Chasteen's Interpretation of the Cuban Revolution

Question 1

what perspective did Latin American nationalists adopt after the 1950s?

Answer 1

they adopted a marxist perspective on history and a revolutionary view of the future

Question 2

what actually brought the rise of Marxism in Latin America?

Answer 2

Nationalist that wanted to dismantle neocolonialism began a marxist historical analysis

Question 3

what about marxism was appealing to latin americans?

Answer 3

latin americans felt that the marxist view on capitalism, which highlights class exploitation, was an appropriate description of their past experience

Question 4

what made latin americans want to further study marxism?

Answer 4

the fact that the United States hated it

Question 5

what was the marxist diagnosis of latin america?

Answer 5

its big problem was injustice

Question 6

what was creating shortage of basic necessities?

Answer 6

rapid population growth and urbanization were creating shortage of basic necessities

Question 7

so what did marxism mean among this problem?

Answer 7

it meant redistributing wealth among everybody

Question 8

what important figure came to this conclusion in the 1950s?

Answer 8

an argentinian medical student, later to be known as che guevara, came to this conclusion

Question 9

what did Che think latin american poverty was linked to?

Answer 9

he thought it was linked and maintained to an imperialist international economic system

Question 10

how did Che begin to show his internationalist vocation?

Answer 10

he began his internationalist vocation by cycling thousands of miles across latin america to see the poverty himself

Question 11

where did Che end up and who did he meet?

Answer 11

eventually Che made his way to Mexico, now claiming the title of a marxist revolutionary. He met fidel castro

Question 12

what was fidel castro doing in mexico?

Answer 12

castro was exiled to mexico after leading a disastrous attack on Cuba’s dictator’s army

Question 13

what was fidel castro getting ready to do?

Answer 13

he was preparing to launch on the Dictator Fulgencio Batista whom they saw as an agent of imperialism

Question 14

what was the result of their attempted invasion?

Answer 14

they went with 82 invaders and were quickly overthrown. Only 12 were left and che was one of them

Question 15

what happened to Batista eventually?

Answer 15

eventually resistance against batista in Cuba became unanimous and he left the country in 1958

Question 16

how did fildel castro and his revolutionaries respond to the fall of Batista?

Answer 16

they hunted down his hunchmen, executing 483 of them in three months and came to power

Question 17

what did fidel castro express and how did the public react?

Answer 17

castro explained his vision of a new cuba and the people saw their revolutionary government as a way to end economic imperialist

Question 18

how did the US react to what happened in cuba?

Answer 18

the US began to wonder what side would fidel castro be on in the cold war. they didnt want a communist leader so close to their land

Question 19

what was the first thing that castro began?

Answer 19

land reform started immediately in 1959

Question 20

when fidel went on television what intentions did he depict?

Answer 20

castro’s five hour chat about the changes of real revolution revealed his marxist inspiration

Question 21

after realizing castro’s position, how did the US see Castro?

Answer 21

the United States realized that Castro would be someone who could align with the US to fight international communism

Question 22

what would cuban alliance with the US mean howerever?

Answer 22

If Cuba did align with the US to fight international communism, it would mean betraying what they had fought against and siding with economic imperialism

Question 23

what did castro choose to do in order to oppose alliance with the US? how did the US respond?

Answer 23

Castro expropriated US-owned oil refinaries. The US responded by ending the purchase of cuban sugar which accounted for 2/3 of cuban export revenues

Question 24

how did castro’s revolutionary government strike the US after they ended the purchase of Cuban sugar?

Answer 24

the expropriated more US owned property

Question 25

how did the US react to Cuba’s expropriation of its property?

Answer 25

they declared an embargo with cuban trade and trained a proxy force

Question 26

what finally ended the military threat on Cuba from the US?

Answer 26

US spy planes spotted soviet nuclear missiles under construction. John F Kennedy urged them to withdraw the missiles. The soviets said they would withdraw the missiles if the US agreed not invade Cuba. This became known as the Cuban missile crisis and it ended the US threat against Cuba

Question 27

gradually what did Cuba become?

Answer 27

Cuba became a center of resistance against US policy in Latin America and a training ground for Marxist revolutionaries

Question 28

what did the cuban revolution become by 1960?

Answer 28

it became a symbol for young people all over the hemisphere

Question 29

what did the cuban revolution accomplish?

Answer 29

the cuban revolution increased. educational opportunities, improved housing, brought equality to black cubans

Question 30

what did the cuban revolution fail to accomplish?

Answer 30

individual liberties central to liberalism, such as the right to speak against the government and travel outside of the country