Cuban Revolution

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were always the head of the family. Lastly, people who were already successful in Cuba, as the revolution started, evacuated themselves from danger and only the successful people were the ones who were lucky enough to escape Cuba and had a successful life. This showed a huge difference between the lower and the upper class.

Depending on the perspective that we take, the Cuban Revolution could be seen as both a success and a failure. The people that would most likely view the Revolution as a success are the poor because after the revolution there was better education, health care and other benefits that they could not get before. The ones that would most likely view the Cuban Revolution as being unsuccessful would be people that had lost something such as the people that had power before the Revolution. The reason being, in order to make the healthcare, education, and other benefits that the poor needed, the power of the rich and powerful figures lessened and was given to the poor. In our perspective, we believe that the Cuban Revolution was successful because of all the improvements that had happened in order to improve the lives of the people. Even though some of the refugees in the 1980s say that the people’s living conditions are getting worse with 60 hour work weeks, but we believe that on the long run, there were more positive effects that came from the Cuban Revolution.

Causes of the Cuban Revolution

Freedom from Spain

Despite Cuba being one of the most prosperous countries in Latin America during that time, poverty still struck in certain areas

Castro made several attempts to overthrow Batista off his position as soon it was clear he was going to lose in the 1952 presidential election

Lack of preparation/skills → arrested

Planned 26th of July Movement while sent out into exile in Mexico

Cuban Revolution (1956-1959)

Castro was the “master of propaganda” → tried to gain support from the local civilians and peasants

provided medical care for local civilians

Declared dignity, integrity, and clean elections

Castro’s coup went against COIN (supports Batista)

Brought coup to mountains to attack Batista

COIN was supported by external forces like the U.S., by material and weapons, but their poor skills led them to unsuccessful consequences such as attacking the pro-Castro towns, so he started losing popularity within the Cuban society

Constant fights result in downfall in economy

U.S. disjointed its trades with Cuba

Effects of the Cuban Revolution

Economic Reform

Racial Equality

Gender Equality

Because of the Cuban Revolution, women gained equal rights and more attention, just like men. They weren’t ignored, and they were able to express their ideas.

Many other poor, rural areas got attention, and they were given education, medical care,

Everybody had a house because of Fidel Castro