Batista's Cuba
This military leader, first ruler of Cuba after a 1933 coup, returned to power in a 1952 coup and was overthrown by Castro's revolution.
Who is Fulgencio Batista?
This failed 1953 attack on a military barracks is considered the opening event of the Cuban Revolution.
What is the attack on the Moncada Barracks?
This Argentine-born revolutionary fought alongside Castro and became a key figure in the new government.
Who is Ernesto 'Che' Guevara?
This failed April 1961 invasion by CIA-trained Cuban exiles aimed to overthrow Castro's government.
What is the Bay of Pigs Invasion?
Castro's government supported revolutionary and left-wing movements across this wider region in the decades after 1959.
What is Latin America?
This American organised crime network, tied to figures like Meyer Lansky, ran many of Havana's casinos and hotels under Batista's rule.
What is the Mafia (organised crime)?
This revolutionary organisation, founded by Castro, took its name from the date of the Moncada attack.
What is the 26th of July Movement?
The new government's Agrarian Reform Law targeted this type of land ownership for redistribution to peasants.
What are large landholdings/estates?
The United States imposed this trade restriction on Cuba after its nationalisations, and it remains largely in place today.
What is the (US) trade embargo?
Cuban troops were sent to support left-wing forces in this African civil war during the 1970s and 1980s.
What is the Angolan Civil War?
This 1952 action, in which Batista seized power before scheduled elections, is widely seen as illegitimate and helped fuel revolutionary opposition.
What is the 1952 coup d'état?
This mountain range in south-eastern Cuba served as the base for Castro's guerrilla forces from 1956.
What is the Sierra Maestra?
Many US-owned businesses and properties in Cuba were seized by the state through this process.
What is nationalisation?
In October 1962, US spy planes discovered these Soviet weapons being installed in Cuba.
What are nuclear (medium-range ballistic) missiles?
This term describes Cuba's strategy of backing armed revolutionary movements abroad to spread communism.
What is 'exporting revolution'?
Cuba's economy under Batista depended heavily on the export of this single commodity, leaving it vulnerable to global price swings.
What is sugar?
Castro's speech at his 1953 trial, later published and used as a revolutionary manifesto, is known by this title.
What is 'History Will Absolve Me'?
Castro's government launched this large-scale program in 1961 to teach Cubans to read and write.
What is the National Literacy Campaign?
President Kennedy responded to the discovery of the missiles by ordering this naval action around Cuba.
What is a naval blockade/quarantine?
Sending trained doctors and health workers to other developing nations became a notable feature of this Cuban foreign policy tool.
What is medical internationalism/diplomacy?
This term describes the wide gap between a wealthy elite (often tied to US business) and an impoverished population under Batista's rule.
What is economic and social inequality?
On this date in 1959, Batista fled the country and revolutionary forces entered Havana.
What is 1 January 1959?
Facing growing US hostility, Castro's government increasingly aligned itself with this Cold War superpower.
What is the Soviet Union?
This 1962 stand-off between the USA and USSR over Cuba brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
What is the Cuban Missile Crisis?
Cuba's alliance with the USSR helped trigger this 1962 crisis, dramatically raising the island's profile in the Cold War.
What is the Cuban Missile Crisis?