was rapidly getting richer. Like UsefulNotes/NorthKorea but unlike many other states from the Eastern Bloc after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Cuba and the U.S did not normalize relations, and the U.S. maintained its embargo, hoping the regime would collapse. In what is known as "the Special Period" (early 90s), Cuba's economy suffered immensely, with simple necessities like toilet paper and food becoming even harder to find. Cuba started to focus more on tourism, and enough trade was attracted from Europe to slow the descent into the CrapsackWorld-ness of some of its Caribbean neighbors.

The status quo in Cuba tottered along until [[UsefulNotes/HoleInFlag the Soviet Union's collapse]] in the late 1980's. Cuba's enormous social spending and foreign adventurism had only ever been sustainable due to heavy Soviet aid, and they had no real systems in place to account for said aid stopping. This had an immediate and devastating effect on the Cuban economy since the USSR both the main commercial partner of Cuba for decades and the source of nearly a quarter of its entire economy via handouts in the form of [[https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/16/world/soviet-said-to-reduce-support-for-cuban-economy.html $4-5 billion in annual subsidies.]] Cuban GDP contracted by over 25% in less than three years, in a time where the rest of the developing world (including its neighbor, the formerly very poor UsefulNotes/DominicanRepublic) was rapidly getting richer. Like UsefulNotes/NorthKorea but unlike many other states from the Eastern Bloc after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Cuba and the U.S did not normalize relations, and the U.S. maintained its embargo, hoping the regime would collapse. In what is known as "the Special Period" (early 90s), Cuba's economy suffered immensely, with simple necessities like toilet paper and food becoming even harder to find. Cuba started to focus more on tourism, and enough trade was attracted from Europe to slow the descent into the CrapsackWorld-ness of some of its Caribbean neighbors.

From 1966 to 1989 Cuba would aid the UsefulNotes/{{Angola}}n military in its military conflict, first against UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}}, then against an alliance of the rebel group UNITA and [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra Apartheid]] UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica in TheSixties. Cuba financed a number of revolutionary insurgencies around the world, including the [[UsefulNotes/{{Nicaragua}} Sandinistas]] and the South African rebel organizations such as the African National Congress. They also sent soldiers and other advisors to aid the Arab nations in their attempts to wipe out UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} in the [[UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict Yom Kippur War and earlier War of Attrition]], and unsuccessfully attempted to start insurgencies in UsefulNotes/{{Bolivia}} and UsefulNotes/{{Venezuela}} (even sending soldiers to the latter at two separate points). Che Guevara would die in this type of effort in Bolivia, most likely executed to avoid a trial. As a result of this Castro's reputation abroad is... [[FlameBait mixed]]. On one hand, he's considered a ruthless, opportunistic tyrant with a thirst for military adventurism that often was uglier than the US or even the Apartheid government cared to stomach. On the other, he is considered by some one of the founding fathers of UsefulNotes/{{Namibia}}, Angola, and racially equal South Africa (to the point where UsefulNotes/NelsonMandela and Fidel Castro were reported to be close friends). The breakdown of ties between Cuba and the US was cemented when the latter, under UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, added Cuba to its state sponsors of terrorism list in 1982, locking it out of the global banking system as this meant that any country that traded with Cuba would be threatened with sanctions, as well.

From 1966 to 1989 Cuba would aid the UsefulNotes/{{Angola}}n military in its military conflict, first against UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}}, then against an alliance of the rebel group UNITA and [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra Apartheid]] UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica in the 1960s. Cuba financed a number of revolutionary insurgencies around the world, including the [[UsefulNotes/{{Nicaragua}} Sandinistas]] and the South African rebel organizations such as the African National Congress. They also sent soldiers and other advisors to aid the Arab nations in their attempts to wipe out UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} in the [[UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict Yom Kippur War and earlier War of Attrition]], and unsuccessfully attempted to start insurgencies in UsefulNotes/{{Bolivia}} and UsefulNotes/{{Venezuela}} (even sending soldiers to the latter at two separate points). Che Guevara would die in this type of effort in Bolivia, most likely executed to avoid a trial. As a result of this Castro's reputation abroad is... [[FlameBait mixed]]. On one hand, he's considered a ruthless, opportunistic tyrant with a thirst for military adventurism that often was uglier than the US or even the Apartheid government cared to stomach. On the other, he is considered by some one of the founding fathers of UsefulNotes/{{Namibia}}, Angola, and racially equal South Africa (to the point where UsefulNotes/NelsonMandela and Fidel Castro were reported to be close friends). The breakdown of ties between Cuba and the US was cemented when the latter, under UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, added Cuba to its state sponsors of terrorism list in 1982, locking it out of the global banking system as this meant that any country that traded with Cuba would be threatened with sanctions, as well.

The resulting [[UsefulNotes/BayOfPigsInvasion "Bay of Pigs"]] amphibious assault by a troop of Cuban exiles was a LastStand on par of Thermopylae tactically, but strategically and politically was an embarrassing failure. Enough to convince the U.S. establishment to abandon support for anti-Castro insurgents inside Cuba, who were progressively defeated in the bloody but relatively unknown [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escambray_rebellion Escambray rebellion]]. Already drifting closer and closer towards authoritarian socialism, Castro officially became a communist following the Invasion and entered an alliance with the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]], inviting Soviet ground and naval forces in to act as a counterbalance to another attempt, and accepting heavy Soviet economic aid that his country eventually became totally dependent on. Things got hairy during the [[WorldWarIII Cuban Missile Crisis]], wherein the US learned that the Soviet Union had transferred some missiles to Cuba. After several days of nuclear brinkmanship and frantic diplomacy, the two superpowers avoided all-out war by promising to take out missiles from each other's proxy country (the USSR from Cuba, and the US from UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}), leading to a relative thaw in US-USSR relationships. Castro was not present at the talks concerning the crisis, particularly because the Soviets were not sure if they could rely on him or allies like UsefulNotes/CheGuevara to keep their cool.

This status quo remained more or less until the reign of "President"/dictator UsefulNotes/FulgencioBatista, who maintained strong ties with the US government and even moreso with "legitimate" US businesses. While the role of TheMafia in pre-Revolutionary Cuba is heavily exaggerated, it was definitely present on both sides of the Florida straits. All of this made it seem like Batista would be able to continue lording it over like so many other strongmen had before him. But this state of affairs began to change when clamor for reform on the island coupled with growing US antipathy towards supporting his regime (particularly since he also wanted Guantanamo Bay back) ate away at his support until the 1959 Cuban Revolution, in which UsefulNotes/FidelCastro and his left-wing M-26-7 (26th of July Revolutionary Movement) took over the country after waging a fierce six-year guerrilla war against Batista in the jungles and mountains. Although he initially enjoyed high popularity in the US, the Castro regime's socialistic policies rapidly led to a complete breakdown of relations between Cuba and the West.

Of course, newly independent Cuba faced several problems, not the least of which being that it was not-so-independent: the establishment of the now-infamous Guantanamo Bay military base was just one of the many strings attached to the country's independence under the terms of something known as the Teller and later Platt Amendments. According to these, the US gave Cuba its nominal independence, though the American shadow continued to hover over Cuba, but that sort of went awry when Cubans started asking for a greater voice in government, coupled with diplomacy from UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt.

This status quo remained more or less until the reign of "President"/dictator UsefulNotes/FulgencioBatista, who maintained strong ties with the US government and even moreso with "legitimate" US businesses. While the role of the Mafia in pre-Revolutionary Cuba is heavily exaggerated, it was definitely present on both sides of the Florida straits. All of this made it seem like Batista would be able to continue lording it over like so many other strongmen had before him. But this state of affairs began to change when clamor for reform on the island coupled with growing US antipathy towards supporting his regime (particularly since he also wanted Guantanamo Bay back) ate away at his support until the 1959 Cuban Revolution, in which UsefulNotes/FidelCastro and his left-wing M-26-7 (26th of July Revolutionary Movement) took over the country after waging a fierce six-year guerrilla war against Batista in the jungles and mountains. Although he initially enjoyed high popularity in the US, the Castro regime's socialistic policies rapidly led to a complete breakdown of relations between Cuba and the West.

Eventually, the Spanish colonists became upset with UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} and started to fight a war of liberation, which bled on for [[ForeverWar decades on and off]]. It featured some of the most intensive fighting in the history of UsefulNotes/TheAmericas and featured the first formal use of [[AluminumChristmasTrees Concentration Camps]]. All of this generally caused a great deal of instability and made Spain look like it had egg on its face ''before'' the United States, flexing its muscles on the world stage, became involved due to popular outrage turning Cuba into a cause célèbre. First unofficially and at a grassroots level, and then [[CurbStompBattle Not So Unofficially.]] After decades of being the Cuban rebels' most popular support base, it entered the war claiming that Spain had attacked the US, following the then-mysterious 1898 explosion and sinking of the ''USS Maine'' off the Cuban coast (a 1976 investigation revealed its boiler had exploded accidentally). The war became called the UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar; the US was victorious and Cuba became "independent".[[note]]An American protectorate.[[/note]] During this time a chess player named Capablanca became famous around the world. He went on to become a Chess Master and is now regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.

Eventually, the Spanish colonists became upset with UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} and started to fight a war of liberation, which bled on for [[ForeverWar decades on and off]] of some of the most intensive fighting in the history of the Americas and featured the first formal use of [[AluminumChristmasTrees Concentration Camps]]. All of this generally caused a great deal of instability and made Spain look like it had egg on its face ''before'' the United States, flexing its muscles on the world stage, became involved due to popular outrage turning Cuba into a cause célèbre. First unofficially and at a grassroots level, and then [[CurbStompBattle Not So Unofficially.]] After decades of being the Cuban rebels' most popular support base, it entered the war claiming that Spain had attacked the US, following the then-mysterious 1898 explosion and sinking of the ''USS Maine'' off the Cuban coast (a 1976 investigation revealed its boiler had exploded accidentally). The war became called the UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar; the US was victorious and Cuba became "independent".[[note]]An American protectorate.[[/note]] During this time a chess player named Capablanca became famous around the world. He went on to become a Chess Master and is now regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.

A brief history of Cuba: Cuba was an island in the Caribbean inhabited by the native Tainos before the Spaniards arrived in the 1500s and colonized the place. The Tainos who weren't killed off through disease were assimilated into the colonist population. The Spanish colonists brought in African (mostly Yoruba, although they were from many different parts of Africa) slaves to operate plantations and such.

Cuba, officially the '''Republic of Cuba''' ('''Spanish:''' ''República de Cuba''), is the largest and most populated country in UsefulNotes/TheCaribbean and fifth most populated country in the continent of UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica, after UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates, UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}}, UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} and UsefulNotes/{{Guatemala}}. A land where the music is good, the drink flows freely (at least where the tourists are) and the tourists come for both. Oh, and it's famous for its [[ItsCuban cigars]] and [[DirtyCommunists Communism]].

* '''Highest point:''' Pico Turquino (1974 m/6,476 ft) (137th)

* '''Highest point:''' Pico Turquino (1974 m/6,476 ft) (122nd)

* '''Highest point:''' Pico Turquino (1974 m/6,476 ft) (140th)