Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, and with over 11 million inhabitants, is the second-most populous after
Hispaniola, albeit with a much lower population density than most nations in the region. A multiethnic country, its
people,
culture, and customs derive from diverse origins, including the aboriginal
Taíno and
Ciboney peoples, the long period of
Spanish colonialism, the introduction of
African slaves, a close
relationship with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and proximity to the United States.
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A series of slave rebellions and revolts took place during the 'sugar boom' under Spanish colonizing with the 1812 Aponte Slave Rebellion in Cuba against the Atlantic Slave Trade. Independence from Spain was the motive for a rebellion in 1868 led by
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. De Céspedes, a sugar planter, freed his slaves to fight with him for a free Cuba. On 27 December 1868, he issued a decree condemning slavery in theory but accepting it in practice and declaring free any slaves whose masters present them for military service. The 1868 rebellion resulted in a prolonged conflict known as the
Ten Years' War. Two thousand Cuban Chinese joined the rebels. There is a monument in Havana that honours the Cuban Chinese who fell in the war.
The United States declined to recognize the new Cuban government, although many European and Latin American nations did so. In 1878, the
Pact of Zanjón ended the conflict, with Spain promising greater autonomy to Cuba. In 1879–1880, Cuban patriot
Calixto García attempted to start another war known as the
Little War but received little support.
] Abolition of
slavery in Cuba began the final third of the 19th century, and was completed in the 1880s
Around 200,000 Spanish troops outnumbered the much smaller rebel army which relied mostly on
guerrilla and
sabotage tactics. The Spaniards began a campaign of suppression. General
Valeriano Weyler, military governor of Cuba, herded the rural population into what he called
reconcentrados, described by international observers as "fortified towns". These are often considered the prototype for 20th-century
concentration camps. Between 200,000 and 400,000 Cuban civilians died from starvation and disease in the camps, numbers verified by the
Red Cross and United States Senator and former
Secretary of War Redfield Proctor. American and European protests against Spanish conduct on the island followed.
The U.S. battleship
Maine was sent to protect U.S. interests, but she exploded suddenly and sank quickly, killing nearly three quarters of her crew. The cause and responsibility for her sinking remained unclear after a board of inquiry, but popular opinion in the U.S., fueled by an active press, concluded that the Spanish were to blame and demanded action. Spain and the United States declared war on each other in late April.
The U.S. battleship
Maine was sent to protect U.S. interests, but she exploded suddenly and sank quickly, killing nearly three quarters of her crew. The cause and responsibility for her sinking remained unclear after a board of inquiry, but popular opinion in the U.S., fueled by an active press, concluded that the Spanish were to blame and demanded action. Spain and the United States declared war on each other in late April.
Between 1933 and 1958, Cuba extended economic regulations enormously, causing economic problems. Unemployment became a problem as graduates entering the workforce could not find jobs. The middle class, which was comparable to that of the United States, became increasingly dissatisfied with unemployment and political persecution. The labor unions supported Batista until the very end. Batista stayed in power until he was forced into exile in December 1958.
In the 1950s, various organizations, including some advocating armed uprising, competed for the public's support in bringing about political change. In 1956, Fidel Castro and about 80 other rebels aboard the
Granma yacht launched a failed attempt to start a rebellion against the government. It was not until 1958 that the
July 26th Movement emerged as the leading revolutionary group.
By late 1958, the rebels broke out of the Sierra Maestra and launched a general popular insurrection. After the fighters captured
Santa Clara, Batista fled from Havana on 1 January 1959 to exile in Portugal. Fidel Castro's forces entered the capital on 8 January 1959. The liberal
Manuel Urrutia Lleó became the provisional president.
From 1959 to 1966 Cuban insurgents fought a
six-year rebellion in the
Escambray Mountains against the Castro government. The insurgency was eventually crushed by the government's use of vastly superior numbers. The rebellion lasted longer and involved more soldiers than the Cuban Revolution. The U.S. State Department has estimated that 3,200 people were executed from 1959 to 1962. Other estimates for the total number of political executions range from 4,000 to 33,000.
The revolution was initially received positively in the United States, where it was seen as part of a movement to bring democracy to Latin America.Castro's legalization of the Communist party and the public trials and executions of hundreds of Batista's supporters caused a deterioration in the relationship between the two countries. The promulgation of the
Agrarian Reform Law, expropriating farmlands of over 1,000 acres, further worsened relations. In February 1960, Castro signed a commercial agreement with Soviet Vice-Premier
Anastas Mikoyan. In March 1960, Eisenhower gave his approval to a CIA plan to arm and train a group of Cuban refugees to overthrow the Castro regime.
The invasion (known as the
Bay of Pigs Invasion) took place on April 14, 1961. About 1,400 Cuban exiles disembarked at the
Bay of Pigs, but failed in their attempt to overthrow Castro. In January 1962, Cuba was suspended from the
Organization of American States (OAS), and later the same year the OAS started to impose sanctions against Cuba of similar nature to the US sanctions. The tense confrontation known as the
Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in October, 1962. By 1963, Cuba was moving towards a full-fledged Communist system modeled on the USSR.
The standard of living in 1970s was "extremely spartan" and discontent was rife. Fidel Castro admitted the failures of economic policies in a 1970 speech.
In 1975 the OAS lifted its sanctions against Cuba, with the approval of 16 member states, including the U.S. The U.S., however, maintained its own sanctions.
Castro's rule was severely tested in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse in 1991 (known in Cuba as the
Special Period), when the country faced a severe economic downturn following the withdrawal of former Soviet subsidies worth $4 billion to $6 billion annually, resulting in effects such as food and fuel shortages. The government did not accept American donations of food, medicines, and cash until 1993. On 5 August 1994, state security dispersed protesters in a
spontaneous protest in Havana.
In February 2008, Fidel Castro announced his resignation as President of Cuba, and on 24 February his brother,
Raúl Castro, was elected as the new President. In his acceptance speech, Raúl promised that some of the restrictions that limit Cubans' daily lives would be removed. In March 2009, Raúl Castro removed some of
Fidel Castro's officials.
On 3 June 2009, the
Organization of American States adopted a resolution to end the 47-year ban on Cuban membership of the group. The resolution stated, however, that full membership would be delayed until Cuba was "in conformity with the practices, purposes, and principles of the OAS."
[86] Cuban leaders have repeatedly announced they are not interested in rejoining the OAS, and Fidel Castro restated this after the OAS resolution had been announced.
Effective January 14, 2013, Cuba ended the requirement established in 1961 that any citizens who wish to travel abroad were required to obtain an expensive government permit and a letter of invitation. The now-replaced travel ban dates to 1961, when the Cuban government imposed broad restrictions on travel starting to prevent the mass migration of people after the 1959 revolution and only approved exit visas on rare occasions. Henceforth, Cubans will only need a passport and a national ID card to leave; they will also be allowed for the first time to take their young children with them. Despite the new policy, a passport will still cost on average five months' salary and it is expected that it will be mostly Cubans with paying relatives abroad that will be able to take advantage of the new policy In the first year of the program, over 180,000 left Cuba and returned.
The Cuban state adheres to
socialist principles in organizing its largely state-controlled
planned economy. Most of the means of production are owned and run by the government and most of the labor force is employed by the state. Recent years have seen a trend toward more private sector employment. By 2006, public sector employment was 78% and private sector, mainly composed by
personal property, 22%, compared to 91.8% to 8.2% in 1981. Any firm wishing to hire a Cuban must pay the Cuban government, which in turn will pay the employee in Cuban pesos. The average monthly wage as of July 2013 is 466
Cuban pesos, which are worth about US$19.
Cuba has a dual currency system, whereby most wages and prices are set in Cuban pesos (CUP), while the tourist economy operates with
Convertible pesos (CUC), set at par with the
US dollar. Every Cuban household has a ration book (known as
libreta) entitling it to a monthly supply of food and other staples, which are provided at nominal cost.
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba depended on Moscow for substantial aid and sheltered markets for its exports. The removal of these subsidies (for example the oil sent the Cuban economy into a rapid depression known in Cuba as the
Special Period. Cuba took limited free market-oriented measures to alleviate severe shortages of food, consumer goods, and services. These steps included allowing some self-employment in certain retail and light manufacturing sectors, the legalization of the use of the
US dollar in business, and the encouragement of
tourism. Cuba has developed a unique urban farm system (the
organopónicos) to compensate for the end of food imports from the Soviet Union.
The leadership of Cuba has called for reforms in the country's
agricultural system. In 2008, Raúl Castro began enacting agrarian reforms to boost food production, as at that time 80% of food was imported. The reforms enacted are aimed at expanding land usage and increasing efficiency. Venezuela supplies Cuba with an estimated 110,000 barrels (17,000 m
3) a day of oil in exchange for money and the services of some 44,000 Cubans, most of them medical personnel, in Venezuela. Estimates place Venezuelan assistance at over 20% of the Cuban GDP for 2008–2010, similar to the aid flows from the Soviet Union in 1985–1988.
In 2005 Cuba had exports of $2.4 billion, ranking 114 of 226 world countries, and imports of
$6.9 billion, ranking 87 of 226 countries. Its major export partners are Canada 17.7%, China 16.9%,
Venezuela 12.5%,
Netherlands 9%, and Spain 5.9% (2012). Cuba's major exports are sugar, nickel, tobacco, fish, medical products, citrus, and coffee; imports include food, fuel, clothing, and machinery. Cuba presently holds debt in an amount estimated to be
$13 billion, approximately 38% of GDP. According to the
Heritage Foundation, Cuba is dependent on credit accounts that rotate from country to country. Cuba's prior 35% supply of the world's export market for sugar has declined to 10% due to a variety of factors, including a global sugar commodity price drop that made Cuba less competitive on world markets.
In 2010, Cubans were allowed to build their own houses. According to Raul Castro, they will be able to improve their houses with this new permission, but the government will not endorse these new houses or improvements.
On August 2, 2011, The New York Times reported Cuba as reaffirming their intent to legalize "buying and selling" of private property before the year ends. According to experts, the private sale of property could "transform Cuba more than any of the economic reforms announced by President Raúl Castro's government". It will cut more than one million state jobs, including party bureaucrats who resist the changes. The new economic reforms effectively created a new economic system, referred by some as the "New Cuban Economy".
In August 2012, a specialist of the "Cuba energia Company" announced the opening of Cuba's first Solar Power Plant. As a member of the Cuba solar Group, there was also a mention of 10 additional plants in 2013.
In October 2013, as part of Raúl Castro's latest reforms, Cuba announced an end to the dual currency system.
