Danube River

THE DANUBE RIVER IS the longest river in western Europe, surpassed in Europe as a whole only by the VOLGA in RUSSIA. Fourteen countries are drained by its watershed, covering over 312,000 square mi (800,000 square km): GERMANY, AUSTRIA (and small parts of eastern SWITZERLAND), the CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAKIA, HUNGARY (and a small corner of southwest UKRAINE), SLOVENIA, CROATIA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO, BULGARIA, ROMANIA, and MOLDOVA.

The river travels 1,760 mi (2,850 km) from its source in Germany’s Black Forest to its large delta on the BLACK SEA, passing through some of the most beautiful and historic cities in Europe, including Vienna, Budapest, and Belgrade. The most famous stretch of the river, between Vienna and Budapest, has been immortalized numerous times in paintings, poetry, and music, notably Johann Strauss, Jr.’s “An der schönen, blauen Donau” (“On the Beautiful, Blue Danube”).

The Greeks called the Danube the “Ister,” the “Greatest of Rivers,” and for many centuries it was the border between the civilized Greco-Roman world and the Germanic barbarians to the north. Many centuries later, it formed the center, not the boundary, of the multiethnic Habsburg Empire, centered on Vienna and Budapest, which was torn apart by the peace settlements after World War I and by the Iron Curtain of the post-World War II era. There remains, however, some desire to reunite much of the region into a Danubian economic confederation, reflecting the reality that although language and culture divide Austrians, Hungarians, Serbs, Bulgarians and Romanians, the river unites them through commerce and industry.

The Danube starts in southwestern Germany, where it is called the Donau. Two small rivers, the Brege and the Brigach, come together at Donaueschingen, a town in the Black Forest. Its springs lie only a few meters from streams that flow westward into the Rhine watershed, thus ending up in the North Sea rather than the Black Sea, nearly 1,000 miles (3,000 km) apart. In fact, porous rocks in this area result in much of the water of the upper Danube actually seeping through the rocks to join the Rhine watershed, which has a lower elevation.

The river is too small for navigation as it winds through the Swabian Alps, passing castles and monasteries, and the ancient German cities of Ulm and Regensburg, once the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. At Passau, on the border with Austria, the Danube is joined by its first large tributary, the Inn. This was historically the western terminus of commercial river traffic, especially for grain coming to Central Europe from the plains of Hungary, but also for coal and iron ore from as far away as Russia.

In Upper Austria, the Danube passes some of the most famous baroque buildings in Europe, especially Melk, the Versailles of monasteries, perched on a hill above the river valley. Finally the river broadens into the famously smooth (and generally muddy brown, not blue) Danube as it passes by the capital cities of Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest before turning south to cross the broad Hungarian Plain. This plain, the breadbasket of Central Europe, was also the site of many important battles, from the defeat and forced settling of the Hungarian people by Emperor Otto I in 955, to the destruction of the native Hungarian kingdom by the Turks at Mohács in 1526, and the defeat of Turkish forces after the siege of Vienna in 1683, finally halting their progress toward Central Europe.

South of this plain, the river again enters mountainous regions, guarded by the fortress city of Belgrade. In these middle reaches, the river (called Duna in Hungarian and Dunav in Serbian) receives its largest tributaries, the Tisza, which drains the eastern Hungarian Plain, the historic region of Transylvania (northwestern Romania), and southwestern Ukraine; and the Drava and Sava, which receive most of the waters of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

IRON GATES

In Serbia, the river’s course meanders as it cuts passages through the confluence of the easternmost ALPS and the Carpathian Mountains. At its narrowest, the river passes through the Iron Gates, the site of one of Europe’s largest hydroelectric projects, the Djerdap, which provides almost half of the electricity consumed by Serbia and Romania. The other major hydroelectric project on the Danube is the Gabcikovo dam, in Slovakia. This dam, built in 1992, created a huge 11-mi (24 km) reservoir, with serious ecological consequences downstream in Hungary. Originally a partner in the project, Hungary withdrew with the fall of communism, causing severe tensions with the Slovak government. 

Other man-made projects along the river’s course include the Rhein-Main-Donau Kanal, built in 1992, which links the North Sea to the Black Sea, though it is still mostly underused. The lower course of the Danube forms the border between Bulgaria and Romania, through a broad drainage basin between the Carpathian and Balkan mountain ranges to the north and south. The river ends in a vast DELTA in Romania, the largest in Europe, with an area of 1,700 square mi (4,345 square km). Part of the delta also lies in the Ukraine. Flow at the mouth of the Danube averages 229,450 cubic ft (6,500 cubic m) per second, but has been recorded at 10 times this volume during high flooding. Some 122 million tons of sediment is discharged each year, creating one of the most extensive and fertile wetlands on Earth. Most of this is now protected by the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, 1.7 million acres (679,222 hectares) of marshes and lakes, declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1991.

The Romanian city of Galati, where the last major Danubian tributary, the Prut, enters the basin from Moldova to the north, is the river’s chief port for oceangoing vessels, although it is 90 mi (145 km) from the Black Sea. Ships traverse the largest of the three main Danube channels (the Sfîntu Gheorghe) to enter the Black Sea, and thus to the Mediterranean. It is estimated that 100 million tons of cargo are transported each year on the Danube as a whole, underlying the economic importance of this waterway to much of Central and Eastern Europe.

Damascus

DAMASCUS (in Arabic, “Dimashq”) is the capital and chief city of SYRIA, with a population of 1.7 million people (2002). The ancient city is also known in Arabic as “as-Sham” meaning “the Northern,” indicating its geographical position north of the traditional Arab homelands. Damascus is situated in the Ghutah Oasis on a plateau 2,263 ft (690 m) above sea level in southwestern Syria. The city is bisected by the Barada River, which separates the old city to the south from the newer, more modern city to the north. It lies just northeast of Mount Hermon (7,164 ft or 2,184 m), the highest point in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains that form part of Syria’s eastern border with neighboring LEBANON. To the east of the city lies the DESERT. 

Damascus is only a two-hour drive from the MEDITERRANEAN coast, which is just beyond the Anti-Lebanon and Lebanon mountains to the east. Annual rainfall in the area ranges between 6 in (15 cm) and 7.87 in (20 cm), falling mainly between November and February. Although temperatures in the summer can exceed 104 degrees F (40 degrees C), the summer average is around 80.5 degrees F (27 degrees C) at the most. Winters are generally cold, averaging 41 degrees F (5 degrees C).

Damascus has been inhabited since prehistoric times and is considered by some to be the oldest continuously occupied city in the world. The first mention of Damascus is in Egyptian records, when the Pharaoh Thutmosis III conquered the city in the 15th century B.C.E. In 333 B.C.E., Damascus was conquered by one of Alexander’s lieutenants, who took it from the Persians.

From 661 to 750 C.E., Damascus was the center of Islam and capital of the Great Omayyad Empire that stretched from Spain to India. In 1260 the city fell to the Mongols under Hulagu Khan, then fell again to the Mamluks following the Mongol withdrawal. In 1516, the city was captured by the Ottoman Sultan Salim I and remained part of the Ottoman Empire for the next four centuries. At the end of World War II, the city was freed from Ottoman control by an Arab contingent under the command of the British. Damascus became the capital of an independent Syria (from FRANCE) in 1941, although it did not officially take effect until 1946.

Damascus is made up of a sizeable old city, divided into the market area, the Muslim area, the Christian area and the Jewish area. The greatest part of the city, including the rectangular ancient city, is on the south bank of the Barada River, while the newer more modern suburbs lie to the north. Damascus has more than 200 mosques, but only 70 are still in use today. Of these, the Umayyad or Grand Mosque is the most famous, located just east of the Citadel and north of the Azem Palace in the old city. Damascus is famous for its bazaars—streets lined with shops, stalls, and cafes. One such bazaar called “Street Straight” (in contrast to the typically narrow, crooked layout) is even mentioned in the Bible in connection with St. Paul’s conversion to Christianity.

Damascus has long been an important commercial center. In former times it was famous for dried fruit, wine, wool, linens, silks, and damask, a type of patterned fabric, named for the silk fabrics woven in Damascus. The city was also notable for the manufacture of damascened steel, the exceptionally hard and resilient steel used in making sword blades. Today the city is the trading center for figs, almonds, and other fruit produced in the surrounding region. Industries in Damascus include handicrafts, such as the weaving of silk cloth and the making of leather goods, filigreed gold and silver objects, and inlaid wooden, copper, and brass articles. Among the city’s other manufactures are processed textiles, metalware, refined sugar, glass, furniture, cement, leather goods, preserves, confections, and matches.

Czech Republic

THE CZECH REPUBLIC consists of the two historic regions of Bohemia and Moravia. The Czech Republic borders SLOVAKIA to the southeast, POLAND to the north and northeast, GERMANY to the north and west, and AUSTRIA to the south. The Czech Republic is a parliamentary democracy with a parliament as its legislature.

The prime minister serves as the head of government, and the president serves as head of state. Prague, Brno, Ostrava, and Plzen are major cities of the country. Bohemia is a PLATEAU surrounded by the Ore or Erzgebirge Mountains and the Sudetes Mountains on the north and drained by the Vltava. Moravia is a lowland region that is drained by the Morava River, which flows into the DANUBE. The climate in the Czech Republic varies with the region from 30 degrees F (-1 degree C ) in January to 67 degrees F (19.4 degrees C) in July. In higher elevations, the climate is colder and receives more rain.

The region comprising the Czech Republic was first settled by two Celtic groups, the Boii, from which the region Bohemia gets its name, and the Cotini. By the 5th century, Slavs from the east settled in the region and formed the kingdom of Bohemia in the 10th century. In the 15th century, Jan Hus led a movement against the Roman Catholic Church, which presaged the Protestant Reformation a century later. In 1526, the Habsburg dynasty from Austria gained control of the Bohemian throne.

The Thirty Years’ War began in Prague when the Czechs rebelled against Habsburg rule in 1618. By 1620, Czech forces were defeated by the Habsburg forces, placing Bohemia under Austrian rule for 300 years. The convulsions of World War I led Czech leaders to push for full independence. In 1918, Czechoslovakia, with a diverse population of Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, and Ruthenians, emerged as a successor state to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The First Republic of Czechoslovakia, led by Thomáš Masaryk, was organized as a Western democracy, which was one of the most stable and prosperous countries of Central Europe during the interwar period. During the 1930s, as Europe witnessed the rise of fascism, Czechoslovakia fell prey to Nazi ambitions.

In September 1938, at the Munich Conference, Britain and FRANCE gave the German-populated Sudetenland in northern Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler, who reorganized the country into the Second Republic in 1939 as a Nazi puppet state, granting autonomy to Slovakia.

Liberated by the Soviets in 1945, Czechoslovakia reemerged as an independent nation. By 1948, however, the communists, with the backing of the Soviet Union, took control of the government, creating the Third Republic. All prewar political parties were banned, and anticommunists were convicted in show trials.

The communists nationalized all industry, collectivized all agriculture, and restricted all churches in the years immediately following World War II. In 1968, President Alexander Dubcek proposed liberal reforms to the political and economic system, which included distancing Czechoslovakia from the Soviet Union. This “socialism with a human face” was put down by intervention by the Soviet Union and members of the Warsaw Pact, and Czechoslovakia was placed in a tighter orbit with Moscow. By 1989, pressures for change throughout Eastern and Central Europe led to the Velvet Revolution, which overthrew communist rule in Czechoslovakia. 

Dissident Vaclav Hável became president of Czechoslovakia and he oversaw its transition to democracy, with Vaclav Klaus as prime minister to oversee economic reform. The Velvet Revolution raised the age-old question of the relationship between the Czechs and the Slovaks, and by 1993 came the Velvet Divorce, which was the peaceful split of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and SLOVAKIA. Since then, the Czech Republic has made strides to integrate into the European economy. It has been one of the few Eastern and Central European states to make a successful transition to a free market economy, albeit with some difficulties in the rising inequality of wealth. The Czech Republic joined the NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION in 1999 and the EUROPEAN UNION in 2004.

Czechs make up the majority of the population of the Czech Republic. Sizable minorities of Slovaks and Roma (Gypsies) also reside in the Czech Republic. A significant German population existed in the Sudetenland, but many were expelled after World War II. The Czech Republic has had an industrialized economy since the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its chief exports are consumer goods, and machinery. Its chief industries are machinery, automobiles, textiles, and glass. Its imports are consumer goods and fuel.

Cyprus

CYPRUS IS AN island in the eastern MEDITERRANEAN SEA, 70 mi (113 km) south of TURKEY. For thousands of years, its civilization has been at the crossroads between Europe, Asia, and Africa. Today, Cypriots continue to play a role as a bridge between cultures, because of their island’s proximity to the MIDDLE EAST, its cultural connections to GREECE, and its political status as one of the newest member states of the EUROPEAN UNION (EU).

Cyprus is politically divided, however, between the Greek-speaking majority in the southern part of the island and the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. This division has been in place since 1974 and remains unresolved despite pressure from the EU and the United Nations (UN).

The name Cyprus (Kypros in Greek) either derives from, or gives its name to one of the chief natural resources on the island: copper. This metal has been mined from the Troödos range since prehistoric times. The Troödos dominate the central and southern part of the island. The rest of Cyprus consists of the northern Kyrenia range, or Girne in Turkish, and the plain between the two ranges, the Mesaoria. There are also scattered plains along the southern coast. The Kyrenia is a narrow limestone ridge that extends far to the northeast of the mainland to form the Karpaz Peninsula.

The Mesaoria is semiarid, sheltered from rains by the northern mountains. Wheat and barley are grown there, but require IRRIGATION for agriculture. Significant rivers rise from the Troödos Mountains but are mostly dry in the summer. Severe deforestation has contributed to the island’s water problem, particularly around the city of Nicosia, which occupies the central part of the Mesaoria. Nearly 200,000 people live in this city, called Lefkosa by Turkish Cypriots, who claim the northern part of the city as their capital. 

Other cities include Limassol, Larnaca, Famagusta, Paphos, and the ruined city of Salamis. The diversity of building styles in these cities reflects the varieties of outside influences that have dominated Cypriot history since the second millennium B.C.E. Cyprus was a Roman then a Byzantine province for 1,000 years until it was taken over by Crusaders in the 12th century, notably the de Lusignan family, who set up a Catholic kingdom in opposition to the majority Orthodox population.

Venetian merchants, eager to secure their monopoly on trade in the eastern Mediterranean, purchased

the island in 1489 but lost it to the Ottoman Turks in 1570. The Turks ruled Cyprus through a restored traditional Orthodox hierarchy, reinforcing the position of the church and the Greek language in Cypriot politics and culture. In 1878, control of the island was ceded to the British, eager to safeguard their shipping lanes to the Suez Canal. Great Britain formally annexed Cyprus in 1914. Independence was granted in 1960, but the island remains a member of the British Commonwealth, and the UNITED KINGDOM retains sovereignty over two military bases on the south and southeast coasts.

As early as the 1820s, Greek Cypriots expressed a strong desire for political union, or enosis, with the rest of Greece. It is this desire that has been at the root of the tension between Greeks and Turks on Cyprus ever since. The original 1960 constitution allowed for minority representation in government, but these stipulations were dropped in 1963. In 1974, a coup backed by Greece prompted military intervention from Turkey, and the country was divided into the southern and northern sections of today, divided by the so-called Green Line, patrolled by UN troops. In 1983 the Turkish area—roughly a third of the island declared itself to be the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), but it is recognized only by Turkey.

UN-led direct talks began in January 2002, and several proposals have been brought forward. A referendum on a plan set forth by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in April 2004 was approved by Turkish Cypriots but strongly rejected by the Greek population. It had been hoped that a settlement could be reached by the time of Cyprus’s entry into the EU in May 2004. Many EU members were impressed, however, with Turkish willingness to settle their differences, which may in the long run lead to increased financial aid to the impoverished north.

The economy of Cyprus was severely disrupted by the division of 1974 but has recovered in the south, mostly through a huge increase in tourism. Tourism and other service industries today contribute 76 percent of the gross domestic product and employ 70 percent of the labor force. Millions of tourists per year come for Cyprus’s clean waters and relatively undeveloped beaches. Southern Cyprus has also become a center for international business and offshore banking, due to its proximity to the Middle East, and its educated, English-speaking population. The north has had less of a recovery and continues to rely heavily on financial support from Turkey.

Cyclones

CYCLONES ARE HAZARDOUS weather conditions distinguished by extreme blasts of wind moving in a circular pattern. Cyclones generally appear over tropical waters; however, some are able to reach land, where they inflict significant damage on buildings and communities.

Cyclones can be placed into categories such as hurricane (Western Hemisphere) and typhoon (Eastern Hemisphere). The categorization assigned to a cyclone is dependent upon where it originated. Wind speeds in cyclones can surpass 100 mi per hour (160 km per hour). Tropical cyclones with milder conditions are known as tropical storms.

Cyclones build over tropical seas. Heat gives cyclones their energy. Consequently, the ocean over which a cyclone forms must be warm. Other conditions required for a cyclone include a rapidly cooling atmosphere, a minimum of 300 mi (500 km) distance from the equator, and a slow vertical wind not exceeding 23 mi per hour (37 km per hour). This vertical wind is the product of differences between winds in the lower and upper portions of the atmosphere. The major contributor to the formation of a cyclone is a disturbance in the form of a thunderstorm or group of showers.

When all of these factors come together, conditions are right for a tropical cyclone. However, cyclones are spontaneous; a minute variation in one variable can be the difference between a hurricane and a thunderstorm. Known as the “eye,” the circular area in the center of a cyclone has an environment quite different from the area it surrounds. Calmness and a light breeze characterize the eye. Temperatures and air pressure are normally higher, and the sky is generally very clear.

Strong cyclones can cause damage ranging from crop destruction to the total devastation of buildings, depending on the severity of the cyclone. Cyclones become most dangerous as they hit land and spawn tornadoes, which are formed when tropical cyclones begin to lose their power. The major variation between tropical cyclones and tornadoes is their size. While the diameter of a tornado is measured in meters, the diameter of a tropical cyclone is measured in kilometers. One of the most destructive cyclone-spawned tornadoes in the United States caused around $100 million worth of damage to the Austin, TEXAS, area in 1980.

Besides property damage, cyclones (and the ensuing tornadoes) cause death. Objects lifted from the path of the extreme wind are flung about as high-speed projectiles. In 1964, 22 people were killed by a tornado that hit the LOS ANGELES area in CALIFORNIA. Meteorologists have come a long way in the forecasting of tropical cyclones. In their forecasts, they gather information from the global numerical weather prediction model, which is also used by many meteorological centers, to aid them in producing accurate warnings. The World Meteorological Organization has created Regional Specialized Meteorological Centers (RSMCs) that issue warnings to nations, which then issue warnings to the public.

Warnings are issued when a cyclone is likely to affect communities within 24 to 48 hours. The warnings include a forecast that predicts which communities may be affected, severity, movement, etc. depending on how severe a cyclone is, residents may be asked to take certain precautions or even evacuate the possible affected area.

CATEGORY WARNINGS

Cyclones are divided into five categories determined by wind speeds, with category 5 being the worst cyclone of all. A category 1 warning is issued when wind gusts are less than 77 mi per hour (125 km per hour). A category 2 warning is issued when wind gusts are from 77 to 105 mi per hour (125 to 169 km per hour). When winds are from 106 to 139 mi per hour (170 to 224 km per hour), a category 3 warning is issued. Category 4 is when winds reach speeds from 140 to 173 mi per hour (225 to 279 km per hour ). The most destructive of all is a category 5 cyclone with winds faster than 174 mi per hour (280 km per hour).

In order to avoid confusion when tracking the development of these storms, cyclones are regularly named. The naming of cyclones began during World War II when meteorologists in the U.S. armed forces unofficially named the cyclones giving them female names. During the early 1950s, tropical cyclones that formed in the North ATLANTIC OCEAN were named from the phonetic alphabet. In 1979 the U.S. National Weather Service used both male and female names.

When an exceptional cyclone occurs, its name is taken out of use to avoid confusion. More than one cyclone can occur at the same time, and if names are given, there is less confusion about which cyclone is being described. Cyclones can range from simple tropical storms to devastating hurricanes spinning at furious speeds. Their effects can be disastrous and long-lasting.

Cultural Geography

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY IS a subdiscipline of HUMAN GEOGRAPHY. The founding father of cultural geography in North America is Carl Ortwin SAUER, and most of the research in cultural geography from the 1920s to the beginning of the 1980s was carried out by cultural geographers walking in the footsteps of Sauer and the so-called Berkeley School. In this tradition, cultural geography is concerned with material facets of culture. On the agenda of the Berkeley School were cultural influences on, and shaping forces of, the transformation of landscape and the natural environment. In short, the role that culture plays as an agent of these changes.

In this respect, the American tradition of cultural geography of the 20th century was a dominating and highly influential one. Since the end of the 1970s, however, cultural geography in the anglophone scientific community took on a different face. Drawing heavily on British cultural studies, focusing on interpretative and empirical methods, and refurbishing social theory, cultural geographers of that time developed the socalled new cultural geography. The mere amount of studies and research that has been carried out until today under the banner of this new cultural geography, and also the colorful, true-to-life, and rich array of topics hosted by the discipline, made new cultural geography probably the most successful subdiscipline of geography throughout the last 30 years. This boom, the beginnings of which are often referred to as the cultural turn in geography, has changed the discipline fundamentally. 

Nevertheless, recently there has been a vivid, critical discussion about the shortcomings of these new cultural geographies, which is revolving around the topics of the dangers of a holistic culturalist approach and the dematerialization and the (missing) political potential of the new cultural geography.

Cuba

CUBA, THE 15th largest island in world, is part of the West Indies in the CARIBBEAN SEA. This island, which experiences a subtropical climate and a wet summer season between May and October, is composed of fertile ground where tobacco, sugarcane, and coffee are grown and where cattle graze. Twenty-five percent of the island is covered by the Oriental, Central, and Occidental mountain ranges.

More than 6,000 plant species are spread across Cuba. The royal palm is the most noticeable, and supposedly 20 million palms exist across the island. Cork palm can also be found on the island, as well as the palma barrigona, the ceiba, and the mariposa. The southern coast supports swamps with fish and birds. Reptiles are the most abundant fauna. Crocodiles, iguanas, salamanders, lizards, and turtles, as well as a mixture of nonpoisonous snakes, are present throughout the country. The jutia (a tree rat) is the largest land mammal on the island. And the world’s smallest bird, the bee hummingbird, originates from Cuba.

Modern-day history of Cuba can be traced back to November 27, 1492, when Christopher Columbus landed on the island. For the next 300 years, Spain had control over the small island. During the 16th century, the indigenous Tainos were virtually obliterated from the island. Subjected to a life of labor under the Spanish encomienda system, these indigenous people were forced to mine for silver and gold and to work the many plantations spread across the island.

Overall, the Spanish found a limited amount of silver and gold on the island. As the years passed, it was obvious that Cuba would have to serve other purposes for the Spanish administration. The island became a stopover for ships carrying goods from the Americas to Europe. In 1607, Havana was created as the Cuban capital. The forests across the island were cut down to make room for livestock, tobacco, and sugar for European sale. However, after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1587, Spain’s New World colonies, such as Cuba, suffered from a lack of central control. The unregulated West African slave trade flourished and pirates appeared in Cuban ports.

In 1762, 200 English warships with 20,000 troops appeared outside of Havana. After 44 days, Havana fell to the English, but within a year, the British traded their new possession back to SPAIN for the land of FLORIDA. The new king of Spain, Charles III, began to actively encourage free trade, and the Cuban economy prospered. By 1820, Cuba held the distinction of being the world’s largest sugar producer. By 1835, all the New World colonies of Spain had received independence, except for PUERTO RICO and Cuba. Cuban revolutionaries began to form protests. In 1868, slavery was finally abolished and an overall rebellion for independence rose throughout the land. Ten years of war lasted and around 200,000 people perished in the fighting; some 100,000 fled the island. The Pact of Zanjon was signed in 1878, which ultimately granted all the rebels amnesty. However, independence was still not granted. 

Cuban exiles in the UNITED STATES, including the poet José Martí, began plans for the next wave of rebellion. In 1895, they landed on eastern Cuba, and Marti was fatally shot. The rebels continued to fight, and in return, the Spanish government executed public figures and threatened civilians. Cuba eventually agreed to a home rule government for the Cubans, but the Cuban citizens wanted full independence. In 1898, the U.S. warship Maine, anchored in the harbor in Havana, exploded. Although the reason for the explosion was unknown, American newspaper reports blamed the Spanish. American troops were dispatched to the island and the Spanish-American War began.

After various victorious American battles, including the Battle of San Juan Hill, a peace treaty was signed in December 1898. Although the Cubans were now independent of Spain, the U.S. influence on Cuba began. In 1902, the United States granted Cuba full independence but, under the Platt Amendment, reserved the legal right to intervene militarily if Cuba’s independence was threatened. The Guantánamo Bay naval base was also leased by the United States, and is still currently occupied by the U.S. military.

By the 1920s, over two-thirds of Cuba’s farmland was owned by American companies. Into the 1950s, Cuba was ruled by a number of military and political figures. During the early years of the Great Depression, President Gerardo Machado y Morales violently ended civil unrest throughout the country. He was overthrown in a coup, and Fulgencio Batista gained power, which would last for more than 20 years. Throughout this period, Cuba suffered economically, and active resistance groups were formed.

Fidel Castro emerged as a very influential rebel leader. In 1953, he led an attack on the Moncada barracks in Santiago. More than 100 died, and Castro faced a public trial. He was jailed but given an early release. He was exiled to Mexico, and from there organized the 26th of July Movement. In December 1956, Castro and his group landed on the eastern part of the island. For three years, guerrilla warfare spread throughout the island. On January 1, 1959, Batista was overthrown and fled to the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 

Castro became the prime minister of the country, and overhauled the economy. He nationalized much of the land and American-owned petroleum facilities. The United States in return cut sugar imports, which debilitated the economy. With a deteriorating economic situation, Castro turned to the Soviet Union for aid. Sugar trade thus developed between Cuba and the Soviets.

BAY OF PIGS

In 1961, the U.S. CIA organized an invasion in the Bay of Pigs. Fourteen hundred CIA-trained Cuban exiles attacked Castro forces but were quickly captured. Castro declared that Cuba was to be a socialist state. The Soviet Union sent food, supplies, and nuclear missiles to the island that was only 90 miles off the coast of superpower rival, the United States. After an extremely tense nuclear standoff in 1962 between Cuba, the United States, and the Soviet Union, the missiles were returned to the Soviets.

For the next three decades, Cuba became a leading military and political force in the Third World, but its economy fell into major disrepair. In 1989, after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the decline of the Soviet Union, RUSSIA withdrew its aid. In 1991, economic reforms began in the country. Cuban citizens were allowed to be self-employed and farmers’ markets were opened. Slowly, the Cuban economy grew. Sensing that Castro’s power base was declining, the United States passed the Helms-Burton Act, which imposed harsher embargo conditions on Cuba. In 2004, Castro’s hold on Cuba was still strong and the country remained one of the last socialist states in the world.