Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
Fidel Castro - Cuban Communist revolutionary, young lawyer and activist. Essentially overthrew Batista in the Cuban Revolution.
Raul Castro - Brother to Fidel Castro, and commander in the revolution.
Fulgencio Batista - Was the U.S. backed authoritarian ruler of Cuba until he was overthrown during the Cuban Revolution.
Ernesto “Che” Guevara - Prominent communist figure in the revolution. He believed that communism could save the impoverished people of Latin America.
Raul (left) and Che Guevara (right)
Raul Castro (left) and Che Guevara (right)
The revolutionary group wanted to overthrow the current ruler, Fulgencio Batista, who was beginning to seem more dictatorial and indifferent to the people’s wants and needs. The United States was dominating the economy in Cuba, and unemployment rates stayed high. The people’s shared motivation was a better economy, and challenging the dictatorship. The communist revolutionaries came together to overthrow the government.
Fulgencio Batista - Dictator of Cuba during revolution
The people of Cuba were unhappy with the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista due to the corruption, greed, inefficiency, and brutality of the government under his rule. Batista controlled the college, the press and congress. While the economy in Cuba thrived, he embezzled large amounts of money. The people were unhappy with Batista’s abuse of power but felt there was little to do about it. Fidel Castro and his rebel forces believed that a revolution was the only way to make a change because Batista had the support of the United States and he held elections that were rigged to only have him as a candidate making it near impossible for a new leader to be elected without forcing Batista out.
After a general strike that never really materialized, Batista thought that the people weren’t behind the rebels, and posed a military attack against the Castros. The soldiers were thrown back by movement fighters and retreated. There was an upcoming Cuban election, which included three main candidates: Ramon Grau San Martin, the Cuban Revolutionary; Andres Rivero Aguero, Batista’s chosen runner-up; and Carlos Marquez Sterling, a moderate group supporter. After a rigged election, Batista’s successor took the win. Batista was also suffering major ammunition shortages, and his army was doomed. After Guevara stole the ammunition in the train car headed for his military, Batista knew his position was in trouble.
Ramon Grau San Martin, Carlos Marquez Sterling, and Andres Rivero Aguero, the three prominent candidates in the rigged election.
The Castros started with a raid of a Santiago army barracks with 160 men, which was unsuccessful. They were imprisoned for two years for it. Fidel left for Mexico to recruit men for his cause, and returned to a battle where many of his men were killed. The brothers and a man named Che Guevara escaped, and guerrilla warfare against Batista began. There was an unsuccessful attack on the presidential palace in Havana in 1957. Sugar mills and plantations were burned and bombed. Fidel Castro let loose many threats against the government, both death threats and general strikes. He kidnapped 28 US soldiers, and 12 civilians, which he released after America showed signs of revolt. In December 1958, a group under Che Guevara captured an armoured train filled with ammunition desperately needed by the military.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara
The leader of this revolution was Fidel Castro with his group of guerrilla fighters including Che Guevara. The revolution had been in action for some time but when the United States withdrew support from Batista and began searching for another leader for Cuba other than Castro, Batista fled to the Dominican Republic. People found out about the revolution as Castro and his growing group of fighters attacked Rural Guard Patrols and kept winning. Many people liked Castro due to his charisma and his love for his country. After Batista fled and Castro took over, people rejoiced and celebrated in the streets.
Newspaper exposing Batista's desperate attempt to flee Cuba
Operation Pedro Pan was a project to get over 14,000 children out of Cuba during the revolution. Airlifting them to avoid the violence in Cuba. Jose Azel was one of those children, just 11 years old at the time, he now shares his story, beginning after Batista fled the country in 1959. “It was clear very early on that the regime was moving in a totalitarian direction, with confiscations, expropriations of properties and that sort of thing,” Azel said. The parents of these thousands of children had no idea the impact this would have on their lives, and “in the minds, I suspect, of most of the parents of the Pedro Pan children, this was going to be a short-term, temporary separation”.
A total of 14,048 children ages 3-17 were evacuated from Cuba, leaving their parents and homes for nearly two full years
After the revolution Castro brought electricity to the countryside, provided full employment opportunities, built new schools and medical buildings, and got rid of legal discrimination. Under Batista, Castro called for fair elections but it soon became clear that when he was in power, no elections would be held. He shut down opposing voices by closing newspapers and jailing political opponents. He got rid of private businesses and limited the land a person could own. These changes caused thousands of Cubans to move, often to the United States. Cuba’s relationship with the US grew increasingly tense as they relied more on the Soviet Union for military and economic support.
Allen, Greg, and Jose Azel. “Children of Cuba Remember Their Flight.” 19 Nov. 2011.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Cuban Revolution.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 19 July 2018, www.britannica.com/event/Cuban-Revolution.
“Cuban Dictator Batista Falls from Power.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cuban-dictator-batista-falls-from-power.
“Cuban Revolution.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Jan. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Revolution.
Dominguez, Jorge I. “The Batista Regime in Cuba.” Sultanistic Regimes, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998, pp. 113–131.
Editors, History.com. “Fidel Castro.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/cold-war/fidel-castro.
History.com Staff. “Che Guevara.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, css.history.com/topics/che-guevara.
"Grau San Martín, Ramón; Batista, Fulgencio." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica. January 31, 2019 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fulgencio-Batista/media/56027/141923