❤️ Foreign relations of Croatia 🐳

"The Republic of Croatia is a sovereign country at the crossroads of Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean that declared its independence from SFR Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991. Croatia is a member of the European Union (EU), United Nations (UN), the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization (WTO), Union for the Mediterranean and a number of other international organizations. Croatia has established diplomatic relations with 181 countries. President and the Government, through the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, co-operate in the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. The main objectives of Croatian foreign policy during the 1990s were gaining international recognition and joining the United Nations. After these objectives have been achieved by year 2000, two main goals became NATO and EU membership. Croatia fulfilled both of these goals, first in 2009, second in 2013. Current Croatian goals in foreign policy are: positioning within the EU institutions and in the region, cooperation with NATO partners and strengthening multilateral and bilateral cooperation worldwide. History Diplomatic relations of Croatia Croatian foreign policy has focused on greater Euro-Atlantic integration, mainly entering the European Union and NATO. In order to gain access to European and trans-Atlantic institutions, it has had to undo many negative effects of the breakup of Yugoslavia and the war that ensued, and improve and maintain good relations with its neighbors. Key issues over the last decade have been the implementation of the Dayton Accords and the Erdut Agreement, nondiscriminatory facilitation of the return of refugees and displaced persons from the 1991–95 war including property restitution for ethnic Serbs, resolution of border disputes with Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and general democratization. Croatia has had an uneven record in these areas between 1996 and 1999 during the right-wing HDZ government, inhibiting its relations with the European Union and the United States. Improvement in these areas severely hindered the advance of Croatia's prospects for further Euro-Atlantic integration. Progress in the areas of Dayton, Erdut, and refugee returns were evident in 1998, but progress was slow and required intensive international engagement. Croatia's unsatisfactory performance implementing broader democratic reforms in 1998 raised questions about the ruling party's commitment to basic democratic principles and norms. Areas of concern included restrictions on freedom of speech, one-party control of public TV and radio, repression of independent media, unfair electoral regulations, a judiciary that is not fully independent, and lack of human and civil rights protection. A centre-left coalition government was elected in early 2000. The SDP-led government slowly relinquished control over public media companies and did not interfere with freedom of speech and independent media, though it did not complete the process of making Croatian Radiotelevision independent. Judiciary reforms remained a pending issue as well. Major Croatian advances in foreign relations during this period have included: * admittance into NATO's Partnership for Peace Programme in May 2000 * admittance into World Trade Organization in July 2000; * signing a Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU in October 2001 * becoming part of NATO's Membership Action Plan in May 2002 * becoming a member of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) in December 2002 * application for membership in the EU in February 2003 * full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal and the beginning of accession negotiations with the EU in October 2005 The EU application was the last major international undertaking of the Račan government, which submitted a 7,000-page report in reply to the questionnaire by the European Commission. Foreign relations were severely affected by the government's hesitance and stalling of the extradition of Croatian general Janko Bobetko to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and inability to take general Ante Gotovina into custody for questioning by the Court. Refugee returns accelerated since 1999, reached a peak in 2000, but then slightly decreased in 2001 and 2002. The OSCE mission in Croatia has continued to monitor the return of refugees and is still recording civil rights violations. Croatian Serbs continue to have problems with restitution of property and acceptance to the reconstruction assistance programmes. Combined with lacking economic opportunities in the rural areas of former Krajina, the return process is highly troubled. Accession to the European Union At the time of Croatia's application to the European Union, three EU members states were yet to ratify the Stabilization and Association Agreement: United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Italy. The new Sanader government elected in 2003 elections repeated the assurances that Croatia will fulfill the missing political obligations, and expedited the extradition of several ICTY inductees. The European Commission replied to the answers of the questionnaire sent to Croatia on 20 April 2004 with a positive opinion. The country was finally accepted as EU candidate in July 2004. Italy and United Kingdom ratified the Stabilization and Association Agreement shortly thereafter, while the ten EU member states that were admitted to membership that year ratified it all together at a 2004 European Summit. In December 2004, the EU leaders announced that accession negotiations with Croatia would start on 17 March 2005 provided that Croatian government cooperates fully with the ICTY. The main issue, the flight of general Gotovina, however, remained unsolved and despite the agreement on an accession negotiation framework, the negotiations did not begin in March 2005. On 4 October 2005 Croatia finally received green light for accession negotiations after the Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY Carla Del Ponte officially stated that Croatia is fully cooperating with the Tribunal. This has been the main condition demanded by EU foreign ministers for accession negotiations. The ICTY called upon other southern European states to follow Croatia's good example. Thanks to the consistent position of Austria during the meeting of EU foreign ministers, a long period of instability and the questioning of the determination of the Croatian government to extradite alleged war criminals has ended successfully. Croatian Prime minister Ivo Sanader declared that full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal will continue. The accession process was also complicated by the insistence of Slovenia, an EU member state, that the two countries' border issues be dealt with prior to Croatia's accession to the EU. Croatia finished accession negotiations on 30 June 2011,Statement by President Barroso on Croatia – Commission proposes to close the last "Chapters" in the accession talks European Commission, 10 June 2011 and on 9 December 2011, signed the Treaty of Accession. A referendum on EU accession was held in Croatia on 22 January 2012, with 66% of participants voting in favour of joining the Union. The ratification process was concluded on 21 June 2013, and entry into force and accession of Croatia to the EU took place on 1 July 2013. Current events The main objective of the Croatian foreign policy is positioning within the EU institutions and in the region, cooperation with NATO partners and strengthening multilateral and bilateral cooperation. Government officials in charge of foreign policy include the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, currently Gordan Grlić-Radman, and the President of the Republic, currently Zoran Milanović. Croatia has established diplomatic relations with 174 countries. As of 2009, Croatia maintains a network of 51 embassies, 24 consulates and eight permanent diplomatic missions abroad. Furthermore, there are 52 foreign embassies and 69 consulates in the Republic of Croatia in addition to offices of international organizations such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Organization for Migration, Organization for Security and Co- operation in Europe (OSCE), World Bank, World Health Organization, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), United Nations Development Programme, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and UNICEF. International organizations Republic of Croatia participates in the following international organizations: CE, CEI, EAPC, EBRD, ECE, EU, FAO, G11, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, ITUC, NAM (observer), NATO, OAS (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, SECI, UN, UNAMSIL, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMOGIP, UPU, WCO, WEU (associate), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO There exists a Permanent Representative of Croatia to the United Nations. Foreign support Croatia receives support from donor programs of: * European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) * European Union * International Bank for Reconstruction and Development * International Monetary Fund * USAID Between 1991 and 2003, the EBRD had directly invested a total of 1,212,039,000 EUR into projects in Croatia. In 1998, U.S. support to Croatia came through the Southeastern European Economic Development Program (SEED), whose funding in Croatia totaled $23.25 million. More than half of that money was used to fund programs encouraging sustainable returns of refugees and displaced persons. About one-third of the assistance was used for democratization efforts, and another 5% funded financial sector restructuring. In 2003 USAID considered Croatia to be on a "glide path for graduation" along with Bulgaria. Its 2002/2003/2004 funding includes around $10 million for economic development, up to $5 million for the development of democratic institutions, about $5 million for the return of population affected by war and between 2 and 3 million dollars for the "mitigation of adverse social conditions and trends". A rising amount of funding is given to cross-cutting programs in anti-corruption, slightly under one million dollars. The European Commission has proposed to assist Croatia's efforts to join the European Union with 245 million euros from PHARE, ISPA and SAPARD aid programs over the course of 2005 and 2006. International disputes Relations with neighbouring states have normalized somewhat since the breakup of Yugoslavia. Work has begun — bilaterally and within the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe since 1999 — on political and economic cooperation in the region. Bosnia and Herzegovina Consulate-General in Banja Luka Discussions continue between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina on various sections of the border, the longest border with another country for each of these countries. Sections of the Una river and villages at the base of Mount Plješevica are in Croatia, while some are in Bosnia, which causes an excessive number of border crossings on a single route and impedes any serious development in the region. The Zagreb-Bihać-Split railway line is still closed for major traffic due to this issue. The border on the Una river between Hrvatska Kostajnica on the northern, Croatian side of the river, and Bosanska Kostajnica on the southern, Bosnian side, is also being discussed. A river island between the two towns is under Croatian control, but is also claimed by Bosnia. A shared border crossing point has been built and has been functioning since 2003, and is used without hindrance by either party. The Herzegovinian municipality of Neum in the south makes the southernmost part of Croatia an exclave and the two countries are negotiating special transit rules through Neum to compensate for that. Recently Croatia has opted to build a bridge to the Pelješac peninsula to connect the Croatian mainland with the exclave but Bosnia and Herzegovina has protested that the bridge will close its access to international waters (although Croatian territory and territorial waters surround Bosnian- Herzegovinian territory and waters completely) and has suggested that the bridge must be higher than 55 meters for free passage of all types of ships. Negotiations are still being held. Italy The relations between Croatia and Italy have been largely cordial and friendly, although occasional incidents do arise on issues such as the Istrian exodus or the Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone. Montenegro Croatia and Montenegro have a largely latent border dispute over the Prevlaka peninsula. Serbia The Danube border between Croatia and Serbia is in dispute, particularly in Baranja, the Island of Vukovar and the Island of Šarengrad. Slovenia Croatia and Slovenia have several land and maritime boundary disputes, mainly in the Gulf of Piran, regarding Slovenian access to international waters, a small number of pockets of land on the right-hand side of the river Dragonja, and around the Sveta Gera peak. Slovenia was disputing Croatia's claim to establish the Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone, an economic section of the Adriatic. Other issues that have yet to be fully resolved include: * Croatian depositors' savings in the former Ljubljanska banka Diplomatic relations=Africa { class="wikitable sortable" style="width:100%; margin:auto;" - ! style="width:15%;" Country ! style="width:12%;" data-sort- type="isoDate" Formal relations began ! style="width:50%;" Notes - valign="top" * Croatia has an embassy in Algiers. * Algeria has an embassy in Zagreb. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Angola through its embassy in Lisbon (Portugal). * Angola is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna (Austria). - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Benin through its embassy in Paris (France). * Benin is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Geneva (Switzerland). - valign="top" Diplomatic relations between Botswana and Croatia were established on 9 September 2005. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Burkina Faso through its embassy in Paris (France). * Burkina Faso is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna (Austria) and consulate in Zagreb. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Cape Verde through its embassy in Lisbon (Portugal). * Cape Verde is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Chad through its embassy in Paris (France). * Chad is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Comoros through its embassy in Pretoria (South Africa). * Comoros is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" - valign="top" Both countries established diplomatic relations on 25 May 2017. - valign="top" 1992-10-01 See Croatia–Egypt relations * Croatia has an embassy in Cairo and an honorary consulate in Alexandria. * Egypt has an embassy in Zagreb. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Egypt - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Eritrea through its embassy in Cairo (Egypt). * Eritrea is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Ethiopia through its embassy in Cairo (Egypt). * Ethiopia is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Gabon through its embassy in Rabat (Morocco). * Gabon is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Gambia through its embassy in London (UK). * Gambia is represented in Croatia through its embassy in London (UK). - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Ghana through its embassy in London (UK). * Ghana is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Rome (Italy). - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Guinea-Bissau through its embassy in Lisbon (Portugal). * Guinea-Bissau is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Kenya through its embassy in Pretoria (South Africa). * Kenya has a consulate in Zagreb, accredited to its embassy in Rome (Italy). - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Lesotho through its embassy in Pretoria (South Africa). * Lesotho is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Rome (Italy). - valign="top" 2000-03-30 See Croatia–Libya relations * Croatia has evacuated its embassy in Tripoli due to the worsening of security situation in the country. * Libya has an embassy in Zagreb. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Libya - valign="top" Both countries established diplomatic relations on 27 September 2006. - valign="top" Both countries established diplomatic relations on 13 November 1998. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Mali through its embassy in Rabat (Morocco). * Mali is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Rome (Italy). - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Mauritania through its embassy in Rabat (Morocco). * Mauritania is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Mauritius through its embassy in Pretoria (South Africa). * Mauritius is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" 1992-06-26 * Croatia has an embassy in Rabat. * Morocco is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Budapest (Hungary). * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Morocco - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Mozambique through its embassy in Pretoria (South Africa). * Mozambique is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" Diplomatic relations between Croatia and Namibia were established on 22 June 1998. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Nigeria through its embassy in London (UK). * Nigeria is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Budapest (Hungary). - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in São Tomé and Príncipe through its embassy in Lisbon (Portugal). * São Tomé and Príncipe is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Senegal through its embassy in Rabat (Morocco). * Senegal is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Seychelles through its embassy in Pretoria (South Africa). * Seychelles is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" 1992-11-19 * Croatia has an embassy in Pretoria. * South Africa is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Budapest (Hungary), and consulate in Zagreb. * There are around 1500 to 2000 Croats who live in South Africa. * As of 2006, the two countries have a trade agreement. * South African Department of Foreign Affairs about relations with Croatia - valign="top" *Croatia is represented in Sudan through its embassy in Cairo (Egypt). *Sudan is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Rome (Italy). - valign="top" *Croatia is represented in Tanzania through its embassy in Pretoria, (South Africa). *Tanzania is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Rome, (Italy). - valign="top" *Croatia is represented in Tongo through its embassy in Paris (France). *Togo is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" 1993-01-30 *Croatia is represented in Tunisia through its embassy in Rabat (Morocco) and consulate in Tunis. *Tunisia is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna (Austria) and consulate in Zagreb. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Tunisia * Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs about relations with Croatia (in French only) - valign="top" *Croatia is represented in Uganda through its embassy in Pretoria (South Africa). *Uganda is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" *Croatia is represented in Zambia through its embassy in Pretoria (South Africa). *Zambia is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Paris (France). - valign="top" Both countries established diplomatic relations on February 12, 1999. } Americas { class="wikitable sortable" style="width:100%; margin:auto;" - ! style="width:15%;" Country ! style="width:12%;" data-sort-type="isoDate" Formal relations began ! style="width:50%;" Notes - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Antigua and Barbuda through its Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (USA). * Antigua and Barbuda is represented in Croatia through its through its embassy in Vienna (Austria). - valign="top" See Argentina–Croatia relations * Croatia has an embassy in Buenos Aires. Croatian embassy in Buenos Aires * Argentina is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Budapest (Hungary). * More than 400,000 Argentinians are of Croatian descent. * List of Treaties ruling relations Argentina and Croatia (Argentine Foreign Ministry, in Spanish) - valign="top" * Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Croatia and the Commonwealth of Bahamas was signed on 31 January 2017. - valign="top" * Both countries established diplomatic relations on 23 January 1996. - valign="top" *Croatia is represented in Bolivia through its embassy in Santiago (Chile) and 2 consulates in Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Cochabamba. *Bolivia is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna (Austria). - valign="top" See Brazil–Croatia relations * Brazil has an embassy in Zagreb. * Croatia has an embassy in Brasília and consulate in São Paulo. - valign="top" *Croatia has an embassy in Ottawa, a consulate general in Mississauga, and an honorary consulate in Saint John. * Canada has an embassy in Zagreb. * Both countries are members on NATO. - valign="top" See Chile–Croatia relations * Chile has an embassy in Zagreb and 3 consulates in Zagreb, Rijeka and Split. * Croatia has an embassy in Santiago and 2 consulates in Antofagasta and Punta Arenas. * It is officially accepted that there are up to 380,000 Chileans of Croatian descent - valign="top" *Colombia is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna (Austria). *Croatia is represented in Colombia through its embassy in Brasilia (Brazil). *Croatia is defined as an ally by Colombia on the war on drugs and as an example to follow after a post-conflict situation - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Costa Rica through its Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (US). * Costa Rica is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna (Austria). - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Cuba through its embassy in Madrid (Spain). * Cuba is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna (Austria). * Croatian President Stjepan Mesić made a state visit to Cuba in September 2009. * Croatia and Cuba signed 16 agreements about cooperation. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: list of bilateral treaties with Cuba) - valign="top" 2013 * Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Croatia and the Commonwealth of Dominica was signed on 30 July 2013. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Ecuador through its embassy in Santiago (Chile). * Ecuador is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Budapest (Hungary). - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in El Salvador through its Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (US). * El Salvador is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Grenada through its Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (USA). - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Guatemala through its Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (US). * Guatemala is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" *Both countries established diplomatic relations on 25 February 2003. *Croatia is represented in Guyana through its Permanent Mission in New York City. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Honduras through its Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (US). * Honduras is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Jamaica through its Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (USA). - valign="top" See Croatia–Mexico relations * Croatia is represented in Mexico through its embassy in Washington, DC (US) and consulate in Mexico City. * Mexico is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Budapest (Hungary) and consulates in Zagreb and Split. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Nicaragua through its Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (US) and embassy in Brasilia (Brazil). * Nicaragua is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Panama through its embassy in Washington, D.C. (US). * Panama is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Piraeus (Greece). - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Paraguay through its embassy in Buenos Aires (Argentina). * Paraguay is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Peru through its embassy in Santiago (Chile) and consulate in Lima. * Peru is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Bucharest (Romania) and consulate in Zagreb. * There are around 6,500 people of Croatian descent living in Peru. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Saint Lucia through its Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (USA). - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines through its Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (USA). - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Suriname through its Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (US) and embassy in Brasilia (Brazil). * Suriname is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" Both countries established diplomatic relations on 14 December 2011. - valign="top" See Croatia–United States relations * Croatia has an embassy in Washington, D.C. and three consulates-general in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago; as well as six honorary consulates in Seattle, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Houston, Anchorage and New Orleans. * United States has an embassy in Zagreb. * Both countries are members of NATO. - valign="top" See Croats in Uruguay * Croatia is represented in Uruguay through its embassy in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and consulate in Montevideo. * Uruguay is not represented in Croatia. * According to UN estimates there are some 3,300 people of Croat descent living in Uruguay. Other estimates place the figure at around 5,000. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Venezuela through its embassy in Brasilia (Brazil). * Venezuela is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna (Austria). } Asia { class="wikitable sortable" style="width:100%; margin:auto;" - ! style="width:15%;" Country ! style="width:12%;" data-sort-type="isoDate" Formal relations began ! style="width:50%;" Notes - valign="top" *Croatia is represented in Afghanistan through its embassy in Ankara (Turkey). *Croatian Presidents Stjepan Mesić, Ivo Josipović and Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović visited Afghanistan several times. *Croatia has few hundred deployed personnel in Afghanistan as part of the NATO Resolute Support Mission. They work on training other soldiers and do not participate in combats. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Afghanistan - valign="top" See Armenia–Croatia relations * Armenia has an embassy in Zagreb. * Croatia has an honorary consulate in Yerevan. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: list of bilateral treaties with Armenia - valign="top" See Azerbaijan–Croatia relations * Azerbaijan has an embassy in Zagreb. * Croatia has an embassy in Baku. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: list of bilateral treaties with Azerbaijan - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Bahrain through its embassy in Cairo (Egypt). * Bahrain is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Cambodia through its embassy in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). * Cambodia is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" (People's Republic)1992-05-13 See also: China–Croatia relations * Croatia has an embassy in Beijing and a general consulate in Hong Kong. * China has an embassy in Zagreb. * On 16 May 2002, Croatian president Stjepan Mesić made a state visit to China, while Chinese president Hu Jintao made a state visit to Croatia on 19 June 2009. * On 21 May 2007, Croatian Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović visited Beijing, and again as President of Croatia on 13–18 October 2015. * Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs about relations with Croatia * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with China - valign="top" 1993-02-01 See Croatia–Georgia relations *Croatia is represented in Georgia through its embassy in Athens (Greece) and consulate in Tbilisi. *Georgia is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Budapest (Hungary). - valign="top" 1992-07-09 See Croatia–India relations * Croatia has an embassy in New Delhi and 2 consulate in Mumbai and Kolkata. * India has an embassy in Zagreb. * See also Hinduism in Croatia * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with India - valign="top" * Croatia has embassy in Jakarta. * Indonesia has embassy in Zagreb. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Indonesia - valign="top" See Croatia–Iran relations * Croatia has an embassy in Tehran. * Iran has an embassy and a cultural centre in Zagreb. * Croatia and Iran signed 24 agreements of cooperation. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Iraq through its embassy in Baghdad. * Iraq is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna. - valign="top" See Croatia–Israel relations * Croatia has an embassy in Tel Aviv and 4 consulates in Ashdod, Caesarea, Jerusalem and Kfar Shmaryahu. * Israel has an embassy in Zagreb. * See also History of the Jews in Croatia * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Israel * Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Israel embassy in Zagreb - valign="top" 1993-03-05 See Croatia–Japan relations * Croatia has an embassy in Tokyo. * Japan has an embassy in Zagreb. * Princess Sayako visited Croatia in 2002. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: list of bilateral treaties with Japan * Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs about relations with Croatia - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Jordan through its embassy in Cairo (Egypt) and consulate in Amman. * Jordan is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Rome (Italy) and consulate in Zagreb. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Jordan - valign="top" 1992-10-20 * Croatia is represented in Kazakhstan through its embassy in Nur-Sultan and honorary consulate in Almaty. * Kazakhstan is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Zagreb and through 2 honorary consulates in Dubrovnik and Umag. * Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev visited Croatia in 2001 and 2006. Croatian high-ranking officials, including President Stjepan Mesić, Prime Minister Zoran Milanović, and Foreign Minister Vesna Pusić also visited Kazakhstan. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Kazakhstan * Kazakhstan & Croatia recognized 25 years of diplomatic relations in 2017. - valign="top" * Croatia has an embassy in Kuwait City. * Kuwait is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Prague (Czech Republic) and consulate in Zagreb. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Kyrgyzstan through its embassy in Ankara (Turkey). - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Laos through its embassy in Kuala Lumpur. - valign="top" 1994-12-05 *Croatia is represented in Lebanon through its embassy in Cairo and consulate in Beirut. *Lebanon is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna. * Both countries are full members of the Union for the Mediterranean. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Malaysia through its embassy in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). * Malaysia has embassy in Zagreb. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Maldives through its embassy in New Delhi (India). * Maldives is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" 1993-03-10 * Croatia is represented in Mongolia through its embassy in Beijing (China) and consulate in Ulaanbaatar. * Mongolia is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna (Austria) and consulate in Zagreb. * Croatian President Stjepan Mesić visited Mongolia in August 2008, while Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj visited Croatia on 19 October 2011. * During the Mongol invasion of Europe from 1241 to 1242, ancient Mongolians and Croats fought in battles in Pannonia and Dalmatia. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: bilateral treaties with Mongolia * Mongolian honorary consulate in Zagreb * Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: list of bilateral treaties with Croatia (in Mongolian only) - valign="top" - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Nepal through its embassy in New Delhi and consulate in Kathmandu. * Nepal is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Geneva (Switzerland). - valign="top" 1992-11-30 * Croatia is represented in North Korea through its embassy in Beijing (China). * North Korea is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Bucharest (Romania). * In January 2016, former Croatian president Stjepan Mesić visited North Korea. - valign="top" 1994-07-20 * Croatia is represented in Pakistan through its embassy in Tehran (Iran). * Pakistan is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and an honorary consulate in Zagreb. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Pakistan - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in The Philippines through its embassy in Jakarta (Indonesia). * The Philippines is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna (Austria). * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Philippines - valign="top" See Croatia–Qatar relations * Croatia has an embassy in Doha. * Qatar has an embassy in Zagreb. - valign="top" See Croatia–Saudi Arabia relations *Croatia is represented in Saudi Arabia through its embassy in Cairo (Egypt). *Saudi Arabia is not represented in Croatia but citizens that need any assistance are advised to contact the Saudi Arabia embassy in Sarajevo (BiH). - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Singapore through its embassy in Jakarta (Indonesia). * Singapore is not represented in Croatia. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Singapore - valign="top" 1992-11-18 See Croatia–South Korea relations * The Establishment of diplomatic relations between Croatia and the South Korea began on 18 November 1992. * Croatia has an embassy in Seoul. * South Korea has an embassy in Zagreb. * Croatian President Stjepan Mesić visited South Korea in April 2006. * The number of the South Koreans living in Croatia in 2015 was about 88. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with South Korea * South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade about the relations with Croatia (in Korean only) * Foreign relations of South Korea#Europe Foreign relations of South Korea Foreign relations of the Republic of Korea.http://www.mofa.go.kr/ENG/countries/europe/countries/20070818/1_24624.jsp?menu=m_30_40 - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Croatia through its embassy in New Delhi and consulate in Colombo. * Sri Lanka is represented in Sri Lanka through its embassy in Vienna (Austria) and consulate in Zagreb. - valign="top" 1997-08-29 See Croatia–Syria relations * Croatia is represented in Syria through its embassy in Cairo (Egypt) and consulate in Damascus. * Syria is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Budapest (Hungary). * On 18 January 2013 Croatian Foreign Ministry declared that Croatia, as well as the entire European Union, recognizes the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as "only legitimate representatives of the aspirations of the Syrian people". * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Syria - valign="top" *Both countries established diplomatic relations on 1 April 1999. *Both countries are full members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. - valign="top" 1992-09-09 * Croatia is represented in Thailand through its embassy in Jakarta (Indonesia) and through a consulate in Bangkok. * Thailand is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Budapest (Hungary) and through consulate in Zagreb. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Thailand - valign="top" 2003-02-05 *Croatia is represented in East Timor through its embassy in Canberra (Australia). *Military of Croatia was part of UNMISET peacekeeping operation in East Timor. - valign="top" 1992-08-26 See Croatia–Turkey relations * Croatia has an embassy in Ankara and two consulates-general in Istanbul and Izmir. * Turkey has an embassy in Zagreb. * Both countries are full members of NATO. * Both have been EU candidates since 2005. (Croatia become a member state on 1 July 2013) * Turkey has Office of the Defence Attaché and Office of Trading Advisor in Zagreb. * List of international treaties and acts signed between Croatia and Turkey * Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs about relations with Croatia - valign="top" See Croatia–Turkmenistan relations * Croatia is represented in Turkmenistan through its embassy in Ankara (Turkey). * Turkmenistan is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Bucharest (Romania). * Croatian presidents Stjepan Mesić (2008) and Ivo Josipović (2014) as well as the Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanović and Foreign Minister Vesna Pusić (5 December 2014) visited Turkmenistan. * Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov visited Croatia in 2009. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Turkmenistan - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in United Arab Emirates through its embassy in Cairo (Egypt). * United Arab Emirates are represented in Croatia through its embassy in Berlin (Germany). - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Uzbekistan through its embassy in Ankara (Turkey). - valign="top" 1994-07-01 * Croatia is represented in Vietnam through its embassy in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). * Vietnam is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Budapest (Hungary). * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Vietnam * Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs about relations with Croatia - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Yemen through its embassy in Cairo (Egypt). * Yemen is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna (Austria) and consulate in Zagreb. } Europe { class="wikitable sortable" style="width:100%; margin:auto;" - ! style="width:15%;" Country ! style="width:12%;" data-sort-type="isoDate" Formal relations began ! style="width:50%;" Notes - valign="top" See Albania–Croatia relations * Albania has an embassy in Zagreb. * Croatia has an embassy in Tirana. * Both countries are full members of NATO. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: list of bilateral treaties with Albania) - valign="top" *Croatia is represented in Andorra through its embassy in Madrid (Spain). *Andorra is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Paris (France). - valign="top" See Austria–Croatia relations * Austria has an embassy in Zagreb and 4 honorary consulates in Dubrovnik, Pula, Rijeka and Split. * Croatia has an embassy in Vienna and 2 honorary consulates in Graz and Innsbruck. * From 1527 until 1918 Croatia and Austria were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with Croatian region Dalmatia being under the Austrian administration. * Both countries are full members of the European Union. - valign="top" See Belarus–Croatia relations * Croatia is represented in Belarus through its embassy in Moscow (Russia). * Belarus is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna (Austria). * The states maintain their bilateral relations through their embassies in Moscow. * On 16 December 2002 Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation within the project to integrate the Druzhba and Adria oil-pipelines in Zagreb. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Belarus * Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus – search for "Croatia" - valign="top" See Belgium–Croatia relations * Belgium has an embassy in Zagreb and 2 honorary consulates in Dubrovnik and Zadar. * Croatia has an embassy in Brussels and an honorary consulate in Bruges. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Belgium - valign="top" See Bosnia and Herzegovina – Croatia relations * Croatia has an embassy in Sarajevo and 4 consulates in Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Mostar and Tuzla. * Bosnia and Herzegovina has an embassy in Zagreb. * Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were part of Yugoslavia from 1918 to 1991. * Croats are one out of three constituent nations of BiH. * The two countries share a border. - valign="top" See Bulgaria–Croatia relations * Bulgaria has an embassy in Zagreb. * Croatia has an embassy in Sofia. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Bulgaria - valign="top" 1993-02-04 See Croatia–Cyprus relations * Croatia is represented in Cyprus through its embassy in Rome (Italy) and an honorary consulate in Nicosia. * Cyprus is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna (Austria) and an honorary consulate in Zagreb. * Both countries are full members of the European Union. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: list of bilateral treaties with Cyprus - valign="top" 1993-01-01 See Croatia–Czech Republic relations * Croatia has an embassy in Prague. * Czech Republic has an embassy in Zagreb and 2 honorary consulates in Rijeka and Split. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with the Czech Republic - valign="top" 1992-02-01 See Croatia–Denmark relations * Croatia has an embassy in Copenhagen and an honorary consulate in Aarhus. * Denmark has an embassy in Zagreb and 3 honorary consulates in Dubrovnik, Rijeka, and Split. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Denmark - valign="top" 1992-03-02 * Croatia is represented in Estonia through its embassy in Helsinki, Finland and honorary consulate in Tallinn. * Estonia is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Rome, Italy and honorary consulate in Zagreb. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. - valign="top" 1992-02-19 See Croatia–Finland relations * Croatia has an embassy in Helsinki. * Finland has an embassy in Zagreb and 3 honorary consulates in Rijeka, Split and Zagreb. * Both countries are full members of the European Union. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Finland * Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs about relations with Croatia - valign="top" 1992-04-24 See Croatia–France relations * Croatia has an embassy in Paris and an honorary consulate in Lyon. * France has an embassy in Zagreb. * Since 2004, Croatia is an observer on the Francophonie. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties signed with France * French Ministry of Foreign Affairs about relations with Croatia - valign="top" 1992-01-15 See Croatia–Germany relations * Croatia has an embassy in Berlin and 5 consulates general in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart. * Germany has an embassy in Zagreb and an honorary consulate in Split. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. - valign="top" 1992-07-20 See Croatia–Greece relations * Greece has an embassy in Zagreb. * Croatia has an embassy in Athens and consulate in Thessaloniki. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: List of treaties between Croatia and Greece * Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the relation with Croatia - valign="top" 1992-02-08 See Croatia–Holy See relations * Croatia has a resident embassy to the Holy See in Rome. * Holy See has a nunciature with a nuncio of ambassadorial rank with additional privileges in Zagreb. * According to the 2011 census 86.28% of Croats are Roman Catholic. - valign="top" 1992-01-18 See Croatia–Hungary relations * Croatia has an embassy in Budapest, a general consulate in Pécs and an honorary consulate in Nagykanizsa. * Hungary has an embassy in Zagreb and 2 honorary consulates in Rijeka and Split. * From 1102 until 1527 Croatia and Hungary were in a Personal union, and from 1527 until 1918 Austro- Hungarian Empire, most part of Croatia being under Hungarian administration. * Today, both countries share 329 km of common border. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. * Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Hungary - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Iceland thought it embassy in Copenhagen (Denmark) and consulate in Reykjavik. * Iceland is represented in Croatia thought it embassy in Berlin (Germany) and consulate in Zagreb. * Iceland is the first fully sovereign country that recognized Croatia as an independent state. (19 December 1991) * Both countries are full members of NATO. - valign="top" 1995-01-27 See Croatia-Ireland relations * Croatia has an embassy and consulate in Dublin. * Ireland has an embassy and consulate in Zagreb. * Both countries are full members of the European Union. - valign="top" 1992-01-17 See Croatia-Italy relations * Croatia has an embassy in Rome, 2 general consulates in Milan and Trieste and 5 honorary consulates in Bari, Florence, Montemitro, Naples, and Padua. * Italy has an embassy in Zagreb, general consulate in Rijeka, a consulate in Split and 2 honorary consulates in Buje and Pula. * Croatia and Italy share maritime border. * Italy is most important trading partner to Croatia. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Italy - valign="top" 2008-06-30 See Croatia–Kosovo relations * Croatia has an embassy Pristina. * Kosovo has an embassy in Zagreb. * Croatia has 27 of its soldiers deployed on Kosovo. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs about relations with Kosovo - valign="top" 1992-02-14 * Croatia is represented in Latvia through its embassy in Stockholm (Sweden). * Latvia is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Prague (Czech Republic) and an honorary consulate in Zagreb. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Latvia * Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs about relations with Croatia - valign="top" 1992-02-04 * Croatia is represented in Liechtenstein through its embassy in Bern (Switzerland). * Liechtenstein is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" 1992-03-18 * Croatia is represented in Lithuania through the Croatian office in Lithuania which is a branch of Croatian embassy in Stockholm (Sweden). * Lithuania is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Vienna (Austria) and 2 consulate in Zagreb and Starigrad. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Lithuania * Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: list of bilateral treaties with Croatia (in Lithuanian only) - valign="top" 1992-04-29 * Croatia is represented in Luxembourg through it embassy in Brussels (Belgium). * Luxembourg is represented in Croatia through it embassy in Berlin (Germany). * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. - valign="top" 1992-06-30 * Croatia is represented in Malta through it embassy in Rome (Italy). * Malta is represented in Croatia through its general embassy in Valletta (Malta) and 2 honorary consulate in Zagreb and Split. * Both countries are full members of the European Union. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: list of bilateral treaties with Malta * Malta Ministry of Foreign Affairs about relations with Croatia - valign="top" 1992-07-28 * Croatia is represented in Moldova through its embassy in Bucharest (Romania). * Moldova is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Budapest (Hungary). * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Moldova * Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration about relations with Croatia - valign="top" 2007-12-14 * Croatia is represented in Monaco through it embassy in Paris (France) and honorary consulate in Monaco. * Monaco is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Rome (Italy) and honorary consulate in Zagreb. - valign="top" 2006-07-07 See Croatia–Montenegro relations * Croatia has an embassy in Podgorica and consulate in Kotor. * Montenegro has an embassy in Zagreb and consulate in Dubrovnik. * From 1918 to 1991 Croatia and Montenegro were part of Yugoslavia. * Relations between the two countries are promoted through the Croatian-Montenegrin Friendship Society "Croatica-Montenegrina". * Croatia is full member of the European Union and NATO while Montenegro is among candidates for membership in both organisations. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: list of bilateral treaties with Montenegro - valign="top" 1992-04-23 * Croatia has an embassy in The Hague. * The Netherlands has an embassy in Zagreb and 3 honorary consulates in Dubrovnik, Opatija and Split. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with the Netherlands * Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs about relations with Croatia (in Dutch only) - valign="top" 1992-03-30 * Croatia has an embassy in Skopje, and the general consulate in Bitola. * North Macedonia has an embassy in Zagreb and 2 consulates in Zadar and Rijeka. * From 1918 to 1991 Croatia and North Macedonia were part of Yugoslavia. * Croatia is full member of the European Union and NATO while North Macedonia is among candidates for membership. - valign="top" 1992-02-20 See Croatia–Norway relations * Croatia has an embassy in Oslo. * Norway has an embassy in Zagreb and 2 consulate in Rijeka and Dubrovnik. * Both countries are full members of NATO. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Norway - valign="top" 1992-04-11 See Croatia–Poland relations * Croatia has an embassy in Warsaw and 5 consulates in Kraków, Poznań, Bialystok, Bydgoszcz and Opole. * Poland has an embassy in Zagreb and consulate in Opatija. * Poland has Office of Military Attaché and Department of Trade and Investment Promotion of the Polish Embassy in Zagreb. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Poland - valign="top" 1992-02-03 * Croatia has an embassy in Lisbon and 2 honorary consulates in Funchal and Porto. * Portugal has an embassy in Zagreb. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Portugal - valign="top" 1992-08-29 See Croatia–Romania relations * Croatia has an embassy in Bucharest. * Romania has an embassy in Zagreb and consulate in Rijeka. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. * See also Istro-Romanians * Croatian Foreign Ministry list of bilateral treaties between Croatia and Romania - valign="top" 1992-05-25 See Croatia–Russia relations * Croatia has an embassy in Moscow and an honorary consulate in Kaliningrad. Embassy of Croatia in Moscow * Russia has an embassy in Zagreb. Embassy of The Russian Federation in Zagreb * Both countries are full members of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: list of bilateral treaties with Russia - valign="top" 1993-02-11 * Croatia is represented in San Marino through its embassy in Rome (Italy). * San Marino is represented in Croatia through its General embassy in San Marino. *According to legend San Marino was founded in year 301 by sculptor Saint Marinus from the Croatian island of Rab. - valign="top" 1996-09-09 then as FR Yugoslavia and including MontenegroSee Croatia–Serbia relations * Croatia has an embassy in Belgrade and a general consulate in Subotica. * Serbia has an embassy in Zagreb and 2 general consulates in Rijeka and Vukovar. * Both countries shares 241 km of common border. * From 1918 to 1991 Croatia and Serbia were part of Yugoslavia. * Croatia is full member of the European Union while Serbia is candidate for membership. - valign="top" 1993-01-01 * Croatia has an embassy in Bratislava. * Slovakia has an embassy in Zagreb and consulate in Osijek. In addition, since 2014 Slovakian Embassy operates temporary office in Zadar during the summer. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Slovakia - valign="top" See Croatia–Slovenia relations * Croatia has an embassy in Ljubljana and 2 honorary consulates in Maribor and Koper. * Slovenia has an embassy in Zagreb and an honorary consulate in Split. * Both countries shares 670 km of common border. * From 1918 to 1991 Croatia and Slovenia were part of Yugoslavia. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. - valign="top" 1992-12-22 * Sovereign Military Order of Malta has an embassy in Zagreb. - valign="top" See Croatia–Spain relations * Croatia has an embassy in Madrid and 4 honorary consulates in Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Pamplona and Seville. * Spain has an embassy in Zagreb and 2 honorary consulates in Dubrovnik and Split. * Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO. - valign="top" * Croatia has an embassy in Stockholm and 2 honorary consulates in Gothenburg and Malmö. * Sweden has an embassy in Zagreb and 2 honorary consulates in Rijeka and Split. * Both countries are full members of the European Union. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with Sweden - valign="top" 1992-01-30 * Croatia has an embassy in Bern, a general consulate in Zürich and 2 honorary consulates in Lugano and Massagno. * Switzerland has an embassy in Zagreb, consulate in Split and honorary consulate in Smoljanci. * More than 45,000 Croats live in Switzerland. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties signed with Switzerland * Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs about relations with Croatia - valign="top" 1992-08-26 * See Turkey in Asia Above * See Croatia–Turkey relations - valign="top" 1992-02-18 See Croatia–Ukraine relations * Croatia has an embassy in Kyiv. * Ukraine has an embassy in Zagreb and 2 consulates in Zadar and Malinska. - valign="top" 1992-06-24 See Croatia–United Kingdom relations * United Kingdom has an embassy in Zagreb and 2 honorary consulates in Dubrovnik and Split. * Croatia has an embassy in London and an honorary consulate in Edinburgh. * In March 2007, both countries signed a UK–Croatia Strategic Partnership, by which the United Kingdom fully supports Croatia's EU and NATO entry bids. * Both countries are full members of NATO. * British Commonwealth and Foreign Office about the relation with Croatia * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties signed with the United Kingdom } Oceania { class="wikitable sortable" style="width:100%; margin:auto;" - ! style="width:15%;" Country ! style="width:12%;" Formal Relations Began ! style="width:50%;" Notes - valign="top" 1992-02-13 * Australia has an embassy in Zagreb. * Croatia has an embassy in Canberra and three consulates general in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. * Since 2006, 118,051 people living in Australia declared themselves as Croats. Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs believes that in Australia live around 150,000 Croats while the Croatian community in Australia claims to have 250,000 members. * Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade about relations with Croatia * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: list of bilateral treaties with Australia - valign="top" Both countries established diplomatic relations on 14 July 1997. - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Nauru through its embassy in Canberra (Australia). * Nauru is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" 1992-02-25 * Croatia is represented in New Zealand through its embassy in Canberra (Australia) and through consulate in Auckland. * New Zealand is represented in Croatia through its embassy in Rome (Italy) and through an honorary consulate in Zagreb. * According to the Croatian community the number of Croats that live in New Zealand is around 20 and 60 thousand. * Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: list of bilateral treaties with New Zealand - valign="top" * Croatia is represented in Samoa through its embassy in Canberra (Australia). * Samoa is not represented in Croatia. - valign="top" *Both countries established diplomatic relations on 18 April 2000. } No diplomatic relations Croatia hasn't established diplomatic relations with these 11 UN member and 1 observer states: { class="wikitable sortable" style="width:30%; margin:left;" - ! style="width:15%;" Country - valign="top" - valign="top" - valign="top" - valign="top" - valign="top" - valign="top" - valign="top" (Not recognized by Croatia. Note that Palestine was granted "non-member observer state" status in 2012.) - valign="top" - valign="top" - valign="top" - valign="top" - valign="top" } Croatia hasn't established diplomatic relations with these 8 states with limited recognition. The Republic of Croatia recognizes none of the following states: { class="wikitable sortable" style="width:30%; margin:left;" - ! style="width:15%;" Country - valign="top" - valign="top" - valign="top" - valign="top" - valign="top" - valign="top" - valign="top" - valign="top" - valign="top" } According to the former Croatian diplomat Budimir Lončar, Croatia hasn't established diplomatic relations with 13 UN member states because those states are not present in international relations, nor are that much politically active so Croatia wasn't interested in initiating any diplomatic relations. Former Yugoslavian diplomat, sociologist Ivica Maštruko discarded any political reasons, stating that those 13 countries are not internationally active and do not have diplomatic representatives in many international organizations and larger countries, nor they have elaborate diplomatic apparatus so Croatia shows no interest in developing diplomatic relations with them. Nevertheless, Croatia is the process of establishing diplomatic relations with Burundi and Djibouti thanks to the local Catholic missionaries who have been working in these two countries for many years. See also * Croatian passport * List of diplomatic missions in Croatia * List of diplomatic missions of Croatia * Visa requirements for Croatian citizens * International recognition of Croatia ReferencesExternal links * Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration * Government of the Republic of Croatia * EBRD and Croatia * Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe "

❤️ History of Cuba 🐳

"The history of Cuba is characterized by dependence on outside powers—Spain, the US, and the USSR. The island of Cuba was inhabited by various Amerindian cultures prior to the arrival of the Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus in 1492. After his arrival on a Spanish expedition, Spain conquered Cuba and appointed Spanish governors to rule in Havana. The administrators in Cuba were subject to the Viceroy of New Spain and the local authorities in Hispaniola. In 1762–63, Havana was briefly occupied by Great Britain, before being returned to Spain in exchange for Florida. A series of rebellions during the 19th century failed to end Spanish rule and claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Cubans. However, the Spanish–American War resulted in a Spanish withdrawal from the island in 1898, and following three-and-a-half years of subsequent US military rule, Cuba gained formal independence in 1902. In the years following its independence, the Cuban republic saw significant economic development, but also political corruption and a succession of despotic leaders, culminating in the overthrow of the dictator Fulgencio Batista by the 26th of July Movement, led by Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and Raúl Castro, during the 1953–1959 Cuban Revolution. The new government aligned with the Soviet Union and embraced communism. Massive quantities of advanced Soviet military hardware, including batteries of surface-to-air missiles, flowed to the island, and in October 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred. Cuba was officially atheist from 1962 until 1992. Following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968), Fidel Castro publicly declared Cuba's support. Castro's speech marked the start of Cuba's complete absorption into the Eastern Bloc. By the mid-1970s, little would remain of Cuba's political or economic system. During the Cold War, Cuba also supported Soviet policy in Afghanistan, Poland, Angola, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. The Soviet-Cuban intervention in Angola contributed to the downfall of the apartheid regime in South Africa. The extraordinarily weak Cuban economy was solely supported by Soviet subsidies. With the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 the subsidies disappeared and Cuba was plunged into a severe economic crisis known as the Special Period that ended in 2000 when Venezuela began providing Cuba with subsidized oil. In 2019, Miguel Diaz-Canel was elected President of Cuba by the national assembly. The country has been politically and economically isolated by the United States since the Revolution, but has gradually gained access to foreign commerce and travel as efforts to normalise diplomatic relations have progressed. Domestic economic reforms are also beginning to modernize Cuba's socialist economy. Pre-Columbian history Cuba's earliest known human inhabitants colonized the island in the 4th millennium BC.Allaire, p. 678 The oldest known Cuban archeological site, Levisa, dates from approximately 3100 BC.Allaire, p. 686 A wider distribution of sites date from after 2000 BC, most notably represented by the Cayo Redondo and Guayabo Blanco cultures of western Cuba. These neolithic cultures used ground stone and shell tools and ornaments, including the dagger-like gladiolitos, which are believed to have had a ceremonial role.Allaire, p. 688 The Cayo Redondo and Guayabo Blanco cultures lived a subsistence lifestyle based on fishing, hunting and collecting wild plants. Prior to Columbus' arrival, the indigenous Guanajatabey, who had inhabited Cuba for centuries, were driven to the far west of the island by the arrival of subsequent waves of migrants, including the Taíno and Ciboney. These people had migrated north along the Caribbean island chain. The Taíno and Siboney were part of a cultural group commonly called the Arawak, who inhabited parts of northeastern South America prior to the arrival of Europeans. Initially, they settled at the eastern end of Cuba, before expanding westward across the island. The Spanish Dominican clergyman and writer Bartolomé de las Casas estimated that the Taíno population of Cuba had reached 350,000 by the end of the 15th century. The Taíno cultivated the yuca root, harvested it and baked it to produce cassava bread. They also grew cotton and tobacco, and ate maize and sweet potatoes. According to History of the Indians, they had "everything they needed for living; they had many crops, well arranged".Historia de las Indias (vol. 3). Biblioteca Ayacucho: Caracas (1986). pp. 81–101. Spanish conquest and early colonization A watercolor painting of Havana Bay, Christopher Columbus, on his first Spanish-sponsored voyage to the Americas in 1492, sailed south from what is now the Bahamas to explore the northeast coast of Cuba and the northern coast of Hispaniola. Columbus, who was searching for a route to India, believed the island to be a peninsula of the Asian mainland. The first sighting of a Spanish ship approaching the island was on 28 October 1492, probably at Bariay, Holguín Province, on the eastern point of the island.Gott, Richard (2004). Cuba: A new history. Yale University Press. Chapter 5. During a second voyage in 1494, Columbus passed along the south coast of the island, landing at various inlets including what was to become Guantánamo Bay. With the Papal Bull of 1493, Pope Alexander VI commanded Spain to conquer, colonize and convert the pagans of the New World to Catholicism.Bakewell, Peter. A History of Latin America. Blackwell Publishers. pp. 129–130. On arrival, Columbus observed the Taíno dwellings, describing them as "looking like tents in a camp. All were of palm branches, beautifully constructed".Willis Fletcher Johnson (1920). The History of Cuba (Volume 1). New York. p. 228. The Spanish began to create permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola, east of Cuba, soon after Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean, but the coast of Cuba was not fully mapped by Europeans until 1509, when Sebastián de Ocampo completed this task. In 1511, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar set out from Hispaniola to form the first Spanish settlement in Cuba, with orders from Spain to conquer the island. The settlement was at Baracoa, but the new settlers were greeted with stiff resistance from the local Taíno population. The Taínos were initially organized by cacique (chieftain) Hatuey, who had himself relocated from Hispaniola to escape the brutalities of Spanish rule on that island. After a prolonged guerrilla campaign, Hatuey and successive chieftains were captured and burnt alive, and within three years the Spanish had gained control of the island. In 1514, a settlement was founded in what was to become Havana. Clergyman Bartolomé de las Casas observed a number of massacres initiated by the invaders as the Spanish swept over the island, notably the massacre near Camagüey of the inhabitants of Caonao. According to his account, some three thousand villagers had traveled to Manzanillo to greet the Spanish with loaves, fishes and other foodstuffs, and were "without provocation, butchered".Las Casas, A Short Account, p. 29 The surviving indigenous groups fled to the mountains or the small surrounding islands before being captured and forced into reservations. One such reservation was Guanabacoa, which is today a suburb of Havana.Thomas, Hugh. Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom (2nd edition). p. 14. A monument to the Taíno chieftain Hatuey in Baracoa, Cuba In 1513, Ferdinand II of Aragon issued a decree establishing the encomienda land settlement system that was to be incorporated throughout the Spanish Americas. Velázquez, who had become Governor of Cuba relocating from Baracoa to Santiago de Cuba, was given the task of apportioning both the land and the indigenous peoples to groups throughout the new colony. The scheme was not a success, however, as the natives either succumbed to diseases brought from Spain such as measles and smallpox, or simply refused to work, preferring to slip away into the mountains. Desperate for labor to toil the new agricultural settlements, the Conquistadors sought slaves from surrounding islands and the continental mainland. However, these new arrivals followed the indigenous peoples by also dispersing into the wilderness or dying of disease. Despite the difficult relations between the natives and the new Europeans, some cooperation was in evidence. The Spanish were shown by the natives how to nurture tobacco and consume it in the form of cigars. There were also many unions between the largely male Spanish colonists and indigenous women. Modern-day studies have revealed traces of DNA that renders physical traits similar to Amazonian tribes in individuals throughout Cuba,"Cuban Site Casts Light on an Extinct People" . Anthony DePalma. The New York Times. 5 July 1998. Retrieved 8 December 2012. although the native population was largely destroyed as a culture and civilization after 1550. Under the Spanish New Laws of 1552, indigenous Cuban were freed from encomienda, and seven towns for indigenous peoples were set up. There are indigenous descendant Cuban (Taíno) families in several places, mostly in eastern Cuba. The indigenous community at Caridad de los Indios, Guantánamo, is one such nucleus. An association of indigenous families in Jiguani, near Santiago, is also active. The local indigenous population also left their mark on the language, with some 400 Taíno terms and place-names surviving to the present day. The name of Cuba itself, Havana, Camagüey, and many others were derived from Classic Taíno, and indigenous words such as tobacco, hurricane and canoe were transferred to English and are used today. Arrival of African slaves A 1736 colonial map by Herman Moll of the West Indies and Mexico, together comprising "New Spain", with Cuba visible in the center. The Spanish established sugar and tobacco as Cuba's primary products, and the island soon supplanted Hispaniola as the prime Spanish base in the Caribbean.Peter Bakewell. A History of Latin America. Bakewell Books. p. 74. Further field labor was required. African slaves were then imported to work the plantations as field labor. However, restrictive Spanish trade laws made it difficult for Cubans to keep up with the 17th and 18th century advances in processing sugar cane pioneered in British Barbados and French Saint-Domingue (Haiti). Spain also restricted Cuba's access to the slave trade, which was dominated by the British, French, and Dutch. One important turning point came in the Seven Years' War, when the British conquered the port of Havana and introduced thousands of slaves in a ten-month period. Another key event was the Haitian Revolution in nearby Saint-Domingue, from 1791 to 1804. Thousands of French refugees, fleeing the slave rebellion in Saint Domingue, brought slaves and expertise in sugar refining and coffee growing into eastern Cuba in the 1790s and early 19th century. In the 19th century, Cuban sugar plantations became the most important world producer of sugar, thanks to the expansion of slavery and a relentless focus on improving the island's sugar technology. Use of modern refining techniques was especially important because the British Slave Trade Act 1807 abolished the slave trade in the British Empire (but slavery itself remained legal until the Slavery Abolition Act 1833). Cubans were torn between desire for the profits generated by sugar and a repugnance for slavery, which they saw as morally, politically, and racially dangerous to their society. By the end of the 19th century, slavery was abolished. However, prior to the abolition of slavery, Cuba gained great prosperity from its sugar trade. Originally, the Spanish had ordered regulations on trade with Cuba, which kept the island from becoming a dominant sugar producer. The Spanish were interested in keeping their trade routes and slave trade routes protected. Nevertheless, Cuba's vast size and abundance of natural resources made it an ideal place for becoming a booming sugar producer. When Spain opened the Cuban trade ports, it quickly became a popular place. New technology allowed a much more effective and efficient means of producing sugar. They began to use water mills, enclosed furnaces, and steam engines to produce higher-quality sugar at a much more efficient pace than elsewhere in the Caribbean. The boom in Cuba's sugar industry in the 19th century made it necessary for the country to improve its transportation infrastructure. Planters needed safe and efficient ways to transport the sugar from the plantations to the ports, in order to maximize their returns. Many new roads were built, and old roads were quickly repaired. Railroads were built relatively early, easing the collection and transportation of perishable sugar cane. It was now possible for plantations all over this large island to have their sugar shipped quickly and easily. Sugar plantations Cuba failed to prosper before the 1760s, due to Spanish trade regulations. Spain had set up a trade monopoly in the Caribbean, and their primary objective was to protect this, which they did by barring the islands from trading with any foreign ships. The resultant stagnation of economic growth was particularly pronounced in Cuba because of its great strategic importance in the Caribbean, and the stranglehold that Spain kept on it as a result. Iznaga Tower in Trinidad used to watch slaves over sugar plantations As soon as Spain opened Cuba's ports up to foreign ships, a great sugar boom began that lasted until the 1880s. The island was perfect for growing sugar, being dominated by rolling plains, with rich soil and adequate rainfall. By 1860, Cuba was devoted to growing sugar, having to import all other necessary goods. Cuba was particularly dependent on the United States, which bought 82 percent of its sugar. In 1820, Spain abolished the slave trade, hurting the Cuban economy even more and forcing planters to buy more expensive, illegal, and “troublesome” slaves (as demonstrated by the slave rebellion on the Spanish ship Amistad in 1839). The 16th–18th centuries: Cuba under attack El Morro in Havana, built in 1589 The British Fleet Entering Havana, 21 August 1762, a 1775 painting by Dominic Serres Colonial Cuba was a frequent target of buccaneers, pirates and French corsairs seeking Spain's New World riches. In response to repeated raids, defenses were bolstered throughout the island during the 16th century. In Havana, the fortress of Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro was built to deter potential invaders, which included the English privateer Francis Drake, who sailed within sight of Havana harbor but did not disembark on the island.Gott, Richard (2004). Cuba: A new history. Yale University Press. p. 32. Havana's inability to resist invaders was dramatically exposed in 1628, when a Dutch fleet led by Piet Heyn plundered the Spanish ships in the city's harbor.Gott, Richard (2004). Cuba: A new history. Yale University Press. pp. 34–35. In 1662, English admiral and pirate Christopher Myngs captured and briefly occupied Santiago de Cuba on the eastern part of the island, in an effort to open up Cuba's protected trade with neighboring Jamaica. Nearly a century later, the English were to invade in earnest, taking Guantánamo Bay in 1741 during the War of Jenkins' Ear with Spain. Edward Vernon, the British admiral who devised the scheme, saw his 4,000 occupying troops capitulate to local guerrilla resistance, and more critically, an epidemic, forcing him to withdraw his fleet to British-owned Jamaica.Gott, Richard (2004). Cuba: A new history. Yale University Press. pp. 39–41. In the War of the Austrian Succession, the British carried out unsuccessful attacks against Santiago de Cuba in 1741 and again in 1748. Additionally, a skirmish between British and Spanish naval squadrons occurred near Havana in 1748. The Seven Years' War, which erupted in 1754 across three continents, eventually arrived in the Spanish Caribbean. Spain's alliance with the French pitched them into direct conflict with the British, and in 1762 a British expedition of five warships and 4,000 troops set out from Portsmouth to capture Cuba. The British arrived on 6 June, and by August had Havana under siege.Thomas, Hugh. Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom (2nd edition). Chapter One. When Havana surrendered, the admiral of the British fleet, George Keppel, the 3rd Earl of Albemarle, entered the city as a conquering new governor and took control of the whole western part of the island. The arrival of the British immediately opened up trade with their North American and Caribbean colonies, causing a rapid transformation of Cuban society. Food, horses and other goods flooded into the city, and thousands of slaves from West Africa were transported to the island to work on the undermanned sugar plantations. Though Havana, which had become the third-largest city in the Americas, was to enter an era of sustained development and closening ties with North America during this period, the British occupation of the city proved short-lived. Pressure from London sugar merchants fearing a decline in sugar prices forced a series of negotiations with the Spanish over colonial territories. Less than a year after Havana was seized, the Peace of Paris was signed by the three warring powers, ending the Seven Years' War. The treaty gave Britain Florida in exchange for Cuba on France's recommendation to Spain, The French advised that declining the offer could result in Spain losing Mexico and much of the South American mainland to the British. In 1781, General Bernardo de Gálvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, reconquered Florida for Spain with Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Cuban troops. The 19th century: Years of upheaval In the early 19th century, three major political currents took shape in Cuba: reformism, annexation and independence. In addition, there were spontaneous and isolated actions carried out from time to time, adding a current of abolitionism. The Declaration of Independence by the 13 British colonies of North America, and the victory of the French Revolution of 1789, influenced early Cuban liberation movements, as did the successful revolt of black slaves in Haiti in 1791. One of the first, headed by a free black, Nicolás Morales, was aimed at gaining equality between "mulatto and whites" and the abolition of sales taxes and other fiscal burdens. Morales' plot was discovered in 1795 in Bayamo, and the conspirators were jailed. Reform, autonomy and separatist movements As a result of the political upheavals caused by the Iberian Peninsular War and the removal of Ferdinand VII from the Spanish throne, a western separatist rebellion emerged among the Cuban Creole aristocracy in 1809 and 1810. One of its leaders, Joaquín Infante, drafted Cuba's first constitution, declaring the island a sovereign state, presuming the rule of the country's wealthy, maintaining slavery as long as it was necessary for agriculture, establishing a social classification based on skin color and declaring Catholicism the official religion. This conspiracy also failed and the main leaders were sentenced to prison and deported to Spain.Cantón Navarro, José and Juan Jacobin (1998). History of Cuba: The Challenge of the Yoke and the Star: Biography of a People. Havana: Editoral SI-MAR. . p. 35. In 1812, a mixed-race abolitionist conspiracy arose, organized by José Antonio Aponte, a free black carpenter in Havana. He and others were executed. The Spanish Constitution of 1812, and the legislation passed by the Cortes of Cádiz after it was set up in 1808, created a number of liberal political and commercial policies, which were welcomed in Cuba but also curtailed a number of older liberties. Between 1810 and 1814, the island elected six representatives to the Cortes, in addition to forming a locally elected Provincial Deputation.Rieu-Millan, Marie Laure (1990). Los diputados americanos en las Cortes de Cádiz: Igualdad o independencia. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. p. 41. . Nevertheless, the liberal regime and the Constitution proved to be ephemeral: they were suppressed by Ferdinand VII when he returned to the throne in 1814. Therefore, by the end of the decade, some Cubans were inspired by the successes of Simón Bolívar in South America, despite the fact that the Spanish Constitution was restored in 1820. Numerous secret societies emerged, of which the most important was the so-called "Soles y Rayos de Bolívar", founded in 1821 and led by José Francisco Lemus. Its aim was to establish the free Republic of Cubanacán (a Taíno name for the center of the island Estrada, Alfredo José. Havana: Autobiography of a City. St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2016, p. 102), and it had branches in five districts of the island. In 1823, the society's leaders were arrested and condemned to exile. In the same year, Ferdinand VII, with French help and the approval of the Quintuple Alliance, managed to abolish constitutional rule in Spain yet again and re-establish absolutism. As a result, the national militia of Cuba, established by the Constitution and a potential instrument for liberal agitation, was dissolved, a permanent executive military commission under the orders of the governor was created, newspapers were closed, elected provincial representatives were removed and other liberties suppressed. This suppression, and the success of independence movements in the former Spanish colonies on the North American mainland, led to a notable rise of Cuban nationalism. A number of independence conspiracies took place during the 1820s and 1830s, but all failed. Among these were the "Expedición de los Trece" (Expedition of the 13) in 1826, the "Gran Legión del Aguila Negra" (Great Legion of the Black Eagle) in 1829, the "Cadena Triangular" (Triangular Chain) and the "Soles de la Libertad" (Suns of Liberty) in 1837. Leading national figures in these years included Félix Varela and Cuba's first revolutionary poet, José María Heredia.Navarro, José Cantón (1998). History of Cuba. La Habana. pp. 36–38. . Antislavery and independence movements In 1826, the first armed uprising for independence took place in Puerto Príncipe (Camagüey Province), led by Francisco de Agüero and Andrés Manuel Sánchez. Agüero, a white man, and Sánchez, a mulatto, were both executed, becoming the first popular martyrs of the Cuban independence movement.Simons, Geoff: Cuba. From Conquistador to Castro, London 1996, p. 138. The 1830s also saw a surge of activity from the reformist movement, whose main leader was José Antonio Saco, standing out for his criticism of Spanish despotism and the slave trade. Nevertheless, this surge bore no fruit; Cubans remained deprived of the right to send representatives to the Spanish parliament, and Madrid stepped up repression. Nonetheless, Spain had long been under pressure to end the slave trade. In 1817, it signed a first treaty, to which it did not adhere. With the abolition of slavery altogether in their colonies, the British forced Spain to sign another treaty in 1835. In this context, black revolts in Cuba increased, and were put down with mass executions. One of the most significant was the Conspiración de La Escalera (Ladder Conspiracy), which started in March 1843 and continued until 1844. The conspiracy took its name from a torture method, in which blacks were tied to a ladder and whipped until they confessed or died. The Ladder Conspiracy involved free blacks and slaves, as well as white intellectuals and professionals. It is estimated that 300 blacks and mulattos died from torture, 78 were executed, over 600 were imprisoned and over 400 expelled from the island.Cantón Navarro, José (1998). History of Cuba. La Habana. p. 40. . (See comments in new translation of Villaverde's "Cecilia Valdés".) Among the executed was the leading poet Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés, now commonly known as "Plácido". José Antonio Saco, one of Cuba's most prominent thinkers, was expelled from Cuba. Spanish General Arsenio Martínez Campos in Havana, Colonial Cuba, 1878 Following the 1868–1878 rebellion of the Ten Years' War, all slavery was abolished by 1886, making Cuba the second-to-last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery, with Brazil being the last. Instead of blacks, slave traders looked for others sources of cheap labour, such as Chinese colonists and Indians from Yucatán. Another feature of the population was the number of Spanish-born colonists, known as peninsulares, who were mostly adult males; they constituted between ten and twenty per cent of the population between the middle of the 19th century and the great depression of the 1930s. The possibility of annexation by the United States Black unrest and attempts by the Spanish metropolis to abolish slavery motivated many Creoles to advocate Cuba's annexation by the United States, where slavery was still legal. Other Cubans supported the idea due to their desire for American-style economic development and democratic freedom. The annexation of Cuba was repeatedly proposed by government officials in the United States. In 1805, President Thomas Jefferson considered annexing Cuba for strategic reasons, sending secret agents to the island to negotiate with Captain General Someruelos. In April 1823, U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams discussed the rules of political gravitation, in a theory often referred to as the "ripe fruit theory". Adams wrote, "There are laws of political as well as physical gravitation; and if an apple severed by its native tree cannot choose but fall to the ground, Cuba, forcibly disjoined from its own unnatural connection with Spain, and incapable of self-support, can gravitate only towards the North American Union which by the same law of nature, cannot cast her off its bosom".Worthington, Chauncey Ford (2001). Writings of John Quincy Adams (vol. VII). Boston, Massachusetts. p. 372. He furthermore warned that "the transfer of Cuba to Great Britain would be an event unpropitious to the interest of this Union".Worthington, Chauncey Ford (2001). Writings of John Quincy Adams (vol. VII). Boston, Massachusetts. p. 373. Adams voiced concern that a country outside of North America would attempt to occupy Cuba upon its separation from Spain. He wrote, "The question both of our right and our power to prevent it, if necessary, by force, already obtrudes itself upon our councils, and the administration is called upon, in the performance of its duties to the nation, at least to use all the means with the competency to guard against and forfend it".Worthington, Chauncey Ford (2001). Writings of John Quincy Adams (vol. VII). Boston, Massachusetts. p. 379. On 2 December 1823, U.S. President James Monroe specifically addressed Cuba and other European colonies in his proclamation of the Monroe Doctrine. Cuba, located just from Key West, Florida, was of interest to the doctrine's founders, as they warned European forces to leave "America for the Americans".Díez de Medina, Raúl (1934). Autopsy of the Monroe doctrine: The strange story of inter-American relations. New York. p. 21. The most outstanding attempts in support of annexation were made by the Venezuelan filibuster General Narciso López, who prepared four expeditions to Cuba in the US. The first two, in 1848 and 1849, failed before departure due to U.S. opposition. The third, made up of some 600 men, managed to land in Cuba and take the central city of Cárdenas, but failed eventually due to a lack of popular support. López's fourth expedition landed in Pinar del Río province with around 400 men in August 1851; the invaders were defeated by Spanish troops and López was executed. Resumption of independence struggle Depiction of an engagement between Cuban rebels and Spanish Royalists during the Ten Years' War (1868–78) In the 1860s, Cuba had two more liberal-minded governors, Serrano and Dulce, who encouraged the creation of a Reformist Party, despite the fact that political parties were forbidden. But they were followed by a reactionary governor, Francisco Lersundi, who suppressed all liberties granted by the previous governors and maintained a pro-slavery regime.Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba, p. 42. On 10 October 1868, the landowner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes declared Cuban independence and freedom for his slaves. This began the Ten Years' War, which lasted from 1868 to 1878. The Dominican Restoration War (1863–65) brought to Cuba an unemployed mass of former Dominican white and light-skinned mulattos who had served with the Spanish Army in the Dominican Republic before being evacuated to Cuba and discharged from the army. Some of these former soldiers joined the new Revolutionary Army and provided its initial training and leadership. With reinforcements and guidance from the Dominicans, the Cuban rebels defeated Spanish detachments, cut railway lines, and gained dominance over vast sections of the eastern portion of the island. The Spanish government used the Voluntary Corps to commit harsh and bloody acts against the Cuban rebels, and the Spanish atrocities fuelled the growth of insurgent forces in eastern Cuba; however, they failed to export the revolution to the west. On 11 May 1873, Ignacio Agramonte was killed by a stray bullet; Céspedes was surprised and killed on 27 February 1874. In 1875, Máximo Gómez began an invasion of Las Villas west of a fortified military line, or trocha, bisecting the island. The trocha was built between 1869 and 1872; the Spanish erected it to prevent Gómez to move westward from Oriente province. It was the largest fortification built by the Spanish in the Americas. Gómez was controversial in his calls to burn sugar plantations to harass the Spanish occupiers. After the American admiral Henry Reeve was killed in 1876, Gómez ended his campaign. By that year, the Spanish government had deployed more than 250,000 troops to Cuba, as the end of the Third Carlist War had freed up Spanish soldiers for the suppression of the revolt. On 10 February 1878, General Arsenio Martínez Campos negotiated the Pact of Zanjón with the Cuban rebels, and the rebel general Antonio Maceo's surrender on 28 May ended the war. Spain sustained 200,000 casualties, mostly from disease; the rebels sustained 100,000–150,000 dead and the island sustained over $300 million in property damage. The Pact of Zanjón promised the manumission of all slaves who had fought for Spain during the war, and slavery was legally abolished in 1880. However, dissatisfaction with the peace treaty led to the Little War of 1879–80. 1895–1898: War of Independence=Build-up to the warSocial, political, and economic change= During the time of the so-called "Rewarding Truce", which encompassed the 17 years from the end of the Ten Years' War in 1878, fundamental changes took place in Cuban society. With the abolition of slavery in October 1886, former slaves joined the ranks of farmers and urban working class. Most wealthy Cubans lost their rural properties, and many of them joined the urban middle class. The number of sugar mills dropped and efficiency increased, with only companies and the most powerful plantation owners owning them. The numbers of campesinos and tenant farmers rose considerably. Furthermore, American capital began flowing into Cuba, mostly into the sugar and tobacco businesses and mining. By 1895, these investments totalled $50 million. Although Cuba remained Spanish politically, economically it became increasingly dependent on the United States.Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba. pp. 53–55. These changes also entailed the rise of labour movements. The first Cuban labour organization, the Cigar Makers Guild, was created in 1878, followed by the Central Board of Artisans in 1879, and many more across the island.Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba. pp. 55–57. Abroad, a new trend of aggressive American influence emerged, evident in Secretary of State James G. Blaine's expressed belief that all of Central and South America would some day fall to the US. Blaine placed particular importance on the control of Cuba. "That rich island", he wrote on 1 December 1881, "the key to the Gulf of Mexico, is, though in the hands of Spain, a part of the American commercial system…If ever ceasing to be Spanish, Cuba must necessarily become American and not fall under any other European domination". Blaine's vision did not allow the existence of an independent Cuba. =Martí's insurrection and the start of the war= After his second deportation to Spain in 1878, the pro-independence Cuban activist José Martí moved to the United States in 1881, where he began mobilizing the support of the Cuban exile community in Florida, especially in Ybor City in Tampa and Key West.Gerald E. Poyo, With All, and for the Good of All: The Emergence of Popular Nationalism in the Cuban Communities of the United States, 1848–1898 (Duke University Press, 1989). He sought a revolution and Cuban independence from Spain, but also lobbied to oppose U.S. annexation of Cuba, which some American and Cuban politicians desired. Propaganda efforts continued for years and intensified starting in 1895.George W. Auxier, "The propaganda activities of the Cuban Junta in precipitating the Spanish–American War, 1895–1898." Hispanic American Historical Review 19.3 (1939): 286-305. in JSTOR Schellings, William J. "Florida and the Cuban Revolution, 1895–1898." Florida Historical Quarterly (1960): 175-186. in JSTOR After deliberations with patriotic clubs across the United States, the Antilles and Latin America, the Partido Revolucionario Cubano (Cuban Revolutionary Party) was officially proclaimed on 10 April 1892, with the purpose of gaining independence for both Cuba and Puerto Rico. Martí was elected delegate, the highest party position. By the end of 1894, the basic conditions for launching the revolution were set.Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba. pp. 59–60. In Foner's words, "Martí's impatience to start the revolution for independence was affected by his growing fear that the United States would succeed in annexing Cuba before the revolution could liberate the island from Spain".Foner, Philip: The Spanish- Cuban-American War and the Birth of American Imperialism. Quoted in: "The War for Cuban Independence" . HistoryofCuba.com. Retrieved 27 January 2013. On 25 December 1894, three ships, the Lagonda, the Almadis and the Baracoa, set sail for Cuba from Fernandina Beach, Florida, loaded with armed men and supplies. Two of the ships were seized by U.S. authorities in early January, who also alerted the Spanish government, but the proceedings went ahead. The insurrection began on 24 February 1895, with uprisings all across the island. In Oriente the most important ones took place in Santiago, Guantánamo, Jiguaní, San Luis, El Cobre, El Caney, Alto Songo, Bayate and Baire. The uprisings in the central part of the island, such as Ibarra, Jagüey Grande and Aguada, suffered from poor co-ordination and failed; the leaders were captured, some of them deported and some executed. In the province of Havana the insurrection was discovered before it got off and the leaders detained. Thus, the insurgents further west in Pinar del Río were ordered to wait. Martí, on his way to Cuba, gave the Proclamation of Montecristi in Santo Domingo, outlining the policy for Cuba's war of independence: the war was to be waged by blacks and whites alike; participation of all blacks was crucial for victory; Spaniards who did not object to the war effort should be spared, private rural properties should not be damaged; and the revolution should bring new economic life to Cuba.Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba. p. 61. On 1 and 11 April 1895, the main rebel leaders landed on two expeditions in Oriente: Major Antonio Maceo and 22 members near Baracoa and Martí, Máximo Gómez and four other members in Playitas. Around that time, Spanish forces in Cuba numbered about 80,000, of which 20,000 were regular troops, and 60,000 were Spanish and Cuban volunteers. The latter were a locally enlisted force that took care of most of the guard and police duties on the island. Wealthy landowners would volunteer a number of their slaves to serve in this force, which was under local control and not under official military command. By December, 98,412 regular troops had been sent to the island and the number of volunteers had increased to 63,000 men. By the end of 1897, there were 240,000 regulars and 60,000 irregulars on the island. The revolutionaries were far outnumbered. The rebels came to be nicknamed "Mambis" after a black Spanish officer, Juan Ethninius Mamby, who joined the Dominicans in the fight for independence in 1846. The Spanish soldiers referred to the Dominican insurgents as "the men of Mamby" and "Mambis".When the Ten Years' War broke out in 1868, some of the same soldiers were assigned to Cuba, importing what had by then become a derogatory Spanish slur. The Cubans adopted the name with pride. After the Ten Years' War, possession of weapons by private individuals was prohibited in Cuba. Thus, one of the most serious and persistent problems for the rebels was a shortage of suitable weapons. This lack of arms forced them to utilise guerrilla tactics, using the environment, the element of surprise, fast horses and simple weapons such as machetes. Most of their firearms were acquired in raids on the Spaniards. Between 11 June 1895 and 30 November 1897, 60 attempts were made to bring weapons and supplies to the rebels from outside Cuba, but only one succeeded, largely due to British naval protection. 28 of these resupply attempts were halted within U.S. territory, five were intercepted by the U.S. Navy, four by the Spanish Navy, two were wrecked, one was driven back to port by a storm, and the fate of another is unknown. Escalation of the war Columbia (the American people) reaches out to help oppressed Cuba in 1897 while Uncle Sam (the U.S. government) is blind to the crisis and will not use its powerful guns to help. Judge magazine, February 6, 1897. Martí was killed on 19 May 1895, during a reckless charge against entrenched Spanish forces, but Máximo Gómez (a Dominican) and Antonio Maceo (a mulatto) fought on, taking the war to all parts of Oriente. Gómez used scorched-earth tactics, which entailed dynamiting passenger trains and burning the Spanish loyalists' property and sugar plantations—including many owned by Americans. By the end of June all of Camagüey was at war. Continuing west, Gómez and Maceo joined up with veterans of the 1868 war, Polish internationalists, General Carlos Roloff and Serafín Sánchez in Las Villas, swelling their ranks and boosting their arsenal. In mid-September, representatives of the five Liberation Army Corps assembled in Jimaguayú, Camagüey, to approve the Jimaguayú Constitution. This constitution established a central government, which grouped the executive and legislative powers into one entity, the Government Council, which was headed by Salvador Cisneros and Bartolomé Masó. After a period of consolidation in the three eastern provinces, the liberation armies headed for Camagüey and then for Matanzas, outmanoeuvring and deceiving the Spanish Army several times. The revolutionaries defeated the Spanish general Arsenio Martínez Campos, himself the victor of the Ten Years' War, and killed his most trusted general at Peralejo. Campos tried the same strategy he had employed in the Ten Years' War, constructing a broad defensive belt across the island, about long and wide. This line, called the trocha, was intended to limit rebel activities to the eastern provinces, and consisted of a railroad, from Jucaro in the south to Moron in the north, on which armored railcars could travel. At various points along this railroad there were fortifications, at intervals of there were posts and at intervals of there was barbed wire. In addition, booby traps were placed at the locations most likely to be attacked. For the rebels, it was essential to bring the war to the western provinces of Matanzas, Havana and Pinar del Río, where the island's government and wealth was located. The Ten Years' War failed because it had not managed to proceed beyond the eastern provinces. In a successful cavalry campaign, overcoming the trochas, the rebels invaded every province. Surrounding all the larger cities and well- fortified towns, they arrived at the westernmost tip of the island on 22 January 1896, exactly three months after the invasion near Baraguá.Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba. pp. 64–65. Cuban victims of Spanish reconcentration policies Unable to defeat the rebels with conventional military tactics, the Spanish government sent Gen. Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau (nicknamed The Butcher), who reacted to these rebel successes by introducing terror methods: periodic executions, mass exiles, and the destruction of farms and crops. These methods reached their height on 21 October 1896, when he ordered all countryside residents and their livestock to gather in various fortified areas and towns occupied by his troops within eight days. Hundreds of thousands of people had to leave their homes, creating appalling conditions of overcrowding in the towns and cities. This was the first recorded and recognized use of concentration camps where non-combatants were removed from their land to deprive the enemy of succor and then the internees were subjected to appalling conditions. The Spanish also employed the use of concentration camps in the Philippines shortly after, again resulting in massive non combatant fatalities. It is estimated that this measure caused the death of at least one-third of Cuba's rural population.Canalejas, José in Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba. p. 66. The forced relocation policy was maintained until March 1898. Since the early 1880s, Spain had also been suppressing an independence movement in the Philippines, which was intensifying; Spain was thus now fighting two wars, which placed a heavy burden on its economy. In secret negotiations in 1896, Spain turned down the United States' offers to buy Cuba. Maceo was killed on 7 December 1896, in Havana province, while returning from the west. As the war continued, the major obstacle to Cuban success was weapons supply. Although weapons and funding came from within the United States, the supply operation violated American laws, which were enforced by the U.S. Coast Guard; of 71 resupply missions, only 27 got through, with 5 being stopped by the Spanish and 33 by the U.S. Coast Guard. In 1897, the liberation army maintained a privileged position in Camagüey and Oriente, where the Spanish only controlled a few cities. Spanish liberal leader Praxedes Sagasta admitted in May 1897: "After having sent 200,000 men and shed so much blood, we don't own more land on the island than what our soldiers are stepping on".Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba. p. 69. The rebel force of 3,000 defeated the Spanish in various encounters, such as the battle of La Reforma and the surrender of Las Tunas on 30 August, and the Spaniards were kept on the defensive. Las Tunas had been guarded by over 1,000 well-armed and well-supplied men. As stipulated at the Jimaguayú Assembly two years earlier, a second Constituent Assembly met in La Yaya, Camagüey, on 10 October 1897. The newly adopted constitution decreed that a military command be subordinated to civilian rule. The government was confirmed, naming Bartolomé Masó as president and Domingo Méndez Capote as vice president. Thereafter, Madrid decided to change its policy toward Cuba, replacing Weyler, drawing up a colonial constitution for Cuba and Puerto Rico, and installing a new government in Havana. But with half the country out of its control, and the other half in arms, the new government was powerless and rejected by the rebels. The Maine incident USS Maine, photographed in 1898 The Cuban struggle for independence had captured the North American imagination for years and newspapers had been agitating for intervention with sensational stories of Spanish atrocities against the native Cuban population. Americans came to believe that Cuba's battle with Spain resembled United States's Revolutionary War. This continued even after Spain replaced Weyler and said it changed its policies, and the North American public opinion was very much in favor of intervening in favor of the Cubans. In January 1898, a riot by Cuban-Spanish loyalists against the new autonomous government broke out in Havana, leading to the destruction of the printing presses of four local newspapers which published articles critical of the Spanish Army. The U.S. Consul-General cabled Washington, fearing for the lives of Americans living in Havana. In response, the battleship was sent to Havana in the last week of January. On 15 February 1898, the Maine was destroyed by an explosion, killing 268 crewmembers. The cause of the explosion has not been clearly established to this day, but the incident focused American attention on Cuba, and President William McKinley and his supporters could not stop Congress from declaring war to "liberate" Cuba. In an attempt to appease the United States, the colonial government took two steps that had been demanded by President McKinley: it ended the forced relocation policy and offered negotiations with the independence fighters. However, the truce was rejected by the rebels and the concessions proved too late and too ineffective. Madrid asked other European powers for help; they refused and said Spain should back down. On 11 April 1898, McKinley asked Congress for authority to send U.S. troops to Cuba for the purpose of ending the civil war there. On 19 April, Congress passed joint resolutions (by a vote of 311 to 6 in the House and 42 to 35 in the Senate) supporting Cuban independence and disclaiming any intention to annex Cuba, demanding Spanish withdrawal, and authorizing the president to use as much military force as he thought necessary to help Cuban patriots gain independence from Spain. This was adopted by resolution of Congress and included from Senator Henry Teller the Teller Amendment, which passed unanimously, stipulating that "the island of Cuba is, and by right should be, free and independent".Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba, p. 71. The amendment disclaimed any intention on the part of the United States to exercise jurisdiction or control over Cuba for other than pacification reasons, and confirmed that the armed forces would be removed once the war is over. Senate and Congress passed the amendment on 19 April, McKinley signed the joint resolution on 20 April and the ultimatum was forwarded to Spain. War was declared on 20/21 April 1898. "It's been suggested that a major reason for the U.S. war against Spain was the fierce competition emerging between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal", Joseph E. Wisan wrote in an essay titled "The Cuban Crisis As Reflected In The New York Press" (1934). He stated that "In the opinion of the writer, the Spanish–American War would not have occurred had not the appearance of Hearst in New York journalism precipitated a bitter battle for newspaper circulation." It has also been argued that the main reason the United States entered the war was the failed secret attempt, in 1896, to purchase Cuba from a weaker, war-depleted Spain. The Cuban theatre of the Spanish–American War Destruction of Admiral Cervera's Spanish Fleet off Santiago de Cuba. 1898. Hostilities started hours after the declaration of war when a U.S. contingent under Admiral William T. Sampson blockaded several Cuban ports. The Americans decided to invade Cuba and to start in Oriente where the Cubans had almost absolute control and were able to co-operate, for example, by establishing a beachhead and protecting the U.S. landing in Daiquiri. The first U.S. objective was to capture the city of Santiago de Cuba in order to destroy Linares' army and Cervera's fleet. To reach Santiago they had to pass through concentrated Spanish defences in the San Juan Hills and a small town in El Caney. Between 22 and 24 June 1898 the Americans landed under General William R. Shafter at Daiquirí and Siboney, east of Santiago, and established a base. The port of Santiago became the main target of U.S. naval operations, and the American fleet attacking Santiago needed shelter from the summer hurricane season. Nearby Guantánamo Bay, with its excellent harbour, was chosen for this purpose and attacked on 6 June. The Battle of Santiago de Cuba, on 3 July 1898, was the largest naval engagement during the Spanish–American War, and resulted in the destruction of the Spanish Caribbean Squadron. Resistance in Santiago consolidated around Fort Canosa,Daley#, L. (2000). El Fortin Canosa en la Cuba del 1898. in Los Ultimos Dias del Comienzo. Ensayos sobre la Guerra Hispano-Cubana-Estadounidense. B. E. Aguirre and E. Espina (eds.). RiL Editores: Santiago de Chile. pp. 161–71. while major battles between Spaniards and Americans took place at Las Guasimas on 24 June, and at El Caney and San Juan Hill on 1 July,The Battles at El Caney and San Juan Hill . HomeOfHeroes.com. Retrieved 28 June 2013. after which the American advance ground to a halt. American losses at Las Guasimas were 16 killed and 52 wounded; the Spanish lost 12 dead and 24 wounded. The Americans lost 81 killed in action and 360 wounded in action in taking El Caney, where the Spanish defenders lost 38 killed, 138 wounded and 160 captured. At San Juan, the Americans lost 144 dead, 1,024 wounded, and 72 missing; Spanish losses were 58 killed, 170 wounded, and 39 captured. Spanish troops successfully defended Fort Canosa, allowing them to stabilize their line and bar the entry to Santiago. The Americans and Cubans began a siege of the city, which surrendered on 16 July after the defeat of the Spanish Caribbean Squadron. Thus, Oriente fell under the control of Americans and the Cubans, but U.S. General Nelson A. Miles would not allow Cuban troops to enter Santiago, claiming that he wanted to prevent clashes between Cubans and Spaniards. Thus, Cuban General Calixto García, head of the mambi forces in the Eastern department, ordered his troops to hold their respective areas and resigned, writing a letter of protest to General Shafter. After losing the Philippines and Puerto Rico, which had also been invaded by the United States, and with no hope of holding on to Cuba, Spain sued for peace on 17 July 1898. On 12 August, the U.S. and Spain signed a protocol of peace, in which Spain agreed to relinquish all claim of sovereignty over and title of Cuba. On 10 December 1898, the U.S. and Spain signed the formal Treaty of Paris, recognizing continuing U. S. military occupation. Although the Cubans had participated in the liberation efforts, the United States prevented Cuba from sending representatives to the Paris peace talks or signing the treaty, which set no time limit for U.S. occupation and excluded the Isle of Pines from Cuba.Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba. p. 77. Although the U.S. President had no objection to Cuba's eventual independence, U.S. General William R. Shafter refused to allow Cuban General Calixto García and his rebel forces to participate in the surrender ceremonies in Santiago de Cuba. First U.S. occupation and the Platt amendment After the last Spanish troops left the island in December 1898, the government of Cuba was temporarily handed over to the United States on 1 January 1899. The first governor was General John R. Brooke. Unlike Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, the United States did not annex Cuba because of the restrictions imposed in the Teller Amendment. Political changes The U.S. administration was undecided on Cuba's future status. Once it had been pried away from the Spaniards it was to be assured that it moved and remained in the U.S. sphere. How this was to be achieved was a matter of intense discussion and annexation was an option, not only on the mainland but also in Cuba. McKinley spoke about the links that should exist between the two nations.Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba. p. 78. Brooke set up a civilian government, placed U.S. governors in seven newly created departments, and named civilian governors for the provinces as well as mayors and representatives for the municipalities. Many Spanish colonial government officials were kept in their posts. The population were ordered to disarm and, ignoring the Mambi Army, Brooke created the Rural Guard and municipal police corps at the service of the occupation forces. Cuba's judicial powers and courts remained legally based on the codes of the Spanish government. Tomás Estrada Palma, Martí's successor as delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, dissolved the party a few days after the signing of the Paris Treaty in December 1898, claiming that the objectives of the party had been met. The revolutionary Assembly of Representatives was also dissolved. Thus, the three representative institutions of the national liberation movement disappeared.Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba. p. 74. Economic changes Before the United States officially took over the government, it had already begun cutting tariffs on American goods entering Cuba, without granting the same rights to Cuban goods going to the United States.Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba. p. 75 Government payments had to be made in U.S. dollars.Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba. p. 77 In spite of the Foraker Amendment, which prohibited the U.S. occupation government from granting privileges and concessions to American investors, the Cuban economy was soon dominated by American capital. The growth of American sugar estates was so quick that in 1905 nearly 10% of Cuba's total land area belonged to American citizens. By 1902, American companies controlled 80% of Cuba's ore exports and owned most of the sugar and cigarette factories.Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba. p. 76 Immediately after the war, there were several serious barriers for foreign businesses attempting to operate in Cuba. Three separate pieces of legislation—the Joint Resolution of 1898, the Teller Amendment, and the Foraker Amendment—threatened foreign investment. The Joint Resolution of 1898 stated that the Cuban people are by right free and independent, while the Teller Amendment further declared that the United States could not annex Cuba. These two pieces of legislation were crucial in appeasing anti-imperialists as the United States intervened in the war in Cuba. Similarly, the Foraker Amendment, which prohibited the U.S. military government from granting concessions to American companies, was passed to appease anti-imperialists during the occupational period. Although these three statutes enabled the United States to gain a foothold in Cuba, they presented obstacles for American businesses to acquire land and permits. Eventually, Cornelius Van Horne of the Cuba Company, an early railroad company in Cuba, found a loophole in "revocable permits" justified by preexisting Spanish legislation that effectively allowed railroads to be built in Cuba. General Leonard Wood, the governor of Cuba and a noted annexationist, used this loophole to grant hundreds of franchises, permits, and other concessions to American businesses.Juan C. Santamarina. "The Cuba Company and the Expansion of American Business in Cuba, 1898–1915". Business History Review 74.01 (Spring 2000): 41–83. pp. 52–53. Once the legal barriers were overcome, American investments transformed the Cuban economy. Within two years of entering Cuba, the Cuba Company built a 350-mile railroad connecting the eastern port of Santiago to the existing railways in central Cuba. The company was the largest single foreign investment in Cuba for the first two decades of the twentieth century. By the 1910s it was the largest company in the country.Santamarina 2000, p. 42. The improved infrastructure allowed the sugar cane industry to spread to the previously underdeveloped eastern part of the country. As many small Cuban sugar cane producers were crippled with debt and damages from the war, American companies were able to quickly and cheaply take over the sugar cane industry. At the same time, new productive units called centrales could grind up to 2,000 tons of cane a day making large-scale operations most profitable.Smith 1995, p. 33. The large fixed cost of these centrales made them almost exclusively accessible to American companies with large capital stocks. Furthermore, the centrales required a large, steady flow of cane to remain profitable, which led to further consolidation in the industry. Cuban cane farmers who had formerly been landowners became tenants on company land, funneling raw cane to the centrales. By 1902, 40% of the country's sugar production was controlled by North Americans.Smith 1995, p. 34. With American corporate interests firmly rooted in Cuba, the U.S. tariff system was adjusted accordingly to strengthen trade between the nations. The Reciprocity Treaty of 1903 lowered the U.S. tariff on Cuban sugar by 20%. This gave Cuban sugar a competitive edge in the American marketplace. At the same time, it granted equal or greater concessions on most items imported from the United States. Cuban imports of American goods went from $17 million in the five years before the war, to $38 million in 1905, and eventually to over $200 million in 1918. Likewise, Cuban exports to the United States reached $86 million in 1905 and rose to nearly $300 million in 1918.Smith 1995, p. 35. Elections and independence Popular demands for a Constituent Assembly soon emerged. In December 1899, the U.S. War Secretary assured the Cuban populace that the occupation was temporary, that municipal and general elections would be held, that a Constituent Assembly would be set up, and that sovereignty would be handed to Cubans. Brooke was replaced by General Leonard Wood to oversee the transition. Parties were created, including the Cuban National Party, the Federal Republican Party of Las Villas, the Republican Party of Havana and the Democratic Union Party. The first elections for mayors, treasurers and attorneys of the country's 110 municipalities for a one-year-term took place on 16 June 1900, but balloting was limited to literate Cubans older than 21 and with properties worth more than $250. Only members of the dissolved Liberation Army were exempt from these conditions. Thus, the number of about 418,000 male citizens over 21 was reduced to about 151,000. 360,000 women were totally excluded. The same elections were held one year later, again for a one-year-term. Elections for 31 delegates to a Constituent Assembly were held on 15 September 1900 with the same balloting restrictions. In all three elections, pro-independence candidates, including a large number of mambi delegates, won overwhelming majorities.Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba, p. 79. The Constitution was drawn up from November 1900 to February 1901 and then passed by the Assembly. It established a republican form of government, proclaimed internationally recognized individual rights and liberties, freedom of religion, separation between church and state, and described the composition, structure and functions of state powers. On 2 March 1901, the U.S. Congress passed the Army Appropriations Act, stipulating the conditions for the withdrawal of United States troops remaining in Cuba following the Spanish–American War. As a rider, this act included the Platt Amendment, which defined the terms of Cuban-U.S. relations until 1934. It replaced the earlier Teller Amendment. The amendment provided for a number of rules heavily infringing on Cuba's sovereignty: * That the government of Cuba shall never enter into any treaty with any foreign power which will impair the independence of Cuba, nor in any manner permit any foreign power to obtain control over any portion of the island. * That Cuba would contract no foreign debt without guarantees that the interest could be served from ordinary revenues. * That Cuba consent that the United States may intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, to protect life, property, and individual liberty, and to discharging the obligations imposed by the treaty of Paris. * That the Cuban claim to the Isle of Pines (now called Isla de la Juventud) was not acknowledged and to be determined by treaty. * That Cuba commit to providing the United States "lands necessary for coaling or naval stations at certain specified points to be agreed upon". As a precondition to Cuba's independence, the United States demanded that this amendment be approved fully and without changes by the Constituent Assembly as an appendix to the new constitution. Faced with this alternative, the appendix was approved, after heated debate, by a margin of four votes. Governor Wood admitted: "Little or no independence had been left to Cuba with the Platt Amendment and the only thing appropriate was to seek annexation". In the presidential elections of 31 December 1901, Tomás Estrada Palma, a U.S. citizen still living in the United States, was the only candidate. His adversary, General Bartolomé Masó, withdrew his candidacy in protest against U.S. favoritism and the manipulation of the political machine by Palma's followers. Palma was elected to be the Republic's first President, although he only returned to Cuba four months after the election. The U.S. occupation officially ended when Palma took office on 20 May 1902.Cantón Navarro, José. History of Cuba, p. 81. Cuba in the early 20th century In 1902, the United States handed over control to a Cuban government. As a condition of the transfer, the Cuban state had included in its constitution provisions implementing the requirements of the Platt Amendment, which among other things gave the United States the right to intervene militarily in Cuba. Havana and Varadero soon became popular tourist resorts. Though some efforts were made to ease Cuba's ethnic tensions through government policies, racism and informal discrimination towards blacks and mestizos remained widespread during this era. President Tomás Estrada Palma was elected in 1902, and Cuba was declared independent, though Guantanamo Bay was leased to the United States as part of the Platt Amendment. The status of the Isle of Pines as Cuban territory was left undefined until 1925, when the United States finally recognized Cuban sovereignty over the island. Estrada Palma, a frugal man, governed successfully for his four-year term; yet when he tried to extend his time in office, a revolt ensued. The Second Occupation of Cuba, also known as the Cuban Pacification, was a major US military operation that began in September 1906. After the collapse of President Palma's regime, US President Roosevelt ordered an invasion and established an occupation that would continue for nearly four years. The stated goal of the operation was to prevent fighting between the Cubans, to protect North American economic interests, and to hold free elections. In 1906, the United States representative William Howard Taft, notably with the personal diplomacy of Frederick Funston, negotiated an end of the successful revolt led by the young general Enrique Loynaz del Castillo, who had served under Antonio Maceo in the final war of independence. Estrada Palma resigned, and the United States Governor Charles Magoon assumed temporary control until 1909. In this period, Agustín Martín Veloz and Francisco (Paquito) Rosales founded the embryonic Cuban Communist Party in the area of Manzanillo. Following the election of José Miguel Gómez in November 1908, Cuba was deemed stable enough to allow a withdrawal of American troops, which was completed in February 1909. For three decades, the country was led by former War of Independence leaders, who after being elected did not serve more than two constitutional terms. The Cuban presidential succession was as follows: José Miguel Gómez (1908–1912); Mario García Menocal (1913–1920); Alfredo Zayas (1921–25) and Gerardo Machado (1925–1933). Under the Liberal Gómez the participation of Afro-Cubans in the political process was curtailed when the Partido Independiente de Color was outlawed and bloodily suppressed in 1912, as American troops reentered the country to protect the sugar plantations.Richard Gott, Cuba: A New History, pp. 123–24. Gómez's successor, Mario Menocal of the Conservative Party, was a former manager for the Cuban American Sugar Corporation. During his presidency income from sugar rose steeply.Louis A. Pérez, Jr., Intervention, Revolution, and Politics in Cuba, 1913–1921, p. 4. Menocal's reelection in 1916 was met with armed revolt by Gómez and other Liberals (the so-called "Chambelona War"), prompting the United States to send in Marines, again to safeguard American interests. Gómez was defeated and captured and the rebellion was snuffed out.Richard Gott, Cuba: A New History, pp. 127–28. In World War I, Cuba declared war on Imperial Germany on 7 April 1917, one day after the United States entered the war. Despite being unable to send troops to fight in Europe, Cuba played a significant role as a base to protect the West Indies from German U-boat attacks. A draft law was instituted, and 25,000 Cuban troops raised, but the war ended before they could be sent into action. Alfredo Zayas, who had taken part in the Liberal rebellion of 1916–17, was elected President in 1920 and took office in 1921. When the Cuban financial system collapsed after a drop in sugar prices, Zayas secured a loan from the United States in 1922. Despite the country's nominal independence, one historian has concluded that the continued U.S. military intervention and economic dominance had once again made Cuba "a colony in all but name."Richard Gott, Cuba: A New History, p. 129. After World War I President Gerardo Machado was elected by popular vote in 1925, but he was constitutionally barred from reelection. Machado, determined to modernize Cuba, set in motion several massive civil works projects such as the Central Highway, but at the end of his constitutional term he held on to power. The United States, despite the Platt Amendment, decided not to interfere militarily. The Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) did very little to resist Machado in his dictator phase; however, numerous other groups did. In the late 1920s and early 1930s a number of Cuban action groups, including some Mambí, staged a series of uprisings that either failed or did not affect the capital. The Sergeants' Revolt undermined the institutions and coercive structures of the oligarchic state. The young and relatively inexperienced revolutionaries found themselves pushed into the halls of state power by worker and peasant mobilisations. Between September 1933 and January 1934 a loose coalition of radical activists, students, middle-class intellectuals, and disgruntled lower-rank soldiers formed a Provisional Revolutionary Government. This coalition was directed by a popular university professor, Dr Ramón Grau San Martín. The Grau government promised a 'new Cuba' with social justice for all classes, and the abrogation of the Platt Amendment. While the revolutionary leaders certainly wanted diplomatic recognition by Washington, they believed their legitimacy stemmed from the popular rebellion which brought them to power, and not from the approval of the United States' Department of State. To this end, throughout the autumn of 1933, the government decreed a dramatic series of reforms. The Platt Amendment was unilaterally abrogated, and all the political parties of the Machadato were dissolved. The Provisional Government granted autonomy to the University of Havana, women obtained the right to vote, the eight-hour day was decreed, a minimum wage was established for cane-cutters, and compulsory arbitration was promoted. The government created a Ministry of Labour, and a law was passed establishing that 50 per cent of all workers in agriculture, commerce and industry had to be Cuban citizens. The Grau regime set agrarian reform as a priority, promising peasants legal title to their lands. For the first time in Cuban history the country was governed by people who did not negotiate the terms of political power with Spain (before 1898), or with the United States (after 1898). The Provisional Government survived until January 1934, when it was overthrown by an equally loose anti-government coalition of right-wing civilian and military elements. Led by a young mixed-race sergeant, Fulgencio Batista, this movement was supported by the United States.Whitney 2000:436-437. The 1940 constitution and the Batista era President Carlos Prío Socarrás (left), with US president Harry S. Truman in Washington, D.C. in 1948 =Rise of Batista= In 1940, Cuba conducted free and fair national elections. Fulgencio Batista, was originally endorsed by Communist leaders in exchange for the legalization of the Communist party and Communist domination of the labor movement. The reorganization of the labor movement during this time was capped with the establishment of the Confederacion de Trajabadores de Cuba (Confederation of Cuban Workers, or CTC), in 1938. However, in 1947, the Communists lost control of the CTC, and their influence in the trade union movement gradually declined into the 1950s. The assumption of the Presidency by Batista in 1952 and the intervening years to 1958 placed tremendous strain on the labor movement, with some independent union leaders resigning from the CTC in opposition to Batista's rule. The relatively progressivist 1940 Constitution was adopted by the Batista administration. The constitution denied Batista the possibility of running consecutively in the 1944 election. Rather than endorsing Batista's hand-picked successor Carlos Zayas, the Cuban people elected Ramón Grau San Martín in 1944. A populist physician, who had briefly held the presidency in the 1933 revolutionary process, Grau made a deal with labor unions to continue Batista's pro-labor policies. Grau's administration coincided with the end of World War II, and he presided over an economic boom as sugar production expanded and prices rose. He instituted programs of public works and school construction, increasing social security benefits and encouraging economic development and agricultural production. However, increased prosperity brought increased corruption, with nepotism and favoritism flourishing in the political establishment, and urban violence, a legacy of the early 1930s, reappearing on a large scale."Ramon Grau San Martin" . Answers.com. Retrieved 27 November 2011. The country was also steadily gaining a reputation as a base for organized crime, with the Havana Conference of 1946 seeing leading Mafia mobsters descend upon the city."Havana Conference – 1946" . Crime Magazine. Retrieved 2 December 2012. Grau's presidency was followed by that of Carlos Prío Socarrás, also elected democratically, but whose government was tainted by increasing corruption and violent incidents among political factions. Around the same time, Fidel Castro became a public figure at the University of Havana. Eduardo Chibás the leader of the Partido Ortodoxo (Orthodox Party), a liberal democratic group was widely expected to win in 1952 on an anticorruption platform. However, Chibás committed suicide before he could run for the presidency, and the opposition was left without a unifying leader. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Batista, who was expected to win only a small minority of the 1952 presidential vote, seized power in an almost bloodless coup three months before the election was to take place. President Prío did nothing to stop the coup, and was forced to leave the island. Due to the corruption of the previous two administrations, the general public reaction to the coup was somewhat accepting at first. However, Batista soon encountered stiff opposition when he temporarily suspended the balloting and the 1940 constitution, and attempted to rule by decree. Nonetheless, elections were held in 1954 and Batista was re-elected under disputed circumstances. Opposition parties mounted a blistering campaign, and continued to do so, using the Cuban free press throughout Batista's tenure in office. =Economic expansion= Although corruption was rife under Batista, Cuba did flourish economically during his regime. Wages rose significantly; according to the International Labour Organization, the average industrial salary in Cuba was the world's eighth-highest in 1958, and the average agricultural wage was higher than in developed nations such as Denmark, West Germany, Belgium, and France. Although a third of the population still lived in poverty, Cuba was one of the five most developed countries in Latin America by the end of the Batista era, with 56% of the population living in cities. In the 1950s, Cuba's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was roughly equal to that of contemporary Italy, and significantly higher than that of countries such as Japan, although Cuba's GDP per capita was still only a sixth as large as that of the United States. According to the United Nations at the time, "one feature of the Cuban social structure [was] a large middle class". Labour rights were also favourable an eight-hour day had been established in 1933, long before most other countries, and Cuban workers were entitled to a months's paid holiday, nine days' sick leave with pay, and six weeks' holiday before and after childbirth. Cuba also had Latin America's highest per capita consumption rates of meat, vegetables, cereals, automobiles, telephones and radios during this period. Cuba had the fifth-highest number of televisions per capita in the world, and the world's eighth-highest number of radio stations (160). According to the United Nations, 58 different daily newspapers operated in Cuba during the late 1950s, more than any Latin American country save Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. Havana was the world's fourth-most- expensive city at the time, and had more cinemas than New York. Cuba furthermore had the highest level of telephone penetration in Latin America, although many telephone users were still unconnected to switchboards. Moreover, Cuba's health service was remarkably developed. By the late 1950s, it had one of the highest numbers of doctors per capita more than in the United Kingdom at that time and the third-lowest adult mortality rate in the world. According to the World Health Organization, the island had the lowest infant mortality rate in Latin America, and the 13th-lowest in the world better than in contemporary France, Belgium, West Germany, Israel, Japan, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Additionally, Cuba's education spending in the 1950s was the highest in Latin America, relative to GDP. Cuba had the fourth-highest literacy rate in the region, at almost 80% according to the United Nations higher than that of Spain at the time. =Stagnation and dissatisfaction= However, the United States, rather than Latin America, was the frame of reference for educated Cubans. Cubans travelled to the United States, read American newspapers, listened to American radio, watched American television, and were attracted to American culture. Middle-class Cubans grew frustrated at the economic gap between Cuba and the US. The middle class became increasingly dissatisfied with the administration, while labour unions supported Batista until the very end. Large income disparities arose due to the extensive privileges enjoyed by Cuba's unionized workers. Cuban labour unions had established limitations on mechanization and even banned dismissals in some factories. The labour unions' privileges were obtained in large measure "at the cost of the unemployed and the peasants". Cuba's labour regulations ultimately caused economic stagnation. Hugh Thomas asserts that "militant unions succeeded in maintaining the position of unionized workers and, consequently, made it difficult for capital to improve efficiency." Between 1933 and 1958, Cuba increased economic regulation enormously. The regulation led to declining investment. The World Bank also complained that the Batista administration raised the tax burden without assessing its impact. Unemployment was high; many university graduates could not find jobs. After its earlier meteoric rise, the Cuban gross domestic product grew at only 1% annually on average between 1950 and 1958. Political Repression and Human Rights Abuses In 1940, while receiving military, financial, and logistical support from the United States,Fidel: The Untold Story. (2001). Directed by Estela Bravo. First Run Features. (91 min). Viewable clip. "Batista's forces were trained by the United States, which also armed them with tanks, artillery, and aircraft." Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including the right to strike. He then aligned with the wealthiest landowners who owned the largest sugar plantations, and presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans.Historical Dictionary of the 1950s, by James Stuart Olson, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000, , pp. 67–68. Eventually it reached the point where most of the sugar industry was in U.S. hands, and foreigners owned 70% of the arable land.Fidel: The Untold Story. (2001). Directed by Estela Bravo. First Run Features. (91 min). Viewable clip. As such, Batista's repressive government then began to systematically profit from the exploitation of Cuba's commercial interests, by negotiating lucrative relationships with both the American Mafia, who controlled the drug, gambling, and prostitution businesses in Havana, and with large U.S.-based multinational companies who were awarded lucrative contracts.Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution, by T. J. English, William Morrow, 2008, . To quell the growing discontent amongst the populace—which was subsequently displayed through frequent student riots and demonstrations—Batista established tighter censorship of the media, while also utilizing his Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities secret police to carry out wide-scale violence, torture and public executions. These murders mounted in 1957, as Fidel Castro gained more publicity and influence. Many people were killed, with estimates ranging from hundreds to about 20,000 people killed.CIA (1963). Political Murders in Cuba -- Batista Era Compared with Castro RegimeWickham-Crowley, Timothy P. (1990). Exploring Revolution: Essays on Latin American Insurgency and Revolutionary Theory. Armonk and London: M.E. Sharpe. P. 63 "Estimates of hundreds or perhaps about a thousand deaths due to Batista's terror are also supported by comments made by Fidel Castro and other Batista critics during the war itself."Guerra, Lillian (2012). Visions of Power in Cuba: Revolution, Redemption, and Resistance, 1959–1971. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 42 "The likely total was probably closer to three to four thousand."Conflict, Order, and Peace in the Americas, by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, 1978, p. 121. "The US-supported Batista regime killed 20,000 Cubans" 1953–1959: the Cuban Revolution Camilo Cienfuegos, Fidel Castro, Huber Matos, entering Havana on 8 January 1959 In 1952, Fidel Castro, a young lawyer running for a seat in the Chamber of Representatives for the Partido Ortodoxo, circulated a petition to depose Batista's government on the grounds that it had illegitimately suspended the electoral process. However, the courts did not act on the petition and ignored Castro's legal challenges. Castro thus resolved to use armed force to overthrow Batista; he and his brother Raúl gathered supporters, and on 26 July 1953 led an attack on the Moncada Barracks near Santiago de Cuba. The attack ended in failure the authorities killed several of the insurgents, captured Castro himself, tried him and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. However, the Batista government released him in 1955, when amnesty was given to many political prisoners, including the ones that assaulted the Moncada barracks. Castro and his brother subsequently went into exile in Mexico, where they met the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. While in Mexico, Guevara and the Castros organized the 26th of July Movement with the goal of overthrowing Batista. In December 1956, Fidel Castro led a group of 82 fighters to Cuba aboard the yacht Granma, landing in the eastern part of the island. Despite a pre-landing rising in Santiago by Frank País Pesqueira and his followers among the urban pro-Castro movement, Batista's forces promptly killed, dispersed or captured most of Castro's men. Castro managed to escape into the Sierra Maestra mountains with as few as 12 fighters, aided by the urban and rural opposition, including Celia Sanchez and the bandits of Cresencio Perez's family. Castro and Guevara then began a guerrilla campaign against the Batista régime, with their main forces supported by numerous poorly armed escopeteros and the well-armed fighters of Frank País' urban organization. Growing anti-Batista resistance, including a bloodily crushed rising by Cuban Navy personnel in Cienfuegos, soon led to chaos in the country. At the same time, rival guerrilla groups in the Escambray Mountains also grew more effective. Castro attempted to arrange a general strike in 1958, but could not win support among Communists or labor unions. Multiple attempts by Batista's forces to crush the rebels ended in failure. Castro's forces were able to acquire captured weapons, including 12 mortars, 2 bazookas, 12 machine guns mounted on tripods, 21 light machine guns, 142 M-1 rifles, and 200 Dominican Cristobal submachine guns. The biggest prize for the rebels was a government M4 Sherman tank, which would be used in the Battle of Santa Clara. The United States imposed trade restrictions on the Batista administration and sent an envoy who attempted to persuade Batista to leave the country voluntarily. With the military situation becoming untenable, Batista fled on 1 January 1959, and Castro took over. Within months of taking control, Castro moved to consolidate his power by marginalizing other resistance groups and figures and imprisoning and executing opponents and dissident former supporters. Juan Clark Cuba (1992). Mito y Realidad: Testimonio de un Pueblo. Saeta Ediciones (Miami). pp. 53–70. As the revolution became more radical and continued its marginalization of the wealthy, of landowners, and of some of those who opposed its direction, thousands of Cubans fled the island, eventually, over decades, forming a large exile community in the United States. Cuban Americans today constitute a large percentage of the population of the U.S. state of Florida, and constitute a significant voting bloc. Castro's Cuba Fidel Castro's July 26 Movement rebels mounted on horses in 1959 Politics On January 1, 1959, Che Guevara marched his troops from Santa Clara to Havana, without encountering resistance. Meanwhile, Fidel Castro marched his soldiers to the Moncada Army Barracks, where all 5,000 soldiers in the barracks defected to the Revolutionary movement. On February 4, 1959, Fidel Castro announced a massive reform plan which included a public works project, land reform granting nearly 200,000 families farmland, and also nationalization plans of various industries. The new government of Cuba soon encountered opposition from militant groups and from the United States, which had supported Batista politically and economically. Fidel Castro quickly purged political opponents from the administration. Loyalty to Castro and the revolution became the primary criterion for all appointments. Mass organisation such as labor unions that opposed the revolutionary government were made illegal. By the end of 1960, all opposition newspapers had been closed down and all radio and television stations had come under state control. Teachers and professors found to have involvement with counter-revolution were purged. Fidel's brother Raúl Castro became the commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. In September 1960, a system of neighborhood watch networks, known as Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), was created. After Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo formed an anti-Castro foreign legion of 3,000 soldiers-of- fortune, including 200 Cuban exiles and 400 Spanish volunteers from the Blue Division (which had fought for Germany on the Eastern Front during WWII), Castro sponsored or organized several attempts to unseat him. On 14 June 1959, approximately 200 Dominican exiles and Cuban revolutionaries launched an invasion of the Dominican Republic from Cuba with the hope of overthrowing the Trujillo regime. Trujillo's forces quickly routed the invaders. A week later, another group of invaders in 2 yachts were intercepted and blasted by mortar fire and bazookas from the shore. Trujillo's planes, directed by his son Ramfis, commander of the air force, zoomed low over the yachts and shot rockets, killing most of the invaders. A few survivors managed to swim to the shore and escape into the forest; the military used napalm to get them out. The leaders of the invasion were taken aboard a Dominican Air Force plane and then pushed out in mid-air, falling to their deaths."The Assassination of Rafael Trujillo" Trujillo responded by supporting an October 1960 uprising in the Escambray Mountains by 1,000 Cuban counter-revolutionaries. The rebels were defeated and their leader, William Morgan, was captured and executed. In July 1961, two years after the 1959 Revolution, the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (IRO) was formed, merging Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement with Blas Roca's Popular Socialist Party and Faure Chomón's Revolutionary Directory 13 March. On 26 March 1962, the IRO became the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution (PURSC), which, in turn, became the Communist Party on 3 October 1965, with Castro as First Secretary. In 1976 a national referendum ratified a new constitution, with 97.7% in favour.Nohlen, p. 197 The constitution secured the Communist Party's central role in governing Cuba, but kept party affiliation out of the election process."Cuba: Elections and Events 1991–2001" . UCSD Latin American Election Statistics Home. 2010. Retrieved 19 February 2014. Other smaller parties exist but have little influence and are not permitted to campaign against the program of the Communist Party. Break with the United StatesCastro's resentment of American influence= The United States recognized the Castro government on 7 January 1959, six days after Batista fled Cuba. President Eisenhower sent a new ambassador, Philip Bonsal, to replace Earl E. T. Smith, who had been close to Batista. The Eisenhower administration, in agreement with the American media and Congress, did this with the assumption that "Cuba [would] remain in the U.S. sphere of influence". Foreign-policy professor Piero Gleijeses argued that if Castro had accepted these parameters, he would be allowed to stay in power. Otherwise he would be overthrown.Gleijeses, Piero (2002). Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959–1976. University of North Carolina Press. p. 14. Among the opponents of Batista, many wanted to accommodate the United States. However, Castro belonged to a faction which opposed U.S. influence. Castro did not forgive the U.S. supply of arms to Batista during the revolution. On 5 June 1958, at the height of the revolution, he had written: "The Americans are going to pay dearly for what they are doing. When the war is over, I'll start a much longer and bigger war of my own: the war I’m going to fight against them. That will be my true destiny".Castro to Celia Sanches, 5 June 1958 in Franqui: Diary, p. 338. (The United States had stopped supplies to Batista in March 1958, but left its Military Advisory Group in Cuba).Paterson in: Contesting Castro, p. 242. Thus, Castro had no intention to bow to the United States. "Even though he did not have a clear blueprint of the Cuba he wanted to create, Castro dreamed of a sweeping revolution that would uproot his country's oppressive socioeconomic structure and of a Cuba that would be free of the United States". Quotations from "Unofficial Visit of Prime Minister Castro of Cuba to Washington – A Tentative Evaluation", enclosed in Herter to Eisenhower, 23 April 1959, jFRUS 1958–60, 6:483, and Special NIE in: "The Situation in the Caribbean through 1959", 30 June 1959, p. 3, NSA =Breakdown of relations= Only six months after Castro seized power, the Eisenhower administration began to plot his ouster. The United Kingdom was persuaded to cancel a sale of Hawker Hunter fighter aircraft to Cuba. The US National Security Council (NSC) met in March 1959 to consider means to institute a régime-change and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began arming guerillas inside Cuba in May. In January 1960 Roy R. Rubottom, Jr., Assistant Secretary of State for Inter- American Affairs, summarized the evolution of Cuba–United States relations since January 1959: > "The period from January to March might be characterized as the honeymoon > period of the Castro government. In April a downward trend in US–Cuban > relations had been evident… In June we had reached the decision that it was > not possible to achieve our objectives with Castro in power and had agreed > to undertake the program referred to by Undersecretary of State Livingston > T. Merchant. On 31 October in agreement with the Central Intelligence > Agency, the Department had recommended to the President approval of a > program along the lines referred to by Mr. Merchant. The approved program > authorized us to support elements in Cuba opposed to the Castro government > while making Castro's downfall seem to be the result of his own > mistakes."NSC meeting, 14 January 1960, FRUS 1958-60, 6:742–43.Braddock to > SecState, Havana, 1 February 1960, FRUS 1958–60, 6:778. Compare: In March 1960 the French ship La Coubre blew up in Havana Harbor as it unloaded munitions, killing dozens. The CIA blamed the explosion on the Cuban government. Relations between the United States and Cuba deteriorated rapidly as the Cuban government, in reaction to the refusal of Royal Dutch Shell, Standard Oil and Texaco to refine petroleum from the Soviet Union in Cuban refineries under their control, took control of those refineries in July 1960. The Eisenhower administration promoted a boycott of Cuba by oil companies, to which Cuba responded by nationalizing the refineries in August 1960. Both sides continued to escalate the dispute. Cuba expropriated more US-owned properties, notably those belonging to the International Telephone and Telegraph Company (ITT) and to the United Fruit Company. In the Castro government's first agrarian reform law, on 17 May 1959, the state sought to limit the size of land holdings, and to distribute that land to small farmers in "Vital Minimum" tracts. This law served as a pretext for seizing lands held by foreigners and for redistributing them to Cuban citizens. =Formal disconnection= The United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba on 3 January 1961, and further restricted trade in February 1962. The Organization of American States, under pressure from the United States, suspended Cuba's membership in the body on 22 January 1962, and the U.S. government banned all U.S.–Cuban trade on 7 February. The Kennedy administration extended this ban on 8 February 1963, forbidding U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba or to conduct financial or commercial transactions with the country. Priestland, Jane (editor, 2003). British Archives on Cuba: Cuba under Castro 1959–1962. Archival Publications International Limited: London. . At first the embargo did not extend to other countries, and Cuba traded with most European, Asian and Latin American countries and especially with Canada. However, the United States later pressured other nations and American companies with foreign subsidiaries to restrict trade with Cuba. The Helms–Burton Act of 1996 makes it very difficult for foreign companies doing business with Cuba to also do business in the United States, forcing them to choose between the two marketplaces. Bay of Pigs invasion The Bay of Pigs Memorial in Miami, Florida In April 1961, less than four months into the Kennedy administration, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) executed a plan that had been developed under the Eisenhower administration. This military campaign to topple Cuba's revolutionary government is now known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion (or La Batalla de Girón in Cuba).US Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States 1961–1963, Volume X Cuba, 1961–1962 Washington, D.C. ) The aim of the invasion was to empower existing opposition militant groups to "overthrow the Communist regime" and establish "a new government with which the United States can live in peace." The invasion was carried out by a CIA-sponsored paramilitary group of over 1,400 Cuban exiles called Brigade 2506. Arriving in Cuba by boat from Guatemala on 15 April, the brigade landed on the beach Playa Girón and initially overwhelmed Cuba's counter- offensive. But by 20 April, the brigade surrendered and was publicly interrogated before being sent back to the US. Recently inaugurated president John F. Kennedy assumed full responsibility for the operation, even though he had vetoed the reinforcements requested during the battle. The invasion helped further build popular support for the new Cuban government.Angelo Trento. Castro and Cuba : From the revolution to the present. Arris books. 2005. The Kennedy administration thereafter began Operation Mongoose, a covert CIA campaign of sabotage against Cuba, including the arming of militant groups, sabotage of Cuban infrastructure, and plots to assassinate Castro.Domínguez, Jorge I. "The @#$%& Missile Crisis (Or, What was 'Cuban' about US Decisions during the Cuban Missile Crisis". Diplomatic History: The Journal of the Society for Historians of Foreign Relations, Vol. 24, No. 2, (Spring 2000): 305–15.)Jack Anderson (1971-01-18). "6 Attempts to Kill Castro Laid to CIA". The Washington Post All this reinforced Castro's distrust of the US, and set the stage for the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis Tensions between the two governments peaked again during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The United States had a much larger arsenal of long- range nuclear weapons than the Soviet Union, as well as medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) in Turkey, whereas the Soviet Union had a large stockpile of medium-range nuclear weapons which were primarily located in Europe. Cuba agreed to let the Soviets secretly place SS-4 Sandal and SS-5 Skean MRBMs on their territory. Reports from inside Cuba to exile sources questioned the need for large amounts of ice going to rural areas, which led to the discovery of the missiles, confirmed by Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance photos. The United States responded by establishing a cordon in international waters to stop Soviet ships from bringing in more missiles (designated a quarantine rather than a blockade to avoid issues with international law). At the same time, Castro was getting a little too extreme for the liking of Moscow, so at the last moment the Soviets called back their ships. In addition, they agreed to remove the missiles already there in exchange for an agreement that the United States would not invade Cuba. Only after the fall of the Soviet Union was it revealed that another part of the agreement was the removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey. It also turned out that some submarines that the U.S. Navy blocked were carrying nuclear missiles and that communication with Moscow was tenuous, effectively leaving the decision of firing the missiles at the discretion of the captains of those submarines. In addition, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian government revealed that nuclear- armed FROGs (Free Rocket Over Ground) and Ilyushin Il-28 Beagle bombers had also been deployed in Cuba. Military build-up Russian T-34 tank at Museo Giron, Cuba In the 1961 New Year's Day parade, the Communist administration exhibited Soviet tanks and other weapons. Cuban officers received extended military training in the Soviet Union, becoming proficient in the use of advanced Soviet weapons systems, including MIG jet fighters, submarines, sophisticated artillery, and other ground and air defense equipment. For most of the approximately 30 years of the Cuban-Soviet military collaboration, Moscow provided the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces—virtually free of charge—with nearly all of its equipment, training, and supplies, worth approximately $1 billion annually. By 1982, Cuba possessed the best equipped and largest per capita armed forces in Latin America. Suppression of dissent Military Units to Aid Production or UMAPs (Unidades Militares para la Ayuda de Producción) in effect, forced labor concentration camps were established in 1965 as a way to eliminate alleged "bourgeois" and "counter- revolutionary" values in the Cuban population. In July 1968, the name "UMAP" was erased and paperwork associated with the UMAP was destroyed. The camps continued as "Military Units". By the 1970s, the standard of living in Cuba was "extremely spartan" and discontent was rife. Castro changed economic policies in the first half of the 1970s. In the 1970s unemployment reappeared as problem. The solution was to criminalize unemployment with 1971 Anti- Loafing Law; the unemployed would be put into jail. One alternative was to go fight Soviet-supported wars in Africa. In any given year, there were about 20,000 dissidents held and tortured under inhuman prison conditions. Homosexuals were imprisoned in internment camps in the 1960s, where they were subject to medical-political "reeducation". The Black Book of Communism estimates that 15,000–17,000 people were executed.Black Book of Communism. p. 664 The anti-Castro Archivo Cuba estimates that 4,000 people were executed. Emigration The establishment of a socialist system in Cuba led to the fleeing of many hundreds of thousands of upper- and middle-class Cubans to the United States and other countries since Castro's rise to power. By 1961, thousands of Cubans had fled Cuba for the United States. On 22 March of that year, an exile council was formed. The council planned to defeat the Communist regime and form a provisional government with José Miró Cardona, a noted leader in the civil opposition against Batista, to serve as temporary president until elections could be held. Between 1959 and 1993, some 1.2 million Cubans left the island for the United States,"Press Releases" . US Census Bureau. Retrieved 16 February 2013. often by sea in small boats and fragile rafts. Between 30,000 and 80,000 Cubans are estimated to have died trying flee Cuba during this period.Power Kills . R.J. Rummel. In the early years a number of those who could claim dual Spanish-Cuban citizenship left for Spain. Over the course of several decades, a number of Cuban Jews were allowed to emigrate to Israel after quiet negotiations; the majority of the 10,000 or so Jews who were in Cuba in 1959 eventually left the country. By the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cubans were living in many different countries, some in member countries of the European Union. Spain, Italy, Mexico, and Canada have particularly large Cuban communities. On 6 November 1965, Cuba and the United States agreed to an airlift for Cubans who wanted to emigrate to the United States. The first of these so-called Freedom Flights left Cuba on 1 December 1965, and by 1971 over 250,000 Cubans had flown to the United States. In 1980 another 125,000 came to United States during a six- month period in the Mariel boatlift, including some criminals and people with psychiatric diagnoses. It was discovered that the Cuban government was using the event to rid Cuba of the unwanted segments of its society. In 2012, Cuba abolished its requirement for exit permits, allowing Cuban citizens to travel to other countries more easily. Involvement in Third World conflicts FAR From its inception, the Cuban Revolution defined itself as internationalist, seeking to spread its revolutionary ideals abroad and gain a variety of foreign allies. Although still a developing country itself, Cuba supported African, Central and South American and Asian countries in the fields of military development, health and education. These "overseas adventures" not only irritated the United States but were also quite often a source of dispute with Cuba's ostensible allies in the Kremlin.Jim Lobe. "Subject: Cuba followed US into Angola" . StrategyPage.com. 2004. Retrieved 3 February 2013. The Sandinista insurgency in Nicaragua, which led to the demise of the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, was openly supported by Cuba. However, it was on the African continent where Cuba was most active, supporting a total of 17 liberation movements or leftist governments, in countries including Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique. Cuba offered to send troops to Vietnam, but the initiative was turned down by the Vietnamese. Cuba had some 39,000–40,000 military personnel abroad by the late 1970s, with the bulk of the forces in Sub-Saharan Africa but with some 1,365 stationed among Algeria, Iraq, Libya, and South Yemen. Its Angolan involvement was particularly intense and noteworthy with heavy assistance given to the Marxist–Leninist MPLA in the Angolan Civil War. Cuban soldiers were instrumental in the defeat of South African and Zairian troops. Cuban soldiers also defeated the FNLA and UNITA armies and established MPLA control over most of Angola. Cuba's presence in Mozambique was more subdued, involving by the mid-1980s 700 Cuban military and 70 civilian personnel. In 1978, in Ethiopia, 16,000 Cuban combatants, along with the Soviet-supported Ethiopian army, defeated an invasion force of Somalians. South African soldiers were again drawn into the Angolan Civil War in 1987–88, and several inconclusive battles were fought between Cuban and South African forces. Cuban-piloted MiG-23s performed airstrikes against South African forces in Namibia during the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. Moscow used Cuban surrogate troops in Africa and the Middle East because they had a high level of training for combat in Third World environments, familiarity with Soviet weapons, physical toughness and a tradition of successful guerrilla warfare dating back to the uprisings against Spain in the 19th century. Cuban forces in Africa were mainly black and mulatto. Cuba was unable to pay on its own for the costs of its overseas military activities. After it lost its subsidies from the USSR, Cuba withdrew its troops from Ethiopia (1989), Nicaragua (1990), Angola (1991), and elsewhere. =Angola= Location of Cuba (red), Angola (green), and South Africa (blue) Cuban PT-76 tank crew on routine security duties in Angola Cuba's involvement in the Angolan Civil War began in the 1960s, when relations were established with the leftist Movement for the Popular Liberation of Angola (MPLA). The MPLA was one of three organisations struggling to gain Angola's independence from Portugal, the other two being UNITA and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). In August and October 1975, the South African Defence Force (SADF) intervened in Angola in support of the UNITA and FNLA (Operation Savannah). Cuban troops began to arrive in Angola in early October 1975. On 6 October, Cubans and the MPLA clashed with the FNLA and South African troops at Norton de Matos and were badly defeated. The Cubans blocked an advancing South African mechanized column on 4 November with 122mm rocket fire, causing the South Africans to request heavy artillery which could out-distance the rockets. Castro reacted to the presence of the South African armored column by announcing Operation Carlota, a massive resupply of Angola, on 5 November.Jihan El Tahri. Une Odyssée Africaine (France, 2006, 59mn). An anti-Communist force made up of 1,500 FNLA fighters, 100 Portuguese mercenaries, and two battalions of the Zairian army passed near the city of Quifangondo, only 30 km north of Luanda, at dawn on 10 November. The force, supported by South African aircraft and three 140 mm artillery pieces, marched in a single line along the Bengo River to face an 800-strong Cuban force across the river. Cuban and MPLA troops bombarded the FNLA with mortar and 122 mm rockets, destroying most of the FNLA's armored cars and 6 Jeeps carrying antitank rockets in the first hour of fighting. The Cuban-led force shot 2,000 rockets at the FNLA. Cubans then drove forward, launching RPG-7 rocket grenades, shooting with anti-aircraft guns, killing hundreds. The South Africans, with their aged World War II-era guns were powerless to intervene, and subsequently retreated via Ambrizete to SAS President Steyn, a South African navy frigate. The Cuba-MPLA victory at the Battle of Quifangondo largely ended the FNLA's importance in the conflict. On 25 November, as SADF armored cars and UNITA infantry tried to cross a bridge, Cubans hidden along the banks of the river attacked; as many as 90 South African and UNITA troops were killed or wounded, and 7 or 8 SADF armored cars were destroyed. The Cubans suffered no casualties. Between 9 and 12 December, Cuban and South African troops fought between Santa Comba and Quibala, in what became known as the "Battle of Bridge 14". The Cubans were severely defeated, losing 200 killed. The SADF suffered only 4 casualties. At the same time, UNITA troops and another South African mechanized unit captured Luso. Following these defeats, the number of Cuban troops airlifted to Angola more than doubled, from about 400 per week to perhaps 1,000. The Cuban forces mounted a counter- offensive beginning in January 1976 that impelled South African withdrawal by the end of March. South Africa spent the following decade launching bombing and strafing raids from its bases in South West Africa into southern Angola. In February 1976, Cuban forces launched Operation Pañuelo Blanco (White Handkerchief) against 700 FLEC irregulars operating in the Necuto area. The irregulars laid minefields which caused the Cubans some casualties as they pursued them into the jungle. Further skirmishing continued throughout the month. In early April, the irregulars were encircled and cut off from supplies. Nearly 100 FLEC irregulars were killed over two nights as they tried to break their encirclement; a further 100 irregulars died and 300 were taken prisoner when the Cubans moved in for the kill the next day. In 1987–88, South Africa again sent military forces to Angola to stop an advance of FAPLA forces (MPLA) against UNITA, leading to the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, where the SADF was unable to defeat the FAPLA and Cuban forces. The Cuban press described the campaign as follows: At the height of its operation, Cuba had as many as 50,000 soldiers stationed in Angola. On 22 December 1988, Angola, Cuba, and South Africa signed the Tripartite Accord in New York, arranging for the retreat of South African and Cuban troops within 30 months, and the implementation of the 10-year-old UN Security Council Resolution 435 for the independence of Namibia. The Cuban intervention, for a short time, turned Cuba into a "global player" in the midst of the Cold War. Their presence helped the MPLA retain control over large parts of Angola, and their military actions are also credited with helping secure Namibia's independence. The withdrawal of the Cubans ended 13 years of foreign military presence in Angola. At the same time, Cuba removed its troops from the Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia."Cuba Factsheet" . US Department of State. 30 August 2013. Retrieved 19 February 2014. =Guinea-Bissau= Some 40–50 Cubans fought against Portugal in Guinea-Bissau each year from 1966 until independence in 1974 (see Guinea-Bissau War of Independence). They helped in military planning and they were in charge of the artillery. =Algeria= As early as 1961, Cuba supported the National Liberation Front in Algeria against France.Gleijeses, Piero: Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, (The University of North Carolina Press) In October 1963, shortly after Algeria gained its independence, Morocco started a border dispute in which Cuba sent a battalion of 40 tanks and several hundred troops to help Algeria. However, a truce between the two North African countries was signed within the week. A memorandum issued on 20 October 1963 by Raúl Castro mandated a high standard of behavior for the troops, with strict instructions being given on their proper conduct during foreign interventions.PDF copy of the memorandum . Centro de Informacion de la Defensa de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (CIDFAR – Information Centre of the Revolutionary Armed Forces). 20 October 1963. Retrieved 3 February 2013. =Congo= In 1964, Cuba supported the Simba Rebellion of adherents of Patrice Lumumba in Congo-Leopoldville (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo). Among the insurgents was Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who would overthrow long-time dictator Mobutu 30 years later. However, the 1964 rebellion ended in failure.Ernesto "Che" Guevara (2001). The African Dream: The Diaries of the Revolutionary War in the Congo – With an Introduction by Richard Gott. New York: Grove Press. In the Mozambican Civil War and in Congo-Brazzaville (today the Republic of the Congo), Cubans acted as military advisors. Congo-Brazzaville furthermore acted as a supply base for the Angola mission. =Syria= In late 1973, there were 4,000 Cuban tank troops in Syria as part of an armored brigade which took part in the Yom Kippur War until May 1974. Cuba did not confirm any casualties. =Ethiopia= Cuban artillery crew during the Ogaden War Fidel Castro was a supporter of the Marxist–Leninist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, whose regime killed hundreds of thousands during the Ethiopian Red Terror of the late 1970s, and who was later convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity. Cuba provided substantial military support to Mariam during the latter's conflict with the Somali dictator Siad Barre in the Ogaden War (July 1977–March 1978), stationing around 24,000 troops in Ethiopia. Castro explained this to Erich Honecker, communist dictator of East Germany, by saying that Siad Barre was "above all a chauvinist". From October 1977 until January 1978, the Somali forces attempted to capture Harar during the Battle of Harar, where 40,000 Ethiopians had regrouped and re-armed with Soviet- supplied artillery and armor; backed by 1,500 Soviet advisors (34 of whom died in Ethiopia, 1977–90) and 16,000 Cuban troops, they engaged the attackers in vicious fighting. Though the Somali forces reached the city outskirts by November, they were too exhausted to take the city and eventually had to withdraw to await the Ethiopian counterattack. Casualties among the Somalis may have totaled as many as 40,000 since the start of the war. The expected Ethiopian-Cuban attack occurred in early February; however, it was accompanied by a second attack that the Somalis did not expect. A column of Ethiopian and Cuban troops crossed northeast into the highlands between Jijiga and the border with Somalia, bypassing the Somali force defending the Marda Pass. Mil Mi-6 helicopters heli-lifted Cuban BMD-1 and ASU-57 armored vehicles behind enemy lines. The attackers were thus able to assault from two directions in a "pincer" action, allowing the re-capture of Jijiga in only two days while killing 3,000 defenders. The Somali defense collapsed and every major Ethiopian town was recaptured in the following weeks. Recognizing that his position was untenable, Siad Barre ordered the Somali armed forces to retreat back into Somalia on 9 March 1978. Cuba lost 400 killed in the conventional war, but its heaviest casualties came in the irregular war that followed. From March 1978 to November 1979, irregular hostilities claimed, according to the WSLF, 60,000 lives, including 25,000 civilians and 6,000 Cuban soldiers supporting the Ethiopians. Intelligence cooperation between Cuba and the Soviets As early as September 1959, Valdim Kotchergin, a KGB agent, was seen in Cuba.British Foreign Office. Chancery American Department, Foreign Office, London, 2 September 1959 (2181/59) to British Embassy Havana. Classified as restricted. Released 2000 among British Foreign Office papers. FOREIGN OFFICES FILES FOR CUBA Part 1: Revolution in Cuba. "In our letter 1011/59 May 6 we mentioned that a Russian workers' delegation had been invited to participate in the May Day celebrations here, but had been delayed. The interpreter with the party, which arrived later and stayed in Cuba a few days, was called Vadim Kotchergin although he was at the time using what he subsequently claimed was his mother's name of Liston (?). He remained in the background, and did not attract any attention." (English title: The training camp "Point Zero" where the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) trained national and international terrorists) "… Los coroneles soviéticos de la KGB Vadim Kochergin y Victor Simonov (ascendido a general en 1970) fueron entrenadores en "Punto Cero" desde finales de los años 60 del siglo pasado. Uno de los" graduados" por Simonov en este campo de entrenamiento es Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, más conocido como "Carlos El Chacal". Otro "alumno" de esta instalación del terror es el mexicano Rafael Sebastián Guillén, alias "subcomandante Marcos", quien se "graduó" en "Punto Cero" a principio de los años 80." Jorge Luis Vasquez, a Cuban who was imprisoned in East Germany, states that the East German Stasi trained the personnel of the Cuban Interior Ministry (MINIT). The relationship between the KGB and the Cuban Intelligence Directorate (DI) was complex and marked by both times of close cooperation and times of extreme competition. The Soviet Union saw the new revolutionary government in Cuba as an excellent proxy agent in areas of the world where Soviet involvement was not popular on a local level. Nikolai Leonov, the KGB chief in Mexico City, was one of the first Soviet officials to recognize Fidel Castro's potential as a revolutionary, and urged the Soviet Union to strengthen ties with the new Cuban leader. The USSR saw Cuba as having far more appeal with new revolutionary movements, western intellectuals, and members of the New Left, given Cuba's perceived David and Goliath struggle against U.S. "imperialism". In 1963, shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1,500 DI agents, including Che Guevara, were invited to the USSR for intensive training in intelligence operations. Modern era=Special Period Public transportation in Cuba during the "Special Period" Starting from the mid-1980s, Cuba experienced a crisis referred to as the "Special Period". When the Soviet Union, the country's primary source of trade, was dissolved in late 1991, a major supporter of Cuba's economy was lost, leaving it essentially paralyzed because of the economy's narrow basis, focused on just a few products with just a few buyers. National oil supplies, which were mostly imported, were severely reduced. Over 80% of Cuba's trade was lost and living conditions declined. A "Special Period in Peacetime" was declared, which included cutbacks on transport and electricity and even food rationing. In response, the United States tightened up its trade embargo, hoping it would lead to Castro's downfall. But the government tapped into a pre-revolutionary source of income and opened the country to tourism, entering into several joint ventures with foreign companies for hotel, agricultural and industrial projects. As a result, the use of U.S. dollars was legalized in 1994, with special stores being opened which only sold in dollars. There were two separate economies, dollar-economy and the peso-economy, creating a social split in the island because those in the dollar-economy made much more money (as in the tourist- industry). However, in October 2004, the Cuban government announced an end to this policy: from November U.S. dollars would no longer be legal tender in Cuba, but would instead be exchanged for convertible pesos (since April 2005 at the exchange rate of $1.08) with a 10% tax payable to the state on the exchange of U.S. dollars cash though not on other forms of exchange. A Canadian Medical Association Journal paper states that "The famine in Cuba during the Special Period was caused by political and economic factors similar to the ones that caused a famine in North Korea in the mid-1990s. Both countries were run by authoritarian regimes that denied ordinary people the food to which they were entitled when the public food distribution collapsed; priority was given to the elite classes and the military." The government did not accept American donations of food, medicines and money until 1993, forcing many Cubans to eat anything they could find. In the Havana zoo, the peacocks, the buffalo and even the rhea were reported to have disappeared during this period. Even domestic cats were reportedly eaten. Extreme food shortages and electrical blackouts led to a brief period of unrest, including numerous anti- government protests and widespread increases in urban crime. In response, the Cuban Communist Party formed hundreds of "rapid-action brigades" to confront protesters. The Communist Party's daily publication, Granma, stated that "delinquents and anti-social elements who try to create disorder and an atmosphere of mistrust and impunity in our society will receive a crushing reply from the people". In July 1994, 41 Cubans drowned attempting to flee the country aboard a tugboat; the Cuban government was later accused of sinking the vessel deliberately. Thousands of Cubans protested in Havana during the Maleconazo uprising on 5 August 1994. However, the regime's security forces swiftly dispersed them. A paper published in the Journal of Democracy states this was the closest that the Cuban opposition could come to asserting itself decisively. Continued isolation and regional engagement Although contacts between Cubans and foreign visitors were made legal in 1997,Rennie, David. "Cuba 'apartheid' as Castro pulls in the tourists" . The Daily Telegraph. 8 June 2002. Retrieved 28 June 2013. extensive censorship had isolated it from the rest of the world. In 1997, a group led by Vladimiro Roca, a decorated veteran of the Angolan war and the son of the founder of the Cuban Communist Party, sent a petition, entitled La Patria es de Todos ("the homeland belongs to all") to the Cuban general assembly, requesting democratic and human rights reforms. As a result, Roca and his three associates were sentenced to imprisonment, from which they were eventually released."Cuban Economist Vladimiro Roca Released from Prison" . The National Academies: Committee on Human Rights. Retrieved 2 August 2012. In 2001, a group of Cuban activists collected thousands of signatures for the Varela Project, a petition requesting a referendum on the island's political process, which was openly supported by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during his 2002 visit to Cuba. The petition gathered sufficient signatures to be considered by the Cuban government, but was rejected on an alleged technicality. Instead, a plebiscite was held in which it was formally proclaimed that Castro's brand of socialism would be perpetual. In 2003, Castro cracked down on independent journalists and other dissidents in an episode which became known as the "Black Spring". The government imprisoned 75 dissident thinkers, including 29 journalists, librarians, human rights activists, and democracy activists, on the basis that they were acting as agents of the United States by accepting aid from the U.S. government. Though it was largely diplomatically isolated from the West at this time, Cuba nonetheless cultivated regional allies. After the rise to power of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela in 1999, Cuba and Venezuela formed an increasingly close relationship based on their shared leftist ideologies, trade links and mutual opposition to U.S. influence in Latin America. Additionally, Cuba continued its post-revolution practice of dispatching doctors to assist poorer countries in Africa and Latin America, with over 30,000 health workers deployed overseas by 2007.Robert Huish and John M. Kirk (2007), "Cuban Medical Internationalism and the Development of the Latin American School of Medicine", Latin American Perspectives, 34; 77 End of Fidel Castro's presidency In 2006, Fidel Castro fell ill and withdrew from public life. The following year, Raúl Castro became Acting President, replacing his brother as the de facto leader of the country. In a letter dated 18 February 2008, Fidel Castro announced his formal resignation at the 2008 National Assembly meetings, saying "I will not aspire nor accept—I repeat I will not aspire or accept—the post of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief.""Cuba quiet after Castro announces resignation" . CNN. 19 February 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2011. In the autumn of 2008, Cuba was struck by three separate hurricanes, in the most destructive hurricane season in the country's history; over 200,000 were left homeless, and over US$5 billion of property damage was caused. In March 2012, the retired Fidel Castro met Pope Benedict XVI during the latter's visit to Cuba; the two men discussed the role of the Catholic Church in Cuba, which has a large Catholic community."Fidel Castro meets Pope Benedict" . The Guardian. 29 March 2012. Retrieved 4 April 2012. Economic reforms As of 2015, Cuba remains one of the few officially socialist states in the world. Though it remains diplomatically isolated and afflicted by economic inefficiency, major currency reforms were begun in the 2010s, and efforts to free up domestic private enterprise are now underway. Living standards in the country have improved significantly since the turmoil of the Special Period, with GDP per capita in terms of purchasing power parity rising from less than US$2,000 in 1999 to nearly $10,000 in 2010. Tourism has furthermore become a significant source of prosperity for Cuba. Improving foreign relations In July 2012, Cuba received its first American goods shipment in over 50 years, following the partial relaxation of the U.S. embargo to permit humanitarian shipments. In October 2012, Cuba announced the abolition of its much-disliked exit permit system, allowing its citizens more freedom to travel abroad. In February 2013, after his reelection as President, Raúl Castro stated that he would retire from government in 2018 as part of a broader leadership transition. In July 2013, Cuba became embroiled in a diplomatic scandal after Chong Chon Gang, a North Korean ship illegally carrying Cuban weapons, was impounded by Panama. Cuba and Venezuela maintained their alliance after Hugo Chávez's death in March 2013, but the severe economic strife suffered by Venezuela in the mid-2010s lessened its ability to support Cuba, and may ultimately have contributed to the thawing of Cuban-American relations. In December 2014, after a highly publicized exchange of political prisoners between the United States and Cuba, U.S. President Barack Obama announced plans to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba after over five decades of severance. He stated that the U.S. government intended to establish an embassy in Havana and improve economic ties with the country. Obama's proposal received both strong criticism and praise from different elements of the Cuban American community. In April 2015, the U.S. government announced that Cuba would be removed from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, on which it had been included since 1982. The U.S. embassy in Havana was formally reopened in August 2015. The Trump administration has recently re-closed the US Embassy in Havana. See also * History of the Caribbean * History of Cuban nationality * History of Latin America * List of colonial governors of Cuba * List of Presidents of Cuba * Politics of Cuba * Spanish Empire * Spanish colonization of the Americas * Timeline of Cuban history NotesReferences * Bibliography and further reading * Castillo Ramos, Ruben (1956). "Muerto Edesio, El rey de la Sierra Maestra". Bohemia XLVIII No. 9 (12 August 1956). pp. 52–54, 87. De Paz Sánchez, Manuel Antonio; Fernández, José; López, Nelson (1993–1994). El bandolerismo en Cuba (1800–1933). Presencia canaria y protesta rural. Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Two volumes. * Foner, Philip S. (1962). A History of Cuba and its Relations with the United States. * Franklin, James (1997). Cuba and the United States: A Chronological History. Ocean Press. * Gleijeses, Piero (2002). Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959–1976. University of North Carolina Press. 552 pp. * Richard Gott (2004). Cuba: A New History. * Hernández, Rafael and Coatsworth, John H., eds. (2001). Culturas Encontradas: Cuba y los Estados Unidos. Harvard University Press. 278 pp. * Hernández, José M. (1993). Cuba and the United States: Intervention and Militarism, 1868–1933. University of Texas Press. 288 pp. * Johnson, Willis Fletcher (1920). The History of Cuba. New York: B.F. Buck & Company, Inc. * Kirk, John M. and McKenna, Peter (1997). Canada-Cuba Relations: The Other Good Neighbor Policy. University Press of Florida. 207 pp. * McPherson, Alan (2003). Yankee No! Anti-Americanism in U.S.-Latin American Relations. Harvard University Press. 257 pp. * Morley, Morris H. and McGillian, Chris. Unfinished Business: America and Cuba after the Cold War, 1989–2001. Cambridge University Press. 253 pp. * Offner, John L. (2002). An Unwanted War: The Diplomacy of the United States and Spain over Cuba, 1895–1898. University of North Carolina Press, 1992. 306 pp. * Paterson, Thomas G. (1994). Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution. Oxford University Press. 352 pp. * Pérez, Louis A., Jr. (1998). The War of 1898: The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography. University of North Carolina Press. 192 pp. * Pérez, Louis A. (1990). Cuba and the United States: Ties of Singular Intimacy. University of Georgia Press. 314 pp. * Perez, Louis A. (1989). Lords of the Mountain: Social Banditry and Peasant Protest in Cuba, 1878–1918. Pitt Latin American Series: University of Pittsburgh Press. . * Schwab, Peter (1999). Cuba: Confronting the U.S. Embargo. New York: St. Martin's. 226 pp. * Staten, Clifford L. (2005). The History of Cuba. Palgrave Essential Histories. * Thomas, Hugh (1998). Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom. . * Tone, John Lawrence (2006). War and Genocide in Cuba, 1895–1898. * Walker, Daniel E. (2004). No More, No More: Slavery and Cultural Resistance in Havana and New Orleans. University of Minnesota Press. 188 pp. * Whitney, Robert W. (2001). State and Revolution in Cuba: Mass Mobilization and Political Change, 1920–1940. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press. . * Zeuske, Michael (2004). Insel der Extreme: Kuba im 20. Jahrhundert. Zürich: Rotpunktverlag. . * Zeuske, Michael (2004). Schwarze Karibik: Sklaven, Sklavereikulturen und Emanzipation. Zürich: Rotpunktverlag. . * Danielle Bleitrach, Viktor Dedaj, Jacques-François Bonaldi. Cuba est une île, Cuba es una isla, Le Temps des cerises, 2004. . External links * Post-USSR: Modern Cuban Struggles, 1991 video from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives * Reflecting on Cuba's Bloody History. Peter Coyote. San Francisco Chronicle. 4 March 2009. * Deena Stryker Photographs of Cuba, 1963-1964 and undated – Duke University Libraries Digital Collections * Cuban Historical and Literary Manuscript Collection – University of Miami Libraries Digital Collections * American Settlers in Cuba – Historic photographs and information on American settlers in Cuba before the Revolution Digital Photographic Archive of Historic Havana- a digital archive of 1055 significant buildings in the Historic Center of Havana Spanish Empire "

❤️ Economy of Cuba 🐳

"The economy of Cuba is a largely planned economy dominated by state-run enterprises. The government of Cuba owns and operates most industries and most of the labor force is employed by the state. Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the ruling Communist Party of Cuba encouraged the formation of worker co-operatives and self-employment. However, greater private property and free market rights were granted by the 2019 Constitution. It has also been acknowledged that foreign market investment in various Cuban economic sectors increased before 2019 as well. , public-sector employment was 76% and private- sector employment (mainly composed of self-employment) was 23% - compared to the 1981 ratio of 91% to 8%.Social Policy at the Crossroads Oxfam America Report Investment is restricted and requires approval by the government. The government sets most prices and rations goods to citizens. In 2016 Cuba ranked 68th out of 182 countries, with a Human Development Index of 0.775, much higher than its GDP per capita rank (95th). UNDP 2009, the country's public debt comprised 35.3% of GDP, inflation (CDP) was 5.5%, and GDP growth was 3%. Housing and transportation costs are low. Cubans receive government-subsidized education, healthcare and food subsidies. The country achieved a more even distribution of income after the Cuban Revolution of 1953–1959, which was followed by an economic embargo by the United States (1960- ). During the Cold War period, the Cuban economy was heavily dependent on subsidies from the Soviet Union, valued at $65 billion in total from 1960 to 1990 (over three times as the entirety of U.S. economic aid to Latin America), an average of $2.17 billion a year.Mesa-Logo, Carmelo. How to break with Cuba's economic dependence. New York Times. March 10, 2019. This accounted for anywhere between 10% and 40% of Cuban GDP, depending on the year.GDP (current US$) - Cuba. World Bank national accounts data. Accessed October 11, 2019. While the massive Soviet subsidies did enable Cuba's enormous state budget, they did not lead to a more advanced or sustainable Cuban economy; although described by economists as "a relatively highly developed Latin American export economy" in 1959 and the early 1960s, Cuba's basic economic structure changed very little between then and 1990. Tobacco products such as cigars and cigarettes were the only manufactured products among Cuba's leading exports, and even these were produced by a preindustrial process. The Cuban economy remained inefficient and over-specialized in a few highly subsidized commodities provided by the Soviet bloc countries.The Economic Impact of U.S. Sanctions With Respect to Cuba. United States International Trade Commission, Publication 3398. Washington D.C., February 2001. Citing ECLAC, La Economia Cubana, p. 217; IMF, Direction of Trade Statistics Yearbook, various editions; and EIU, Cuba, Annual Supplement, 1980, p.22. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's GDP declined by 33% between 1990 and 1993, partially due to the loss of Soviet subsidies[Brundenius, Claes (2009) Revolutionary Cuba at 50: Growth with Equity revisited. Latin American Perspectives Vol. 36 No. 2, March 2009, pp. 31-48.] and a crash in sugar prices in the early 1990s. It rebounded in the early 2000s due to a combination of marginal liberalization of the economy and heavy subsidies from the friendly government of Venezuela, which provided Cuba with low-cost oil and other subsidies worth up to 12% of Cuban GDP annually.Mesa-Lago, Carmelo. How to break with Cuba's economic dependence. New York Times. March 10, 2019. Cuba retains high levels of healthcare and education.Ritter, Archibald R.M. (9 May 2004). The Cuban Economy. University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 62. . "Cuban workers are able to survive despite their low wages because they receive free health care and education from the government, and they pay no more than 10 percent of their income for housing." History= Before the Revolution Although Cuba belonged to the high- income countries of Latin America since the 1870s, income inequality was high, accompanied by capital outflows to foreign investors. The country's economy had grown rapidly in the early part of the century, fueled by the sale of sugar to the United States.[Mehrotra, Santosh. (1997) Human Development in Cuba: Growing Risk of Reversal in Development with a Human Face: Experience in Social Achievement and Economic Growth Ed. Santosh Mehrotra and Richard Jolly, Clarendon Press, Oxford] Prior to the Cuban Revolution, Cuba ranked fifth in the hemisphere in per capita income, third in life expectancy, second in per capita ownership of automobiles and telephones, and first in the number of television sets per inhabitant. Its income per capita in 1929 was reportedly 41% of the U.S., thus higher than in Mississippi and South Carolina.Marianne Ward (Loyola College) and John Devereux (Queens College CUNY), The Road not taken: Pre-Revolutionary Cuban Living Standards in Comparative Perspective pp. 30–31. Its proximity to the United States made it a familiar holiday destination for wealthy Americans. Their visits for gambling, horse racing and golfing made tourism an important economic sector. Tourism magazine Cabaret Quarterly described Havana as "a mistress of pleasure, the lush and opulent goddess of delights." According to Perez, "Havana was then what Las Vegas has become." Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista had plans to line the Malecon, Havana's famous walkway by the water, with hotels and casinos to attract even more tourists. Today Hotel Havana Riviera is the only hotel that was built before the revolutionary government took control. Cuba had a one-crop economy (sugar cane) whose domestic market was constricted. Its population was characterized by chronic unemployment and deep poverty. United States monopolies like Bethlehem Steel Corporation and Speyer gained control over valuable national resources. The banks and the country's entire financial system, all electric power production and the majority of the industry was dominated by U.S. companies. U.S. monopolies owned 25 percent of the best land in Cuba. More than 80 percent of farmland was owned by sugar and livestock- raising large landowners. 90 percent of the country's raw sugar and tobacco exports was exported to the U.S. In 1956, U.S.-owned companies controlled "90 percent of the telephone and electric services, about 50 percent in public service railways, and roughly 40 percent in raw sugar production" according to a report published by the Department of Commerce. The gains from these investments were reaped by American businessmen leading to discontent among the Cuban people. In the 1950s, most Cuban children were not in school. 87 percent of urban homes had electricity, but only 10 percent of rural homes did. Only 15 percent of rural homes had running water. Nearly half the rural population was illiterate as was about 25 percent of the total population. Poverty and unemployment in rural areas triggered migration to Havana. More than 40 percent of the Cuban workforce in 1958 were either underemployed or unemployed. Cuban Revolution On March 3, 1959, Fidel Castro seized control of the Cuban Telephone Company, which was a subsidiary of the International Telephone and Telecommunications Corporation. This was the first of many nationalizations made by the new government, the assets seized totaled US$9 billion. After the 1959 Revolution, citizens were not required to pay a personal income tax (their salaries being regarded as net of any taxes). The government also began to subsidize healthcare and education for all citizens; this action created strong national support for the new revolutionary government. After the USSR and Cuba reestablished their diplomatic relations in May 1960, the USSR began to buy Cuban sugar in exchange for oil. When oil refineries like, Shell, Texaco, and Esso refused to refine Soviet oil, Castro nationalized that industry as well, taking over the refineries on the island. Days later in response, the United States cut the Cuban Sugar Quota completely, Eisenhower was quoted saying "This action amounts to economic sanctions against, Cuba. Now we must look ahead to other moves - economic, diplomatic, and strategic". On February 7, 1962, Kennedy expanded the United States' embargo to cover almost all U.S. imports. In 1970, Fidel Castro attempted to motivate the Cuban people to harvest 10 million tons of sugar, in Spanish known as La Zafra, in order to increase their exports and grow their economy. With the help of the majority of the Cuban population, the country was able to produce 7.56 million tons of sugar. In July 1970, after the harvest was over, Castro took responsibility for the failure and later that same year he blamed the Sugar Industry Minister saying “Those technocrats, geniuses, super-scientists assured me that they knew what to do in order to produce the ten million tons. But it was proven, first, that they did not know how to do it and, second, that they exploited the rest of the economy by receiving large amounts of resources . . . while there are factories that could have improved with a better distribution of those resources that were allocated to the Ten-Million-Ton plan”. During the Revolutionary period, Cuba was one of the few developing countries to provide foreign aid to other countries. Foreign aid began with the construction of six hospitals in Peru in the early 1970s. It expanded later in the 1970s to the point where some 8000 Cubans worked in overseas assignments. Cubans built housing, roads, airports, schools and other facilities in Angola, Ethiopia, Laos, Guinea, Tanzania and other countries. By the end of 1985, 35,000 Cuban workers had helped build projects in some 20 Asian, African and Latin American countries. For Nicaragua in 1982, Cuba pledged to provide over $130 million worth of agricultural and machinery equipment, as well as some 4000 technicians, doctors and teachers. In 1986, Cuba defaulted on its $10.9 billion debt to the Paris Club. In 1987, Cuba stopped making payments on that debt. In 2002, Cuba defaulted on $750 million in Japanese loans. Special Period The Cuban gross domestic product declined at least 35% between 1989 and 1993 due to the loss of 80% of its trading partners and Soviet subsidies. This loss of subsidies coincided with a collapse in world sugar prices. Sugar had done well from 1985–90 and crashed precipitously in 1990–91 and did not recover for five years. Cuba had been insulated from world sugar prices by Soviet price guarantees. However, the Cuban economy began to improve once again following a rapid improvement in trade and diplomatic relations between Cuba and Venezuela following the election of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela in 1998, who became Cuba's most important trading partner and diplomatic ally. This era was referred to as the "Special Period in Peacetime" later shortened to "Special Period". A Canadian Medical Association Journal paper claimed that "The famine in Cuba during the Special Period was caused by political and economic factors similar to the ones that caused a famine in North Korea in the mid-1990s, on the grounds that both countries were run by authoritarian regimes that denied ordinary people the food to which they were entitled to when the public food distribution collapsed and priority was given to the elite classes and the military." Other reports painted an equally dismal picture, describing Cubans having to resort to eating anything they could find, from Havana Zoo animals to domestic cats. But although the collapse of centrally planned economies in the Soviet Union and other countries of the Eastern bloc subjected Cuba to severe economic difficulties, which led to a drop in calories per day from 3052 in 1989 to 2600 in 2006, mortality rates were not strongly affected thanks to the priority given on maintaining a social safety net. The government undertook several reforms to stem excess liquidity, increase labor incentives and alleviate serious shortages of food, consumer goods and services. To alleviate the economic crisis, the government introduced a few market-oriented reforms including opening to tourism, allowing foreign investment, legalizing the U.S. dollar and authorizing self-employment for some 150 occupations. (This policy was later partially reversed, so that while the U.S. dollar is no longer accepted in businesses, it remains legal for Cubans to hold the currency.) These measures resulted in modest economic growth. The liberalized agricultural markets introduced in October 1994, at which state and private farmers sell above-quota production at free market prices, broadened legal consumption alternatives and reduced black market prices. Government efforts to lower subsidies to unprofitable enterprises and to shrink the money supply caused the semi-official exchange rate for the Cuban peso to move from a peak of 120 to the dollar in the summer of 1994 to 21 to the dollar by year-end 1999. The drop in GDP apparently halted in 1994, when Cuba reported 0.7% growth, followed by increases of 2.5% in 1995 and 7.8% in 1996. Growth slowed again in 1997 and 1998 to 2.5% and 1.2% respectively. One of the key reasons given was the failure to notice that sugar production had become uneconomic. Reflecting on the Special period Cuban president Fidel Castro later admitted that many mistakes had been made, "The country had many economists and it is not my intention to criticize them, but I would like to ask why we hadn’t discovered earlier that maintaining our levels of sugar production would be impossible. The Soviet Union had collapsed, oil was costing $40 a barrel, sugar prices were at basement levels, so why did we not rationalize the industry?" Living conditions in 1999 remained well below the 1989 level. Recovery Historical evolution of GDP per capita of Cuba and some other Caribbean countries, based on Maddison and current Cuban statistics Due to the continued growth of tourism, growth began in 1999 with a 6.2% increase in GDP. Growth then picked up, with a growth in GDP of 11.8% in 2005 according to government figures. In 2007 the Cuban economy grew by 7.5%, higher than the Latin American average. Accordingly, the cumulative growth in GDP since 2004 stood at 42.5%.granma.cu - Cuban Economy Grows 7.5 Per Cent However, from 1996, the State started to impose income taxes on self-employed Cubans. Cuba ranked third in the region in 1958 in GDP per capita, surpassed only by Venezuela and Uruguay. It had descended to 9th, 11th or 12th place in the region by 2007. Cuban social indicators suffered less. in Every year the United Nations holds a vote asking countries to choose if the United States is justified in their economic embargo against Cuba and whether it should be lifted. 2016 was the first year that the United States abstained from the vote, rather than voting no, "since 1992 the US and Israel have constantly voted against the resolution – occasionally supported by the Marshall Islands, Palau, Uzbekistan, Albania and Romania". Post-Fidel reforms In 2011, "The new economic reforms were introduced, effectively creating a new economic system, referred by some as the "New Cuban Economy"New Cuban Economy Since then, over 400,000 Cubans have signed up to be entrepreneurs. As of 2012, the government lists 181 official jobs no longer under their control—such as taxi driver, construction worker and shopkeeper. Workers must purchase licenses to work for some roles, such as a mule driver, palm tree trimmer, or well-digger. Despite these openings, Cuba maintains nationalized companies for the distribution of all essential amenities (water, power, ...) and other essential services to ensure a healthy population (education, health care). Around 2000, half the country's sugar mills closed. Prior to reforms, imports were double exports, doctors earned £15 per month and families supplemented incomes with extra jobs. After reforms, more than 150,000 farmers could lease land from the government for surplus crop production. Before reforms, the only real-estate transactions were home-owners swapping properties; post-reform legalized the buying and selling of real-estate and created a real-estate boom in the country. In 2012, a Havana fast-food burger/pizza restaurant, La Pachanga, started in the owner's home; it now serves 1,000 meals on a Saturday at £3 each. Tourists can now ride factory steam locomotives through closed sugar mills In 2008, Raúl Castro's administration hinted that the purchase of computers, DVD players and microwaves would become legal. However, monthly wages remain less than 20 U.S. dollars. Mobile phones, which had been restricted to Cubans working for foreign companies and government officials, were legalized in 2008. In 2010, Fidel Castro, in agreement with Raúl Castro's reformist sentiment, admitted that the Cuban model based on the old Soviet model of centralized planning was no longer sustainable. They encouraged the creation of a co-operative variant of socialism where the state plays a less active role in the economy and the formation of worker-owned co-operatives and self-employment enterprises. To remedy Cuba's economic structural distortions and inefficiencies, the Sixth Congress approved expansion of the internal market and access to global markets on April 18, 2011. A comprehensive list of changes is: * Expenditure adjustments (education, healthcare, sports, culture) * Change in the structure of employment; reduce inflated payrolls and increase work in the non-state sector. * Legalizing of 201 different personal business licenses * Fallow state land in usufruct leased to residents * Incentives for non-state employment, as a re-launch of self-employment * Proposals for creation of non-agricultural cooperatives * Legalization of sale and private ownership of homes and cars * Greater autonomy for state firms * Search for food self-sufficiency, gradual elimination of universal rationing and change to targeting poorest population * Possibility to rent state-run enterprises to self-employed, among them state restaurants * Separation of state and business functions * Tax policy update * Easier travel for Cubans * Strategies for external debt restructuring On December 20, 2011 a new credit policy allowed Cuban banks to finance entrepreneurs and individuals wishing to make major purchases to do home improvements in addition to farmers. "Cuban banks have long provided loans to farm cooperatives, they have offered credit to new recipients of farmland in usufruct since 2008 and in 2011 they began making loans to individuals for business and other purposes". The system of rationed food distribution in Cuba was known as the Libreta de Abastecimiento ("Supplies booklet"). As of 2012 ration books at bodegas still procured rice, oil, sugar and matches, above government average wage £15 monthly. Raul Castro signed Law 313 in September 2013 in order to create a special economic zone in the port city of Mariel, the first in the country. On 22 October 2013 the dual currency system was set to be ended eventually. As of 2018, the dual currency was still being used in Cuba. The achievements of the radical social policy of socialist Cuba, which enabled social advancement for the formerly underprivileged classes, were curbed by the economic crisis and the low wages of recent decades. The socialist leadership is reluctant to tackle this problem because it touches a core aspect of its revolutionary legitimacy. As a result, Cuba's National Bureau of Statistics (ONE) publishes little data on the growing socio-economic divide. A nationwide scientific survey shows that social inequalities have become increasingly visible in everyday life and that the Afro-Cuban population is structurally disadvantaged. The report notes that while 58 percent of white Cubans have incomes of less than $3,000 a year, among Afro-Cubans that proportion reaches 95 percent. Afro-Cubans, moreover, receive a very limited portion of family remittances from the Cuban-American community in South Florida, which is mostly white. Remittances from family members from abroad serve often as starting capital for the emerging private sector. The most lucrative branches of business such as restaurants and lodgings are run by white people in particular. In February 2019, voters approved a new Constitution granting right to private property and greater access to free markets, while also maintaining Cuba's status as a socialist state. In June 2019, the 16th ExpoCaribe trade fair was held in Santiago.http://www.periodico26.cu/index.php/en/feature/we- recomend/item/16392-expo-caribe-attracts-exhibitors-from-22-countries Since 2014, the Cuban economy has seen a dramatic uptick in foreign investment. In November 2019, Cuba's state newspaper Granma published an article acknowledging that despite the deterioration in relations between the U.S. and Cuban governments, the Cuban government was still making efforts to attract foreign investment in 2018. In December 2018, 525 Foreign Direct Investment projects were reported in Cuba, a dramatic increase from the 246 projects which were reported in 2014. =International debt negotiations= Raul Castro's regime began a concerted effort to restructure and ask for forgiveness of loans and debts with creditor countries, many in the billions of dollars and long in arrears from loans and debts incurred under Fidel Castro in the 70's and 80's. In 2011 China forgave $6 billion in debt owed to it by Cuba. In 2013 Mexico's Finance Minister Luis Videgaray announced a loan issued by Mexico’s foreign trade development bank Bancomext to Cuba more than 15 years prior was worth $487 million. The governments agreed to "waive" 70% of it, approximately $340.9 million. Cuba would repay the remaining $146.1 million over ten years. In 2014, before making a diplomatic visit to Cuba, Russian President Vladimir Putin forgave over 90% of debt owed to it by Cuba. The forgiveness totaled $32 billion dollars. A remaining $3.2 billion would be paid over ten years. In 2015 Cuba entered into negotiations over its $11.1 Billion dollar debt to 14 members of the Paris Club. In December 2015, the parties announced an agreement, with Paris Club nations agreeing to forgive $8.5 billion of the $11.1 billion dollar total debt, mostly by waiving interest, service charges and penalties accrued over the more than two decades of non-payment. The 14 countries party to the agreement were: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The payment for the remaining $2.6 billion would be made over 18 years with annual payments due by October 31st of every year. The payments would phase in gradually, increasing from an initial 1.6 percent of the total owed until the last payment of 8.9 percent in 2033. Interest would be forgiven for 2015-2020 and thereafter would be just 1.5 percent of the total debt still due. The agreement contained a penalty clause, should Cuba again not make payments on schedule (by 31 October of any year), it would be charged 9 percent interest until payment, as well as late interest on the portion in arrears. The agreement was viewed favorably by the regime, with the objective of resolving the long-standing issues and building business confidence, increasing direct foreign investment and a preliminary step to gaining access to credit lines in Europe. In 2019, Cuba once again defaulted on its Paris Club debt. The estimated payment due in 2019 was $80 million, but there was only a partial payment made that left over $30 million owed for that year. Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas wrote a letter to Odile Renaud-Basso, President of the Paris Club, noting that Cuba was aware that “circumstances dictated that we were not able to honour our commitments with certain creditor countries as agreed in the multilateral Minute signed by the parties in December 2015”. He maintained that they had “the intention of settling” the payments in arrears by 31 May 2020. In May 2020, with payments still not made, Deputy PM Cabrisas sent a letter to the fourteen Paris Club countries in the agreement requesting "a moratorium (of payments) for 2019, 2020 and 2021 and a return to paying in 2022." Sectors=Energy production As of 2011, 96% of electricity was produced from fossil fuels. Solar panels were introduced in some rural areas to reduce blackouts, brownouts and use of kerosene. Citizens were encouraged to swap inefficient lamps with newer models to reduce consumption. A power tariff reduced inefficient use."La Revolucion Energetica: Cuba's Energy Revolution", Renewable Energy World International Magazine, 9 April 2009. As of August 2012, off-shore petroleum exploration of promising formations in the Gulf of Mexico had been unproductive with two failures reported. Additional exploration is planned. In 2007, Cuba produced an estimated 16.89 billion kWh of electricity and consumed 13.93 billion kWh with no exports or imports. In a 1998 estimate, 89.52% of its energy production is fossil fuel, 0.65% is hydroelectric and 9.83% is other production. In both 2007 and 2008 estimates, the country produced 62,100 bbl/d of oil and consumes 176,000 bbl/d with 104,800 bbl/d of imports, as well as 197,300,000 bbl proved reserves of oil. Venezuela is Cuba's primary source of oil. In 2017, Cuba produced and consumed an estimated 1189 million m3 of natural gas, with no m3 of exports or imports and 70.79 billion m3 of proved reserves. =Energy sector= The Energy Revolution is a program executed by Cuba in 2006. This program focused on developing the country's socio-economic status and transition Cuba into an energy-efficient economy with diverse energy resources. Cuba's energy sector lacks the resources to produce optimal amounts of power. In fact, one of the issues the Energy Revolution program faces comes from Cuba's power production suffering from the absence of investment and the ongoing trade sanctions imposed by the United States. Likewise, the energy sector has received a multimillion-dollar investment distributed among a network of power resources. However, customers are experiencing rolling blackouts of power from energy companies in order to preserve electricity during Cuba's economic crisis. Furthermore, an outdated electricity grid that's been damaged by hard-hitting hurricanes, caused the energy crisis in 2004 and continued to be a major issue during the Energy Revolution. Cuba responded to this situation by providing a variety of different types of energy resources. In fact, 6000 small diesel generators, 416 Fuel Oil Generators, 893 diesel generators, 9.4 million incandescent bulbs for energy saving lamps, 1.33 million fans, 5.5 million electric pressure cookers, 3.4 million electric rice cookers, 0.2 million electric water pumps, 2.04 million domestic refrigerators and 0.1 million televisions were distributed among territories. The electrical grid was restored to only 90% until 2009. Alternative energy has emerged as a major priority as the government has promoted wind and solar power. The crucial challenge the Energy Revolution program will face is developing sustainable energy in Cuba but, take into account a country that's continuing to develop, an economic sanction and the detrimental effects of hurricanes that hit this country. Agriculture Cuba produces sugarcane, tobacco, citrus, coffee, rice, potatoes, beans and livestock. As of 2015, Cuba imported about 70–80% of its food. and 80–84% of the food it rations to the public. Raúl Castro ridiculed the bureaucracy that shackled the agriculture sector. Industry Pumpjacks in Cuba In total, industrial production accounted for almost 37% of Cuban GDP, or US$6.9 billion and employed 24% of the population, or 2,671,000 people, in 1996. A rally in sugar prices in 2009 stimulated investment and development of sugar processing. In 2003 Cuba's biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry was gaining in importance. Among the products sold internationally are vaccines against various viral and bacterial pathogens. For example, the drug Heberprot-P was developed as a cure for diabetic foot ulcer and had success in many developing countries. Cuba has also done pioneering work on the development of drugs for cancer treatment. Scientists such as V. Verez-Bencomo were awarded international prizes for their contributions in biotechnology and sugar cane. ServicesTourism = Varadero, Cuba In the mid-1990s tourism surpassed sugar, long the mainstay of the Cuban economy, as the primary source of foreign exchange. Havana devotes significant resources to building tourist facilities and renovating historic structures. Cuban officials estimate roughly 1.6 million tourists visited Cuba in 1999 yielding about $1.9 billion in gross revenues. In 2000, 1,773,986 foreign visitors arrived in Cuba. Revenue from tourism reached US$1.7 billion. By 2012, some 3 million visitors brought nearly £2 billion yearly. The growth of tourism has had social and economic repercussions. This led to speculation of the emergence of a two-tier economyTourism in Cuba during the Special Period and the fostering of a state of tourist apartheid. This situation was exacerbated by the influx of dollars during the 1990s, potentially creating a dual economy based on the dollar (the currency of tourists) on the one hand and the peso on the other. Scarce imported goods – and even some of local manufacture, such as rum and coffee – could be had at dollar-only stores, but were hard to find or unavailable at peso prices. As a result, Cubans who earned only in the peso economy, outside the tourist sector, were at a disadvantage. Those with dollar incomes based upon the service industry began to live more comfortably. This widened the gap between Cubans' material standards of living, in conflict with the Cuban Government's long term socialist policies. Travel Outward =Retail= Cuba has a small retail sector. A few large shopping centers operated in Havana as of September 2012 but charged US prices. Pre-Revolutionary commercial districts were largely shut down. The majority of stores are small dollar stores, bodegas, agro-mercados (farmers' markets) and street stands. Finance The financial sector remains heavily regulated and access to credit for entrepreneurial activity is seriously impeded by the shallowness of the financial market. Foreign investment and trade The Netherlands receives the largest share of Cuban exports (24%), 70 to 80% of which go through Indiana Finance BV, a company owned by the Van 't Wout family, who have close personal ties with Fidel Castro. Currently, this trend can be seen in other colonial Caribbean communities who have direct political ties with the global economy. Cuba's primary import partner is Venezuela. The second-largest trade partner is Canada, with a 22% share of the Cuban export market.FAQs on Canada- Cuba trade CBC Cuba began courting foreign investment in the Special Period. Foreign investors must form joint ventures with the Cuban government. The sole exception to this rule are Venezuelans, who are allowed to hold 100% ownership in businesses due to an agreement between Cuba and Venezuela. Cuban officials said in early 1998 that 332 joint ventures had begun. Many of these are loans or contracts for management, supplies, or services normally not considered equity investment in Western economies. Investors are constrained by the U.S.-Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act that provides sanctions for those who traffic in property expropriated from U.S. citizens. Cuba's average tariff rate is 10 percent. As of 2014, the country's planned economy deterred foreign trade and investment. At this point, the state maintained strict capital and exchange controls. In 2017, however, the country reported a record 2 billion in foreign investment. It was also reported that foreign investment in Cuba had increased dramatically since 2014. In September 2019, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini stated during a three-day visit to Cuba that the European Union is committed to helping Cuba develop its economy A tobacco plantation in Pinar del Río Currencies Cuba has two official currencies, both of which are called peso. One is sometimes called the "national currency" (or CUP) the other is the convertible peso (or CUC, often called "dollar" in the spoken language). There are currently 25 CUP per CUC. In 1994 the possession and use of US dollars was legalised, and by 2004 the US dollar was in widespread use in the country. To capture the hard currency flowing into the island through tourism and remittances – estimated at $500–800 million annually – the government set up state-run "dollar stores" throughout Cuba that sold "luxury" food, household and clothing items, compared with basic necessities, which could be bought using national pesos. As such, the standard of living diverged between those who had access to dollars and those without. Jobs that could earn dollar salaries or tips from foreign businesses and tourists became highly desirable. It was common to meet doctors, engineers, scientists and other professionals working in restaurants or as taxicab drivers. However, in response to stricter economic sanctions by the US and because the authorities were pleased with Cuba's economic recovery, the Cuban government decided in October 2004 to remove US dollars from circulation. In its place, the convertible peso was created, which although not internationally traded, has a value pegged to the US dollar 1:1. A 10% surcharge is levied for cash conversions from US dollars to the convertible peso, which does not apply to other currencies, so it acts as an encouragement for tourists to bring currencies such as Euros, pounds sterling or Canadian dollars into Cuba. An increasing number of tourist zones accept Euros. Private businesses Owners of small private restaurants (paladares) originally could seat no more than 12 people and can only employ family members. Set monthly fees must be paid regardless of income earned and frequent inspections yield stiff fines when any of the many self-employment regulations are violated. As of 2012, more than 150,000 farmers had signed up to lease land from the government for bonus crops. Before, home-owners were only allowed to swap; once buying and selling were allowed, prices rose. In cities, "urban agriculture" farms small parcels. Growing organopónicos (organic gardens) in the private sector has been attractive to city-dwelling small producers who sell their products where they produce them, avoiding taxes and enjoying a measure of government help from the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI) in the form of seed houses and advisers. Wages, Development, and Pensions Typical wages range from 400 non-convertible Cuban pesos a month, for a factory worker, to 700 per month for a doctor, or a range of around 17–30 US dollars per month. However, the Human Development Index of Cuba still ranks much higher than the vast majority of Latin American nations. After Cuba lost Soviet subsidies in 1991, malnutrition resulted in an outbreak of diseases. Despite this, the poverty level reported by the government is one of the lowest in the developing world, ranking 6th out of 108 countries, 4th in Latin America and 48th among all countries.List of countries by Human Development Index#Complete list of countries Pensions are among the smallest in the Americas at $9.50/month. In 2009, Raúl Castro increased minimum pensions by 2 dollars, which he said was to recompense for those who have "dedicated a great part of their lives to working... and who remain firm in defense of socialism". Cuba is known for its system of food distribution, the Libreta de Abastecimiento ("Supplies booklet"). The system establishes the rations each person is allowed to buy through that system, and the frequency of supplies. Despite rumors of ending, the system still exists. Public facilities * La Bodega For Cuban nationals only. Redeems coupons for rice, sugar, oil, matches and sells other foodstuffs including rum. * El Coppelia A government-owned facility offering ice cream, juice and sweets. * Paladar A type of small, privately owned restaurant facility. * La Farmacia Low-priced medicine, with the lowest costs anywhere in the world. * ETECSA National telephone service provider. * La Feria A weekly market (Sunday market-type) owned by the government. * Cervecería Bucanero A beverage manufacturer, providing both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. * Ciego Montero The main soft-drink and beverage distributor. Connection with Venezuela The relationship cultivated between Cuba and Venezuela in recent years resulted in agreements in which Venezuela provides cheap oil in exchange for Cuban "missions" of doctors to bolster the Venezuelan health care system. As of 2015, Cuba had the third-highest number of physicians per capita worldwide (behind Monaco and Qatar) The country sends tens of thousands of doctors to other countries as aid, as well as to obtain favorable trade terms. In nominal terms, the Venezuelan subsidy is higher than whatever subsidy the Soviet Union gave to Cuba, with the Cuban state receiving cheap oil and the Cuban economy receiving around $6 billion annually. According to Mesa-Lago, a Cuban-born US economist. "If this help stops, industry is paralysed, transportation is paralysed and you'll see the effects in everything from electricity to sugar mills," he said. From an economic standpoint, Cuba relies much more on Venezuela than Venezuela does on Cuba. As of 2012, Venezuela accounted for 20.8% of Cuba's GDP while Cuba only accounted for roughly 4% of Venezuela's.Piccone,Ted and Harold Trinkunas "The Cuba-Venezuela Alliance: The Beginning of the End?" Latin America Initiative on Foreign Policy at Brookings (2014): 1-12.. Because of this reliance, the most recent economic Crisis in Venezuela (2012-present), with inflation nearing 800% and GDP shrinking by 19% in 2016, Cuba is not receiving their amount of payment and heavily subsidized oil. Further budget cuts are in the plans for 2018 marking a third straight year.Frank, Marc. "Cuba warns of further belt tightening as Venezuelan crisis deepens." Reuters. N.p., 28 Apr. 2017. Web. Economic freedom In 2014 Cuba's economic freedom score was 28.7, making its economy one of the world's least free. Its overall score was 0.2 point higher than last year, with deteriorations in trade freedom, fiscal freedom, monetary freedom and freedom from corruption counterbalanced by an improvement in business freedom. Cuba ranked least free of 29 countries in the South and Central America region and its overall score was significantly lower than the regional average. Over the 20-year history of the Index, Cuba's economic freedom remained stagnant near the bottom of the “repressed” category. Its overall score improvement was less than 1 point over the past two decades, with score gains in fiscal freedom and freedom from corruption offset by double-digit declines in business freedom and investment freedom. Despite some progress in restructuring the state sector since 2010, the private sector remained constrained by heavy regulations and tight state controls. The Heritage Foundation states that open-market policies were not in place to spur growth in trade and investment and the lack of competition continued to stifle dynamic economic expansion. A watered-down reform package endorsed by the Party trimmed the number of state workers and expanded the list of approved professions, but many details of the reform remained obscure. Taxes and revenues As of 2009, Cuba had $47.08 billion in revenues and $50.34 billion in expenditures with 34.6% of GDP in public debt, an account balance of $513 million and $4.647 billion in reserves of foreign exchange and gold. Government spending is around 67 percent of GDP and public debt is around 35 percent of the domestic economy. Despite reforms, the government continues to play a large role in the economy. The top individual income tax rate is 50 percent. The top corporate tax rate is 30 percent (35 percent for wholly foreign-owned companies). Other taxes include a tax on property transfers and a sales tax. The overall tax burden is 24.4 percent of GDP. See also * Cuban peso / Cuban convertible peso * Central Bank of Cuba * Ministry of Finance and Prices (Cuba) * Economy of the Caribbean * Education in Cuba * List of companies of Cuba * Mercados Libres Campesinos * Central banks and currencies of the Caribbean * List of countries by public debt * List of countries by credit rating * List of Latin American and Caribbean countries by GDP growth * List of Latin American and Caribbean countries by GDP (nominal) * List of Latin American and Caribbean countries by GDP (PPP) * List of countries by tax revenue as percentage of GDP * List of countries by future gross government debt * List of countries by leading trade partners References = Citations Sources * External links * Cuba's Economic Struggles from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives * The Road not taken: Pre-Revolutionary Cuban Living Standards in Comparative Perspective, Marianne Ward (Loyola College) and John Devereux (Queens College CUNY) * ARCHIBOLD, RANDAL. Inequality Becomes More Visible in Cuba as the Economy Shifts (February 2015), The New York Times * Cave, Danien. Raúl Castro Thanks U.S., but Reaffirms Communist Rule in Cuba (December 2014), The New York Times. "Mr. Castro prioritized economics. He acknowledged that Cuban state workers needed better salaries and said Cuba would accelerate economic changes in the coming year, including an end to its dual-currency system. But he said the changes needed to be gradual to create a system of "prosperous and sustainable communism." * Centro de Estudios de la Economía Cubana Cuba "