Fulgencio Batista was the corrupt and brutal dictator of Cuba from 1952 to 1959. Cuban society under his rule was characterized by a huge gap between the wealthy and the poor and economic domination by the United States. Hundreds of US companies had businesses in Cuba including sugar companies, banks, mining companies and chemical companies.

Fidel Castro was a young lawyer in 1952 who worked for poor clients. He had also taken part in several revolutionary movements and was planning another. On July 26, 1953, Castro and a group of revolutionaries attacked the Moncada army barracks in an attempt to get arms for the revolution. The attack failed, and Castro and his brother, Raúl, were imprisoned.

During his trial, Fidel made his ‘History Will Absolve Me’ speech, setting forth his goals which included land redistribution and profit-sharing by sugar mill owners and mine owners. Fidel and Raúl were released in 1955. They left Cuba for Mexico, where they met Che Guevara.

In 1956 the Castro’s new revolutionary band boarded the ‘Granma’ and sailed for Cuba. Castro’s invasion was poorly timed, and only 18 revolutionaries escaped into the mountainous Sierra Maestra region, where they slowly began to build support. In 1958, a group of Cuban revolutionary leaders met in Caracas and signed the Pact of Caracas. The first signatory, Castro, became the leader of the united movement to overthrow Batista. The brutality of Batista’s troops increased Castro’s support, as did the price of sugar, which had fallen during the 1950s, causing hardship in Cuba and dissatisfaction with Batista.

On January 8, 1959, Castro entered Havana, victorious. At first the relationship between Castro’s new government and the United States was cordial, but that warmth rapidly deteriorated. In the 1959 the Agrarian Reform Law Castro decreed that large farms would be nationalized and the land redistributed to the Cuban people.

In 1960, Castro nationalized foreign-owned companies. In 1961, Castro publicly embraced socialism. As this process unfolded, thousands of wealthy Cubans and Batista supporters flooded out of Cuba into the United States, where they formed an anti-Castro lobby. In the US, some of these exiles received military training and were sent back to Cuba to overthrow Castro. The 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion failed miserably. The surviving exiles were imprisoned and the US had to buy their freedom from Cuba.

In 1962, the US announced an embargo of Cuban sugar. Since Cuba’s economy had previously been closely tied to the United States, Castro had to find another buyer for his sugar; he turned to the Soviet Union, which purchased Cuban sugar in return for oil and technical assistance for Cuba.

In 1963, Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Premier, took advantage of this relationship to put nuclear weapons in Cuba. However, they were discovered, and President Kennedy stood strong against the threat, forcing the removal of the missiles at the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Other foreign policy matters include the intervention of the Cuban military in conflicts where Castro saw the opportunity to support socialist movements, for example in Nicaragua and Angola.

In 1976, a new constitution was adopted with elections and a Popular Power assembly (Poder Popular), and Cuba continues to have regular elections; however, Cuba ranks low on the democracy index. Castro’s economic policies lowered rent and increased wages. The close relationship between the USSR and Cuba led to the most difficult economic crisis that Cuba experienced; this was the “Special Period” following the collapse of the USSR, during which rationing was necessary as Cuba struggled to make up for the lost Soviet support.

Men and women theoretically had equal opportunities economically, but some of the highest-paid jobs in mining and fishing were reserved for men. And, women were under-represented in the PCC and the Central Committee. However, women enjoyed educational opportunities and access to divorce and methods of family planning.

Castro placed great emphasis on education, and Cuba achieved a literacy rate comparable to the United States. Healthcare was another focus for Castro and infant mortality declined, while life expectancy increased. Both reached rates, again, similar to those in the United States. Cuban doctors and technical experts travelled around the world, offering assistance in crises, and Cubans took pride in their ability to offer assistance.

Cultural policies of Castro included censorship of the arts and a focus on kinds of education with a practical purpose. As a communist country, Cuban laws discriminated against religion; however, in 1992, Castro declared the state secular rather than atheist. And, Castro’s policies discriminated against homosexuals, who were placed in work camps until 1967. His policy to contain the spread of HIV also confined those infected to sanitariums.

Castro faced significant opposition, partly from the United States; the CIA planned numerous assassination attempts and paid a network of spies within Cuba. After the initial exodus of wealthy Cubans, there were three further waves of refugees from Cuba: the Camarioca exodus in 1960s and 70s, the Mariel exodus in 1980, and the Malecon exodus in 1994. These surges of refugees point to dissatisfaction with Castro’s rule.

Furthermore, tens of thousands of “counter-revolutionaries” were held in Cuban prisons, and thousands were executed. Castro’s Cuba was an authoritarian state, but not a totalitarian one. There was propaganda, indoctrination, and censorship, but the minute control over every aspect of life that totalitarianism requires was not achieved in Cuba.