Patria o Muerte: The Cuban Revolution

The Cuban Revolution

            In 1959, Cuba saw Fidel Castro rise to power after six years of guerilla warfare. The Cuban Revolution meets the definition given by David J. Samuels in Comparative Politics. The revolution fits so well with the definition; it almost appears as though Cuba was used as the model to write the definition. However, there are some problems with the author’s definition, which I will discuss later.

            The Cuban Revolution began in 1953, when Fidel Castro and a group of about eighty people attacked the Moncada barracks in Santiago, far away from the capital. The attack failed miserably. Most of the rebels were killed or imprisoned. Castro and his brother survived, but were put into prison. Fulgencio Batista, the president of Cuba, was losing support from the population. Under political pressure, he was forced to release all political prisoners, which included the two Castro brothers. In 1956, Castro once again began to form a rebellion, recruiting from the rural mountainous areas of Cuba (Encyclopædia Britannica).

            While Castro may have had the support of the rural population, his actual army was incredibly small. Because his army was so small, sometimes only a few hundred fighters, most battles were small skirmishes for the first two years. As Fulgencio Batista, the president, continued to crack down on Castro supporters, he lost support from the United States government, who withdrew their support. Castro was able to smuggle in arms to Cuban revolutionaries, and by 1959 took control of Cuba (Encyclopædia Britannica).

           

            The Cuban Revolution fits the author’s definition of a revolution because both the insurgents and the state claimed allegiance of a significant proportion of the population. Batista had the military, and Castro had the rural population. It also meets the criteria of authority being forcibly transferred from the state to the insurgents. Finally, it meets the criteria of the insurgents subsequently bringing about wholesale political change. Cuba went from being a capitalist country to being a communist state. There aren’t many changes more dramatic than that (Samuels).

            The Cuban Revolution fits well with the author’s definition, but there is a certain flaw. The definition doesn’t account for when a revolution begins. Castro claims that the revolution began with the attack on the Moncada barracks. That attack failed, as did many more skirmishes afterwards. At what point are small attacks classified as political violence? This definition only focuses on the results, which makes it difficult to classify violence as it occurs.

REFRENCES

"Cuba." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia                       Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 09 Nov. 2012. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/145542/Cuba.

Samuels, David J. 2012. Comparative Politics. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.