Independence and Early US Relations
Added to the Cuban constitution in 1901, this amendment gave the U.S. government the right to intervene in domestic affairs and lease naval bases
The Platt Amendment
This powerful colonel led a 1933 coup with U.S. support and later took power as a dictator in 1952
Fulgencio Batista
In April 1961, a CIA-trained group of Cuban exiles landed at this location in an unsuccessful attempt to spark a counter-revolution
The Bay of Pigs
This massive 1961 government project sent thousands of volunteers into the countryside to teach citizens how to read and write
literacy campaign
Fidel Castro used this phrase to describe the era of extreme economic hardship that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Special Period
This activist, poet, and journalist is celebrated as a national hero, leader of the independence movement, and was an inspiration for the 26th of July Movement
Jose Marti
On July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro led a failed but famous assault on this military post in Santiago de Cuba
Moncada Barracks
Cubans refer to the 1962 nuclear standoff between the U.S. and the Soviet Union by this name
The October Crisis (the Cuban Missile Crisis)
By 1975, 45% of all Cuban trade was conducted with this nation
The Soviet Union
In 1980, roughly 125,000 Cubans left the island for Florida in this mass migration event
This 1868–1878 conflict was the first widespread revolt to threaten Spanish rule, resulting in the eventual gradual emancipation of enslaved people
The Ten Years War
This 1959 law limited the size of individual landholdings and nationalized large estates, many of which were foreign-owned
Agrarian Reform Act
This 1962 CIA program aimed at overthrowing the Cuban government included hundreds of plots to assassinate Fidel Castro
Operation Mongoose
Although initially discouraged, this industry became a "necessary evil" and replaced sugar as Cuba's main source of income during the 1990s
Tourism
To aid foreign investment in 1993, the Cuban government reluctantly legalized the use of this foreign currency
The US Dollar
In 1823, this U.S. Secretary of State famously compared Cuba to an "apple" that would naturally fall toward the North American Union if severed from Spain
John Quincy Adams
After an initial ambush, the revolutionary rebels fled to this mountain range to launch their guerrilla warfare campaign
Sierra Maestra
This group opposed Cuba and the MPLA during the Angolan Civil War
UNITA (or FNLA)
These neighborhood-based organizations were established to monitor the local population and identify "enemies of the Revolution."
Committees for the Defense of the Revolution
This 1996 U.S. law dictated that the trade embargo could not be repealed until a transition government was in place that excluded both Castro brothers
The Libertad Act
Some Spanish-born Cubans wanted to be annexed by this country because they feared a slave revolt and thought it would better protect them than Spain.
In 1956, Fidel Castro and 80 others sailed from Mexico to Cuba aboard this small, overloaded boat
Granma
In 1969, Cuba was elected chair of this organization, which was composed of countries that did not want to align with either the U.S. or the Soviet Union
The non-Aligned Movement
Che Guevara developed this concept, suggesting that Cuban citizens should be motivated by revolutionary love rather than financial incentives
The New Man
This long-serving member of the bureaucracy replaced Raúl Castro in 2018, becoming the first president not from the Castro family
Miguel Díaz-Canel