To what extent were Fulgencio Batista's weaknesses the cause for Fidel Castro's rise to power?

        -Cuba was directly linked to USA’s economic system: it was living according to USA’s costs of living, but couldn’t keep it up. Moreover, people didn’t enjoy the same social privileges: disparity was felt in Cuba and became a source of anxiety and frustration ().

        - Additionally, population grew, but had no access to education, health or housing facilities. People wanted a change. The government responded with more terror and repression.

        -Afro-Cubans suffered greater unemployment, poorer health care and earned lower wages: they felt discriminated, so they joined guerrilla groups.

        -Batista was seen as an obstacle to restoration of stability. Even the members of his government saw the need to remove him because he failed to maintain socio-political peace ().

        - By mid 1958, Batista launched an offensive against the guerrilla: it failed. The “26 July Movement” launched a counter-offensive: this was a success, after which the Army ceased to resist rebel advances ().  

-The United States offered Batista support against Castro, provided he changed his government for a strong one. Batista refused to and remained isolated ().

-“Revolution was the Cuban prevailing, deep-seated, inescapable emotion of anti-Yankeeism: USA had exploited Cuba by “slave-labor” and “dollar-diplomacy”, and it had “interfered in Cuban affairs for more than fifty years” and it was time for Cuba “to solve her own problems”. USA’s interventionism outraged Cuban pride and sensitivity, and she fought it. Cuba wanted to be on her own” ().

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SECTION C: Evaluation of Sources (400 words-maximum: 400)

        One of the sources used was Louis A. Pérez’s CUBA, Between Reform and Revolution (). I consider it a reliable and useful source. The author spent almost twenty years seeking information for this volume, including books from the Library of Congress, the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, the National Archives in Washington, the Archivo Nacional in Havanna (). Hence, he has collected material from various sources, giving a factual account of the events. Such a wide study of Cuban history shows that the intention of the writer was to present the reality of the events, with no sided view. He successfully introduced the socio-economic aspects, resorting to several statistics that he included in his book, which help as a proof to his information.  

        Louis A. Pérez is said to dislike Castro and to disagree with his policy, as he is from the major capitalist country: United States. Thus, it could be said that his book is biased. Nevertheless, I would say this statement is wrong, as he gives a very true-life account of the events.  

His book reviews all Cuban history, but it focuses on the revolution. It was published in 1995, which provides Pérez of the advantage of time and hindsight. Thus, I believe it is a relevant and valuable source, and a primary one, because the writer was studying the events while they happened.  

The other source used was Herbert Matthews’ CUBA (). This source is biased because:

The book was published only five years after the Revolution, while the events were still fresh, so it does not have the benefit of hindsight analysis. The availability of documents was rather limited as compared to Pérez’s book.  

Herbert Matthews, was a journalist and writer who spent most of his life studying Cuban history. In 1957, he interviewed Fidel Castro while he was in Sierra Maestra and could learn about his goals from this experience. This makes the source biased in favour of Castro’s role in the start of the revolution.

Matthews is considered to be Castro’s major defender, so he had to conceal Castro’s will to topple Batista because it might have been seen as if Castro prepared the revolution for a mere personal interest, seizing power, and not for the sake of all Cubans.

Nonetheless, the source is a primary one and it has the value of being a first-hand account. However, Pérez’s seems more reliable.

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SOURCE D: Analysis of Sources (642 words-maximum: 650)

        By 1959, when the revolution took place, Cuba was inserted in a global context worth analyzing, as it was of great influence on the gestation of this rebellion.

        The world was going through a period of confrontation between capitalism (mainly represented by the United States) and communism (mainly represented by the USSR): the Cold War. During the 1950’s this war was in the middle of its development and communism was expanding rapidly throughout the world. Several conflicts took place in such decade due to this expansionism: during the first three years, a fight between communism and capitalism took place in Korea, which concluded in the division of the country between a communist North and a capitalist South. The same was happening in Vietnam. In 1955, the USSR established a pact with his satellite countries which nucleated them all, creating, in this way, a strong communist bloc that aimed to expand (). At the same time, international organizations were starting to be created, in order to defend democracy through economic and political support between the capitalist members. An example was the NATO, created in 1949.

In America, the United States started a policy of “mutual security”, which meant they would aid, economically and military, all those Latin-American countries that opposed to populist regimes, with the aim to prevent communism from getting to America (). However, by that time, a great feeling of anti-Yankeeism was growing among the Cuban population, due to their dependence on the United States. Cuba had been under the protectorate of the Americans since 1903, as established in the Platt Amendment signed in that year (). By 1934, the United States were already a decisive influence over the Cuban economic basis, as they were the largest sugar consumers and decided how much they would buy and at what costs, being sugar the pillars of the Cuban economic welfare. Thus, the Cubans felt a subjection to the Americans and a return to the status of “colony”. Due to this, a great feeling of national dignity, sovereignty and freedom arose within the population ().

At the same time, the Batistan regime counted with a great support from the United States, and he established a friendly relationship between both states, but people did not like this very much, as they realized the United States still had the last say over their economy (). Batista lost some popularity because of this, but he lost even more popularity when, after his coup in 1952, he demonstrated that “he was only out for himself, for power and for wealth. He went along with business interests and the United States because this gave him what he wanted and because it was the only kind of government that made sense to a simple-minded, poorly educated sergeant [...] with no experience of administration, economics or politics, (...) who simply wanted to run the country and enrich himself” (). He aimed to appoint all his former followers in the army highest ranks, and the only means he used to control people and keep order was through repression and indiscriminate terror ().

The situation in Cuba reflected the incompetence and negligence of the ruler. Opposition grew, and oppression was the government’s response to it. Besides, there was a growth in impoverishment, unemployment and underemployment, as well as an increase in inflation and an important fall in industrial income. There was no access to education, health or housing facilities, and people were desperately seeking a solution.  

Acknowledging this, the USSR took advantage of the situation and supported Castro’s movement (). With the support of the “Communist Empire”, the “26 of July Movement” gained a lot more popularity. Thus, the Cuban socialists felt that the “time for Cuba to solve her own problems” () had come, and were confident enough to accomplish their revolution.

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SECTION E: Conclusion (200 words – maximum: 200)

           After analyzing the situation before the Cuban Revolution in 1959, through which Castro got to power, I am able to answer my initial inquiry on this topic.

        My question was to what extent Fulgencio Batista’s weaknesses were the cause for Castro’s rise to power, and now I can conclude in saying that the revolution was the way through which the Cuban population manifested their discontent towards a situation caused by a series of factors: there were several internal causes that took Cuba to a decay, mainly due to Batista’s bad ruling; and there were other external causes, as for example, the influence from the USA and the USSR.

        Of course, it cannot be denied that Batista’s persona played a very important part in the causes for the uprising, as his personality and his manners in power did not only infuriate the population but also took the country to an economic and social dislocation. However, it cannot be said that this character was the only cause for the revolution, because, as analyzed during this piece of work, there were other very important factors that took the Cuban population to such behaviour, as it was their long-lasting dependence on the United States.  

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SECTION F: List of Sources

Main:

• Matthews, Herbert L. (1964). CUBA. (1ºEdition). Toronto: The Macmillan Co.
• Pérez, Louis A., Jr. (1995). CUBA, Between Reform and Revolution. (2ºEdition). New York: Oxford University Press.

Additional:

• Information on Louis A. Pérez downloaded in October 2002 from: http//:www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/articles/perez-1898.htm
• Information on the Platt Amendment downloaded in November 2002 from:

• Information on Cuba-US relations downloaded in November 2002 from:
• Walsh, Ben. 1999. Modern World History. (7th edition). London: John Murray (Publishers) Ltd.
• Pigna, Felipe- Mora, Carlos- Bulacio, Julio- Cao, Guillermo. 2002. Historia, El mundo Contemporáneo. Buenos Aires: Editorial A-Z.

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