Cuban Revolution Essay Research Paper Almost every free essay sample

Cuban Revolution Essay, Research Paper About every state in the universe has experienced a revolution. A revolution can be merely defined as # 8220 ; a change. # 8221 ; When a state undergoes a revolution, its ideals that it one time believed in are being modified. Sometimes revolutionaries act intellectually, yet others may react physically through devastation. Some may be peaceable, some short lasting, and some pointless. Historians do reason on placing whether a revolution has occurred. Revolutions normally follow a rupture in the state # 8217 ; s events, are directed by a hero, have an political orientation and belief system, and usage symbols or tools to acquire its points across to the people. Cuba and its leader today, Fidel Castro, have their ain roots in a revolution that took topographic point merely some forty old ages ago. The causes of the Revolution itself laid behind the military absolutism of General Batista.The overthrow of the June 1952 elections by Batista indirectly led to the Cuban Revolution. With this event the failing behind Cuba # 8217 ; s political relations was revealed to the people. Their economic system besides fluctuated between high and low net incomes. Because Cuba, after the devastation of land in Europe in WWII, had the most sugar production in the universe, little farm proprietors prospered. Yet because sugar was the lone major harvest they produced, Cubans suffered when economic systems in other states prospered. This in bend resulted in unemployment in the metropoliss. With these fortunes, Cubans showed more subjugation to their authorities and shortly began to be rebellious. However, Batista jailed, exiled, executed, and used panic and menaces of force against all the challenges he faced. The people became even more unhappy, until eventually a rupture occurred. While gaining a doctors degree of jurisprudence in Havana, Fidel Castro began to take part in pupil protests against Batistan constabularies. Castro housed arms and prepared his protagonists in t he university campus in Havana. He organized a surprise onslaught on the Moncada barracks in the Oriente Province on July 26, 1953, where Batista # 8217 ; s military stayed, trusting to destruct the ground forces that persecuted other Rebels. Castro did non recognize one major job: the odds of taking over a state # 8217 ; s military base are little. All revolutionists except Castro and his household were massacred. Although this rupture failed, Castro # 8217 ; s motion gained popularity and prestige all over the universe. In fact, Castro called the Revolution the 26 of July Movement. Castro himself was caught and sentenced to imprison for two old ages. Between 1955 and 1956, Castro went to United States and Mexico looking for protagonists and money to fund his revolution. On December 2, 1956, 82 work forces including Castro and the physician Ernesto # 8220 ; Che # 8221 ; Guevara, set canvas one time once more for the Oriente on their yacht, the Granma. The run was doomed from t he beginning. # 8220 ; Cipher could voyage the boat decently, everybody was seasick, most of the supplies were jettisoned in a storm, and the expedition landed in the incorrect place. # 8221 ; ( Sinclair,15 ) On one juncture Guevara followed the incorrect star to go North, and on another, his companion put the merely the drink they had, milk, upside down in his pocket. By the terminal of the twenty-four hours the milk was gone. On December 5 in the conflict of Alegr? a de P? O, Batista # 8217 ; s military personnels killed all of the Rebels except 12. Among these subsisters, coincidently, were Castro and Guevara.Meanwhile, in the metropoliss and universities, a radical motion was besides taking topographic point. The Ortodoxo political party favored a violent revolution against Batista. Its leader and University of Havana Professor Rafael B? rcena organized the National Revolutionary Movement, which gained support from pupils. Castro refused to fall in, partially because he was t aking his ain rebellions. In 1953, Batista # 8217 ; s authorities found out about an approaching onslaught that B? rcena planned, and sent him to prison. Colonel Cosme de la Torriente sought a peaceable reply to Batista by holding elections. Knowing he would lose, Batista disregarded Torriente. By this clip the Cubans knew that a violent revolution was unavoidable.The constabulary under Batista ferociously put down a pupil protest on November 27, 1955 with whippings. Subsequently during a baseball game being broadcasted on telecasting, pupils showed anti-Batista streamers, which led to a presentation that was besides put down by the constabulary. In another presentation, they killed a popular pupil, Ciego de? Port Vila. His funeral on December 10 turned into a protest that increased the support of the turning Cuban Revolution. In 1956 University of Havana was partially destroyed by the authorities in hopes of forestalling any public meetings or protests. On Mar ch 13, 1957, the leader of the rebellious students, Jos? Echeverr?a, and his supporters attacked the presidential palace in order to kill Batista. Immediately after this, he declared on national radio that they killed Batista. Minutes later, police entered the studio and shot him, while the Cubans rejoiced to hear that their dictator had been killed. Later, it was confirmed that Batista had actually escaped the attack. Today, March 13 is a national holiday. The Cuban Revolution, however, was double-fronted.†In a taped interview shown in the United states in May, Castro called it ‘a useless waste of blood. The life of the dictator is of no importance. . . . Here in the Sierra Maestra is where to fight.’†(Suchlicki,170) After the unsuccessful battle of Alegr?a de P?o, Castro and his few followers fled to the Sierra Maestra mountain range. Here Castro healed his wounds, the failed attempts to destroy the military, through support. The peasants who lived in the hills favored Castro easily over Batista.This population provided Castro with supplies and supporters. They also protected them against the Batistan military, traveled to the cities to obtain information, and directed those who wanted to become rebels to the premier himself, Fidel Castro. After gaining more popularity, Castro began to use a technique that was to become a tool in winning the Cuban Revolution: Guerilla Warfare. Using hit and run tactics, the power of the Batistan Dictatorship declined, mostly due to the lack of preparation for guerillas on Batista’s part. With seven rifles in total, the guerillas won their first victory at La Plata Barracks. In May 1957, the peasants delivered a shipment of ammunition and explosives to Castro. With these they began to destroy bridges, railroads, and telephone lines.Without this communication, Batista did know what was happening on the rural war front, thus he never knew when to send out the military. During the battle of El Uv ero on May 27, 1957, the guerillas gained a major victory. Because they overtook a coastal military base in daylight, the guerillas received a great boost in self confidence. Batista was eventually forced to remove his troops from the Sierra Maestra. With the student protests occurring simultaneously, it looked as though an end to the Cuban Revolution was in sight.Historians argue on whom the â€Å"hero† of the revolution was. Some look upon the students as heros, yet others see Castro as the person most affiliated militarily with the Cuban Revolution, and Guevara the most affiliated philosophically. If we look closer, we can see how Castro is the one who made the revolution possible in the first place. Without his actions and ideas, the revolts in Cuba would be failures. Fidel Castro organized the guerrilla warfare in Cuba, which helped bring a decisive beginning to the end of the Revolution. His general presence, one of determination and results, also fueled the Cubans. The minds of all the so-called heros did share a certain ideology. In the summer of 1958, Castro signed the Caracas Pact, which would formerly restore the Constitution of 1940. The ideals in the constitution focused on a democratic nation over a military dictatorship. Guevara believed that having a jefe m?ximo was necessary. This translates in English into â€Å"maximum boss.† Fidel Castro was chosen to fill this position for the rest of Cuba’s history. Castro also envisioned a moral society in which everyone acted humanely with respect to others. He believed in freedom of the press (without television and radio, the revolution would have never gained support from the middle class in Cuba) and direction of justice through the courts. After working with the peasants, Guevara thought of himself as an â€Å"agrarian revolutionary.† He wanted farmers to have more rights with their land and political power. Castro and Guevara both did not support student protests, for t hey believed that they were not fighting for any particular reason.During 1958, guerrilla warfare in rural areas and also urban movements increased. The Batistan rule weakened until its collapse on January 1, 1959, when Batista fled to the Dominican Republic. The â€Å"power vacuum† created was filled by the 26 of July Movement, lead by Fidel Castro. He brought upon rapid changes and gained Cuba worldly prestige and power. The six-year revolution was finally over with influential results. Changes in Cuba have been made that reflect democracy, agrarianism, and a humane society. A hero has been celebrated and declared el jefe m?ximo. The Cuban Revolution, both intellectual and physical, has lived up to its prestige and will alter history forever.