History

HISTORY
====Cuba was the last major Spanish colony to gain independence after a long struggle that began in 1868. Jose Marti, who was Cuba's national hero, helped push for independnce in 1895. In the same year that the United States entered the conflict after the USS Maine sank in Havane Harbor, Spain handed over control of Cuba to the United States with the Treaty of Paris. The United States granted cuba its independence but retained the right to come aribtrate to preserve Cuban Independence and stability in accordance with the Platt Amendment on May 20, 1902. Independent Cuba was often ruled by military figures who either obtained or remained in power by force. Fulgencio Batista, who was an army sergeant, organized a non-commissioned officer revolt in September of 1933. He wielded significant power behind the scenes until his presidancy began in 1940. He was voted out of his presidancy in 1944. Batista seized power in a bloodless coup 3 months before the next election he ran for, took place in 1952. This suspended the balloting and he began ruling by decree. On July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro, a man who had been involved in increasingly violent political activity before Batista's coup, led a failed attack on the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba in which more than 100 died. After defending himself in a trial open to national and international media, he was convicted and jailed, and was later released. Batista's dictatorial rule fueled, increasing popular discontent and the rise of many active urban and rural resistance groups, a fertile political environment for Castro's Cuban Government. As the revolution became more agonizing, hundreds of thousands of people fled the island. Castro declared that Cuba was a socialist state on April 16, 1961. For the next 30 years Castro worked to advance the geopolitical goals of the Soviet Union and acquired close relations with them. Relations between the United States and Cuba started to vanish rapidly as the Cuban Government expropriated U.S. properties and moved toward adoption of a one-party communist system. As a response, the United States imposed an embargo on Cuba in October 1960 and broke diplomatic relations on January 3, 1961. Tensions between the two governments peaked during the missile crisis in October of 1962.====