Castro rose to power in Cuba in 1959 due to growing public dissatisfaction with the corrupt dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Fidel Castro emerged as the leader of the opposition movement, launching unsuccessful attacks against Batista in 1953. In 1956, Castro and a small group of guerrilla fighters landed in Cuba and waged a rural insurgency against Batista's forces. Despite Batista's attempts to destroy the rebels, Castro gained increasing popular support. By 1958, Batista's military was unable to defeat Castro as his guerrilla movement expanded. The following year, Castro marched into Havana as Batista fled the country, allowing Castro to take control of the government.

1. Why did Castro rise to power in Cuba by January 1959?

2. What was Cuba like before the revolution?

5. Castro in the Sierra Madras hills (Western Cuba) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7786082.stm
Wars of independence
1868-78 - Ten Years War of independence ends in a truce with Spain promising reforms and greater autonomy - promises that were mostly
never met.
1886 - Slavery abolished.
1895-98 - Jose Marti leads a second war of independence; US declares war on Spain.
1898 - US defeats Spain, which gives up all claims to Cuba and cedes it to the US.
US tutelage
1902 - Cuba becomes independent with Tomas Estrada Palma as its president; however, the Platt Amendment keeps the island under US
protection and gives the US the right to intervene in Cuban affairs
1906-09 - Estrada resigns and the US occupies Cuba following a rebellion led by Jose Miguel Gomez.
1909 - Jose Miguel Gomez becomes president following elections supervised by the US, but is soon tarred by corruption.
1912 - US forces return to Cuba to help put down black protests against discrimination.
1924 - Gerado Machado institutes vigorous measures, forwarding mining, agriculture and public works, but subsequently establishing a brutal
dictatorship.
1925 - Socialist Party founded, forming the basis of the Communist Party.
1933 - Machado overthrown in a coup led by Sergeant Fulgencio Batista.
1934 - The US abandons its right to intervene in Cuba's internal affairs, revises Cuba's sugar quota and changes tariffs to favour Cuba.
1944 - Batista retires and is succeeded by the civilian Ramon Gray San Martin.
1952 - Batista seizes power again and presides over an oppressive and corrupt regime.
1953 - Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful revolt against the Batista regime.
1956 - Castro lands in eastern Cuba from Mexico and takes to the Sierra Maestra mountains where, aided by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, he wages
a guerrilla war.
1958 - The US withdraws military aid to Batista.
Triumph of the revolution
1959 - Castro leads a 9,000-strong guerrilla army into Havana, forcing Batista to flee. Castro becomes prime minister, his brother, Raul,
becomes his deputy and Guevara becomes third in command.

6. Features of the rise to power
1 .Dissatisfaction with the current government & Inability of the
government (or other groups) to respond to needs of the people
2. A group or individual who wants to take power
3. Ability by that group or individual to gain support
4. Inability of the government to respond to threat from
individual/group
Context – several statements about the nature of Cuba by 1950s –
US economic and political influence back to 1898, struggle for
democracy & human rights in a country with a history of military
coups and dictatorships

7. Dissatisfaction with the current government & Inability of the government (or
other groups) to respond to the needs of the people
Batista had an unpopular dictatorship. Although he promised change, he didn’t
break with the past (p. 146). People realised that Batista’s dictatorship ruled out
the possibility of the progress of democracy (p. 149) Castro’s attempts to
overthrow Batista’s government took place in a context of revolt. Political
violence was an old tradition in Cuba. Other small and independent groups were
preparing to act violently against Batista’s regime (p. 149), such as the
Federacion Estudiantil Universitaria (FEU), in Havana (p. 153), the sugar-
workers led by Conrado Becquer and young officers, led by Colonel Ramon
Barquin.
A further advantage for Castro, however was the fact that many of these rivals of
Castro had been weakened or destroyed by the middle of 1957, so that his was
the only alternative to Batista (p. 160).

8. A group or individual who wants to take power
Castro
Brilliant student orator (p. 147 ) Had been preparing for elections of 1952, which were interrupted by Batista’s
coup (p. 148) Castro attempted to overthrow Batista’s government on 26 July 1953, by attacking the Moncada
fortress and Bayamo barracks. (p. 147)
Impact
 Failed (they were arrested), but lay the groundwork for the July 26 movement. (P. 147)
 Made Castro’s name known across Cuba. (p. 147)
 The fact that Batista ordered the execution of more than 70 guerrillas did much to turn public opinion against
his regime. (p. 150)
Castro had great strategic vision (p. 149) Talent for organisation (p. 149) Involved in Ortodoxo party until
1955.Time in prison after 1952 gave Castro the opportunity for extensive reading (p. 151)
Che Guevara (in order to access the higher grades you need to identify Guevara’s impact) He was an
Argentinean revolutionary, who met Castro in Mexico. (p. 152). Heavily influenced by his experience of the U.S.
backed defeat of the Guatemalan government. (p. 153)
He was an Argentinean revolutionary, who met Castro in Mexico. (p. 152). Heavily influenced by his experience of
the U.S. backed defeat of the Guatemalan government. (p. 153)

9. Ability by that group or individual to gain support
Castro went to Mexico in 1955 to organise a guerrilla force to carry out a revolution. (p. 152)
Money slowly flowed in from Venezuela, US and Cuba. By May 1956 Castro had enough to
rent a farm (p. 153). Supporters arrived from Cuba in small groups. Alberto Bayo, who had
fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War, trained them in guerrilla warfare. Castro and
Guevara arrested in June, but intervention from former Mexican president Cardenas secured
their release. Future military training had to take place in a more distant part of the country (P.
154)
Castro secured significant funds through negotiations with former president Socarras, enabling
Castro to purchase a small motor yacht, the Granma. At the end of November 1956 he and 82
guerrillas boarded the boat at Tuxpan and sailed to Cuba, landing in the south-west of the
Oriente province (Marti had landed in Oriente 61 years earlier). (P. 154) It was scheduled to
coincide with an uprising in Santiago , with an attack on the Moncada barracks and the Police
headquarters (p. 155). The landing itself was an uncoordinated disaster. They had to turn to a
prolonged guerrilla war in the countryside.

10. Cont/d
Other Latin Americans sought to reproduce the success of the rural
guerrilla warfare, not realising that revolutionaries in Cuba’s towns had
played an equally important role in their success. (P. 154) Castros group
were able to establish regular contact with Frank Pais, the leader of the
July 26 movement in Santiago (p. 156). Pais secured weapons,
ammunition, food and medicine that were essential to the survival of the
guerrillas (p. 157). A national ‘civic resistance movement’ was
established in Havana, headed by Enrique Oltuski, and supported by
‘July 26th’ movement and middle class Ortodoxos (p. 157). The rural and
urban movements differed, particularly in regard to their attitude towards
America. (p. 157)

11. Inability of the government to respond to threat from individual/group
Batista used a strategy of the Spanish General Weyler who had crushed resistance
in 1896 by ‘concentrating’ peasants in the towns, preventing them from making
contact with the guerrillas. Those found in the cleared area would be bombed (p.
155-156). He also recreated the voluntarios of 1896 in the form of Los Tigres, a
paramilitary group led by Rolando Masferrer. A general strike organised for 9
April 1958 was a disaster (p. 163)
Nevertheless Castro’s guerrillas held out against an onslaught of 10,000 of
Batista’s soldiers. This was a turning point in the war (p. 163). Castro took the
opportunity to launch an invasion of western Cuba at the end of August 1958,
following in the footsteps of Gomez and Maceo in 1896. Che Guevara invaded
the central province of Las Villas and Cienfuegos went for the westerly province
of Pinar del Riom (p. 163). Once this was achieved by October, Castro came from
the Sierra to march towards Santiago and Raul advanced from the north (p. 164

12. A captured Batista
soldier given the
last rites before
his execution by
Castro rebels in
1958!