Logo: Fidel Castro

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Question SA-6. Here is the text reference (p. 205/2 and 3):

Although there were surface similarities with the Mexican case, such as heavy foreign investments and a long dictatorship which established the conditions for revolt, the Cuban situation was quite different. For one, Cuba historically has been under the strong influence of an outside nation against which it has struggled to gain its full independence. First it was Spain, which maintained control of Cuba until the Spanish-American War of 1898. After the War the U.S. ran Cuba under a military administration for some time before giving Cuba a limited independence in which the U.S. retained the right to intervene and to control certain foreign policies under the Platt Amendment.

Beyond that, U.S. economic ties to Cuba were so strong that it was a classic case of a dependent neocolonial economy. U.S. companies controlled Cuba's principal crop, sugar, as well as the major hotels and gambling casinos that attracted large numbers of U.S. tourists across the ninety miles to Florida.