Cuba is the country of the "Salsa Communism", a less dogmatic and more joyful form of communism. The Cuban Revolution has very strong ties to the various wars of independence against Spain and the interferences by the United States of America. Without any knowledge about these wars it's difficult to understand the Cuban Revolution and all the heroes and sites in Cuba. Only 1.5 year after the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro proclaimed its socialistic nature in Havana and almost two years after the Revolution Fidel declared that he had been a Marxist-Leninist since his university days. Despite this declaration many people believe Fidel Castro had been forced by the USA into the communist world and truly is a Cuban nationalist driven by social justice in the spirit of Jose Marti. This short summary of Cuban Revolution starts at the end of the second war of independence. 

War of independence

At the end of the second War of Independence of the Cuban People against Spain, the United States stepped in. The pretext of the intervention of the USA was an explosion at the battleship Maine. This ship lay at anchor at Havana "to protect" USA citizens. After this incident the USA offered Spain to buy Cuba. The Spaniards rejected the proposal and the USA declared war on Spain. A short battle with many USA casualties brought victory to the USA. On December 12, 1898, a peace treaty was signed between Spain and the USA in Paris. No Cubans were invited and only thanks to senator Teller of the USA, Cuba wasn't added to the USA. The military occupation of Cuba by the USA started. After a few years the Cubans could choose between a continuing occupation or a form of independence, accepting the so called "Platt Amendment". This amendment was designed by senator Platt and gives the USA the right to intervene military in Cuba whenever the USA decide it is necessary. In 1903 the USA used the amendment to occupy a part of Cuba in Guantanamo to create a naval base. Today the Cubans honor many heroes of the two Wars of Independence: Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, Maximo Gomez, Antonio Maceo and Jose Marti.

"Independence"

After the Cubans accepted "independence" from the USA including the Platt Amendment a series of corrupt and racist governments followed. Thanks to these governments and the strong influence of the USA a new kind of dependence was created. To the USA Cuba was only a rich source of raw materials and a market for finished USA products. High USA import tariffs guaranteed no industry in Cuba could flourish and reduced the Cuban economy to a supplier of raw materials: sugar, tobacco leaves and minerals. And of course Cuba became the biggest brothel of the world run by USA criminals.

The Cuban Revolution

To gain a real independence for Cuba various revolutionary groups were active in Cuba. On July 1953 Fidel Castro made his first attempt to overthrow the government and led 119 revolutionaries in an attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. The assault failed. You can visit the place where the Revolutionaries gathered in Siboney and between Santiago de Cuba and Siboney you can visit the 26 monuments in honor of the fallen comrades. Fidel was captured and put away in a prison in Nueva Gerona. After a general pardon for all political prisoners Fidel departed for Mexico where he organized a revolutionary force. With this force he went back to Cuba by boat (The Granma) and he landed at December 2, 1956 in the province of Granma (it was called Oriente in those days) at Playa Las Coloradas. In the provinces of Granma and Santiago you can see a lot of famous sites which remember this period: La Plata, El Ulvero, Guisa, La Comandancia and Pilon. At the end of 1958 Fidel Castro send two of his "comandantes", Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos to the west of Cuba. In Santa Clara on December 29 Che's men captured an armored train the government had sent. Two days later at 2 am on January 1, 1959 Batista fled to The Dominican Republic and the Cuban Revolution was a fact. 

Post Revolution

The period after the revolution knows some interesting sites as well. Soon after the revolution USA's CIA supported unsuccessfully counter-revolutionaries in the Sierra del Escambray and tried to (let) kill Fidel Castro. Despite the lack of successes the USA organized an invasion of Cuba by some 1400 Cuban émigrés at Playa Giron on April 14, 1961. Fidel led the counterattack himself from a sugar mill nearby and 72 hours later the counterrevolutionaries were defeated. Two days later on April 16 Fidel proclaimed the socialistic nature of the Cuban Revolution in Havana. Another famous post-revolution site is La Cueva de los Portales. During the "Cuban missile crisis" Che Guevara set up the headquarters of the Western Army in this cave. 

Some sites you may not miss are Museo de la Revolucion and the Pavillon Granma in Havana City, the Che Memorial and Museo Historico de la Revolution in Santa Clara, Museo Camilo Cienfuegos in Yaguajay and Museo Nacional de la Lucha Contra Bandidos in Trinidad.