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preface
From the 16th century, Cuba was formally under Spanish rule until early 1898, when the Cuban insurgents defeated the Spanish colonial army.
Just as the Spaniards were preparing to declare Cuba's independence, the evil US imperialism stepped in, stole the fruits of Cuba's revolution, and once again drove Cuba into the abyss!
Spain colonized Cuba
In 1492, a major event changed the world and the beginning of Cuba's centuries-long dark era.
After the Spanish explorer Columbus discovered the New World, Cuba officially fell under Spanish colonial rule. All the indigenous people who did not want to convert to Christianity were enslaved, and those who dared to resist were all killed.
In the years since, malnutrition and overwork have accompanied the indigenous Cuban population, which, together with the brutality of the rulers and the spread of infectious diseases from Europe in 1529, almost wiped them out. The only evidence that indigenous Cubans ever existed are a few buildings in indigenous languages and cultures.
There are no more Cubans in all of Cuba. Only the Peninsulars (Spanish colonizers) and Creoles (Caucasian Spaniards born in Cuba) remained, as well as African slaves who had been sold to Cuba to work on plantations and mining in order to fill the labour gap.
Slave revolt
The peninsulars returned to Spain after making huge fortunes in Cuba, and the government and church appointments they supported had a near monopoly on much of Cuba's trade with other countries.
However, the privileges and wealth of the peninsulars also aroused the covetousness and dissatisfaction of the Creoles. There are frequent conflicts between the peninsulars and the Creoles, and there is discord and discord.
Because the number of Creoles is more than the Peninsulars, but they do not have the same high status as the Peninsulars. The Creole elite, especially the merchants in Havana, had always hoped for a higher status and secretly plotted a series of usurpations.
However, the outbreak of the slave revolt led by José Antonio in 1790 terrified the Creole elite, and it was at this time that the Creoles, like the true Peninsulars, believed that only the Spanish army could maintain order in Cuba and the privileges they cherished.
Declaration of war on Spain
Since Jose led the slave uprising, Cuba's Eastern plantation owners, African slaves, freed blacks, impoverished white farmers, and urban workers have united against the peninsular and Creole elite.
The moment to change Cuba's destiny is coming.
In October 1868, the plantation owner and lawyer Seth Pedes freed his slaves and launched an armed uprising in the province of Oriente.
He united the plantation owners of the East to organize the Masonic Revolution, and the plantation owners of the East organized into the People's Liberation Army and declared war on Spain under the slogan "A cry from Yala". The aim was to completely free itself from Spanish colonialism and thus gradually complete the emancipation of slavery.
In April 1869, Seth Pedes established the wartime republic.
Seth Pedes
José Martí Revolution
Unfortunately, this "ten-year war" was ultimately lost. Although the rebel army is powerful, its composition is quite mixed, they do not trust each other, and they often drag each other down at critical times. This eventually led to the failure of the uprising. The rebels were forced to sign the Treaty of Sangjon in February 1878, and the war came to a temporary end.
Although the war was lost, it still had a very big impact on the situation in Cuba.
Over the next seventeen years, José Martí, the "father of the Cuban nation," reflected on the root causes of the failure of the last intifada, arguing that the insurgents lacked a cohesive political ideology.
So while in exile in the United States, José Martí continued to raise funds and accumulate revolutionary experience, and formed a revolutionary military junta.
In this regard, the American capitalists were very much in favor of José Martí's independence movement and gave him great support, but the United States demanded that "freedom" and "democracy" be the ideology of the revolution, and that the United States government must represent the symbolic independence movement.
The U.S. government's calculations are clanging, because if José Martí succeeds in ousting the Spanish colonial government, the United States will be the biggest winner.
Although Jose Martí knows that working with the United States is tantamount to fighting a tiger, he has no choice at the moment.
Jose Marty
Puppet government - evil America
The independence movement led by José Martí grew from strength to strength and achieved great success. Privately, both economically and militarily, they became more powerful and privately supported by more Western plantation owners.
In 1895, the war symbolizing Cuba's independence officially broke out.
This time, the rebels were well prepared and adopted a more active military strategy. In fact, the war lasted from the beginning until 1898, and the rebels won all battles for three years.
By the beginning of 1898, the rebels had already occupied two-thirds of the country, and just as the Spaniards were preparing to negotiate the declaration of Cuba's independence, something unexpected happened!
The battleship USS Maine, ordered to defend American interests in Cuba, inexplicably exploded and sank in the port of Havana, and Theodore Roosevelt, who was eager for war, blamed Spain for the explosion and seized the opportunity to declare war on it.
Spain was no match for the United States at this time, and was soon defeated and signed a ceasefire on August 12, 1898, promising the independence of the Spanish colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
The funny thing is that the Cuban War of Independence was about to be won, but the final fruits of victory were stolen by the Jiang Yang thief United States! The wolf of Spain was expelled, but it encountered an even more terrifying adversary of the United States. Although Cubans have been protesting, their little arms cannot twist the thigh of the United States.
On May 20, 1902, the United States ostensibly recognized Cuba's independence, but behind the scenes, supported Estrada Palma as Cuba's new leader. Since then, the United States has enormous powers in Cuba, including a ninety-nine-year lease of naval bases, veto power over Cuban trade and military treaties, and the right to interfere in the island's internal affairs.
American lackey - Batista
In 1906, Cubans marched armed to protest the intervention of the United States, which resulted in the United States directly sending troops to Cuba and imposing a military occupation of Cuba for three years, which lasted until 1909, during which the United States continued to increase its interference in Cuba's internal affairs and commerce.
Cuba became the backyard of the United States, and the Cuban pro-American government sold Cuban land to any American citizen who wished to profit from the cheapness, and gradually the ownership of Cuba was gradually transferred to the Americans.
Some Cubans, who benefit from U.S. rule, are willing to become puppets of the Americans. The infighting among Cubans was even more satisfying to the Americans.
Elected president in 1924, Gerardo Machado ignored civil law, supported violence and corruption, and during his tenure there was widespread gambling and sex trafficking in Cuba, political turmoil, workers' strikes, and destitute. The Cuban public's dissatisfaction with the puppet government and the United States gradually reached its peak.
In 1933, a workers' rebel overthrew the unpopular Machado regime, but just as the Cuban working class was about to establish a new regime, in 1934 Fulgencio Batista's coup d'état once again took back control of Cuba, beginning another 25-year dictatorship.
And there has always been a figure behind this - the United States.
Fulgencio Batista
Cuban hero - Castro
Batista, with the support of the United States, had dissolved parliament, abrogated the constitution, signed a mutual military assistance treaty with the United States, and allowed the mafia to develop casinos and drugs in the country, making Cuba a haven for drug lords, pimps and capitalists, but for the Cuban people, it was like hell.
U.S. support for the Batista dictatorship infuriated the Cuban people, and Fidel Castro knew that the people had suffered from the United States for a long time, so on July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro led a small group of revolutionary fighters to attack the Moncada barracks in San Diego, once again starting the Cuban Revolution.
Although Fidel Castro's revolutionary forces were quickly suppressed by puppet government forces, most of them were even executed.
Castro was saved by the intervention of the Roman Catholic Archbishop, after which Castro united with Cuban revolutionaries under the slogan "Build Cuba for Cubans" to form an armed revolutionary organization to carry out the 726 Movement and waged a guerrilla war in the mountains of Maestra.
A large number of Cubans were recruited by Castro to join the Revolutionary War, and the guerrillas became more and more invincible after receiving the support of a large number of people. Almost all Cubans want an end to the Batista dictatorship, and they prefer to expel the U.S. military from Cuba.
And this time, the spark is about to ignite.
Fidel castro
New Cuba
Although the guerrillas' firepower was far inferior to that of Batista's American troops, they had popular support, coupled with knowledge of the terrain, and the help of students of the "Revolutionary Bureau" of the University of Havana and the Communist Party. It took just three years to overthrow dictator Batista.
After his defeat, Batista fled to Miami with a huge sum of $300 million, and he has not been heard from since.
The Cuban people finally ushered in their first freedom since Spanish colonization.
On January 1, 1959, Castro rode in tanks and led the rebel army into Havana, and the new Republic of Cuba was established. Fidel Castro became Cuba's prime minister and led Cuba up the ladder of progress.
Castro is said to have landed on his shoulder when he addressed the crowd in Havana. This fortuitous phenomenon was said to be a miracle by the Cuban people, and God took mercy on the misery of the Cuban people, so Castro was allowed to start a redemptive revolution.
Spain has created tens of thousands of grievances in Cuba, and the United States has committed heinous crimes in Cuba, but the bloody nature of the Cuban nation has been completely stimulated, and it is not afraid of power and fights. In Cubans, I can always see the shadow of the Chinese nation, shedding blood for the revolutionary cause, and never bowing down in the torment of the imperialist powers.
With this article, I pay tribute to the indomitable Cuban soul that is not afraid of might and sacrifice.