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42 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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When was Fidel Castro born?
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Official records say August 13th, 1926, but it could have been a year later.
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What is Castro's full name?
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Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz
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What education did Castro receive?
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He went to Catholic schools in Oriente and Havana, graduating Belen High in Havana.
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How was Castro the teenager described?
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He liked to win, such as in sports, but was anti-social, "alienated from Cuban society."
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What ideas influenced Castro in high school?
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fascist and anti-American ideas
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Where did Castro go to law school?
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the University of Havana
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What experiences did Castro encounter in law school?
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The university had lots of political activists, and Castro fell in among them, in the Union Insurreccional Revolucionaria, but Castro never got to lead the gang, which he wanted to do.
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When and why did Castro leave the university?
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to join an attempt to overthrow the Dominican Republic dictator Rafael L. Trujillo in 1947.
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What did Castro do in 1948?
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He acted in the Bogotazo, a series of riots in Columbia following the assassination of the Liberal Party leader Jorge E. Gaitan.
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How did Castro get caught up in the Bogotazo?
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Dictator of Argentina Juan D. Peron sent him and three other students to a student meeting in Bogota right when Gaitan was assassinated. Castro joined the mob, distributing anti-US propaganda and inciting revolt before escaping through the Cuban Embassy back to Havana.
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What party did Castro join at the university?
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The nationalist Partido Ortodoxo, "arguing for economic independence, political liberty, social justtice, and an end to corruption", and led by Eduardo Chibas.
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Who did Castro marry in college?
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the philosophy student Mirta Diaz-Balart, but the marriage broke up
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What happened involving Castro in 1952?
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Castro was a candidate in the June elections, but on March 10th Fugencia Batista and the army overthrew the democratic regime and instituted a dictatorship.
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What did Castro do to oppose Batista?
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He rallied a group together and on 7/26/53 he attacked the Mocada military garrison but lost and was captured.
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What happened to Castro after he was captured?
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He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, casting himself as a mainstream Cuban opposed to Batista's reactionary regime.
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When and why was Castro released from prison?
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in 1955, by an amnesty
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How did Castro fight Batista's dictatorship the second time?
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He led a rural insurgency starting on 7/26/55, attacking Oriente in 12/1956 with 80 men, and fleeing to the Sierra Maestra mountains to prepare for guerrilla warfare.
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What happened between 1957 and 1958?
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3/13/57: Batista attacked, almost killed, but Castro criticized attack because it was done by rivals. 4/9/58: Castro called for a strike against Batista, which failed.
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How did Castro finally defeat Batista?
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Defections in the army led to Batista's defeat, and Batista and his henchmen fled to the Dominican Republic.
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What did Castro initially do after taking power?
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He held public trials of the Batistan regime "criminals", and on 2/15 appointed his brother Raul as military commander.
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When did Castro take power?
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1/1/1959
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What did Castro call his revolution at the beginning?
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Castro said he was committed to democracy and reform, denying that he was a Communist.
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What reforms did Castro instigate in 1959?
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He confiscated wealth acquired "illegally" under Batista, reduced rents, confiscated large holdings, and slowly transformed Cuba into a communist State.
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What did Castro say he was doing with his reforms and what actually happened?
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He said he wanted to create a class of independent farmers, but eventually the National Institute of Agrarian Reform organized everyone into state farms, with farmers as governmental employees.
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What brought about a further change in the Cuban Revolution?
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Castro purged many of the revolution's leaders and replaced them with radicals and communists.
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When and with whom did Castro make an alliance?
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February 1960 Castro signed a Cuban-Soviet trade agreement, with Anastas Mikoyan, Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union
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How did the Americans and Castro respond to the USSR-Cuba trade agreement?
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American oil refineries refused to refine Soviet petroleum, Castro confiscated them, the US cut Castro's sugar quota, and Castro confiscated American property and some Cubans' as well.
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How did diplomatic relations between the superpowers and Cuba develop in 1960-61?
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9/1960 Castro embraced Nikita Krushchev, addressing the UN, and in 1/1961 President Eisenhower broke diplomatic relations with Cuba.
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What effect did the Bay of Pigs have on Cuba and the entire situation?
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It consolidated Castro's power and led to the Cuban missile crisis in 10/1962.
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What did Castro do in 1961 economically and socially?
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He declared his regime socialist, making the economy more centralized, gathering up private schools and the press, improving literacy, sanitation, and public health while expelling religion (most fled to the US).
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When did Castro actually call his regime Communist?
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December 1961
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What did Castro do politically in 1961?
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He declared Cuba Communist, seeing himself as a Marxist-Leninist, merged all anti-Batista factions into teh Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (IRO), a single party state.
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What happened to the IRO?
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It later became the United Party of the Socialist Revolution, and in 1965 the Communist Party of Cuba.
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What happened to Cuba-USSR relations in the 1960s?
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The Cuban Missile Crisis hurt their relations, as the Soviets talked directly with the Americans, instead of going through Castro, and while Soviet aid increased, Castro eliminated pro-Soviets from power.
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How did Castro treat the Sino-Soviet dispute?
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Under pressure from the USSR, Castro chose to side with them in 1964 after trying to maintain neutrality.
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What did Castro do to attempt to spread revolution to other countries?
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In spite of Soviet warnings, Castro founded the Asia-Africa-Latin America People's Solidarity Organization (OSPAAL) in 1966, and in July 1967 he made the Latin American Solidarity Organization (OLAS) to promote "violence and terrorism in Latin America."
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How did Castro's efforts to promote revolution in other countries fare?
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In the 1960s he was unsuccessful, but in the 1970s Cubans helped to overthrow the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua.
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Besides the Soviet Union, who did Castro align himself with?
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Allende in Chile, guerrillas elsewhere, and terrorists and/or anti-Americans such as PLO, Hammas, Syria, Libya, and North Korea.
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What effect did the collapse of the Soviet Union have on Castro?
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Castro toned down his support of violence, but still supported Colombian guerrillas and other Middle-Eastern terrorists.
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Who is one of Castro's closest allies today?
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Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, providing Cuba with lots of oil in exchange for security personnel.
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What is Castro's relationship with China today?
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They provide aid and an electronic eaves-dropping facility to Havana.
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How has Castro maintained tight control despite the collapse of the Soviet Union?
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He clamps down on political opposition, and allows many opponents to leave Cuba altogether (to get rid of them).
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