Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Cuba is an archipelago of islands located in the northern Caribbean Sea at the confluence with the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The United States lies to the north-west, the Bahamas to the north, Haiti to the east, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands to the south, and Mexico to the west.

Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the island was inhabited by Native American peoples. After Christopher Columbus landed near what is now Baracoa in 1492, Cuba remained a Spanish possession for almost 400 years (1511–1898). After the Spanish-American War, Spain ceded Cuba to the U.S.. Cuba gained formal independence from the United States on May 20, 1902 as the Republic of Cuba. Under the new constitution, however, the U.S. retained the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and to supervise its finances and foreign relations. Under the Platt Amendment, the U.S. leased the Guantánamo Bay naval base from Cuba.

In 1959, the 26th of July Movement led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara overthrew Batista, a dictator, government, established a new revolutionary government. The 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Cuban government by a U.S.-trained force of Cuban exiles with U.S. military support. In 1960, Fidel Castro's government nationalized private property totaling about $25 billion US dollars. By 1963, Cuba was moving towards a full-fledged Communist system modeled on the USSR. The U.S. imposed a complete diplomatic and commercial embargo on Cuba. Castro's rule was severely tested in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse. The food shortages were similar to North Korea.