Profesor: Alejandro Acosta, Post Doc - alacosta@hum.uc3m.es - 14.1.09A on Fridays 12:30-14:30.

Magistrales with Alejandro (11 lectures) and Practical with Maria.

Assessment - Final exam in January (60%), probably 3 topics choosing 2 of them, explaining all we
know about the topics (quantity of knowledge will be valued, write as much as possible).
Continuous assessment - 40%.

10th of October - Caixa forum exhibition about espionage on the Cold War. Top secret: Cine y
espionaje.

5/09/2023 - First day

Topics of the course will be the Cold War and then more localised issues such as Israel vs Palestine,
Iran, terrorism… Russia after the URSS at last.

End of WWII:
By early 1945 Germany was defeated as in October 1944 some villages in Germany were already
occupied by Allied troops. A lot of German cities were destroyed.
Hitler was determined to defend the capital, Berlin and called for any troops available. Big cities were
destroyed as a result.
On the 16th of April 1945 the Red Army started to attack Berlin, any soldier available, including kids,
were asked to defend the capital. The SS were executing those who believed they were defeated.

On the 27th April 1945 Benito Mussolini was captured and killed in Italy by the partisans. The 30th
of April Hitler killed himself. On the 8th May Germany signed the unconditional surrender.

Japan, however, was resisting. On the 6th of August 1945 the Hiroshima bomb was dropped, causing
100.000 direct deaths and 20.000 victims killed by radiation. The Japanese still resisted until the
second bomb in Nagasaki on the 9th of August. They surrendered on the 2nd September 1945.

Europe in devastation:
It’s impossible to give the amount of victims of the war, studies say that around 55 million perished
during WWII. There are other studies that point to 67 million dead, which points out that there is no
consensus number. If the latter figure is correct it would mean that 3.5% of the world’s population
died because of it, with the URSS having the most. 35 million wounded, 3 million missing. More
civilians dead than soldiers, for the first time in history. They were the main target.

It brought misery to Europe, especially to the East. 70k thousand towns destroyed in the URSS.
Some other countries, those that were neutral or the US, were hardly affected by it as they were

not attacked. The factories and industries in these countries were not touched and, therefore,

production was not compromised and could later use their production to sell to Europe → leads
to the Marshall Plan.
The US becomes the first power with their big force in military, economy and industry,

Europe was in reconstruction, meaning that their immediate goals were to build back their cities

and societies. Women were very important in this period and food rationing was introduced in

the continent → 100 grams of meat a week. This led to prostitution and pilgrimage.

Raped women were very popular due to the misbehaviour of the militaries. Same as displacement
during the war and they coming back afterwards.

The United Nations:

It was needed to build supranational powers to achieve peace. The League of Nations was created in
1920 but it was not working to keep this peace and ended up leading to WWII.
After the war it was clear that it was needed to create a new one, this idea was lead by the UK and the
US and it was decided to be created in the Tehran Conference in 1943.
IT WAS DECIDED TO BE PUT INTO ACTION IN THE SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE,
AS AGREED BY ALL THE MEMBERS.
17/10/2023: Next week Palestine and Israel.
China - Mirar apuntes historia de África y Asia
1911 there was a revolution, that ended up overthrowing Pu Yi, a child emperor. It led to a political
change that brought the Kuomintang party, led by Sun Yat-Sen, educated in the West. He wanted a
regime very similar to the liberal democracies in Europe. Very nationalistic party, pro western but
nationalistic.
Similarly to Japan in the era, there were warlords that had a lot of singular control over the country,
although they were loyal to the emperor. Their minds changed with the intention to bring liberal
democracies.
Sun Yat-Sen died in 1925, and he was succeeded in the Kuomintang party by Chiang Kai-Shek,
who changed the views of the party to support an authoritarian regimes, not supporting the foreign
ideas of democracy, and therefore stopping their allegiance to the communist parties and even
prosecuting and killing them.
This led to a conflict between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party (represented by the
popular army, the red army), bringing their civil war (1927-1949) with a truce between 1937 and 1946
due to their alliance to fight off the Japanese. The truce ended and the war started up again.
The red army had to retreat with the Long March in 1934-1935 to escape the Kuomintang. In this
long retreat of over 12k km Mao became the leader of the Communist Party.

Mao and the USSR until the Great Leap Forward

Stalin offered little to no help to the communists in China due to his fear of Mao’s leadership, who
was not an easy person to control. The USSR pushed for other leaders like Bo Gu to assume control
of the Party. Mao had very different views on the dogma, as the Marxist Leninist communism said
that the revolution had to be on an industrial context to really overthrow the bourgeoisie by the
proletariat, but China was not industrialised, so Mao pushed for the revolution of the peasants.

Mao proclaimed his victory and gave birth to the People’s Republic of China and communism
spread. This was during the Cold War and really struck some nerves in the democratic countries, that
were afraid.

Mao and Stalin were, however, logical allies during the Cold War despite their disagreements. The
URSS did in fact aid Mao to try and industrialise China quickly, sending equipment and other help.
It was not for free however, it was to gained influence over the future of the PRC and Mao.
When Nikita Kruschchev came to power in the USSR the relationship broke, as the Soviets were
trying to de-Stalinize and to peacefully coexist with the Capitalist countries, which went against
Mao’s desire to fight Capitalism. The intention to peacefully coexist went against Mao.
In 1955 Mao tried to occupy the Matsu Archipelago alongside the Kinmen Islands. These islands
however were protected by the US due to their closeness to Taiwan, which could lead to retaliation.
Khrushchev advised against it, which led to palpable tensions between the USSR and the PRC.
This led to Mao’s need to cut ties with the USSR and become more autonomous, with the Great Leap
Forward, a package of political, economic and social measures to industrialise China without Soviet
help. It grouped the population into communes to work the fields and produce steel.
“One of the greatest mobilisations of people in History”
During the years of the Great Leap Forward the work of the land was massively moved forward
through the communes. Everyone had to work in these communes, even teachers or other professions
after work. Even the children.

The communes had to satisfy the State quotas and the working conditions were despicable. This led
to a great famine and a great deal of people dying due to hunger. Statistics point that 42M chinese
died during the Great Leap Forward.

Furthermore, the Chinese and the Soviets had an armed conflict in September 1969 in the borders.
China wanted to assert itself as the REAL MARXIST country and it led to a lot of criticism over the
USSR’s political trends and decisions. (this part is previous to the conflict not a cause for it).
After the cease fire there were still conflicts over that same border, the Zhenbao Island, which
represents the worst moments between the countries. It now belongs to the Chinese.

UN and Taiwan:
At this time Taiwan, with 2M refugees, proclaimed a pro-western regime by the KMT (nationalistic
party). It was filled with educated, bureaucratic and political elites, alongside rich industrialists. It
always counted with the US’ help and became an important base of operation in the case of need to
act on China, especially during the 50s.
This era divided China between Taiwan and the continental PRC, which led to Taiwan being the ones
recognized by the UN with their support to the West and therefore being the ones with the seat for
China in the UN and the Security Council until 1971.

In 1962 China and India had a conflict due to borders. In the same year the Cuban missile crisis took
place, in neither case was help offered from the USSR to Mao and it led to criticism from Mao to
Khrushchev.
Mao’s death and the next phase:
Mao died in September 1976 and it caused a great internal struggle within the party, which divided
into three sectors. Firstly there was a reformist sector, led by Xiaoping, trying to modernise the
industry and the country (right winger faction of the communist party). On the opposite side there was
the Gang of Four (three men and Mao’s wife), the most radicalised within the party, and supported
the Maoist dogma. In the middle of both sides was Guofeng, who represented the intermediate point
of view between the other two. He was the president for two years until 1978.

Xiaoping won and became the leader of the PRC in 1978. “Capitalism is better at bringing goods, but
Communism spreads them better”.
Xiaoping brought the Socialist market, a market under China’s dogma. A market open to foreign
companies and investments but the means of production are mostly controlled by the State. 60% of
the companies are controlled by the State.

The communes were dismantled. Land was given to families and the farmers and producers cna have
a part of their benefits, unlike with Mao.
Between 1 and 11 of September 1982 there was a Congress, the 12th Congress of the Communist
Party of China where it was mostly replaced by technology experts, technocrats, to control the Party
over Mao’s dogma in favour of progress.
It continued and has continued as a one party state. Opposition is not well received, recent
movements looking for press freedom were answered by application of Martial Law.

Nowadays it’s open to the outside world but very closed, very “opaque”. There are major censorship
over websites and the press, and practically everything is controlled by the Party. Being a member of
the Party is a way to be important in the Chinese society and it brings opportunities to climb the social
ladder.
Cities are growing out of control and the living and working conditions have worsened. Many chinese
citizens are working for many hours and the salaries and wages are not high enough. There are social
inequalities between the rich and the poor (due to the capitalist system that they have) and there is
ideological relativisation, as communism is defended even though the country is not communist.
24/10/2023
ISRAEL AND PALESTINE:
September 15th 2023 there was a Palestinian protest in Gaza that was violently stopped by the Israeli
military.
Hamas attacked a month later, a terrorist organisation. Conflicts are very present these days.

The origins of the Zionist Movement:

The Jews were established in the Near East in the AD times. In the Roman times they were conquered
in 6 B.C. , being Herodes its last king. They became Judea, a Roman province.
They did not accept their conquest, so between 66 and 73 a.D they revolted against the empire, which
led to a decimation of the population and Jerusalem being destroyed alongside its Jewish temples.
Bar Kojba led another revolt in the 132 until 136 a.D, which led to their population being scattered
all over Europe

In the Middle Ages the Jews were scattered in Italy, France, England, Spain… and in Muslim
kingdoms as well. They became minorities that would simply survive. During this coexistence with
other religions they are seen as a foreign community, with their own quarters and neighbourhoods in
their cities.
A lot of hate for the Jews due to the killing of Christ, and were attributed much of the blame for the
misfortunes of the cities. That would also lead to their expulsion from their countries or to measures
such as the inquisition.
The expelled jews tried to move to cities and countries with more tolerance, such as Russia or Poland.
It would, however, not lead to better living conditions. An attack on the Tzar of Russia was blamed on
the Jews again.

The Trial known as the Dreyfus affair in France shown in le Petit Journal in 1894 led to the
discovery of a great anti-semitism in French nationalism and its society.

Anti-semitism was shown all over Europe and the belief was that the Jews needed their own state.
Theodor Herzl, father of Zionism, wrote Der Judenstaat, the Jew State.
He argued that the Jews needed a zone to create the Jewish state. There was proposals to create these
states in Argentina, Siberia, Rwanda… but most of the people believed that the only right solution
was to come back to their original place, the Erets Ysrael, where their original kingdoms were
formed.
Erets Ysrael was, however, Palestine, part of the Ottoman Empire. A very poor province.

The first Zionist Congress was held in 1897 in Basel, where the Basel Programme was signed and
revindicated Palestine as their rightful place for the creation of the State.
They started to buy up land to settle Jews from abroad and work the land, trying to colonise and
flourish the land.
Jews started to come to Palestine because of the Zionist propaganda. 40.000 jews had arrived in
Palestine by 1914.

The colonisers started to create new cities, such as Tel-Aviv, founded in 1909. They however were
not completely happy with their situation and started to create little attacks to be able to form
defending bodies such as the Ha Shomer (the guard), which became the Haganah (1920-1948).

The Muslims were not comfortable with the coming of the Jews, even more when they knew that they
were looking to steal their lands in order to create their own State.

The UK was the first to support the creation of a Jewish state in 1917, this was due to the possibility
that it would lead to gaining influence in the near east and to fracture the Ottoman Empire.

In 1920 the UK was mandated by the League of Nations to administer over Palestine. They would
divide the area to create a zone where the Jews were allowed to settle, which was to become
Transjordan. It became and Emirate and had great autonomy by 1929. It became independent in
1946 and became Jordan in 1950.

Balfour declaration???

More and more immigrants are coming to Palestine due to the era, as the Holocaust was happening.
There were unsettling nerves by the Muslim population, as they felt the Jews were coming to conquer
and the British were controlling their countries.
The Great Arab Revolt came to be, with massive attacks against Jews and the British, as they
intended to secure a free and independent Palestine.
The White Paper was published in 1939, the British said the free state would exist in Palestine, but it
would be a democratic country governed by the Muslims and the Jews, so that the two communities
would have representation and power in the Institutions.
The Jews would not be happy as it led to them being a minority, and said that the White Paper was
just another way for the British to foment anti-semitism and not let them be independent. The Zionist
movement radicalised, in 1946 they attacked a Hotel where the general staff of the British were,
bombing it.
The creation of the State of Israel:
In the first years after WWII the feeling of betrayal was still strong. The Jews still had the favour of
the public opinion.

In November 1947 the UN created a plan for the partition of Palestine, as there was a need for the
creation of a Muslim AND a Jewish State. In this partition the city of Jerusalem would be under
administration of the ONU, as a sacred city for both religions.

Stalin wanted the creation of Israel as they believed it would lead to a communist state. Therefore
the USSR and the USA both pushed for its creation due to them seeking power and influence.

On May 14th 1948 in the museum of art of Tel-Aviv the State of Israel was declared by David Ben-
Gurion.
That same day many Arab countries declared war on Israel, they were against its creation. The war
quickly started, with the Arab countries (Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt…) against Israel, which was
weirdly the winner. The consequences of the war were that Israel gained more territory, gaining
control of more zones (including Jerusalem).
Jordania regained control over CisJordania, Egypt over the Gaza streep.

In the following years the State of Israel started the process of ethnic cleansing, it wanted to be a State
of only one religion, one culture, one language. Mandatory military service for men and women, as
they had the idea that in any moment they could be attacked, as they were surrounded by enemies
7/11/2023

Persia/Iran (Referred as Persia until half way into the 20th)

Iran in WWII was an ally of Nazi Germany due to they being opposite to the British. That is why they
were occupied by the UK and the URSS during this period, to control the natural resources Iran had
and not let them fall in hands of the Nazis. This occupation ended with the end of WWII.

During this occupation the British overthrew the Shah and replaced him with his son, Mohammad
Reza Pahlavi, who became the last Shah of Persia.
Mohammad Mosaddeq became Prime Minister under this Shah. He was a nationalist who tried to
nationalise the Oil Company that was heavily controlled by the British occupation.
Due to his views the CIA and MI6 prepared a coup d’etat to overthrow him, supported by the Shah
even though he was not allowed until the Constitution. This led to more power for the Shah and
American Oil Companies coming to get into the oil resources.

With American influence came the White Revolution, modernising progress in social and political
stances to bring Persia into a more Western appearance. Women’s suffrage in 1963. If the husband
wanted a second wife, the first wife had a right to oppose. Access to universities. No more obligation
to wear a veil.
Agrarian reform, land was given to peasant families → 2 million people benefitted from this.

Fight against analphabetism, 100.000 students travelled through peasant villages to teach how to

read and write.

Normal text as study material, no longer religious texts. Economic expansion that lead to a natality
boom.

This pro western change was also believed as an attack to muslim traditionalists and opposition grew.
Alongside with an eccentric Shah that celebrated a 4 day long party with public money, led to a
common believe that Western decadency had reached Iran. Opposition to thr Shah, who represents
this decay and the White Revolution.
With this opposition there were much larger public dissidents. Names such as Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, who accused the monarchy of immorality and violating the commandments of Allah until
he was exiled.
Demonstrations against the Shah started as soon as 1978, people who mobilised against the
government and the westernisation of Iran. It was met with police brutality and murders.
Demonstrations grew after this, becoming present in multiple cities and with demands of bringing
Khomeini back to the country.
In January 1979 the Shah left power and Khomeini could go back to Iran, received like a hero and
took political control.

Since then Iran has been controlled as a fundamentalist religious country, governed by the most
conservative wing of the Islam, the ayatollahs (homosexuals hanged, no rights for women,
poligamy…).
Very much against the USA.

Argo movie’s plot happened between 1979 and 1981. Iran wanted the Shah to be returned to be
judged but he was in the US. This was also a great point for Ronald Reagan to win the elections in
1980, as the democrat candidate Jimmy Carter did not handle the situation very well.

In 1979 in Iraq there was already political change, as Saddam Hussein took office and became
president. One of his first missions was to start a war against Iran over the convergence of the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers, where the border is. After the Argel Agreement the border was set just un the
middle, but Iraq wanted more and to have the control of the river that forms after the convergence
(one of the main reasons for war, not the only one).

After that Iran’s position in geopolitics are to be known as giving money to terrorist groups like
Hamas, power in natural resources and fear of nuclear and chemical weapons.
Iran is trying to get ties with China as a market and as a receiver of natural resources rather than the
US.

Afghanistan:
Controlled by the Taliban since 2021. Mass fleeing of the country. Installation of Taliban in power.
Civil rights are nonexistent. They had already been in power from 1996 to 2001. Over 20 years the
international community tried to create a democratic government but it was kot possible. But how did
this happen?:

In 1973 a coup d’etat overthrew a monarchy that had reigned for over a thousand years. It created an
authoritarian government with leftist sensibilities, a populist regimes that seeked to satisfy the
common people. A regime against communism and against islamic fundamentalism.
Nur Moyammad Taraki will later take control of the country and put forward a lot of communist
ideas, which led to a civil war that saw the opposing party have the help of the US and slowly become
the Taliban.

21/11/2023:
Terrorism in Europe:
Terrorism: A type of attack in search of surprise effects. They value the psychological terror of a
surprise attack over the material damages.

In the later years of the XIX century Barcelona was known as a ground of anarchist terrorism. They
were looking for the effects on politics. Canovas del Castillo was killed by an Italian anarchist, as he
was the leader of the Restauración in Spain, which brought the monarchy back.
He was not the only president to be killed, as Canalejas was also assassinated by another anarchist.
Eduardo Dato suffered the same fate.

Ottoman empire, Serbia, Bosnia… They all suffered from the terrorism.

During the interwar period the terrorist attacks started to include far right movement.

Terrorism in the 60s:

New political movement and activists, a lot of cultural change. The 60s had a rebellious atmosphere,
with universities being at the centre of it. Hippies, demonstrations against the war in Vietnam,
imperialism…
With a new culture came a new way of thinking, looking for new options away from capitalism

and soviet communism. NEW ALTERNATIVES → hippies.

New feminist ideas, black power and years of continuous protests and demonstrations. Fight against
the political establishment.

In Germany young students demonstrated against the Vietnam war, against the university system
(they saw it as a feudal institution, as students had no power of influence on university matters and
was controlled by a hierarchy of professors.)
Also against the presence of ancient Nazis in the spheres of power. They were looking for an
important rupture against the Nazi presence.
Rudy Dutschke was one of the leaders of the German Student Movement, strongly opposed to the
Vietnam war, in touch with feminism. He was a student of History and Sociology and was one of the
main publishers of Anschlag (translated as “attack”) that was looking to put into question democracy,
peace and egalitarian alternatives. Capitalism and Communism were not an option. Greatly
influenced by latin american movements of the time.
The conservative press of Germany such as “die Zeit” were extremely critical of the movement.
A student is shot and killed by a policeman and the media helps to keep it in the shadows → it

radicalises the movement.

The media and police are very violent against the movement, and it radicalises it further, creating

groups like the RAF → looking to end fascism and instigate socialist ideas.

They started to look for a revolution, getting away from the needed industrialization of marxism.

To win against capitalism it is only needed for a small resistance nucleus scattered throughout

society to spark and create a revolution as their conscience gets educated → very similar to Che

Guevara’s ideas and what happened in Cuba. “It is only needed for a few courageous soldiers to

start a revolution for the rest of society to join, the industrialization and existence of class ideas is

not needed”.

They always stayed as a small operative group that also attacked judges and USA’s military bases.

The biggest leaders were imprisoned and many of them died under strange circumstances, and it is
thought to be assassinations.

Italy:
In Italy the students aligned over the group Brigate Rosse, as their students were opposed to similar
measures (capitalism, Vietnam war…). It was created by Renato Curcio in 1969.
They attacked foreign enterprises, policemen, judges, military men from the US… Also members of
the Democrazia Cristiana, a conservative political party that was a centrist/moderate right.

They ended up kidnapping the Prime Minister and member of the Christian Democrat party in 1978
for 55 days. They assassinated him and was found in the trunk of a car. They still exist, they are
inactive but they never announced their end of activities. Their last assassination was in 2003.

Spain:
ETA → Pro independence of the Vasque Country. They searched for their national liberation, the

same way the IRA did in Ireland.

Appeared in 1959 against the Franquist regime that had been governing Spain since 1939 and
occupying the Vasque Country since 1937.
PNV was trying to create alliances with democratic countries in the effort to isolate the Franquist

government, but the young people thought violence was needed → ETA was formed.
In their first years they had no operational power as they had no funds, they could only make artesanal
bombs, which they used to bomb a small paper.

Jose Antonio Pardines is considered ETA’s first victim, as he was shot in 1968 by two members
after stopping them in their car (stolen) and asking for papers.
They ended up assassinating the Brigada Social’s (secret police of Franco) commander in the same
year.
Their biggest assassination was on Carrero Blanco, a militar appointed President, as they blew up his
car.
It is considered that they have killed 854 people, being mostly military men and policemen (around
60% of them.
They had a shooting in a shopping centre, kidnapped a prison worker for 2 years, kidnapped and

killed a PP politician… → It led to a lot of public hate towards the group.

They confirmed their end of killings/operations in 2011.

To gain money they would kidnap and ask for ransom, one of the most popular kidnappings was Julio
Iglesias’ father.

In Catalonia there was a movement called Terra Lliure between 1978 and 1991. They kidnapped
Jimenez Losantos, an extremist journalist who was shot on the knee and further radicalised him.
After this kidnapping the organisation stopped attacking civilians and focused on buildings, mainly.
A few of them left the organisation and either joined Esquerra Republicana or joined ETA.
28/11/2023:
Exam: Two parts, two questions each and choosing one to develop. 5 points each. TWO

EXTRA questions that give an extra 0,25 each – supposed to be very hard → example “what are

the things considered Haram in Iran”. Supposed to be very brief, not a long explanation needed.
Example question: Relationship between Maoist China and the URSS, origins of the Zionist
movement, development of Castro’s Cuba, Israel before 1948… Ideally 3 pages per question
answered.
He keeps promising it’s easy – study needed but easy.

TOPIC 6: Revolution and populisms in Latin America:

The Marxist ideas started to become strong in Latin America in the 1920s, after the Russian
Revolution. The communist parties there were not very important in the first half of the 20th
century.
Authoritarian governments were common in the region, which strongly stopped the development of
leftist ideas.

Argentina was a clear example of an authoritarian government, after a Coup D’etat by Uriburu,
whose government era was known as the Década Infame, as the military had control of the
government.

Same in Brazil 1937-1945. As usual paralysing the leftist ideas. Estado Novo → militarist

corporatist regime that helped the US in WWII. He released the Cohen Plan, which reported that
there was a communist revolution to come in Brazil and therefore his regime needed to stop them. It
was authoritarian but it was not a fascist regime.
In México it was different. Lázaro Cárdenas del Río was their president, and even though he was

not a communist, he tried to include leftist ideas in his time in government. He nationalised all

the oil companies in México. He approved an idea that led to the railways of the country to

control themselves “cooperativas” → They decided on the new lines of the railways, the

renovation of the locomotives… they had real power in the decision making of their industry.
Lázaro Cárdenas was also important to help the Republican side in the Spanish Civil war, sending
weapons towards them. He also helped those exiled after the end of the civil war, he promoted their
coming there as well.

Leftist parties in Latin America were usually conformed by intellectuals, as the marxist ideas did not
settle in lower class people, industrial nor agricultural.

CUBA:
It was a Spanish territory until 1898 → Treaty of Paris. The US maintained control of the Island

later, making an amendment in the Constitution, known as the Platt Amendment, which forced

them to accept them being intervened by the US in case of any foreign influence arriving to the

island → Cold war so communism basically.

American enterprises made large investments in Cuba and controlled their economy. They had people
in government or government helping matters.
There was also a debate between the sovereignty of the Island and those who were close to the US.
Self sovereignty or economical power by maintaining relations with the US basically.
The Orthodox Party arose, which tried to fight corruption and was very anti-imperialist, aiming to
stop the influence of the US in Cuba.

In June 1952 there were supposed to be elections, but a coup d’etat by Fulgencio Batista stopped it

from happening. He had been president already, a military man who tried to be a politician →

president between 1940 and 1944 before the coup d’etat. He had ruled as a populist and in a very
personalist way, with a moderate-leftist ideology, very similar to Franklin Roosevelt (who they helped
during WWII).
In the new dictatorship he was known for extreme corruption, nepotism and the banning of many
human civil rights. He reinstalled the death penalty (that was banned in a very leftist previous

Constitution made by himself in 1940), he suspended the congress → power was transferred to
the minister council, an estimation was made that calculated that 20.000 people were killed due

to ideological ideas in this time.

Cuba was economically controlled by the American enterprises, and also an Island of pleasure for the
affluent American families.

The opposition of the regime quickly organised and tried to counter the coup d’etat, led by students.
They attacked on July 26 1953 (VERY IMPORTANT DATE), led by lawyer Fidel Castro, some
military barracks of Moncada and Bayamo. Mostly everyone was killed. Fidel was a rich lawyer with
a family in the sugar business.
In his time in prison he wrote “la historia me absolverá?” He then met and became close friends with
Ernesto “Che” Guevara, another from rich upbringings but always a Communist, unlike Fidel
Castro, who was an anti-imperialist and not a communist at first (his brother was).

The students led by Fidel started to plan a revolution → to rent a Yacht named Gramma to enter

Cuba, landing in Playa de las Coloradas with only 82 people that were Guerrilla Fighters. They

were led by Fidel, his brother and Che Guevara → Known as the movement 26th July.
They did not have clear ideas, there were marxist but also moderate socialists, liberals, anti-
imperialists, ancient members of the orthodox party…

Check the presentation for a good image on the whole timeline of the revolution.

They wanted to guarantee society’s support. To do so they’d give out land after conquering

villages. It grew little by little, but was never very numerous, thought to only be 3.000 by 1958 →

they had, however, the support of very important parts of the peasants.

Batista increased repression after the movement 26th July entered the Island. They targeted la Habana
university as it was a place that would give much support to their rivals. He closed the university for
months in 1958. A teacher there was targeted and actually became the first president after Batista,
José Miró → he was strictly opposed to Fidel’s regime and was quickly dismissed, he’d later

appear as the lead president for a CIA plan to bring liberalism to the Island.
On 31st December 1958 Batista resigned and had to exile, bouncing from place to place until he
arrived in Spain where he had Franco’s help. He died of a heart attack in Marbella and is buried in the
San Isidro cemetery in Madrid.
The 1st of January 1959 the triumph of the revolution was proclaimed in City Hall of Santiago de
Cuba. The revolution was from the first moment an attack on the US’ presence and influence in the
Island, and was not led by communist ideas (only).

Castro repeatedly said he was not a communist nor did he had communist ideas in government.
His regime was actually very nationalistic in its rhetoric, promoting Cuban pride → it was born

as an anti-imperialist movement.

One of the first laws of the new regime was an agricultural expropriation law, that took away land
from American enterprises’ and gave it to the Cuban government/people.
He also had trials for ex-Batista people, and it was reported that many people were executed, known
as the revolutionary tribunals.

The Soviet Union offered loans and purchases of sugar to replace the US. This commercial
agreement supposed a great deal of peril for the White House, who saw it as a spread of communism

Castro nationalised a lot of enterprises and businesses in Cuba, which led to an economic blockade
in October 1960 and further aligned Cuba with the URSS. The US had its paradise in Cuba and was
slowly losing it, and they were not going to accept it.
The economic embargo has been maintained for decades and is one of the reasons for the poverty in
Cuba.

JFK arrived in 1961. He approved a plan to invade Cuba from the South, made by Roosevelt and the
CIA. They brought together Castro oppositors known as Acción Católica Universitaria, living mostly
in Miami and Florida. They would land in Cuba and demand a creation of a new government, a
liberal government close to the US’ interests. It was to be led by José Miró Cardona.

Another great image in the presentation of this plan.