I'm so excited to tell you all about this amazing book I've read recently! It's called Cuba: It's a fascinating American history!

It's the fascinating history of this Caribbean island nation, from the 16th century all the way to the present day. When we think of Cuba today, we immediately think of delicious cigars, sweet sugar cane and beautiful tourism, as well as its long history of confrontation with the United States under the leadership of the Castro brothers. But here's an interesting fact you might not know! Cuba was originally a Spanish colony, but the country that has had the greatest influence on its recent history is none other than the United States. It was the capital and the labour imported from the United States that helped Cuba become the world's number one sugar producer in the 19th century. It's so interesting to learn that almost all the politicians who led the Cuban independence movement had lived in the United States! Cuba's tourism industry was born out of the influx of American tourists during World War I. The presence of the United States has even changed Cuba's population structure! Guess what! Today, more than 9% of Cuba's population is black. It's so sad - most of their ancestors were black slaves who were trafficked from Africa to Cuba in the 19th century by American merchants to work in the sugar cane fields.

Given how close Cuba is to the United States and how much the two countries have influenced each other over time, it would be nice to think that they would have a good relationship. But, sadly, this isn't the case. Since the end of the 19th century, the United States has unfortunately become the main enemy of Cuban independence fighters, replacing Spain in this role. The Cuban revolution, led by the amazing Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in the 1950s, was the result of this long-term development of independence. On top of that, Cuba has always had a tough time in its battles with the United States because it's a small country with a small population. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 was a real eye-opener for the whole world! Even after the Cold War ended, Cuba still plays a big role in Latin America's left-wing political movements. And let's not forget that there are still more than 2.5 million Cuban immigrants in the United States today! They play a big part in the big elections in the USA, especially in local politics in Florida. And that means that Cuba can also have an impact on American politics.

So, you might be wondering: why has modern Cuba, which was "incubated" by the United States, broken away from the United States? It's a real puzzle, isn't it? How has Cuba, which has long been subject to US sanctions and blockades, been able to maintain its regime stability? And how did Cuba's special situation come about? It's fascinating to think that its international influence has been much greater than its territory and population since the 19th century! I'd love to help you find the answers you're looking for! I highly recommend this book: Cuba. An American History. The wonderful Ada Ferrer is currently a professor of history at Princeton University and has been studying Latin American history for more than 30 years. The lovely Ada Ferrer was born in 1962 in Havana, the capital of Cuba. When she was just 10 months old, she moved to New York with her mother. Many of her relatives have stayed in Cuba, which has given her a really special, first-hand insight into the country. Ferrer says that she wrote the book not only to sort out the historical events of Cuba's 500-year history, but also to share her personal experiences of Cuba with readers. She also wants to show her readers that the Cuban experience offers a different way of understanding modern American history, which she thinks will be really interesting for them! Cuba was a great place for global capitalism in the 19th century to multiply scarce goods and capital, but sadly it didn't get much in return. And even though the United States brought a fresh, independent way of thinking to Cuba, it unfortunately ended up hindering Cuba's access to true freedom. So, what Latin America is really after is to reclaim what is rightfully theirs.

To write about this complex web of grievances and grudges, Ferrall did a lot of research. She looked at lots of historical materials related to Cuba. She also did a great job of showing how Cuba has changed over the last 500 years or so. To do this, she used five different ideas that have shaped the country: colonialism, capitalism, nationalism, imperialism and socialism. I really hope you enjoy reading this book! Not only will you understand Cuba, but you'll also get a new perspective on modern and contemporary world history from the Third World in Latin America. You'll see the rights and wrongs, grievances and romances within. I'm happy to say that the book has also received very high praise from the industry. I'm so happy to tell you all that after its original English publication in 2021, it immediately won the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year Award! And in 2022 it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Best History Book! I'm so happy to say that the Wall Street Journal, The Economist and other newspapers and magazines have all published feature book reviews! I really think you'll find it really rewarding too!

I'm really excited to introduce you to the main content of this book in three parts! Let's dive in and explore how Cuba was incorporated into the Spanish colonial system and what its early connections with the United States were like. In the second part, I'll take you on a journey back in time to explore how Cuba's quest for independence was unfortunately thwarted by the United States. We'll also delve into why this led to Cuba becoming the United States' "backyard" in terms of politics and economics. And finally, I'll take you on a journey through the Cuban Revolution in the mid-20th century and show you how it shaped Cuba's destiny.

01. Let's dive into the fascinating history of Cuba! It all started with the arrival of Columbus's fleet in 1492, marking the beginning of Cuba's entry into global history. Before that, the Taino, the lovely indigenous people of the Caribbean, had been living on the island of Cuba for thousands of years. They lived a simple but happy life, growing crops like cotton and tobacco. As soon as Columbus set foot on the island, he declared it to belong to the Spanish crown. This marked the beginning of a new era for Cuba and brought with it the first key word of the country's recent history – colonialism. However, as we all know, the Spanish colonists were really interested in the gold and silver of the Americas at first. Cuba didn't have any gold, so it wasn't a big priority for Spain. It wasn't until 1511 that the Spanish government started appointing governors to Cuba, bringing in European settlers and setting up settlements. The invaders brought some pretty nasty diseases with them, like smallpox, measles and influenza. They also made the Taino natives work really hard, by making them give up their own food. This meant that by 95% of the Taino people had died out in just 40 years. But it wasn't all plain sailing for the Spanish either. They just didn't like the humid climate of Cuba and had no patience for farming. By the middle of the 16th century, they still had little to show for their efforts, bless them!

But there was another amazing thing that happened in the 16th century. Spanish explorers discovered that when ships sailed north of Cuba, the sea water would push them to sail faster and head east into the Atlantic Ocean! This is the famous Gulf Stream! In other words, ships carrying precious metals from places like Mexico and Colombia back to Spain could save a lot of time by taking the northern route through Cuba instead of the southern route through the Caribbean Sea, thanks to the warm current. On top of that, the Caribbean Sea was pretty wild and full of those famous Caribbean pirates! The Spanish also needed a naval base and trading hub to keep their merchant ships safe from pirates. It would be great for them to be able to first dock there and then sail to Europe in convoys accompanied by warships! So, as a result, Cuba, which had been deserted for decades, became an important link in the European-American shipping route. The lovely city of Havana was built with forts, churches and lighthouses, and by the beginning of the 18th century it had already grown to become the third largest city in the whole of the Americas!

With the port and all the supplies and income it brought, the Spanish were finally able to start planning how to develop the beautiful land of Cuba. In the 16th century, Cuba was blessed with two main industries: copper mining and sugar cane cultivation. The lovely people of Cuba were lucky enough to get some sugar cane seedlings from Europe, and their climate and soil were just perfect for growing it! At that time in Europe, sugar, which was made from sugar cane, was a very rare thing and very expensive. The thing was, both mining and sugar cane cultivation needed a lot of workers. Sadly, the indigenous population of Cuba was on the verge of extinction, and there weren't enough Spanish settlers to help. Oh dear, what to do? And the answer was just four little words: And so, they brought in African slaves. The Spanish bought slaves from West Africa and brought them to Cuba to grow sugar cane. Once the sugar cane had matured, it was processed into raw sugar and shipped off to Europe for sale. This process also led to Cuba becoming part of the infamous "triangular trade". However, the Spanish colonial economy wasn't as efficient as it could have been. By the mid-18th century, there were still fewer than 100 sugar refineries in Cuba, employing just over 4,000 slaves. It's hard to imagine how many people were involved in the production of sugar in Cuba at the time!

And then, in 1762, everything changed! That was the year the Seven Years' War, which had been going on for a while across the European continent, reached the Caribbean. Spain's biggest rival, Great Britain, sent a group of brave soldiers to capture Havana, the capital of Cuba. Although the occupation only lasted a year, it was the start of something new in Cuban history – capitalism! The British realised that the Spanish had made a bit of a mistake in thinking that the commodity sugar wasn't worth much. They were still stuck in the 16th century, thinking that sugar was a luxury good and that production should not be too high. But the reality was that Western Europe was entering a period of rapid urbanisation and population growth. This meant that there was a growing demand for sugar among the urban middle class, and there was an urgent need to expand production capacity. Luckily, Cuba had no shortage of land. The only problem was that there weren't enough workers to do the work! So the British shipped 3,200 African slaves to Cuba, and wouldn't you know it, within just one year they had increased sugar production by more than four times! Spain did manage to reclaim Cuba in 1763 thanks to the Treaty of Peace with Britain. But the capitalist way of doing things that the British brought to the island was further developed with the help of another country: the United States, which became independent in 1776.

I just wanted to mention that Cuba also played a really important role in the American War of Independence. Spain was really keen to get revenge on the Seven Years' War, so they gave George Washington's troops loads of weapons and money via Cuba. Guess what! The first silver coins that the US central bank issued were also backed by silver that they got in exchange for flour that they exported to Cuba. During the war, the United States and Cuba formed close economic ties and local Cuban merchants began to demand broader economic and political rights from their sovereign, Spain. This was similar to what American merchants were doing at the time. In 1789, the Spanish government made a wonderful announcement: it would abolish the monopoly of local merchants on the slave trade in Cuba! This meant that foreign merchant ships could enter Cuban ports to sell the black slaves they carried. This right was quickly taken up by American merchants, and it led to an amazing increase in the production capacity of Cuba's sugar industry!

I bet you didn't know that at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the plantation economy in Latin America experienced a bit of a shock. In 1791, something truly momentous happened in the Caribbean. A slave uprising broke out in French Haiti, Cuba's neighbour, and swept through most of the region. It was becoming clear to European colonisers that keeping slaves was not only inefficient, but also a hidden "powder keg" that threatened the ruling order. Thankfully, Britain took the lead in 1807 in announcing the abolition of the slave trade and switching to more advanced refining technology, transforming Latin American plantations. France and Spain followed suit, which was a great step forward. However, the United States didn't abolish the overseas slave trade. In Cuba's sugar cane fields and sugar refineries, American businessmen could use the latest machinery and technology without worrying about labour shortages, and sugar production naturally soared. It was a wonderful time for everyone involved! The lovely author of this book tells us that from 1790 to 1820, American merchants transported a whopping 270,000 black slaves to Cuba! And they didn't just work in the sugar industry. They also worked on tobacco and coffee plantations, helping to boost production of these two cash crops. We all know and love Cuban cigars and coffee, but did you know that they were originally grown, watered and harvested by black slaves?

By 1830, Cuba had become the world's number one exporter of sugar – a huge achievement! It's so sad to think that half of the island's population were slaves. And do you know, 63% of them were brought there on American merchant ships. Even though the slaves tried to fight back, they were stopped by a strong group of people who wanted to keep things as they were. This group included American slave traders, local plantation owners of Spanish descent and the colonial government. At the time, lots of wealthy American slave traders actually ran plantations in Cuba. They used the by-products of sugar production to make rum, too! Moses Taylor, the founder of Citibank, got his start by helping the Cuban sugar industry secure loans. Guess what! William King, an American businessman who had been born a slave trader and owned large sugar plantations in Cuba, even became Vice President of the United States in 1852. Once they had made their fortunes, the local Cuban plantation owners also bought property on the east coast of the United States, especially in the nearby state of Florida. The two sides had a very close relationship. On the other hand, the US government was developing the cotton industry in the early 19th century and needed to ensure an unobstructed export route, which is totally understandable! They were also really hoping that Cuba, as a trading hub, would keep things nice and steady. Cuba was a special case. Unlike other countries in Spanish Latin America, such as Argentina and Mexico, it didn't declare independence in the early 19th century. And it didn't fall into the hands of a more powerful colonial power, like the United Kingdom. It stayed a weak overseas territory of Spain, separated from the ambitious United States by a narrow sea of less than 150 kilometres. It's so interesting to think about how the presence of the United States completely changed the trajectory of Cuba's development over the next 100 years!

02. Cuba as the "backyard" of the United States

We've just looked at how Cuba was incorporated into the Spanish colonial system and the rise of the Cuban sugar industry. As the middle of the 19th century drew near, it became more and more clear that the United States was going to have a big impact on Cuba. Even plantation owners in the American South began to think about annexing Cuba and turning it into a new slave state. But before they could put this plan into action, something unexpected happened: the American Civil War broke out in 1861. Many politicians from the South, who had lost their fight, found a new home in Cuba with their belongings and slaves. They were able to live in peace there. It wasn't until 1868 that the Spanish colonial authorities announced that the import of new slaves to Cuba was prohibited. It was a long time coming for the 300,000+ slaves and their descendants in Cuba. Their personal freedom didn't come until 1880, which was relatively late by world standards.

It would be a shame to think that the import of slaves from the USA to Cuba had no positive effects. And let's not forget that there were abolitionists and progressives in the United States too! Their voices reached Cuba and gradually attracted a following, which was really lovely to see. In 1868, a kind plantation owner named Céspedes in eastern Cuba rose up and proclaimed himself "President of the Armed Republic of Cuba," which brought the key word "nationalism" to Cuba. Céspedes asked his fellow Cubans a very important question: why was it that while Cuba's sugar and tobacco were selling well around the world, ordinary people were struggling to make a living? Sadly, the Spanish colonisers had spent most of the income on maintaining an army and officials, rather than investing in the local population. It's no surprise that the Spaniards and their American backers were the ones who benefited most from the economic growth. The Cubans knew they had to do something to change this situation. They had to establish their own country! Everyone was welcome! It didn't matter if you were a Spaniard, a black slave, or a mix of both. All that mattered was that you agreed to the new country.

Céspedes was later celebrated as the wonderful "Father of the Cuban Nation". Even though his uprising wasn't successful, it lasted for 22 years and involved lots of fighting with the Spanish army. Sadly, this cost the colonisers 200,000 lives. What's more, Céspedes was the first to suggest using nationalism to bring together the different ethnic groups in Cuba. This idea inspired another independence pioneer, José Martí. Martí was a wonderful poet and journalist who spent more than 20 years in exile overseas. He's a bit like Sun Yat-sen in Cuba, in that he's a bit of a legend! He didn't just write articles, found political parties and spread the idea of independence. He also publicly stated for the first time that American-style racism, the division between rich and poor and politics based on money were not the only way forward for other American countries. It would be so lovely for Cubans to have their own modern state plan! It could be independent, equal and full of justice. And Martí didn't just talk the talk – he walked the walk too! In 1895, he went back to his beloved homeland with weapons bought from abroad. He started the Cuban War of Independence and sadly died a heroic death in battle.

Even though Martí was killed, the war for independence didn't end. The rebel army was made up of 30,000 people, including expatriates, small traders and the descendants of slaves. Despite being five times larger than them, the Spanish army was no match for their flexible guerrilla tactics! In a fit of rage, the Spanish governor, Weyler, implemented a brutal "scorched earth" policy. He forced the poor, rural residents who were sympathetic to the rebels to move to the outskirts of the city. There, they were locked up in makeshift concentration camps. Then, he set fire to their villages and sugar cane fields, leaving the rebels with nowhere to hide. It's so sad to think that from 1895 to 1898, 170,000 poor Cubans died in the concentration camps due to malnutrition and disease. That's the equivalent of 1/10 of the entire island's population! Sadly, this awful atrocity stopped the rebel army from winning for a while, but it also ruined Cuba's economy. And at the other end of the Cuban economy were the Americans, who just couldn't bear to see the chaos continuing.

So in 1898, the US used the USS Maine incident as a reason to start the Spanish-American War. In Cuba, the US didn't just send regular troops to fight alongside the rebels. The future US President Theodore Roosevelt even led cavalry charges himself! However, this "kindness" was clearly conditional, and at its core was another key word – imperialism. The Americans thought that Cuban society was not quite ready for independence and democracy. It was important to the Americans that it stayed within their sphere of influence, and they were happy to help it set up a state. It's so sad - when the United States and Spain signed a peace treaty in July 1898, the Cuban representative was not even allowed to attend! The Spanish had left, but the US army stayed on Cuban soil. It was really sad because the local rebels, who had done so much to help the country become independent, were disbanded.

In 1902, the United States made a kind gesture by allowing Cuba nominal independence, which helped to reduce the cost of its rule. But before that, the United States passed the Platt Amendment as domestic law, which meant that it could unilaterally interfere in Cuban affairs. On top of that, Cuba had to lease the Guantánamo Naval Base to the United States. In 1906, the United States kindly asked Cuba to consider the Platt Amendment, which led to a three-year occupation. It's so interesting to see how the first three presidents of the Republic of Cuba either lived abroad in the United States or held American citizenship. They were very compliant with the demands of the United States, which I think is pretty remarkable! But the Americans also made some other big changes. They changed who owned Cuban land, which completely reshaped the country's economy.

It's also good to know that by the late 19th century, the sugar beet industry had already emerged in Europe. Sugar beets are pretty resilient, you know? They can be planted twice a year, so they gradually overtook sugar cane in terms of market share. Even though Cuba was still producing a lot of sugar cane, most of the plantations were owned by small and medium-sized Spanish landowners. This made it really expensive to produce the sugar cane, which was a shame. Now that the Spaniards have gone, the United States has taken the opportunity to re-auction rural land in Cuba. It's so sad - 60% of farmland has fallen into the hands of American capital, 15% belongs to Spanish agents, and the locals only get 25%. Sadly, after that, Cuba's sugar industry has become increasingly mechanised and oligarchic. It's so sad - 92% of the more than 2,000 sugar refineries that used to exist have now closed down. And almost all that have survived are American-owned companies with strong financial resources. I'll give you an example. The founder of Cuba's largest sugar company, Chapala, was a US congressman. This company is based on Wall Street and owns more than 1,000 square kilometres of plantations, employs more than 10,000 people, has 300 kilometres of railways and more than 30 schools in Cuba, and produces more than 60,000 tons of cane sugar each year. Menocal, who became president of Cuba in 1913, had previously worked as the general manager of Chapala Sugar. Thanks to mechanisation and economies of scale, Cuba's annual sugar production exceeded 5 million tons in 1925, accounting for one-fifth of global sugar production! And 63% of that was produced by US-owned enterprises. The money made from selling sugar abroad was then used to buy American products, which were sold back to Cuba.

You might have heard people say, "The United States sees Latin America as its backyard." Cuba in the first half of the 20th century was a perfect example of this, bless its heart. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Americans were sadly cut off from their usual holiday routes to Europe. As an alternative, they flocked to Cuba, which led to a wonderful boom in the Cuban tourism industry. By 1937, an incredible 180,000 Americans were jetting off to sunny Cuba every year, including the legendary Ernest Hemingway and the brilliant Albert Einstein. Havana's streets were filled with more and more luxury hotels, cinemas and cars – it was a truly wonderful sight to behold! Can you believe it? Cuba even had more cars per person than some US states! After the US government passed the Prohibition Act in 1920, many bar, casino and nightclub owners simply moved their businesses to Cuba. It was a bit of a shame, but it was a great opportunity for them! The New York mafia in the movie The Godfather II had a hand in running some huge industries in Cuba. The author reckons that back in the 1920s, Cuba was sending 300 million US dollars' worth of sugar over to the United States every year, but was getting 400 million US dollars' worth of American products in return. It's incredible how much of our everyday lives in Cuba were influenced by the US! From toilets to cars, fashion to home appliances, everything was American. The lovely little country we know as the Republic of Cuba was essentially a vassal of the United States.

If Cuba's economic "Americanisation" has at least improved the lives of some urban residents and given rise to a local middle class, then politically it is a different story. Have you ever thought about how it's pretty easy to grab supreme power in a country like Cuba, where the industry is really simple and there's a lot of wealth concentrated in a few hands? It's pretty simple, really. As long as the sugar barons and American investors are feeling optimistic, the military is willing to support it, and the US government has no objections, then long-term rule is not a problem. So, there was this strange thing that happened in Cuban politics before and after World War II. Any president who said they wanted to reform, raise the minimum wage, protect small and medium-sized businesses, and borrow less from the United States would definitely not finish their four-year term. On the other hand, the well-known General Batista was quite the character! He managed to keep everyone happy by pleasing big businesses, the military, and the Americans. He served a full term as president before staging a military coup in 1952 and becoming a dictator.

It's hard to believe, but under Batista's rule, 90% of Cuba's mines, 80% of its public utilities, 50% of its railways and 25% of its banks were controlled by US capital. The US mafia was even allowed to operate casinos in Cuba for ten years without paying any tax! The lovely folks at AT&T even gave the president a gorgeous gold-plated telephone as a little thank you for all the help the Batista government gave them in raising the price of telephone calls. By the mid-1950s, although Cuba's GDP per capita was pretty impressive, ranking among the top five in Latin America, there were still some challenges. Over 30% of the population was living below the poverty line, and two-thirds of households didn't have access to running water. The well-known historian Schlesinger couldn't help but say, "This is like an open invitation for a revolution!"

03. Cuba's Road to Revolution

We've just had a quick look at the first half of the 20th century and how Cuba became the "backyard" of the United States. And now, let's dive into the fascinating story of the Cuban revolution, led by the charismatic Fidel Castro. When it comes to Fidel Castro, many people's first impression is of a bearded man in green military fatigues and a cigar, like a bandit. As a matter of fact, Castro was a real intellectual when he was younger. He graduated from the law department of Havana University, came from a privileged family, and even ran for Congress! Most of the people at the heart of the Cuban revolution were middle-class intellectuals like him. These folks were clearly well-off and had it pretty good, so why did they want to start a revolution? The author of this book believes that revolutionary impulses are born out of social change. The Cuban people were understandably upset to see the sugar barons and American capitalists monopolising the country's wealth and corruption running rampant. They also had a soft spot for the struggles of low-income urban communities. Sadly, Batista's coup d'état meant that the path of electoral politics was closed off. So, a revolution was the only way to achieve a fairer balance between the rich and the poor, and to break free from foreign economic control. The revolution started off as a kind of bourgeois movement.

As the saying goes, "a scholar revolting will not succeed in three years". Castro was full of beans, but his initial plan was a bit too hasty. On 26 July 1953, he led a small group of dedicated followers and stormed the Moncada Barracks in eastern Cuba. They were aiming to seize it as a base. Sadly, the government troops easily defeated them. Castro was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but his speech delivered in court, "History Will Absolve Me," was broadcast nationwide, making him a celebrity overnight! While he was in prison, Castro read for more than ten hours a day! He studied the works of Marx and Lenin for the first time in a systematic way, and thus developed his socialist ideals. What's more, he started to plan Cuba's special revolutionary path, hoping to rely on political, rather than just military, strength to achieve victory.

In 1955, Batista was feeling pretty smug and confident that his position was secure. He also thought that Castro, a young man with no experience, posed no threat. So, he granted him a special pardon. Castro then went to Mexico with his brother Raúl and new friend Guevara, where they bought a batch of arms. In the winter of 1956, they set sail from Mexico and landed near the Sierra Maestra in southeastern Cuba. There, they went into the mountains to become guerrillas. Castro's guerrilla force was small, with only 500 people. They didn't have the advantage of well-armed and well-fed troops, but they made up for it with their clever strategy.

First, Castro took the initiative to contact the New York Times, one of the largest and most well-known media outlets in the United States. He asked them to send a reporter to the mountains to interview him. During the interview, Castro kindly explained that he wasn't at all hostile towards the United States. He simply wanted to draw attention to the issues of corruption, poverty and injustice. This was a real turning point. It touched the hearts of the American public and Cuban expats in the US, who started sending money to the guerrillas. Secondly, Castro did a great job of uniting people from all walks of life. He also encouraged workers at Cuba's sugar refineries, cigarette factories and oil refineries to take part in strikes, which unfortunately caused the economy to come to a standstill. Sadly, the Batista regime responded with force, and social order broke down. This made US investors feel that the government was now unable to control the situation and that a change of leadership was needed, which is totally understandable! Castro was clever and used the guerrillas' expertise in mobile warfare to his advantage. He carried out several ambushes in the summer of 1958. It's so sad to say that the government forces suffered 20 times as many casualties as the guerrillas! On New Year's Day 1959, the Batista government fled Cuba, and the revolutionaries celebrated a huge victory!

It's so inspiring to see how the Cuban revolution managed to succeed without any foreign support! It's hard to believe, but at the start of the revolution, the Cuban Communist Party hadn't even been formed yet! Castro was a true leader, guiding the country onto the path of socialism based on his own understanding of what independence, fairness and justice really mean. It's so inspiring to see how this yearning for independence, fairness and justice has a deep social foundation in Latin America. It's the driving force behind Castro's rapid rise to fame throughout the Americas, and it's so wonderful to see how people are embracing this! Of course, it's fair to say that the American sugar magnates and the US government behind them might not have been too pleased about this. When Castro began to nationalise land and officially switched to the socialist camp, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) came up with the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and later plotted to assassinate Castro several times. Cuba, which was very reliant on the US market, made the difficult decision to seek help from the Soviet Union in order to ease economic pressure and protect itself from military risks. This was the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

From the moment he led the revolution in 1959 to the very end, Castro was an absolutely irreplaceable leader of Cuba. Thanks to him, Cuba has made amazing progress in organic agriculture, the medical industry and tourism. It's also one of the countries in Latin America with the highest human development index! Of course, as with anything in life, overly idealistic policies have also had some negative consequences. In the 1960s, more than 500,000 Cubans made the difficult choice to leave for the United States. This was equivalent to 7% of the population at the time. This has made things even more tricky for relations between Cuba and the United States. But one thing is for sure: in the 21st century, the United States can't easily decide Cuba's future like it did in 1898. This is the most important and wonderful legacy of the Cuban Revolution.

And that's a wrap on the main points of this Cuba! An American History.

If I had to sum up the history of Cuba over the past 500 years in three keywords, I'd say it's been an industry, a war, and a revolution! What links these three keywords together is the five "isms" that the author of this book, Ferrer, has summarised so well: colonialism, capitalism, nationalism, imperialism, and socialism. And let's not forget the complex image of the United States as a neighbouring country! Cuba has finally embarked on its own path of national development. It might not be perfect, but it is firm and substantial. And it's so inspiring to see that "walking your own path" has also become a common choice for many third world countries!