Background:
On 20 May 1902, Cuba became an independant republic, but continual US interference gave Cuba a series of weak, corrupt and US dependant governments. The US intervened militarily in Cuba in 1906, 1912 and 1917.

By the 1920s, US companies owned two-thirds of Cuba's farmland and most of it's mines. The sugar industry was
booming and with US prohibition (1919-33), the Mafioso moved in -taking over the casinos, booze, drug running and prostitution. Havana became a fashionable place where America's rich rubbed shoulders with US mobsters.

Towards the end of the 1920s, Cuba is under it's first real brutal dictator, Geraldo Machado y Morales, who continued and increased the worst excesses of his predecessors. By August 1933 Machado was finally toppled and escaped into exile, the next month an army sergeant named Fulgencio Batista stepped into the power vacuum becoming army chief of staff.

Batista ruled Cuba through a succession of puppet presidents until 1940 when he is elected to the post. He saw that he would not get another term, so withdrew at the end of his term and left Cuba.

The average Cuban now worked and lived like a peasant, with none of the benefits trickling down. As the gap between the rich and the poor grew wider, the poor became impatient, but few were prepared to change.

Batista returned to Cuba in 1952 and seized power.

After Batista's second coup of 1952, his corrupt regime soon provoked violent opposition, mostly in the cities. A revolutionary group was formed in Havana, that included Abel Santamaria (later tortured and murdered by Batista's thugs), his sister Haydée Santamaria, Melba Hernández, Fidel Castro and others.

On 26 July 1953 Castro led 119 rebels in a failed attack on the stategically important army barracks in Santiago de Cuba (1). Most of the rebels were caught, 55 being tortured and executed. Castro and a few others escaped into the nearby mountains. Castro was later caught and put on trial. As a lawyer by profession he defended himself, -and copped a 15 year jail term on Isla de Pinos (Isla de la Juventud) (2).

In February 1955 Batista won the Cuban presidency in rigged elections, and to dampen the outcry, freed some political prisoners. Castro goes to Mexico, and leaves Frank País in charge of organising the underground resistance of the 26th of July Movement (M26-7). In December of the same year, students at Havana University form the Directorio Revolucionario led by José Antonio Echeverría.

On 2 December 1956, Castro and 81 others land from Mexico at Playa las Coloradas (3) on the southwestern tip of Cuba. After three days the group was routed by Batista's army at Alegria de Pío (4). Most were captured -although Castro, his brother Raúl, Guevara, Cienfuegos and Almeida and six others escape into the Sierra Maestra (5), where the M26-7 managed to send them supplies from Manzanillo.

On 17 January 1957, the guerrillas scored their first success by sacking an army outpost on the south coast, and started gaining followers in both Cuba and abroad.
On 13 March 1957, university students mounted an unsuccessful attack on the Presidential Palace in Havana. Most of the students were killed as they retreated and Batista's men rounded up and shot anyone vaguely connected with the incident. Echeverría was killed, but M26-7 won more followers.

On 28 May 1957, M26-7 overwhelmed the army post in El Uvero (6) and captured badly needed supplies. The movement had gained momentum and by the end of 1957, Castro had established a fixed headquarters at La Plata in the Sierra Maestra. By February 1958 Raúl Castro had opened a second front in the Sierra de Cristal on Oriente's north coast (7).

In May 1958 Batista sent an army of 10,000 into the Sierra Maestra to destroy Castro's 300 armed guerrillas. But by August, the rebels had defeated the army's advance and captured a huge amount of arms.

After marches of incredible endurance, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos opened additional fronts in Las Villas province. They cut rail and road links and important battles were won in Guisa and the Sierra del Escambray. Guevara's men captured an armoured train sent to reinforce Santa Clara, and enter the town on 28 December. Meanwhile, Cienfuegos was locked in a fierce battle in Yaguajay, with Batista's troops finally surrendering on 31 December.