In this episode of 80 Days: an exploration podcast, we’ll be talking about Cuba, an island in the Caribbean Ocean, just 90 miles south of the US state of Florida. Cuba is home to over 11 million inhabitants, and is the second-largest island in the Caribbean after Hispanola. The country has been subject to numerous territorial disputes and conflicts throughout its long and complex history, but finally emerged into independence in 1902. Following a turbulent revolution which spanned almost the entire 1950s, the Communist Party of Cuba, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, took control of the country in 1965. Although poverty is widespread, modern Cuba has an outstanding health care and education system and relations with the US are currently beginning to thaw after a protracted embargo that has been in place since the 1960s. Since Cuba has an awful lot of history, particularly in the 20th Century, we decided to split this episode into two parts: this is the first part.
Your hosts are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly in Hong Kong, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 in the UK, Joe Byrne @anbeirneach in Switzerland and – as a new voice for regular listeners – we’re joined in this episode by Erin Barclay in the USA. (Theme music by Thomas O’Boyle).
Table of Contents:
[03:28] Early History – Taíno and others
[05:50] In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue… and stuff happened
[09:25] Spanish Colony, ‘serfdom’ and Hatuey’s Uprising
[12:25] Slavery, Slave Rebellions and Pirates
[13:55] Trade monopolies and disputes
[19:00] Sugar boom and population imbalance, and Haitian influx
[20:39] Break
[21:10] “What could go wrong?” – just six revolutions
[27:52] Leopoldo O’Donnell and ‘The Year of the Lash’
[29:00 ] The Cuban Wars of Independence
[34:33] Sinking of the USS Maine and US entry into the war
[35:57] Break
[36:22] The Spanish-American War (and Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘Rough Riders’)
[39:49] An independent Cuba, the Banana Wars and US Interventions
[43:45] World War 1 and, inter-war years and President Muchado
[46:42] Batista leads the Uprising of the Sergeants
[47:25] World War 2 ,Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Crook Factory’, and the ‘St Louis Affair’
[50:58] America’s Playground and a handful of boring presidents
[53:52] Return of Batista: who needs democracy?
Here are a few things you may want to read/watch more about:
- “Guide to Pre-Columbian Cuba” (ThoughtCo, archaeology etc)
- A translation of the contemporary account of Columbus’ First Voyage
- Story of Hatuey’s Rebellion of indigenous people and also an account from History of Cuba
- “Slave Resistance in Latin America” (Joseph E. Holloway) – an article with a general view of slavery in the region including Cuba
- Article about the “sugar boom” on Cuba History (which gives a clear and concise overview of a number of topics)
- The Haitian Revolution is covered in detail by the Revolutions podcast by Mike Duncan (season 4), which is highly recommended for its level of detail! So if you want to learn more about slavery in the Caribbean in the late 18th century, give it a listen
- “Origins of Wealth and the Sugar Revolution in Cuba, 1750-1850” (Franklin W. Knight) – an article in Hispanic American Historical Review
- Revolutionary figures and movements from the 19th century include: Juaquin Infante (ES), José Aponte [link to a book about his rebellion], The Suns and Rays of Bolívar, the Venerable Félix Varela (priest and independence leader), Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (Ten Years War), Máximo Gómez (promoter of the “machete charge” tactic), José Marti
- José Marti, as well as a revolutionary, was a poet, and his words form the lyrics of the famous song “Guantanamera” (YouTube, Pete Seeger performance)
- “The Year of the Lash: Free People of Color in Cuba and the Nineteenth Century” (Michele Reid-Vazquez)
- Origin of the Cuban flag and Venezuelan Narciso López
- The sinking of the USS Maine and US entry into the Cuban War of Independence (including Theodore Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders“)
- Second US Occupation of Cuba (1906-09)
- “The Banana Wars: US Intervention in the Caribbean 1898-1934” (Lester D. Langley)
- A summary of the so-called “Negro Rebellion” in 1912 (also called the “1912 Massacre“), which arose from inequality
- President Gerardo Muchado was deposed and followed by the short-lived Pentarchy of Five Government, set up by the Sergeants’ Revolt and introducing Fulgencio Batista to the national stage
- “SS St Louis: The Ship of Jewish Refugees Nobody Wanted” – BBC article on the ship turned away from both the US and Cuba
- The comments by Walter Cronkeit about the US view of Cuba come from this much longer video
- “When the Mob owned Cuba” (Simon Worall, Smithsonian Journals Quarterly) – an article that gives a sense of Mafia involvement in 1950s Cuba
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