History of Cuba

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Indians in Cuba around 1558

The history of Cuba encompasses developments in the territory of the Republic of Cuba from prehistory to the present.

Pre-Columbian Cuba

Archaeological finds show that Cuba's first human settlement probably took place around 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. It probably took place in several waves, the timing of which is very uncertain. Around 1500 the Indian population was distributed as follows: The Siboney lived in the west of Cuba, the Guanahatabey in the far west. Central and eastern Cuba were settled by the Taíno . They were already growing the field crops manioc , sweet potatoes , peanuts and tobacco that are still used in Cuba today . The Taino lived in huts ( bohío ) made of palm wood , as they can still be found in the country today. The Indians have also left their mark on today's language. Many place names in Cuba go back to Indian words. The Spanish word for hurricane ( huracán ) also comes from the language of the Caribbean indigenous people and means something like 'god of the wind'.

Discovery - Conquest - Colonization

Christopher Columbus discovered the island on his first voyage when he landed in the Bay of Bariay in the northeast of the island on October 27 or 28, 1492 and took possession of it for Spain . From 1511 to 1515 the island was conquered by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar on behalf of King Ferdinand . He and his followers broke the first resistance of the Indians under the leadership of the Kaziken Hatuey . The Indian population fell sharply due to wars against the Spaniards, introduced diseases ( smallpox ), forced labor and malnutrition. Efforts on the part of the Church, especially the Dominican Order , and the Spanish state to protect the Indians from the arbitrariness of the colonists were unsuccessful. Bartolomé de las Casas , who had taken part in the conquest as a field chaplain, renounced his encomienda in 1514 for reasons of conscience and campaigned against the oppression of the Indians. At his instigation, King Charles V ordered the successive abolition of the encomiendas in 1542, which was also implemented relatively quickly in Cuba. Cuba became part of the viceroyalty of New Spain and had the status of a general captainate ( Capitanía General ).

Early colonial times

economy

The first goal of the Spaniards was the exploitation of gold resources, which, however, were very soon exhausted. As a result, many emigrated to the viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico). Cuba remained only sparsely populated. The economy was based on extensive agriculture (cultivation of Indian crops, animal husbandry, beekeeping ) and the export of tropical woods from the still largely forested island. The parts of the country apart from Havana lived mainly from self-sufficiency and some smuggling . In the 17th century, the interior of the country was opened up in a second settlement push and other places were founded.

With the relocation of the governor's seat, Havana became the island's political center in 1607. The city also gained increasing economic importance due to its location. From there you could control the access to the Gulf of Mexico and sail across the Atlantic to Europe using the Gulf Stream . From the 1560s, the port of Havana was the gathering point for fleets from the Spanish colonies of America, which brought silver and other goods to Seville and Cádiz . Havana was the New World's bridgehead in transatlantic trade. Cuba's economy was geared towards supplying Havana and the fleets with food and goods.

society

The colonial society of Cuba can be legally and socio-culturally divided as follows. Whites soon formed the majority. But only those who were born, raised and trained in Spain, the so-called peninsulares , could rise to higher administrative and church offices. In addition, this group of people dominated the trade. The descendants of Spaniards, the Creoles , who were born in Cuba , made up most of the population. The families dating back to the first settlers were often able to develop their land into large estates, which they cultivated as cattle breeders or planters. The land ownership formed the basis of their power, which they exercised as an oligarchy in local offices in politics and the church. In addition, there were a large number of medium-sized and small farmers who cultivated the land between the large estates and gradually opened up the more remote areas.

The general shortage of labor in Cuba was made up for by the introduction of slaves from Africa . Slaves were used in all sectors of the economy, as domestic staff, in small rural and urban production plants or as miners. With them, too, a distinction was made between Spanish-speaking Black Creoles born in Cuba and Bozales born in Africa . The legal system allowed the slaves their own property, the possibility of buying themselves and their own families free, the free choice of a spouse and even the search for a new master. Slaves could form associations, so-called cabildos , which were formed by blacks of the same ethnic or similar cultural origin. This institution enabled them to preserve and pass on African cultural elements, including religious ideas that deal with Catholicism , because every slave had to be baptized, to the syncretistic Afro-Cuban cults, e.g. B. the Santería mixed, which are still widespread today.

The free colored people occupied an intermediate position. Special legal and social conditions in Cuba made a pronounced mixing of races and cultures possible. There were a considerable number of free blacks here who went back to freed or ransomed slaves. In contrast to the Spanish-Creole upper class, the lower white classes did not pay attention to the “purity of blood” and mixed with Indians and free blacks. Mixed marriages were not uncommon and accepted, albeit to a limited extent. Mulattos and free blacks mostly worked as artisans or tradesmen, professions that were shunned by whites because of their low status. They made up the lower and middle classes of the cities. In the countryside, especially in the east, they lived as small farmers.

Indians and mestizos were soon no longer recorded as a separate group in the census ; they had merged into the Creole and colored population groups. On the fringes of colonial society were runaway slaves (so-called Cimarrones ) and remnants of Indians who lived in seclusion in remote areas.

Late colonial era

The Caribbean at the end of the 19th century

Tensions arose between Spain and Britain in the Caribbean over trade, smuggling and piracy. This culminated in June 1762 with the siege of Havana by the British fleet. After the surrender, the British occupied western Cuba for eleven months; the center and the east remained under Spanish control. The British governor lifted trade restrictions, civil administration and jurisdiction were retained. Shipping traffic in the port of Havana increased sixfold and trade flourished. The short period of free trade gave the Creole bourgeoisie in Cuba an idea of ​​how much they could earn without the colonial shackles of Spain, for the Spanish colonial system directed all trade through Spanish ports and raised high import costs even for trade among the Spanish colonies. and export taxes. A year later, in peace at Paris , Cuba was again given to Spain in exchange for Florida .

In the course of the revolutionary slave uprising in Haiti in 1791, many French landowners who owned sugar and coffee plantations there fled to Cuba. Under her influence and with her technical knowledge, Cuba became to Spain what Haiti had been to France before: the island of sugar and coffee . Economic upturn and the industrial use of slaves were the result.

After the independence struggles in South and Central America in the 19th century, Cuba became the most important colony in Spain . But also on the "always loyal island" of Cuba, the Creoles' dissatisfaction with Spanish rule increased, on the other hand the fear of a slave revolt based on the Haitian model, which would remove their privileges, reigned among the slave-holding sugar plantation owners. Between 1812 and 1844, eight major slave revolts took place, which failed because of the superior military power of the Spanish colonial troops and the militias of the slave owners, but especially because of the military inexperience of the slaves.

During this time, various parties with different goals emerged on the island:

  • the autonomists wanted Cuba's more independence while retaining Spain as a protective power.
  • the annexationists fought for an annexation of Cuba to the USA.
  • the separatists were in favor of the complete separation of Cuba from Spain and the creation of a republic of Cuba.
  • the monarchists campaigned for Cuba's continued membership in Spain.

autonomy

In 1868 a delegation made up of leading representatives of the Cuban Creoles failed in an attempt to achieve greater independence for the island in Madrid. The delegation was delayed in Madrid and was ultimately only supposed to make a courtesy visit to the royal family without being able to make their demands. After their return, the delegates reported that there was no prospect of reforms or even autonomy. The result was a strengthening of the separatist currents among the Cubans. The proclamation of the Republic of Cuba by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes in the Grito de Yara ( Yara War Call ) can be seen as an immediate reaction to the failure of the delegation. As a result, newspapers such as La Aurora , the first Cuban workers' newspaper in existence from 1865–1868, were severely censored.

Annexationism

In the 19th century, both the Cuban and the United States considered joining Cuba with the United States.

  • On the Cuban side, this interest emanated particularly from the sugar plantation owners in the West, who on the one hand felt that their economic interests were restricted by the colonial rule of Spain, but on the other hand were afraid that they would suffer the same fate without a strong military protective power (Spain or the USA) As the plantation owners once did in Haiti , the seizure of power by the numerically superior slaves could flourish .
  • On the US side, it was initially the plantation owners in the southern states who hoped that a new state of Cuba would strengthen their position within the US. After the American Civil War , the US became more and more interested in the economy and in the strategic importance of Cuba in the Gulf of Mexico.

Since 1842 there have been repeated attempts at military invasions without official support from the USA, which should lead to the annexation of Cuba to the USA. Gaspar Cisneros Betancourt can be seen as the spiritual leader of Cuban annexationism , Narciso López as the leader of military activities. On the other side stood the staunch supporters of a sovereign Cuban nation-state such as José Antonio Saco and later José Martí .

Although since the Cuban Revolution in 1959, neither US government officials nor Cubans in exile have made demands or proposals for an annexation of Cuba to the US, the main argument of the Cuban government against the majority of dissidents remains the "defense of Cuban sovereignty" against annexationism.

The struggle for independence

After 30 years of guerrilla warfare, Cuba was the last great Spanish colony to gain independence. The war of the so-called Mambíses against Spain began in 1868 after all attempts by the Cuban bourgeoisie to obtain greater freedom from Spain, especially in foreign trade, had failed. The War of Independence can be divided into three phases:

The Long War ( Guerra Larga ) 1868–1878

Attack by the Mambises on a Spanish signal tower

The Guerra Larga began with the call of Yara ( Grito de Yara ) and ended with the Peace of Zanjón .

On October 10, 1868, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes called on the Cuban people to war against the Spanish colonial power in the war cry of Yara from the Oriente province in eastern Cuba. He released his slaves and occupied the city of Bayamo with a small army . When the Spanish troops tried to retake Bayamo, the city's residents set fire to their own houses and joined the insurgents. A poem celebrating this event became the Cuban national anthem La Bayamesa . Within a month the revolutionary army grew from 147 to over 12,000 men, many of them slaves.

A short time later, strong revolutionary military associations were also formed in Camagüey in central Cuba ( Ignacio Agramonte and others) and Las Villas in western Cuba ( Eduardo Machado , Carlos Roloff ). Due to the resistance of the sugar plantation owners under the leader of Havana's reformists José Morales Lemus , the planned and strategically decisive attack on the west of the island failed to materialize.

The political leadership of the parliament of the republic in arms , as the Cuban underground movement called itself, consisted for the most part of large landowners who hoped that Cuba's independence would free trade with foreign countries, especially the USA. They always opposed the demand to extend the war to the Cuban west, where the large sugar cane fields were located, from which Spain drew the necessary financial means for the fight against the insurgency movement. After many failures, the Spanish general Arsenio Martínez-Campos succeeded in weakening the insurrection movement in a politico-military offensive. In 1878 the Peace of Zanjón came about. He granted the Cubans a representation in the Spanish Cortes and established a gradual liberation of slaves, but Cuba remained without real autonomy.

The Little War ( Guerra Chiquita ) 1879–1880

The Guerra Chiquita began with the Baraguá protest and ended with Maceo's exile .

The Deputy Commander in Chief of the Revolutionary Forces Antonio Maceo refused to recognize the surrender and declared at a meeting with Arsenio Martínez-Campos the continuation of the struggle for Cuba's independence ( Protesta de Baraguá ). In 1880, however, he too had to stop fighting and went into exile in Mexico.

The War of Independence ( Guerra de Independencia ) 1895–1898

Mambi fighters 1896

The War of Independence began with the Grito de Baire ( War Call of Baire ) and ended with the US occupation of Cuba.

Between 1879 and 1895, Cuban groups in exile in the United States and Mexico prepared to return to Cuba. The poet, journalist, revolutionary and Freemason José Martí was particularly active in organizing the event. He finally managed to bring the two former commanders in chief of the revolutionary armed forces , Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo , back to the table. In the Manifesto de Montecristi ( Manifesto de Montecristi ) the conditions for a resumption of the fight were set. In 1895 the revolutionaries landed in a ship in eastern Cuba. José Martí, who had no military experience, fell in one of the first battles with the Spanish colonial army. The Spanish Prime Minister Antonio Cánovas del Castillo sent an army of 200,000 soldiers to the island under Captain General Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau . His draconian methods had military success, but sparked outrage worldwide, so that Weyler was recalled in 1897, a separate ministry was established for Cuba and the island was given extensive autonomy . However, the Cubans demanded complete independence. This time Spain did not succeed in stopping the insurrection movement, especially since the struggle was extended over all of Cuba from the beginning, including the west of the island, which is economically particularly important for Spain. When a withdrawal from Cuba was already being publicly discussed in Spain, the USA intervened in 1898 and provoked the Spanish-American War (explosion on the battleship “ Maine ” and sinking in the port of Havana with 268 dead). Historically, this date marks the entry of the USA into the circle of imperialist world powers.

Instead of gaining its independence, after the peace negotiations between Spain and the USA in Paris, in which the Cuban independence movement was not allowed to participate, Cuba came under the rule of the USA, which only allowed a pseudo republic in 1902.

Cuba between 1898 and 1902 and the Platt Amendment

The USA had been Cuba’s main economic partner since 1880. During the occupation period, they invested another $ 30 million on the island. They were the dominant market and determined foreign trade. This made Cuba extremely dependent on US goodwill. However, the productive sectors, especially the sugar industry, were still in Cuban hands.

Politically, Cuba was divided. In addition to the armed republic that emerged from the wars of independence, there was an autonomous government that was friendly to Spain. The USA took advantage of this political stalemate .

Under pressure from the USA, the Cuban Constitution of 1902 received an amendment, the so-called Platt Amendment, which guaranteed the USA the right to military intervention if it saw its interests or US property in Cuba in danger. The newly founded Republic of Cuba thus lacked the most important prerequisite for an independent state: sovereignty . Tomás Estrada Palma became the first president of the republic.

In the Platt Amendment, the USA also secured two military bases on the island in 1903: Bahía Honda , which was returned in 1912, and Guantánamo Bay , which has been occupied by the US military to this day and has been used for the illegal detention of prisoners of war since the war in Afghanistan is used.

Cuba between independence and revolution

The pseudo-republic

Between 1906 and 1919 the USA intervened several times militarily in Cuba ( gunboat policy ) in order to “protect US property”. The Republic of Cuba, which had no sovereignty due to the Platt Amendment, became a pseudo-republic in which the most important decisions were made from the US embassy, ​​including the decision on whether an elected president could remain in office. So z. B. the USA intervened to prevent the election of Alfredo Zayas in 1917. When Zayas was re-elected in 1920, he had to submit his entire cabinet to US General Crowder for approval.

The Machado dictatorship

Detail on the portal of the Capitol of Havana : the first Cuban presidents - with the face of the dictator Machado etched away in 1933

In 1925 General Gerardo Machado y Morales came to the presidency. Large US corporations ( Rockefeller , Guggenheim and Morgan ) had invested a total of one million dollars in his election campaign . Machado represented an extremely nationalist course, which also earned him the name "tropical Mussolini ". From the first day of his presidency he persecuted political opponents whom he murdered or drove into exile, including his predecessor Mario García Menocal . A broad political movement soon emerged, from the bourgeois upper class to the labor movement. The radical resistance organization ABC , which was mainly recruited from the bourgeois youth, carried out numerous attacks on personalities of the Machado government, whereupon Machado had several times the number of political prisoners murdered. Under Machado, the garrot , the strangling iron, was reintroduced to carry out the death penalty. A 44-time murderer became head of the military police, and serious criminals were armed in prison to kill 70 political prisoners. In 1929 Machado held a sham election, of which he was the only candidate. The people's hopes of getting rid of the dictator by voting out were dashed and resistance grew. On August 12, 1933, the dictator Machado was overthrown by a broad popular movement in a general strike and replaced by an interim government under Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada .

The reign of Batista

But already on September 4, 1933, the interim government was overthrown by the so-called "Uprising of the NCOs", which was led by Sergeant Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar. Batista was now the "Leader of the Revolution" from 1933 to 1939 as Commander-in-Chief of the Army. After the coup, Ramón Grau San Martín was appointed president on September 10, 1933, but was overthrown by Batista on January 14, 1934. Thereupon Grau founded the Partido Revolucionario Cubano (Auténticos) . Supported by the Cuban army and the ever-present threat of intervention from the USA, represented by Ambassador Jefferson Caffery , Batista appointed various puppet presidents from 1934 to 1940 ( Carlos Mendieta (1934/1935), José Barnet (1935/1936), Miguel Mariano Gómez ( 1936) and Federico Laredo Brú (1936–1940)) until he was finally elected president himself with a large majority in 1940 and among other things appointed two members of the Communist Party to the government cabinet. Prior to this, with Batista's support from the constituent assembly, numerous social reform goals of the popular uprising against dictator Machado of 1933 had been enshrined in the new constitution of 1940, which was considered exemplary in international comparison.

As in other countries, women's suffrage came with a revolution in Cuba : the disempowerment of the dictator Gerardo Machado led to Cuba becoming the fourth Latin American country with women's suffrage. After gaining formal independence, the (provisional) Ley Constitucional of January 2, 1934, provided for universal male suffrage. On February 3, 1934, women's suffrage was included in the provisional constitution. But it was only with the adoption of the 1940 constitution that women's suffrage came into effect; the other provisional constitutional texts did not change anything in terms of women's suffrage.

In the 1944 election, Batista was replaced as president by Grau San Martín , the candidate of the Partido Revolucionario Cubano (Auténticos) / PRC (A), and left Cuba for Florida. A strong opposition party, which was also joined by the young Fidel Castro, emerged from 1947 in the Partido del Pueblo Cubano (Ortodoxos) founded by Eduardo Chibás , who had previously resigned from the ruling PRC (A) party because of rampant corruption. In the election in 1948, however, won again the presidential candidate of the Auténticos , Carlos Prío .

Also in 1948, Batista ran for a seat in the Cuban Senate and invested large sums in his election. He used his middlemen, including communists, in the large organizations and found support in the army, businessmen and bankers. In view of the poor chances of success of his own presidential candidacy in the elections planned for June 1952 over the candidates of the Ortodoxos and Auténticos , and great dissatisfaction with the state of the Cuban state among the officers, Batista undertook a military coup on March 10, 1952. He established an authoritarian regime, which resulted in the partial repeal of the 1940 constitution and the suppression of the opposition .

Fidel Castro , a young lawyer and member of the Chibás Orthodox Party, tried Batista in the Supreme Court for his military coup. After the complaint was rejected, Castro declared that the constitutional right of resistance had now come into force after all legal means had been exhausted and prepared for the violent overthrow of Batista.

The Cuban Revolution 1953–1959

Hotel Habana Libre formerly the Hilton Havana , the temporary seat of government during the Revolution

On July 26, 1953, a guerrilla force led by the lawyer Fidel Castro Ruz carried out an attack on the Moncada barracks in Santiago, but it failed. This marked the beginning of the revolution led by the July 26th Movement ( M-26-7 ). The declared goals of the movement were social reforms, democracy and the restoration of the constitution of 1940. After Castro was pardoned by Batista after almost two years in prison, he went into exile in 1955 (first in the USA, later in Mexico). He returned in December 1956 with 82 guerrilla fighters.

On January 1, 1959, Fulgencio Batista fled into exile, whereupon Castro's revolutionaries took over. Fidel Castro took over the office of Prime Minister on February 13th. Cuba's communists have long been very skeptical of the revolutionary movement and condemned it as "petty-bourgeois terrorism".

Cuba after the successful revolution - the socialist Cuba

1959 and the 1960s

The early years after the revolution

The declared aim of the revolution was to secure "transformation, independence , justice and dignity of the Cuban nation " in relation to the Cuban folk hero José Martí . This should include the small farmers, agricultural workers, the workers in the cities and the middle class , insofar as they were willing to support the new processes. Martís particular concern was a "radical measure of social equality".

Initially, civil opposition politicians also held the highest offices in the state. Prime Minister and thus the highest government representative was José Miró Cardona of the Auténticos . For the time being, Fidel Castro was content with the post of commander-in-chief of the armed forces and chief of the M-26-7. The old congress was dissolved, as were the parties represented there. Only the M-26-7, the Directorio Estudiantil (student board) and the communist Partido Socialista Popular (PSP) were allowed. A new constitution dissolved all municipal autonomy in February 1959 and concentrated power in the executive branch of the state. Activists and supporters of the Batista regime were sentenced and mostly executed, which according to official figures killed more than 500 people and caused the first major wave of emigration .

In February 1959, Fidel Castro was appointed head of government by "mass acclamation". One of his first official acts was an agrarian reform, which limited land ownership to a maximum of 400  hectares . This was entirely in line with the progressive constitution of 1940, which was never put into practice. Large parts of the middle class, which had previously supported the revolution, were against this law. US farms, which owned most of the sugar factories, were particularly hard hit. In June 1959, the first president of the revolutionary government, Urrutia, resigned. He was replaced by radical revolutionaries such as Che Guevara, who now assumed the office of Minister of Industry, although he knew little about economics. A short time later, Guevara also became head of the state bank. A new, partly armed resistance against the M-26-7 was organized within Cuba. Even revolutionary commanders like Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo took part. In Escambray -Gebirge an armed uprising against the Castroites kindled. Former guerrilla leader Comandante Huber Matos was arrested on charges of planning something similar in Camagüey and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Since the M-26-7 was numerically small and had a weak power base among the people, it was looking for allies. There were two relatively strong potential partners ready. On the one hand, there were the trade unions , which, however, tended to be anti-Castist, and on the other, the communist PSP. The union leaders were unable to secure their power despite winning union elections, as newly formed militias loyal to Castro opposed them. The result was, among other things, a worker-friendly collective bargaining policy, which brought the middle class, the previous support of the Cuban economy, into increasing difficulties. In March 1959, apartment rents were cut in half and the telephone company was nationalized. The purchasing power of the Cubans rose, while production fell. The government did not opt ​​for a “classic” solution to the problem through an austerity and consolidation policy, but for a massive redistribution in favor of the previously disadvantaged lower classes, which helped the Castro supporters to stabilize their power. They were able to win new trade union elections, which gave the government influence over the city's businesses.

In 1960 the INRA agricultural institute was founded with the task of distributing expropriated land to cooperatives and state-owned companies. It also had a monopoly of lending to all farms, eliminating the influence of banks and other lenders. There was massive unrest in the countryside, which regionally assumed proportions that were almost civil war-like. The armed insurgents in Escambray were supported by large farmers from other regions. In addition, there were increasing tensions with the US over the expropriation of US property. US-owned oil refineries refused to process Soviet petroleum, in response to the expropriation of those refineries. This ultimately led to the trade embargo that is still valid today and gradually tightened during this period . To compensate for this, the ties to the Soviet Union were increasingly tied and a credit and trade agreement was concluded.

The conflict with the United States turned into a tangible crisis in the context of the Cold War . After the embargo was imposed, Castro had the US sugar companies expropriated. In addition, all banks and companies with more than 25 employees were nationalized. The country's economy was now largely controlled by the state. While the United States began to train Cuban exiles under the leadership of the CIA and planned assassinations against Fidel Castro, Cuba was drawing closer and closer to the other superpower. US President Eisenhower ordered the planning of an invasion, which should lead to a popular uprising against the Cuban government. Cuba, on the other hand, bought weapons. In 1961, now under President Kennedy , there was an attack by Cuban exiles on Playa Girón on the Bay of Pigs. Regular US troops were ready on naval ships, but Kennedy shied away from using them. In the run-up, only military targets such as airports were bombed by the US Air Force . Castro was prepared for the attack so the invaders were quickly crushed. The expected popular uprising failed.

To defend against counter-revolutionary activities, the Comités de Defensa de la Revolución (Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, CDR for short ) were founded in 1960 , which today have around eight million members, practically all Cubans over 14 years of age. These neighborhood organizations have the function of both mutual surveillance of the population and social control.

Bay of Pigs Invasion

Remains of a B-26 used by the invasion force in the Havana Revolution Museum

On April 17, 1961, Cubans in exile invading Guatemala failed in an attack in the "Bay of Pigs". On December 2, 1961, the proclamation of the Socialist Republic on the basis of Marxism-Leninism took place. Fidel Castro declared himself a Marxist-Leninist in a nationwide radio address and called for the formation of a Cuban unity party to introduce communism . In February of the following year, the US imposed a total embargo on all imports from Cuba.

Consolidation of the new power

Armed resistance against Castro came to a virtual standstill after the Bay of Pigs invasion failed. Only in the Escambray was the fighting continued until 1966. However, acts of sabotage, including by Cuban exiles who were secretly smuggled into the country, continued. The government tried out the first export of revolution on the basis of the theories of Che Guevara , who wanted to create a so-called New Man by means of the world revolution , who no longer pursues individual, egoistic goals, but puts all his energy into the service of society. A massive literacy campaign took place across the country . On the one hand there was a creative phase in art and culture, on the other hand there were first measures against critical artists. The slogan “Everything in the revolution, nothing against the revolution” was born. The previous lower classes were now able to study at the state's universities, the level of education rose gradually, and at the same time the universities lost their autonomy . The term permanent revolution emerged, which is supposed to illustrate that, according to the Cuban leadership, Cuba is (still today) in an ongoing revolutionary process. In practice, however, an increasing bureaucratization of the revolutionary process could be observed. Only Fidel Castro's charismatic leadership style gave the government legitimacy .

In January 1962, under pressure from the USA, Cuba was expelled from the Organization of American States ( OAS ), whereupon all Latin American states, with the exception of Mexico , broke off their diplomatic relations with Cuba. However, the sanctions against Cuba by the Organization of American States were ended on July 30, 1975.

In October 1962 the world was facing nuclear war. US reconnaissance planes discovered Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuban territory , which had a range as far as New York . The US imposed a naval blockade on Cuba to prevent further nuclear weapons from being stationed in Cuba. A 13-day war of nerves began between the great powers, which finally resulted in the return of the Soviet Union, which withdrew its nuclear weapons from Cuba. Fidel Castro, who did not agree with this decision at all, accused the Soviet head of state Nikita Khrushchev in front of students at the University of Havana for having “no eggs”, who then chanted “spontaneously”: “Nikita, mariquita, lo que se da no se quita ” , which means “ Nikita you little fagot, given is given, repeat is stolen ” .

Cuba crisis (October crisis)

After the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the presidential deliberations under Kennedy , which are no longer subject to secrecy, considered attacking Cuba again, but this time with the direct use of US troops . What was missing was a useful pretext to justify the illegal attack on Cuba. After the Bay of Pigs invasion, the USSR stationed nuclear missiles in Cuba, among other things to deter an invasion by the USA. Since the USA had also stationed nuclear missiles on the Turkish-Soviet border, the Soviet Union saw in this step a "catching up" in the sense of the deterrent doctrine of the Cold War . The discovery of Soviet missile bases in Cuba in September 1962 seemed, after much deliberation by the presidential advisers, to be the sought-after occasion for an attack on Cuba. In October 1962, the USA set up a total blockade over Cuba and threatened Soviet merchant ships with warning shots on the open sea. The nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union seemed within reach. After secret negotiations to dismantle American nuclear missiles in Turkey , the Soviets agreed to also eliminate the missile bases in Cuba. The public was not aware of this secret agreement, however, so that the US government under Kennedy emerged stronger from the October crisis as the victor. The US publicly pledged not to prepare any further attacks on Cuba.

Finding new ways in business

After political rule was more or less secured in the early 1960s, the problems of economic transformation arose. In order to increase real incomes in the centralized economy , everyone should volunteer as much as possible for social progress and act as a role model for others. Numerous services were offered virtually free of charge. Even a complete abolition of money was considered. The consequence, however, was a massive drop in labor productivity and a disdain for public installations such as telephone booths, which were increasingly inoperable across the board. The goal of replacing imported products with domestic production was clearly missed. The result was a long-term dependence on subsidies from the Soviet Union. The US embargo did the rest, although it is not the main culprit. The state was no longer able to ensure the supply of the population with agricultural products or the issue of transport.

Agriculture was a particular problem child. The increasing education of the rural population had the effect that they would rather seek employment in the cities than take on the harsh working conditions in the countryside. Gigantic, centrally run state farms alienated the workers there from rural thinking. The attempt to breed new cattle breeds turned out to be a gigantic failure, which to this day has had a negative impact on the supply of milk and beef to the population. Increased pressure from the state on the peasants actually had the opposite effect. They responded by refusing to produce or switching to informal markets. The anticastric resistance was further strengthened.

The government responded in 1963 with another, now far more radical, land reform. All land over five caballerías (67 hectares ) has now been expropriated. In addition, a military offensive was launched against the insurgents in the Escambray Mountains, which was associated with the relocation of parts of the local population. General conscription was introduced.

Although these measures were able to calm the situation and suppress the insurgents, they were not conducive to productive agriculture. Uneconomical, socialist state-owned enterprises were created, and small farmers pushed back. The government launched an ideological offensive. From the Partido Unido de la Revolución Socialista de Cuba , the Communist Party of Cuba emerged in 1965 (Partido Comunista de Cuba). Political opponents as well as homosexuals and critical artists were forced to do “useful work”, for which labor camps , called Unidades Militares para Ayudar a la Producción ( Military Units in Support of Production , UMAP for short ), were created in Cuba .

Several economic models were discussed in the government, whereby two positions emerged: Che Guevara favored direct financing of state-owned companies from the state budget and moral incentives, while a group of economists favored the Soviet model, which provided for wages based on performance. A large number of intellectuals voted against the Soviet model, partly because it didn't work there either. It also seemed too undemocratic to them. Guevara abruptly resigned from all public office in 1965 and left Cuba for good. He went to the guerrilla fight in Bolivia and was killed there in 1967. However, his economic perspectives were taken up by Fidel Castro in 1966 and led to voluntarism that lasted until 1970 . However, the initial euphoria of the Cuban people was long gone. Cuban life became increasingly ritualized. A democratic exchange of ideas no longer took place. The supply shortages increased as well as the dissatisfaction of the population. In terms of foreign policy, Castro welcomed the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops into the Czechoslovakia in 1968 as part of the Prague Spring . Private property that still existed in the form of craft businesses or small restaurants was almost completely abolished. Books and the telephone were now free, and local transport only cost a symbolic price. Standard wages were introduced regardless of the value of work. All Cubans able to work had to show a job. A campaign began against allegedly work-shy gays and artists.

All of this culminated in the 1970 Gran Zafra campaign . The stated goal was to harvest 10 million tons of sugar this harvest season, which would have been a record. The accompanying mass mobilization was intended to prove Cuba's political and economic independence. All human and material resources have been made available to achieve this goal. This had dramatic consequences for the rest of the economy, as production fell dramatically. As a result, the supply of the population continued to collapse. Despite all efforts, only 8.4 million tons of sugar were harvested. In the end, a bumper crop was achieved, even if the actual goal was missed. Nonetheless, this kind of action wreaked havoc on the Cuban economy as funds and labor were withdrawn from other major industries.

The 1970s and 1980s

The failure of the Gran Zafra forced Cuba's government to continue adhering to the Soviet model. It was recognized that Cuba was not viable on its own. The educational system was geared towards Marxism-Leninism , free-thinking artists faced increasing difficulties and participatory democracy died completely.

From the artist's point of view, the so-called gray decade began in the 1970s , as they were no longer able or allowed to develop artistically as usual. Fidel Castro's slogan “everything for the revolution, nothing against the revolution”, which was already issued in the early 1960s, was now increasingly used against artists who deviated from the official line in order to criminalize them. This tough line was implemented, among others, by the then Chairman of the National Culture Council, Luis Pavón .

For the common Cuban, however, personal economic circumstances began to improve. Spending on education increased 21-fold from 1959 to the mid-1970s. Life expectancy and infant mortality were increasingly at the level of the first world countries. At the same time the “revolution” began to institutionalize. In 1975 the 1st Congress of the Communist Party took place. Although the statutes of the party provide for a five-year cycle, these party congresses were only held at irregular intervals in the future.

The new constitution , which came into force in 1976, was adopted at this party congress . Fidel Castro received absolute power, the so-called mando único . He now united all the important offices of the state in one person. He was head of state and government, general secretary of the communist party and commander in chief of the army. Neither the formally desired participatory democracy nor any healthy competition for political office took place anymore. The rhetoric of the "permanent revolution" took its place.

A phase of "sovietization" followed in the economy, also combined with a certain degree of decentralization. Companies that worked for municipal or provincial governments were placed under their command. It was costing introduced, while Che Guevara had resisted fiercely to his playing days in Cuba. In July 1972, Cuba joined the Council for Mutual Economic Aid (Comecon), the economic organization of the Eastern Bloc countries. After the times of shortage in the 1960s, fixed sugar prices, transfer ruble deals, and regular deliveries of oil and materials now resulted in modest wealth for the Cubans. So-called microbrigades made up of voluntary workers were supposed to create living space that they then lived in themselves. In 1980 free farmers' markets were allowed. Food and other agricultural products could be sold there at prices higher than those set by the state. Private cooperatives grew suddenly. However, the state was unable to solve the transport problem between rural and urban areas, which is why an illegal network of dealers established itself and began to call out monopoly prices. In 1986 the private farmers' markets were again banned.

The connection to the Comecon was also a step backwards from a technological point of view. Until now, Cuba has focused on technical and consumer goods from the USA. These gradually became unusable. Soviet petroleum began to be sold on in order to be able to buy higher quality western goods. During the time of Jimmy Carter's presidency, relations with the United States also eased. There was a lively exchange with the new brother states. Cuba became a vacation paradise for Eastern Bloc officials. Young people from the GDR and the other Eastern Bloc countries were also allowed to study in Cuba and get to know a touch of the western way of life in Havana. The Cuban officials gladly used this "internationalism" as an excuse for the poor standard of living of the Cubans. Fidel Castro loved to present himself as a foreign policy visionary in order to divert attention from domestic misery.

A sad, “gray” decade ( decada gris ) began in the 1970s, especially for artists and those working in the cultural sector . With the establishment and bureaucratisation, the artistic development was severely restricted. The slogan issued by Fidel Castro in 1961, “everything for the revolution, nothing against the revolution”, has now been consistently implemented from the point of view of those in power. The trigger was the so-called Padilla affair , named after the poet Heberto Padilla , which cost Cuba a lot of sympathy abroad. In 1971, Padilla published his volume of poetry Outside the Game , which was awarded by a jury of the national writers ' association UNEAC . However, the leadership of the association did not want to follow suit. The book would contain “ideological elements that were clearly opposed to the thinking of the revolution”. The book expresses the "self-exclusion of the author from Cuban life." Although this volume of Padillas was still allowed to appear, later works were forbidden. Encouraged to become a central figure of the resistance abroad, Padilla was arrested in March 1971 for alleged contacts with foreign secret services, which began the so-called “gray five- year- old ” ( quinquieno gris ), a time of harsh persecution of artists and other people who deviated from the state line. The university sector and the party newspaper Granma were also purged of unorthodox leftist schools of thought. One of the most famous members of the opposition today, Elizardo Sánchez , then a professor of Marxist philosophy , was one of those affected. Nowadays, the entire decade of the 1970s is referred to as the gray decade , because it was the “beautiful revolution” of leftist artists and intellectuals that was buried.

1974 saw the so-called Carnation Revolution in Portugal . Subsequently, the then Portuguese colony of Angola sought independence. A civil war broke out between the Marxist-oriented MPLA and UNITA, which is supported by racist South Africa. At the end of 1975 Cuba intervened in the conflict on behalf of the MPLA rebels, as a result of which the Angolan government was stabilized to some extent, Namibia achieved independence and South Africa was forced to negotiate.

In 1973, small-scale Cuban troops assisted the Arab armies of Egypt and Syria in their attack on Israel in the Yom Kippur War . In 1978 Cuba supported Ethiopia in the fight against Somalia for the Ogaden area. Six days after the murder of Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop , US forces occupied the Caribbean island of Grenada , a British overseas dominion, on October 25, 1983 . After the controversial invasion, which led to the overthrow of the government of the socialist New Jewel Movement , the armed forces captured the Cubans, who were mostly involved in airport construction.

In Cuba itself, however, the economic problems intensified, which the foreign policy successes could hardly hide. Supply problems and a lack of living space led to annoyance among the population. Due to the resulting social tensions, the Peruvian embassy in Havana was occupied in April 1980 . The Cuban government then approved the landing of boats from the United States to pick up refugees and transport them to the United States. As a result, a good 100,000 Cubans fled to the USA , mostly via the port of Mariel , including numerous blacks, who until then had not been among those with the greatest pressure to emigrate. The event went down in history as the Mariel Boat Crisis .

Falling sugar prices in the early 1980s further exacerbated the crisis. Although Cuba received annual subsidies of around two billion dollars from the Soviet Union along with 13 million tons of oil, the country was still barely able to survive. Growing debts increased dependence on the USSR. The state's distribution policy through the Libreta was able to moderate the crisis to some extent.

There was also a crisis in Cuba's education system, which was actually highly praised. Secondary school students were usually taught in boarding schools away from their parents' home. There was a lack of well-trained teachers, so that older students often taught the younger ones. In addition, there was a rapid decline in the traditional values ​​of the Cuban family. The number of teenage pregnancies increased significantly. The goal of “the greatest possible education for all” could only be achieved in real terms by lowering the general educational standard. Suddenly there were no cleaning staff in the country. Other services, especially handicrafts, flourished and “fed” themselves mainly on illegally dumped goods . A certain exception, however, were the military-run operations.

In the mid-1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev called perestroika proclaimed that caused in the Cuban population enthusiasm Fidel Castro was opposed it. He thought this was a return to capitalism . In 1986 he called for the so-called rectificación , the correction of errors. The result were reforms that run counter to any market-economy character. Although the market forces were given more leeway in the meantime, this policy prevailed until the end of Fidel's tenure. Che Guevara's ideas were reissued, according to which the Communist Party assumed the avant-garde function, which ensured mass mobilization. The prescribed voluntarism , however, only worked to a limited extent. In 1988 Castro criticized the events in the Soviet Union directly. In Cuba, socialism and independence are inextricably linked. As a result, private farmers' markets were banned in Cuba.

From 1988 the successful Angola fighters returned to their homeland. Their corps spirit , which had probably developed, was a thorn in the side of the government. The consequence was a downsizing and simultaneous professionalization of the military. During this period, the US accused Cuba of promoting the drug trade . There were show trials against the popular Angola veteran General Arnaldo Ochoa, among others . Ochoa and three close associates, also highly decorated Angola officers, were sentenced to death and shot.

Cuba in Angola

Cuba's involvement in Angola began as early as the 1960s when first relations with the left-wing Angolan anti-colonial liberation movement MPLA were established. The MPLA was the main organization in the struggle for independence from Portugal . In addition, there was the western-oriented UNITA and the FNLA. The Portuguese withdrew unexpectedly quickly from Angola after the Carnation Revolution after 400 years of colonialism and the MPLA had the best conditions to take power in Angola. In negotiations, no agreement had been reached on the interim presidency until the first scheduled elections. In order to prevent the MPLA from taking over government, the USA and South Africa had given support to UNITA and FNLA . Until the declaration of independence on November 11, 1975, it was essential for them to take the capital Luanda.

In August 1975 the South African army marched into Angola with the secret consent of the USA to support UNITA and FNLA. A much larger invasion followed in October. With the approval of the MPLA, Cuba began a massive intervention with combat troops, but without coordinating with the USSR. This last-minute support was critical in repelling the attacks on Luanda at the Battle of Kifangondo, in sinking the FNLA into insignificance, and in bringing the MPLA to power.

After a renewed invasion of the South African army in support of UNITA and in pursuit of SWAPO , a major battle broke out in the southeastern Angolan town of Cuito Cuanavale from 1987 to 1988 . This battle was the largest on the African continent since World War II. Again without consultation with the USSR, Cuba sent a large contingent of troops, which stood on the side of Angola and SWAPO against the South African army and UNITA. The battle became a turning point in the struggle against apartheid and a beacon for Namibia's independence . While neither side had a clear victory on the battlefield, the South African apartheid regime recognized that the conflict could not be won in their favor.

As a result of this success on the battlefield, Cuba participated directly in the negotiations between Angola and South Africa. On December 22, 1988, Angola, Cuba and South Africa signed the New York Tripartite Agreement , which provided for the withdrawal of South Africa, the independence of Namibia and the withdrawal of Cuban troops within 30 months.

With the withdrawal of the Cubans, 13 years of military presence in Angola ended. At the same time, the Cubans withdrew from Pointe Noire ( Republic of the Congo ) and Ethiopia .

Cuba's internationalism

From the beginning, the Cuban revolution defined itself as internationalist and had a global focus . This foreign policy survival strategy gave rise to military and civilian missions in the southern hemisphere just a year after the triumph of the revolution in Cuba. Although still a developing country itself, Cuba provided military, medical and educational support to African, Latin American and Asian countries. These “overseas adventures” not only irritated the USA, but also led to more frequent teeth grinding in the Kremlin . Due to the need to build stable economic relations with western states, however, the Cuban engagement initially held back in order not to be exposed to the accusation of exporting the revolution; in the second half of the 1970s, Cuba stepped up its international work. The Department of America, under the direction of Manuel Piñeiro, played a special role in Latin America .

A great success in Latin America from a Cuban point of view was the Sandinista uprising in Nicaragua , which led to the overthrow of the Somoza regime in 1979. This was openly supported by Cuba. The Cuban support of other underground movements in Latin America, the backyard of the USA, was less successful. On the other hand, things looked very different on the African continent, where Cuba supported a total of 17 liberation movements or left-wing governments - some with troops - and had a number of successes, including in Ethiopia , Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique . Angola occupies a special position among these countries .

Cuba after the end of the Cold War (Periodo especial)

In 1989, the year the Berlin Wall came down , Cuba handled a good 85% of its foreign trade through the socialist states of the Eastern Bloc . Their implosion triggered a catastrophic economic crisis with considerable supply bottlenecks because the economic aid and the very favorable trade relations with the former allies for Cuba broke away. The Soviet Union has been gradually reducing its economic aid to Cuba since 1986. After the failed coup in Moscow in 1991 , in which the Cuban leadership once again placed hopes, foreign trade with the CIS countries almost completely collapsed. In 1992 it was only 6% (approx. 65 million US dollars) of the previous year's value. Oil deliveries to the former Soviet Union fell from 13 to 4 million tons annually, causing a severe energy crisis in Cuba. The delivery of industrial and consumer goods on preferential terms also came to a standstill.

As a result, the so-called Período especial en tiempos de paz (German: special period in peacetime ), a kind of war economy , was proclaimed. Total rationing of all goods followed. Any reform in politics or economy was initially rejected. The sugar harvest fell from seven million tons (1992) to 3.3 million tons (1995). The import volume was reduced to a fifth of what it was before the crisis. Private car traffic almost completely came to a standstill due to a lack of petrol. The health system was barely able to maintain its basic services due to the lack of medicines and materials. The supply of food through state sales outlets was limited to an absolute minimum. Numerous previously generally available products were now only available on the black market for dollars. The "revolution" seemed to have come to an end. The gross domestic product fell by at least 40% until 1993. The USA tried to take advantage of this situation and, in the hope of an early popular uprising, tightened the trade embargo with the Torricelli Act 1992.

In response to the crash of the economy, the Cuban government had to allow the hated US dollar as the official second currency in 1993 , the possession of which was previously a criminal offense. At the same time, Cubans were now allowed to receive transfers in foreign currencies from abroad. These measures mainly benefited members of the former (mostly white) middle and upper classes. The main winners of the revolution, the heavily underprivileged black section of the population in pre-revolutionary times, were now among the main losers, as they were rather underrepresented in the Cuban exile community abroad and consequently were less able to benefit from remittances from abroad. In the economy there was an increasing split between the peso and foreign exchange economy. The foreign exchange sector was opened to foreign investment. Market mechanisms were also introduced here, which, however, could not defuse the extreme supply situation.

On August 5, 1994, violent unrest broke out in Havana for the first time since the revolution because of the miserable living conditions during the special period. As a result, Castro ordered the lifting of coastal surveillance on August 7, unleashing the largest mass exodus from Cuba, which went down in history as the Balsero crisis . (→ Unrest in Havana 1994. ) Apart from this incident, there were no attempts at overthrowing the Castro regime that were desired or expected from the USA, especially from Florida, which is inhabited by Cuban exiles.

The Cuban government legalized the private food markets that were only banned in 1986, whereupon the situation in the food supply began to stabilize at a low level. The economy as a whole also began to grow thanks to the foreign exchange sector.

On March 25, 1995, Cuba joined the Tlatelolco Treaty , which prohibited the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Latin America. The Cuban Air Force shot down two US civilian aircraft belonging to the Brothers to the Rescue , an exiled Cuban association in Miami , in February 1996 after an airspace violation, when they were probably already over international waters. As a result, the Torricelli Act in the USA was tightened again by the Helms-Burton Act , which, according to the historian Michael Zeuske, may well have been in the interests of the hardliners within the Cuban government. The two planes were shot down on the very same day that a Cuban opposition group was planning a protest to mark the 20th anniversary of the constitution. Cuba's government wanted to make a plausible connection between internal opposition and external American aggression plausible. The governments were well aware that this would have political consequences in the USA, as Fidel Castro himself said in a newspaper interview. President Clinton, who originally wanted to veto the Helms-Burton Act , eventually signed it under the pressure of political events.

While the economic crisis, which mainly affected agriculture and industry, continued, tourism experienced a major boom. Private apartment owners were allowed to rent rooms to foreign tourists in 1995. These bed-and-breakfast- like accommodations are called casas particulares (private houses) in Cuba . The main beneficiaries of this new regulation were members of the former, mostly white middle class, as well as party officials who had suitable rentable living space. Although relatively high flat-rate taxes were introduced for such rentals in 1997, the landlords often compensated for this by offering tourists meals in exchange for foreign currency, the ingredients of which were bought at low local prices, some of which were subsidized. Many Cubans found illegal work in these rentals, for example as cooks or cleaners. Since 2010, these employment relationships can be legally registered. And in contrast to the often extremely dilapidated buildings in Cuba, these houses are usually relatively freshly renovated.

From 1997, after the Cuban economy had recovered somewhat from the shock and was now preparing to emulate the tiger states in Asia, the Cuban government began to dry up the market economy reforms. However, the domestic economy remained weak. Agricultural production, especially sugar, continued to decline.

From January 21-25, 1998 Pope John Paul II visited Cuba. As a result, Christmas became an official holiday in Cuba again. Party members were now allowed to profess Christianity again. The relationship with the Catholic Church relaxed significantly and in the years to come it was increasingly accepted as a discussion and negotiation partner.

In May 2005, Cuba and Venezuela founded the ALBA , the Bolivarian alternative to the ALCA , the US-dominated economic community. While Venezuela is getting help from Cuba to develop its health and education system, Venezuela is helping to build the Cuban economy.

On July 31, 2006, Fidel Castro underwent gastrointestinal surgery in a Havana hospital after bleeding from the intestines. He temporarily gave his offices to his 75-year-old brother Raúl Castro , who was first vice president of the government, second secretary of the Communist Party and commander in chief of the armed forces. On February 24, 2008, Raúl Castro was elected chairman of the Council of State and Council of Ministers by the newly elected National Assembly after Fidel had previously announced that he would no longer run for this office due to illness. He announced economic reforms while maintaining socialism. On June 3, 2009, the General Assembly of the Organization of American States revoked the exclusion of Cuba from the organization in 1962.

Cuba after Fidel Castro

At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Cuba was facing numerous crises. The largest of these is likely to be the extremely ailing infrastructure, some of which has not been renewed since the 1960s. This mainly affects the dilapidated buildings, water and sewage systems, power supply and the telecommunications network. Some new technologies, such as the Internet , are deliberately neglected by the government for political reasons and are also strictly controlled. Rising food prices on the world market, most of which Cuba has to import, did not make the situation any easier.

With his election as head of state and government on February 24, 2008, Raúl Castro finally took over the affairs of state from his seriously ill brother Fidel. In his inaugural address, Raúl announced economic reforms to lead the country out of its severe economic crisis. In addition, some “nonsensical bans” for the Cubans are to be lifted one by one. However, the government wants to continue on the path of socialism.

With immediate effect, Cubans were allowed to stay overnight in the hotels previously reserved for foreign tourists, which until now were tourism resorts that were closed to locals. In addition, they were allowed to rent a car, take out a mobile phone contract, DVD players and other previously banned electrical household appliances, such as B. To buy microwave ovens.

Economically, too, the country is now deviating from the strict socialist course and market economy elements are being introduced. For example, previously fallow agricultural land is being given to cooperatives. They are allowed to cultivate the fields on their own account. In addition, the state purchase prices for important agricultural goods are being raised in order to offer an incentive for increased production. So far, despite relatively favorable climatic conditions, Cuba has had to import a large part of its food from abroad.

The consequences of the reforms were and are, however, growing social inequality within the population, which actually runs counter to the declared Cuban socialist goal. Since the 1990s, the population has been increasingly divided into two parts, on the one hand those who can benefit from the growing tourism or, like doctors and the military, are otherwise protected by the state, and those who have neither access to the privileged activities nor to the new ones Opportunities to participate. Many of the achievements of the revolution of which Cuba is so proud, such as the education and health systems, were falling into disrepair, but not completely disappearing. The functioning of Cuban society became increasingly informal, in which black market deals played an increasing role.

On December 17, 2014, Raúl Castro and US President Barack Obama agree to establish diplomatic relations and to realign Cuban-US-American relations. The US government plans to re-establish a US embassy in Havana. In addition, some easing of the embargo came into force, which fell within the competence of the US President and which did not require the approval of Congress. This included making it easier for US citizens to travel to Cuba and reducing the bureaucracy of travel permits, although travel for purely tourist purposes remained forbidden for Americans. On May 29, 2015, Cuba was removed from the list of countries supporting terrorism, which it was added to during Reagan's presidency in 1982, for supporting left-wing Latin American guerrilla organizations. This will result in further relief in the financial and trade area for Cuba.

On March 20, 2016, Barack Obama, a US president, visited Cuba for the first time in 88 years. The last visitor before that was Calvin Coolidge in 1928 . On March 25th, the Rolling Stones gave a free concert in Havana in front of around half a million listeners. It was the largest concert in Cuban history and the first by an English-speaking rock band since the revolution. Until the late 1970s, western rock and pop music was frowned upon as western decadence.

In April 2018, as announced at the 7th PCC party congress , Raúl Castro resigned from his posts as head of state and government, but remains the most powerful man in the state as chairman of the Communist Party. In his successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel was elected for the first time a man born after the revolution.

A new constitution, which was discussed by parliament in 2018 and then in a referendum, was approved by the people at the end of February 2019 and allowed forms of private property and, to a limited extent, foreign investments. The office of Prime Minister was also reintroduced.

At the beginning of 2021, the convertible peso was abolished as the official parallel currency to the cubano peso . The reform was combined with a wage and price reform. This was introduced in 1994 as the national equivalent of the US dollar circulating in the country . From 2004 it had completely replaced this in official payment transactions. From the second half of 2020, however, the so-called MLC shops were introduced to replace the shops in which you had to pay in convertible pesos and a better range of goods to the shops that only accepted the “simple” pesos . MLC stands for moneda libremente convertible . There you can only shop with foreign credit cards or with national debit cards that have been topped up in freely convertible currency. The currency of the "MLC" is not explicitly defined. However, the balance on the debit cards is equal to the US dollar. Foreign credit cards will also be charged.

In July 2021, the first mass protests against the government in Cuba occurred in decades. Thousands of people in numerous cities denounced the economy of shortages and oppression. The direct cause of the demonstrations was the lack of medicine and food. According to Amnesty International , security forces arrested at least 115 people. A man was killed in a demonstration on the outskirts of Havana. The government described the protests as provocations by counterrevolutionaries who were financed by the US in order to destabilize Cuba.

See also

literature

  • Samuel Farber : Cuba since the Revolution of 1959. A Critical Assessment. Haymarket Books, 2011, ISBN 978-1-60846-139-4 (English)
  • Philip Sheldon Foner: The Spanish-Cuban-American War and the Birth of American Imperialism 1895-1902. 2 Vols., New York & London: Monthly Review Pr. 1972. ISBN 0-85345-266-0 (Vol. 1). ISBN 0-85345-267-9 (Vol. 2)
  • Piero Gleijeses: Cuba in Africa 1975–1991 . In: Bernd Greiner (Ed.): Hot wars in the cold war. Contributions to the international conference “Hot Wars in thr Cold War” organized by the Hamburg Institute for Social Research from May 19-22, 2004 . Hamburg: Hamburger Ed. 2006, pp. 469-510. ISBN 3-936096-61-9
  • Richard Gott: Cuba: A New History. Yale University Press (September 10, 2004), ISBN 978-0-300-10411-0 (English)
  • Gabriel Robin: La crise de Cuba (October 1962) - du mythe à l'histoire, Paris, Economica, 1984. ISBN 2-86592-015-1
  • Andreas Stucki: uprising and forced relocation. The Cuban Wars of Independence 1868–1898 (= studies on the history of violence in the 20th century). 1st edition, Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-86854-252-3 .
  • Hugh Thomas : Castro's Cuba . Siedler, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-88680-035-0
  • Hugh Thomas: Cuba: A History . 1184 pp., Penguin, 4th edition, 2010, ISBN 978-0-14-103450-8 (English)
  • Carlos Widmann : The last book about Fidel Castro , Munich (Hanser Verlag) 2012. ISBN 978-3-446-24004-9 .
  • Michael Zeuske : A Brief History of Cuba. Beck, Munich 2016; 4th, revised and updated edition, ISBN 978-3-406-69699-2 .
  • Michael Zeuske and Max Zeuske: Cuba 1492–1902. Colonial history, wars of independence and first occupation by the USA. Leipzig: Leipziger Univ.-Verl 1998. ISBN 3-931922-83-9
  • Michael Zeuske: Black Caribbean. Slaves, Slavery Cultures, and Emancipation . Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2004. ISBN 3-85869-272-7
  • Michael Zeuske: Island of Extremes - Cuba in the 20th Century . 2nd Edition. Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2004. ISBN 3-85869-208-5
  • Michael Zeuske: Cuba in the 21st Century. Revolution and reform on the island of extremes. Rotbuch, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86789-151-6 .

Web links

Commons : History of Cuba  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Presencia humana en Cuba data de hace 8,000 a 10,000 años, según arqueólogos , AFP in El Nuevo Herald of August 10, 2013
  2. ↑ Florencio Friera Suárez: Saturnino Martínez. In: Diccionario Biográfico Español. Real Academia de la Historia , accessed January 5, 2020 (Spanish).
  3. ↑ Michael Zeuske : Insel der Extremes , p. 38 f.
  4. ^ Bert Hoffmann: Kuba , CH Beck: München 2000, pp. 49–51, ISBN 978-3-406-44787-7
  5. ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 330.
  6. ↑ a b June Hannam, Mitzi Auchterlonie, Katherine Holden: International Encyclopedia of Women's Suffrage. ABC-CLIO Inc., Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford 2000, ISBN 1-57607-064-6 , p. 77.
  7. ^ A b Jan Suter: Cuba. In: Dieter Nohlen (Ed.): Handbook of the election data of Latin America and the Caribbean (= political organization and representation in America. Volume 1). Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1993, ISBN 3-8100-1028-6 , pp. 511-536, p. 515.
  8. ↑ Source on the prehistory of the revolution: Fidel Castro: Mein Leben ed. by Ignacio Ramonet, pp. 96, 723, 725, 726
  9. ↑ Boris Goldenberg : Comments on the character of the Cuban revolution (PDF; 68 kB) , In: trade union monthly magazines , vol. 11 (1960), no. 8, pp. 458–464.
  10. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Brief history of Cubas . P. 185
  11. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Brief history of Cubas . Pp. 185-186
  12. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Brief history of Cubas . Pp. 186-189
  13. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Cuba in the 21st century. Revolution and reform on the island of extremes. , Pp. 42, 126
  14. ^ Lester H. Brune: Chronological History of US Foreign Relations: 1932-1988 . In: Richard Dean Burns (Ed.): Chronological History of US Foreign Relations . tape 2 . Routledge, New York 2003, ISBN 0-415-93916-X , pp. 726 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed January 15, 2017]).
  15. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Brief history of Cubas . Pp. 189-192
  16. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Brief history of Cubas . P. 192
  17. ↑ Jörg Roesler: The »historical wage«: Cuba's experiences with an (almost) unconditional basic income (PDF; 87 kB) , Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung , January 2008
  18. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Burchardt : The long farewell to a myth , Schmetterling Verlag, 1996, p. 17 f.
  19. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Brief history of Cubas . Pp. 193-197
  20. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Brief history of Cubas . P. 197
  21. ↑ Knut Henkel: The Lord of the Gray Years , Latinorama of May 27, 2013
  22. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Brief history of Cubas . P. 198
  23. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Brief history of Cubas . Pp. 200-202
  24. ^ Peter B. Schumann : Dissident in Cuba - Forms of political and cultural opposition. In: Cuba today: politics, economy, culture. Pp. 294-296
  25. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Island of Extremes. Cuba in the 20th Century , 2nd edition (2004), p. 222
  26. ↑ a b Michael Zeuske: Brief history of Cubas . P. 203
  27. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Brief history of Cubas . Pp. 203-204
  28. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Brief history of Cubas . P. 205
  29. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Brief history of Cubas . Pp. 205-206
  30. ^ Secret Cuban Documents on History of Africa Involvement
  31. ↑ Gleijeses, Piero, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976 (The University of North Carolina Press)
  32. ↑ “Une Odyssee Africaine” (France, 2006, 59mn) directed by: Jihan El Tahri
  33. ↑ Cuba (11/07)
  34. ↑ Jim Lobe: Cuba followed US into Angola. July 29, 2004. Retrieved June 19, 2012.
  35. ^ Carla A. Robbins: The 'Cuban Threat' in Central America. In: Political Change in Central America. Internal and External Dimensions, edited by Wolf Grabendorff, Heinrich-W Krumwiede, Jörg Todt and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1984, pp. 216–227.
  36. ^ Rexford A. Hudson: Castro's America Department. Coordinating Cuba's support for Marxist-Leninist violence in the Americas. Washington, DC: Cuban American National Foundation, 1988.
  37. ^ A b Hans-Jürgen Burchardt : Cuba after Castro: The new inequality and the emerging neopopulist alliance , Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung , Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft 3/2002
  38. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Kleine Geschichte Kubas , P. 206-207
  39. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Small History of Cubas , p. 208
  40. ↑ Michael Zeuske : Insel der Extremes , 2nd edition, page 259
  41. ↑ Bert Hoffmann: Foreign policy, international relations and the relationship to the USA , in: Ette / Franzbach: Kuba heute, page 169 f.
  42. ↑ Susanne Gratius: The relationship between Europe and Cuba , in: Ette / Franzbach: Kuba heute, page 203
  43. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Cuba in the 21st century. P. 150
  44. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Cuba in the 21st century. P. 151
  45. ↑ The Associated Press: Cuban restrictions eased by Raul Castro  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated April 2, 2008@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.miamiherald.com  
  46. ↑ Die Welt: Cuba's flirtation with the free market economy, April 4, 2008
  47. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Cuba in the 21st century. P. 152
  48. ↑ Zeit.de: The balance of power across America is being reshuffled
  49. ↑ Mimi Whitefield: Cuba removed from US terrorism list , Miami Herald , May 29, 2015, accessed on May 29, 2015
  50. ↑ Boris Herrmann: Obama in Cuba - a small revolution , Süddeutsche.de , March 20, 2016
  51. ↑ Rolling Stones in Cuba: It's not only Rock 'n' Roll , Zeit-Online from March 26, 2016
  52. ↑ Never banned, but now free and live: The Rolling Stones in Cuba
  53. ↑ Cuba has a new president. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung / SZ.de. April 19, 2018. Retrieved April 19, 2018 .
  54. ↑ Clear majority for the new constitution in Cuba , DW, February 26, 2019
  55. ^ Currency reform in Cuba: "Open heart surgery". In: rbb Inforadio. January 2, 2021, accessed January 5, 2021 .
  56. ↑ Andreas Knobloch: Cuba taps foreign currency sources. In: New Germany. June 4, 2020, accessed January 5, 2021 .
  57. ↑ More than 100 arrests after protests in Cuba , ORF, July 13, 2021.
  58. ↑ Federal Foreign Office condemns violence against demonstrators , DLF, July 14, 2021.