-
Independence
The island of Cuba was inhabited by various Mesoamerican cultures prior to the arrival of the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus in 1492.In 1762, Havana was briefly occupied by Great Britain, before being returned to Spain in exchange for Florida. A series of rebellions during the 19th century failed to end Spanish rule. However, the Spanish–American War resulted in a Spanish withdrawal from the island in 1898,Cuba gained formal independence in 1902. -
Republic of Cuba
The Republic of Cuba of 1902 to 1959, refers to the historical period in Cuba from 1902, when Cuba seceded from US rule in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War that took Cuba from Spanish rule in 1898,the Cuban Revolution of 1959. Cuban independence from the United States was guaranteed in the Platt Amendment proposed to the United States Congress in 1901.The Cuban Revolution of 1959 massively changed Cuban society, creating a socialist state and ended US economic dominance in Cuba. -
Castro's Cuba
The new government of Cuba soon encountered opposition from militant groups and from the United States, which had supported Batista politically and economically. Fidel Castro quickly purged political opponents from the administration. Mass organisations such as labor unions that opposed the revolution. Raúl Castro became the commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. In September 1960, a system of neighborhood watch networks, known as Committees for the Defense of the Revolution was created. -
Emigration
Between 1959 and 1993, some 1.2 million Cubans left the island for the United States,[1 often by sea in small boats and fragile rafts. Between 30,000 and 80,000 Cubans are estimated to have died trying flee Cuba during this period.In the early years a number of those who could claim dual Spanish-Cuban citizenship left for Spain. -
Missile crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the Caribbean Crisis,the Missile Scare, was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning American ballistic missile deployment in Italy and Turkey with consequent Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. The confrontation, elements of which were televised, is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. -
Suppression of dissent
By the 1970s, the standard of living in Cuba was "extremely spartan" and discontent was rife. Castro changed economic policies in the first half of the 1970s. In the 1970s unemployment reappeared as problem. The solution was to criminalize unemployment with 1971 Anti-Loafing Law; the unemployed would be put into jail. One alternative was to go fight Soviet-supported wars in Africa -
Cuban intervention in Angola
In November 1975, Cuba launched a large-scale military intervention in support of the leftist People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, against United States-backed interventions by South Africa and Zaire.By the end of 1975, the Cuban military in Angola numbered more than 25,000 troops. Following the retreat of Zaire and South Africa, Cuban forces remained in Angola to support the government against in the continuing Angolan Civil War. -
Angola
On 22 December 1988, Angola, Cuba, and South Africa signed the Tripartite Accord in New York, arranging for the retreat of South African and Cuban troops within 30 months, and the implementation of the 10-year-old UN Security Council Resolution 435 for the independence of Namibia. The Cuban intervention, for a short time, turned Cuba into a "global player" in the midst of the Cold War. -
Special Period
The Special Period in Time of Peace in Cuba was a euphemism for an extended period of economic crisis that began in 1989,primarily due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and, by extension, the Com-econ. The economic depression of the Special Period was at its most severe in the early to mid-1990s before slightly declining in severity towards the end of the decade. -
Cuban Thaw
The United States–Cuban Thaw is a warming of Cuba–United States relations that began in December 2014, ending a 54-year stretch of hostility between the nations. In March 2016, Barack Obama became the first U.S. President to visit Cuba since 1928.
