Batista's Cuba: The Un-Republican Republic

摘要

Cuban history is seen by some, particularly those in the Communist Party of Cuba, as a chain of events leading to the rise of Fidel Castro. This conveys an image of Cuba waiting for Castro, rather than a nation existing and striving for its place in the world. The goal of this thesis is to examine the period on its own terms and to see to what extent the label "republic" is an apt way to describe it. For the purposes of this thesis, "republic" will mean a sovereign state with division of powers between branches of government combined with a legitimate electoral process for positions of leadership in the government. Despite the best efforts of men like Jose Marti, Manuel Marquez Sterling, and even Fulgencio Batista, Cuba never developed republican traditions and was never truly a republic. The Cuban economy revolving around the trade of sugar with the United States, as well as a corrupt and violent political class, were two consistent issues throughout the period. The relationship among the Cuban people, the Cuban government, and the United States changed over the half century of the Republic and this changing relationship, as well as the changing nature of the Cuban political class, will show to what degree Cuba embodied or moved towards republicanism.;By looking at declassified government correspondence, newspapers, and reflections by the people in positions of power throughout the period, this thesis will show the internal machinations and issues facing the Cuban state throughout the early twentieth century. The goal of this work is to examine the historical documents and evaluate the republican experience in the hopes that other fledgling states may not follow the same disastrous path as Cuba.