The Republic of Cuba is an island in the Caribbean located South of Florida. Cuba is composed of one main island, the Isle of Youth, and several archipelagos. Other islands around Cuba are the Bahamas, Haiti, the Dominican Republic , and the Cayman Islands.
This is the flag of Cuba:
The capital of Cuba is Havana. Havana is the largest city in Cuba in both population and area. The city of Havana was founded by the Spanish during their conquest of the island, led by Christopher Columbus in the Age of Exploration. Another major city is Santiago de Cuba , the second largest city of Cuba.
After the war between Spain and America ended in 1898 , the United States controlled Cuba for half a century under a dictatorship. There was a lot of political agitation which sparked a change in Cuban society. In January 1965, Fidel Castro led a movement to overthrow the dictator. This historic revolution shall always remembered and the overthrowing of President Batista, a dictator which had nothing but contempt for his people. By stirring people up, the gained greater beliefs and ignited the rise of communism. Succeeding, Castro instilled a new socialist government, and since then, Cuba has remained a communist country. Even today, Cuba is a country of one-party, and other political parties are prohibited from participating in elections.
After Castro took over the government , there was a 6 year long rebellion against Castro involving thousands of executions. In 1962 , Cuba had came into conflict with the United States in the Bay of Pigs invasion. Soviet Communists were storing missiles in Cuba, and Cuba surrounded with its navy , which posed a threat to the U.S. As a result, Cuba has became a very highly controversial nation for communistic and anti-communistic believers.
Cuban's foreign policy has been quite brutal to say the least. Now, the U.S. and Cuba remain very hostile relations. In isolation, Cuba has prevented itself from interacting and trading with the United States as a nation for many years. In turn, Cuba has relied on many other nations such as Brazil and China as reliable trade partners for their economy.
Interesting post. I have always been fascinated by the history of the United States and Cuba. The relationship beginning with the US intervention in Cuba during a conflict with Spain and continuing with containment of communism on that island seems frosty at best. Since the nations are in close proximity to each other it would appear that a more amicable relationship would benefit both nations, however as the decade after the Cold War ended, the US has prospered where as Cuba has suffered. Hopefully, in the coming years we can soothe tensions between the two nations.
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