Central America · The modern Caribbean and isthmus states
Cuba
Socialist Republic, 1959/1961–present
Fidel Castro's forces entered Havana on 1 January 1959 after Batista fled, establishing a revolutionary government that Castro dominated as prime minister. Within two years the revolution radicalized: sweeping agrarian reform, nationalization of US and domestic enterprises, alliance with the Soviet Union, and Castro's proclamation of the revolution's socialist character (1961).
- Existed
- Socialist Republic, 1959/1961–present
- Shown on the map
- 1960–2024
- Peak area
- 125k km²
- Region
- Central America
Overview
Fidel Castro's forces entered Havana on 1 January 1959 after Batista fled, establishing a revolutionary government that Castro dominated as prime minister. Within two years the revolution radicalized: sweeping agrarian reform, nationalization of US and domestic enterprises, alliance with the Soviet Union, and Castro's proclamation of the revolution's socialist character (1961). The US responded with a trade embargo (from 1960) and the failed CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion (April 1961), and the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962) brought the superpowers to the brink of nuclear war. Cuba became the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere — a one-party socialist republic delivering universal free education and health care but suppressing dissent, controlling the press, and generating recurrent mass emigration (the 1980 Mariel boatlift, the 1994 balsero crisis).
Later history and present status
Sustained by Soviet subsidies, Cuba projected influence far beyond its size, dispatching troops to Angola and Ethiopia and medical missions worldwide. The Soviet collapse triggered the devastating "Special Period" of economic contraction in the 1990s. Raúl Castro succeeded Fidel as head of government (2008), introducing limited market reforms and overseeing a brief US détente under President Obama (2014–2016, later reversed). Fidel Castro died in November 2016. Miguel Díaz-Canel became president (2018) and party First Secretary (2021). Cuba today faces a severe economic crisis, chronic energy and food shortages, and renewed large-scale emigration.
Common questions
- What was Cuba?
- Fidel Castro's forces entered Havana on 1 January 1959 after Batista fled, establishing a revolutionary government that Castro dominated as prime minister. Within two years the revolution radicalized: sweeping agrarian reform, nationalization of US and domestic enterprises, alliance with the Soviet Union, and Castro's proclamation of the revolution's socialist character (1961).
- When did Cuba exist?
- Cuba existed Socialist Republic, 1959/1961–present. On this map it is drawn 1960–2024.
- How large was Cuba?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Cuba covered about 125,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
- What is the present status of Cuba?
- Sustained by Soviet subsidies, Cuba projected influence far beyond its size, dispatching troops to Angola and Ethiopia and medical missions worldwide. The Soviet collapse triggered the devastating "Special Period" of economic contraction in the 1990s.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity and for the key figures and events as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, EBSCO Research Starters and academic sources. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Cuba en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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