Cuba's History

Columbus arrived in Cuba on 1492 ,and many of the Indians that inhabeted the isalnd died from dieses braod from Spain with the sailors. The Spanish settler established the raising of cattle, sugarcane, and tobacco this was Cuba's main economy. As the Indians died of diseases and of working in the fields , Africans started to be imported as slaves to work on the fields. Slavery was later abolished in 1886.





With the help of Jose Marti Cuba got it's independency and is the last major Spanish colony to do so. On 1898 a USS maine sank in the Havan harpor , the origin of the explosion is still unknown. On December of the same year Spain relinquished it's possesion of Cuba to the United Sates with the treaty of Paris.
The treaty of Paris states that Spain will give the United States control over Puerto Rico and Cuba , and the U.S. will pay Spain 20 million dollars.On  May 20, 1902 , the United States gave Cuba it's independence.

Cuba has a nonindependent was often ruled by military leaders who got or stayed in power by force. Fulgencio Batista, an army sergeant, organized a  officer revolt in September 1933. He was elected president in 1940. He was thrown out of the office in 1944 .He ran for president again in 1952, seized power  before the election was to take place, he suspended the voting , and began ruling. 



On July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro, led a failed attack on the Moncada army barracks. He defended himself in trail and was sent to prison. He was later freed and left in  exile to Mexico. There he planned the "26th of July Movement" with the goal to overthrow Batista.They sailed to Cuba from Mexico and landed on the island on December 1956.

Batista was faced with a corrupt and inefficient  military plus the  U.S. Government had a  embargo on weapons sales to Cuba.He was also hated by many people, this helped Castro. He fled on January 1, 1959 but  he promised to return .Castro used his control of the military to have complete control of Cuba. He did this by eliminating any thread he had. An estimated 3,200 people were executed.He declared Cuba a socialist state on April 16, 1961.  

Reference:
http://www.farandfurther.com/vinales/vinales-tobacco-field.jpg
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2886.htm
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/A-Robert.R.Lauer-1/maine.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Jx13VSlGUdz71Ff7tPIkl63dIZIoYuK96KTs4uUFYVKsAJepGZwAzvoM5l-nCpds4XsRhC-kIEE66T4opxiXWlRUp9ba99ZFw7opdiUu7heYn_FS1PquCpWmE6TLk3ZoDIxONiLvyJA/s1600/Batistaa%C3%B1os30.jpg
http://www.historycentral.com/documents/TreatyparisSpain.html
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_M7Limf5iGyk/SoSMx3YockI/AAAAAAAAABE/kXAjVw3rCXk/s1600/FidelCastro.jpg
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