History EOY, Selected Sections

Who owned the majority of Cuba's agricultural soil before 1959?

US sugar companies owned the majority of Cuba's agricultural soil (Gott, Cuba: A New History)

What percentage of arable land did Cuba's wealthiest 8% own before 1959?

The wealthiest 8% of Cubans owned 71% of arable land (Gott)

What percentage of rural Cubans lacked access to toilets before 1959?

Approximately 60% of rural Cubans lacked access to toilets and basic sanitation

What was Cuba's economic structural problem before 1959?

Cuba operated as a sugar monoculture — GDP was hostage to international sugar prices and US market control

What was Batista's 1952 coup's political impact?

Batista's 1952 coup cancelled the elections, destroying Cuban electoral legitimacy and removing the peaceful channel for political change

What did the US Platt Amendment (1901) do to Cuba?

It gave the US the right to intervene militarily in Cuban affairs — a source of deep national humiliation that fostered anti-imperialist identity across class lines

What was the Platt Amendment and when was it repealed?

The Platt Amendment (1901, repealed 1934) embedded US political control over Cuba in Cuban constitutional law — its legacy persisted culturally long after repeal

What did Cuba's colonial history consist of?

Spanish colonial rule until 1898, then US economic and political dominance 1898–1959 — creating a continuous national experience of foreign domination

Who was José Martí?

Cuba's 19th-century national hero (1853–1895) who articulated an anti-imperialist vision of independence from both Spain and the US — Castro explicitly presented himself as fulfilling Martí's unfinished revolution

What role did the SIM play in Batista's regime?

The SIM (secret military intelligence) tortured and murdered political opponents with impunity, generating revulsion among the Cuban middle class, students, and Catholic Church

What was the Spanish-American War's legacy for Cuba?

The Spanish-American War (1898) replaced Spanish colonialism with US economic dominance — creating a national trauma of frustrated independence

How did WWI affect Cuba's path to revolution?

Unlike Germany, Cuba had no equivalent WWI trauma — but Batista's regime of civil repression (1952–59) created comparable conditions of political crisis that morally justified armed resistance

What was the Moncada Barracks attack?

26 July 1953 — Castro led 160 men in an attack on the military barracks in Santiago de Cuba; 61 killed, survivors arrested

Was the Moncada attack a military success or failure?

A tactical failure but a strategic success — it launched the 26th of July Movement (M-26-7) as a national revolutionary symbol

What is the 26th of July Movement (M-26-7)?

Castro's revolutionary organisation named after the 1953 Moncada attack date — it united nationalists, socialists, and anti-Batista liberals

What was 'History Will Absolve Me'?

Castro's 4-hour trial speech (1953) that framed the revolution as a moral crusade rooted in José Martí — NOT as Marxism. Smuggled out of prison and distributed as a pamphlet

Did Castro declare Marxism in 'History Will Absolve Me'?

No — Castro called for restoration of the 1940 Constitution, NOT socialism. He did not declare Marxism-Leninism until April 1961, two years after winning power

What was the Granma landing?

December 1956 — Castro and 82 guerrillas (including Guevara) landed in Cuba; ambushed immediately; only ~20 survived, retreating into the Sierra Maestra mountains

What was the foco strategy?

Guevara's guerrilla theory — a small mobile fighting force (foco) can inspire and lead a broader popular revolution by demonstrating that armed resistance is possible

Did the foco strategy always work?

No — it succeeded in Cuba (1956–58) but failed in Bolivia (1967) when Guevara was captured and executed, proving the strategy was context-dependent, not universally applicable

What was the Battle of Santa Clara?

December 1958 — Guevara's ~300 guerrillas captured the city of Santa Clara (population 150,000) and derailed an armoured government troop train

Why was the Battle of Santa Clara significant?

It was the military turning point of the Cuban Revolution — it broke Batista's army's will to fight and triggered his flight on 1 January 1959

What did the US arms embargo on Batista do?

March 1958 — Eisenhower suspended arms sales to Batista; without US resupply, Batista's conventional forces could not be sustained — the decisive external intervention

When did Batista flee Cuba?

Batista fled on 1 January 1959 after the Battle of Santa Clara collapsed his army's morale and the US withdrew military support

What was Richard Fagen's argument about Castro's ideology?

Fagen argues Castro 'balanced the dual appeals of communism and nationalism' — deliberately keeping ideology ambiguous until power was secured to maintain the broadest coalition

When did Castro declare Marxism-Leninism?

April 1961 — two years after winning power, triggered by the Bay of Pigs confrontation with the US

What was Isaac Saney's argument about the revolution?

Saney (Marxist): 'the working class was crucial to the success of the revolutionary struggle' — emphasises class structure and popular support over guerrilla tactics

What was Eric Hobsbawm's argument about guerrilla war in Cuba?

Hobsbawm argued the guerrillas' primary asset was 'non-military' — their connection to civilian populations. Popular support, not military strength, was decisive

What was James O'Connor's revisionist argument about Castro?

O'Connor: communists within Batista's government may have channelled intelligence and support to Castro's forces — complicates the clean nationalist narrative

What did Cuba's First Agrarian Reform Law (1959) do?

Limited landholdings to 402 hectares, abolished sharecropping, and distributed land to approximately 100,000 peasant families

What did Cuba's Second Agrarian Reform Law (1963) do?

Lowered the landholding limit to 67 hectares — by 1963 the state controlled approximately 70% of Cuban agricultural land

What happened to US companies in Cuba in 1960?

Approximately $1 billion in US corporate assets were nationalised without compensation, triggering the US trade embargo but freeing Cuba from direct US economic control

What was the 'Revolutionary Offensive' of 1968?

Castro nationalised all remaining private businesses — even street vendors and barbers — eliminating virtually all private enterprise in Cuba

What was the target of Cuba's 1970 sugar harvest?

10 million tonnes — to demonstrate socialist economic capacity

What was the result of Cuba's 1970 sugar harvest?

Only 8.5 million tonnes achieved — disrupting all other economic sectors. Castro publicly acknowledged the failure, a rare admission

What was the US embargo's economic impact on Cuba?

From 1960 — caused persistent consumer goods shortages; Castro consistently used it to blame all economic failures on the US rather than domestic policy mistakes

What was the Special Period (Cuba)?

1990s economic crisis following the USSR collapse — Cuba's GDP fell approximately 34% in 3 years, causing severe rationing, power cuts, and food shortages

What did Cuba's dependency shift from after 1960?

Sugar monoculture dependency shifted from the US to the USSR — structural vulnerability was not resolved, only the patron changed

How much did the USSR provide Cuba in annual aid?

From 1960 — approximately $5 billion per year in aid and subsidised sugar purchases at above-market prices

What did Saney say about Cuba's social spending?

Saney: Cuba spent $933 billion equivalent on healthcare, education, and social services despite the US embargo

What was Cuba's Literacy Campaign (1961)?

100,000 volunteer literacy workers deployed across Cuba for one year, reducing illiteracy from approximately 25% to 3.9%

What was Cuba's literacy rate by 2000?

Approximately 99.8% — university enrolment also expanded massively, though education was ideologically controlled

What was Cuba's infant mortality rate in 1959?

Approximately 60 per 1,000 live births

What was Cuba's infant mortality rate by 2000?

6.4 per 1,000 live births — comparable to developed nations

What was Cuba's life expectancy by 2000?

77 years — equivalent to the United States

How many doctors per 1,000 people did Cuba train?

Approximately 20 doctors per 1,000 people — one of the highest ratios in the world by 2000

What was Castro's 1961 cultural policy declaration?

'Within the Revolution, everything; outside the Revolution, nothing' — art permitted if it served revolutionary goals; work questioning the revolution was prohibited

What was the Padilla affair (1971)?

Poet Heberto Padilla was arrested and forced to make a public 'confession' of counter-revolutionary crimes — condemned internationally by Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Gabriel García Márquez

What did the Padilla affair signal?

A hardening of Cuban cultural repression — the limits of 'within the Revolution, everything'

What was the Hombre Nuevo?

'New Man' — Guevara's concept of a selfless revolutionary citizen motivated by moral rather than material incentives; underpinned Cuban cultural and educational policy

Who founded the FMC and when?

Vilma Espín (Raúl Castro's wife) founded the Federation of Cuban Women in August 1960

How many members did the FMC have by the 1980s?

Approximately 3 million members by the 1980s

What was Cuban female workforce participation in 1953?

Approximately 13% of the workforce

What was Cuban female workforce participation by 1990?

Approximately 38% of the workforce — a significant structural transformation

What percentage of Cuban doctors were women by 1985?

Approximately 53% of Cuba's doctors were women by 1985

What percentage of Cuban teachers were women by 1985?

Approximately 58% of Cuba's teachers were women by 1985

What did the Cuban Family Code (1975) require?

Men were legally required to share domestic labour equally — one of the world's most progressive gender equality laws at the time

Was the Family Code (1975) effectively enforced?

No — enforcement was weak and machismo persisted in domestic arrangements despite the legal mandate

When did Cuba legalise abortion?

1964 — Cuba became one of the first Latin American countries to legalise abortion

What is the feminist criticism of the FMC?

Feminist historians argue the FMC represents 'state feminism' — women's advancement was instrumentalised for the regime's need for labour and legitimacy, not driven by genuine feminist commitment

What was the key limit of women's progress in Cuba?

Women remained dramatically underrepresented in the top levels of the Communist Party and government — the Politburo and Council of State were overwhelmingly male throughout the Castro era

What did Castro do about racial discrimination in 1959?

Declared racial discrimination illegal and ordered the integration of schools, beaches, workplaces, and public spaces

What was the limit of Cuba's racial desegregation?

Afro-Cubans remained significantly underrepresented in Communist Party leadership, military officer corps, and government ministries — formal equality did not translate into structural power equality

What happened to Santería under Castro?

Initially suppressed as 'pre-revolutionary superstition', then later tolerated and embraced as part of Cuban cultural identity — especially during the Special Period in the 1990s

What were the UMAP camps?

Cuban forced labour camps 1965–68, officially called Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Producción

Who was targeted by the UMAP camps?

Gay men, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholic priests, and political dissidents were interned

How many people were institutionalised in the UMAP camps?

Wikipedia: at least 507 institutionalised after psychological torture; at least 252 killed

When were the UMAP camps closed and why?

Closed in 1968 under international pressure and condemnation

What did Castro say about the UMAP camps in 2010?

Castro acknowledged them as a 'great injustice' — one of the very few admissions of personal error in his public life

When were same-sex relationships decriminalised in Cuba?

1975

When were LGBTQ+ Cubans allowed to serve openly in the military?

1993

When did Cuba legalise same-sex marriage?

2022 — legalised by referendum

What is CENESEX?

Cuba's National Centre for Sex Education — a government body promoting LGBTQ+ rights that controls the pace of reform; independent LGBTQ+ activism outside state-sanctioned events still faces restrictions

What were Germany's reparations under the Treaty of Versailles?

Fixed at 136,000 million gold marks (1921)

What percentage of territory did Germany lose under Versailles?

13% of its territory

What percentage of its population did Germany lose under Versailles?

12% of its population

What percentage of Germany's iron did it lose under Versailles?

48% of its iron production capacity

What percentage of Germany's coal did it lose under Versailles?

16% of its coal

What did Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles state?

Assigned sole responsibility for WWI to Germany and its allies — the 'War Guilt Clause' — justifying the reparations demand

What caused German hyperinflation in 1923?

The German government printed money to fund reparations defaults — the mark became worthless overnight, wiping out middle-class savings

How many Germans were unemployed by 1932?

Approximately 6 million — one-third of the German workforce

What was the Nazi vote share in 1928 (before the Depression)?

2.6% — demonstrating that Nazi support was marginal before economic crisis

What was the Nazi vote share in July 1932 (after the Depression)?

37.4% — the largest party in the Reichstag, though never a majority

What did S.J. Lee say about Weimar's proportional representation?

S.J. Lee: proportional representation 'removed the necessity for groups to compromise within parties' — producing 28 parties and chronic coalition instability

What was Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution?

Gave the President emergency decree powers — used increasingly from 1930, normalising authoritarian governance before Hitler

What happened to the Müller coalition government in 1929?

It collapsed over disagreements on how to handle the economic crisis — creating the political vacuum the Nazis exploited

What was the Dolchstosslegende?

The 'stab-in-the-back' myth — the false claim that Germany's 1918 military defeat was caused by Jewish-socialist betrayal at home, not military failure

Who appointed Hitler as Chancellor and when?

President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor on 30 January 1933, believing he could be 'controlled'

Why was Hitler's appointment a miscalculation?

Traditional conservatives (Hindenburg, Papen) underestimated the radical nature of the Nazi programme — Hitler's 37.4% vote share was never a majority; he needed elite patronage to take power

What did S.J. Lee say about WWI's role in enabling dictatorship?

'The war cleared the way for twentieth-century dictatorships by smashing nineteenth-century autocracies without providing a viable alternative'

What did Kershaw say about WWI and Hitler?

'Without the First World War and its legacy, a Hitler would have been unimaginable as a leader of Germany'

What was the Reichstag Fire Decree?

28 February 1933 — suspended Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 of the Weimar Constitution, permanently ending civil liberties under the guise of an emergency measure

What was the Enabling Act?

23 March 1933 — gave Hitler power to pass laws without the Reichstag for 4 years

What was the Enabling Act vote?

Passed 441 to 84 — under SA intimidation of the Reichstag

What was the SA's role in Hitler's rise?

By 1933 the SA had approximately 400,000 members — a private army that attacked KPD and SPD meetings, disrupting opposition and normalising political violence before Hitler held formal power

What did Mein Kampf (1925) outline?

Racial hierarchy, Lebensraum (living space in Eastern Europe), and virulent antisemitism — written by Hitler during imprisonment after the Munich Putsch

What do intentionalists argue about Mein Kampf?

Intentionalists (Dawidowicz, Fleming) argue Mein Kampf was a master plan — a blueprint followed consistently from 1933

What do functionalists argue about Mein Kampf?

Functionalists (Broszat, Mommsen) argue it was rhetorical rather than programmatic — policies emerged from circumstance, not a pre-set plan

What was Kershaw's synthesis on the Nazi rise?

Broad ideological goals existed, but execution was shaped by institutional structure — officials 'worked towards the Führer' without explicit orders

What was the Night of the Long Knives?

30 June 1934 — approximately 85 killed including SA chief Ernst Röhm and former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher; extra-judicial murder retroactively legalised by emergency decree