Fulgencio Batista And The Cuban Revolution
Many historians, such as Russell H. Fitzgibbon, point out the effect of Cuba’s economic and social dependence on the United States, as well as American economic imperialism in Cuba as an important cause of the revolution which should not be overlooked. Also, high unemployment and, consequently, social unrest, contributed to the revolution, since the economy was deeply dysfunctional and dependent on the volatile sugar industry. It goes without question that Fulgencio Batista’s abuses of power were a major inciting force of the Cuban Revolution.
As elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, Batista did not face much public backlash, likely due to the legitimacy of his power. Towards the end of his term, however, it seemed that Batista would not be reelected, so he cancelled the elections altogether and staged a coup d’etat, establishing a military dictatorship of which he was the authoritarian ruler from 1952 until he was overthrown by the revolution in 1959. This undermined the suffrage of the Cuban people by ignoring their right to vote and unconventionally seizing power, but it would only be the first of many of Batista’s actions which would stifle the voices of the people and incite amongst them resentment and revolutionary sentiment. During his rule, for instance, Batista encouraged gambling by foreigners and Cubans with wealth in casinos and in regular citizens in the national lottery, even going as far as to increase the frequency of lottery drawings from weekly to daily and allowing an illegal numbers game in the country. The gambling, lottery, and numbers game took a large toll on the Cuban economy and worsened living conditions for working people. While all this was happening, Batista was reaping immense benefits, eventually accumulating a personal fortune of $20 million while lower class Cubans struggled with hunger and unemployment.
Batista’s blatant corruption caused widespread opposition. Throughout his reign as dictator, the spirit of democracy in Cuba failed to fizzle, instead intensifying after his 1952 military coup and subsequently doubling after the Cienfuegos uprising in 1957, when Batista augmented the degree of his tyranny. Not only was Fidel Castro an immense source of opposition to his authority, there were several other smaller groups which opposed Batista’s tyrannical rule and yearned for a new form of government which seemingly could only be achieved through a revolution. Although Batista’s corrupt authoritarian rule was a source of great indignation and resentment among the Cuban people which fueled revolutionary sentiment, intervention from the United States cannot be overlooked as another major cause of the revolution in the 1950s. Cuba was without question largely dependant, both economically and psychologically, on the United States, as it was a major sight of American economic imperialism throughout the first half of the twentieth century. It is evident from US intervention in other countries that United States capitalism, economic imperialism, and individualism do not fit well into Latin America, as can be seen by the appointment of corrupt, US-backed rulers in countries such as the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico, Chile, and more. With this in mind, it is important to consider that Batista was not the most corrupt dictator in Latin America in the 20th century. He was not the most tyrannical nor the most oppressive, so he could not have been the sole cause of the revolution which culminated in 1959.
Plattism allowed the United States to play a huge role in Cuba after the Spanish American War, and even after the Platt Amendment was repealed, it still lingered in Cuba, contributing to the psychological economic subordination to the United States. The United States supported Batista as ruler over Fidel Castro, to the point where nearly all aid provided to Batista before and during the revolution, mostly in the form of weapons and military aid, was from the United States. This fueled anger and distrust towards the US from the Cuban people and helped Castro gain support for his uprising by pointing out that the US did not care about everyday Cuban people’s economic well-being. Clearly, though Batista’s corruption and self interest was an immense inciting force for the Cuban Revolution, he could not have become nearly as corrupt if not for the help of the United States and US economic interest in Cuba. In addition to Batista’s political corruption and US economic intervention, the Cuban Revolution was largely due to high unemployment and economic and political unrest in Cuba during the first half of the 20th century. The 1953 Moncada attacks, for example, in which revolutionaries attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago, Cuba, only to be easily fought off by the government, were instigated by young people, either white collar workers, manual workers, or unemployed. These peasants had been long exploited by Batista’s dictatorship.
The Cuban economy had been flawed and dysfunctional even before Batista, however, leading to widespread unemployment, starvation, and political unrest, because it was a monoculture based on sugar, so workers in rural areas were dependent on one volatile industry for wages and employment. Women especially were faced with severe financial difficulties arising from low wages and seasonal unemployment, inadequate social services, poor housing, and restricted social mobility due to a serious scarcity of jobs for college graduates. Workers in these rural areas were frustrated by the state’s control of unions, and this frustration snowballed due to the seemingly inescapable nature of the difficult financial situation.
