[Music] hey guys welcome to Hip Hughes History I'm wearing a Chay shirt and it's July 26 so we have to do the Cuban Revolution It must be done Giddy up for the learning guys Let's look at the causes of the revolution and the revolution itself Here we go guys Let's do it [Music] Let's do a little bit of kind of Cuban backdropping a little bit about the history of Cuba up to 1952 where Castro is going to start his own revolution The first thing that you obviously want to understand obviously if you don't know is that Cuba was a colony of Spain for 400 years That's why they all speak Spanish and you know kind of a ruthless colony They were using Cuba for their own benefit By the 1860s the Spaniards only make up about 8% of the population They control 90% of the wealth So the Cuban begin to get nationalistic and they organize what's called the October manifesto which reads very much like the Declaration of Independence They're coming together They want to fight for freedom and they launch a 10-year war against the Spaniards where they are ruthlessly crushed like a bug And then it takes about another 20 years before they start doing this business again Now in 1895 um with Joseé Marty now with subtle US backing and it takes a few years before the United States really starts to get behind the independence movement But by 1898 we got their back We send the USS Maine into the Havana Harbor where on February 15th 1898 boom it explodes You can go watch another video about the controversy of whether that was um our own doing or if it was the Spaniard's doing But what this is going to mean is the SpanishAmerican War Yellow journalism jingoism nationalism is running through the course of the veins of the American Empire and we want ourselves some Cuba Um not that there weren't anti-imperialists And I think this is an important point to make As we go into Cuba there's something called the Teller Amendment which is very democraticorientated that we're not going to control Cuba that we're fighting for freedom And then immediately after the war there's something called the Plat Amendment which is really kind of a puppet amendment We're going to control Cuba We're going to control who their leaders are We're going to have the opportunity if we want for military intervention We're going to get Guanamo Bay out of the deal So in a sense they've really been transferred from the Spanish Empire to the American Empire And they have a series of horrible dictators It's horrible It really is horrible And it really is like that up to the revolt of the sergeants in 1933 where Falencio Batista I'll just call him Batista How about that Really starts to garner power He is a Cuban nationalist and now he has kind of overthrown the puppet regimes and he's kind of for the first time getting you know a democratically organized Cuba and he becomes president in 1940 And this is key because when Batista was president from 1940 to 1944 he had the support of the Communist Party of all the progressive parties And if you read the Cuban Constitution from that period it is spectacular It's all about democracy and liberalism and freedom and all of that good stuff And then in 1944 Batista leaves Cuba for the United States and he kind of goes out to uh New York where he lived for a few years to kind of plot his next move and um he is thinking about coming back and running for election in 1952 And that's really going to be the key year 1952 Batista wants power again and the elections are coming up And now we're going to introduce you to So a little bit about Fidel before we dive into the revolution Um Fidel is an interesting character because he doesn't grow up poor He's not the child of a peasant He's the child of really an upper class family His mother wasn't married to his father but they owned plantation They worked with American corporations and they had a lot of money and it was that money that sent Fidel as he was growing up to Jesuit school He was a little bit of rebel got kicked out of some schools and they end up sending him to Havana where he goes to one of the best schools in the country under the Jesuits and he really develops at that period a moral compass about ethics and democracy and about how people should be living freely and that propels him to be a lawyer and then to go into politics and he wants to run for the legislature in Cuba in 1952 He's quite excited He's doing the right thing here He's going to change the system from the inside And then Batista realizing that he's not going to win the elections in 1952 organizes a military coup and takes over And the US backs this new administration canceled elections killed democracy Um it's you know not the old Batista It's a new Batista And this new Batista has aligned himself with American corporations the American mafia and now he has the support of the American government And it's important to understand how much US control there is in Cuba Um 95% of all the oil 80% of the utilities 80% of all of the cattle 40% of all the sugar It's all under our control And Batista's working with us with the mob There's no doubt that there's some huge mob figures that are working with Batista giving him kickbacks building casinos and really making Havana into really a little paradise for American travelers and vacationers and gangsters And Castro is disillusioned He's beyond disillusioned This is exactly the opposite of what he thought should happen And now that he can't change it from the inside he's going to turn to revolutionary means So let's look at now the revolution Castro is mad So when does the movement start The movement starts on July 26th 1953 Um Castro is not going to work within the system anymore after the cancelling of the elections in 1952 He's going to turn to revolutionary means and 123 guys are going to storm what was the Manata barracks on July 26 giving the name the 26th of July movement and these guys did so well not they got completely crushed completely crushed most of them were executed and killed on the spot but Castro and his brother Raul are quite lucky they're going to get a ticket to Mexico thanks to the Jesuits remember Castro went to Jesuit schools He knows a lot of the Jesuit community They're going to support and save him and get him out to Mexico where he is not done Now in Mexico him and his brother Raul and Chay Jay Guerva from Argentina are now going to start plotting their comeback And that's going to happen on December 2nd 1956 They spent about two two and a half years in Mexico but now they're coming back They're coming back with 82 guys on a big old wooden boat called the Grandma the grandma and that's going to land on December 2nd 1956 but unfortunately for them their boat was spotted and Batista his army is awaiting these guys and out of the 82 60 of them were killed there were only 22 that survived that initial assault and Batista made a critical error because rather than pushing him to the sea Castro where he could have destroyed him he pushed him into the Sierra Mastro mountains where he thought they would get eaten up by the mountains and disappear forever where anything but that could be True What Castro does is he organizes a guerilla movement from the mountains getting local peasant support growing his numbers from 22 to about 300 These guys had about 300 guys in the revolution People think it's thousands and tens of thousands It was 300 Batista thought it was more And that was probably you know one of his critical eras was overestimating their numbers But these 300 guys are going to create a lot of havoc in those mountains And by 1957 Castro pretty much has control over those mountains And Batista has a lot of other problems He has the student revolutionary directorate who is now an anti-communist group that is fighting him Um Batista is really clamping down He closed the University of Havana These guys the student revolutionary people actually stormed the palace in 1957 and they broadcast what was called the three minutes of truth to the whole nation So it's not just Castro it's other kinds of groups democratic groups liberal groups that are fighting Batista And his big problem is now that he's clamping down and he's executing people in the streets and he's doing anything he can to hold power he's turning the United States slowly against him 1958 is a big year because that is where he's going to um launch Operation Veranu This is uh Batista's you know going to take out Castro movement in the mountains and it fails Uh there's two battles the battle of La Plata and the Battle of Los Mercedes At the Battle of Los Mercedes in July of 1958 they had Castro cornered They could have killed him They could have caught him But Castro at that point asked for a ceasefire For some reason Batista granted him the ceasefire Um and he was able to escape the clutches of the Batista army And at that point he launches his own assault On August 21st 1958 Castro starts coming out of the mountains and he starts to join with these other groups and starts taking towns one at a time A really interesting character and you can research this guy is a guy by the name of William Morgan who was a huge commander in Castro's army He was an American a guy from Toledo who went to fight for the revolution He said "How can I be free when other people are not free?" I'm going to clarify this again These guys were not seen as a communist at that point They were seen as freedom fighters as people that were trying to overthrow a dictator So now with their combined forces uh the battle of Santa Clair is on uh December 31st of 1958 When that falls Batista takes off to the Dominican Republic and the army basically lays down their weapons as Castro and Chay his brother Raul William Morgan these guys the student revolutionary uh directorate march into Havana on January 1st of 1959 And that's a day guys That's the day Now Castro is going to take over He's going to anoint the first president Emanuel Leo And in 1959 he's going to actually come to the United States and he's going to say you know I know that the world thinks that we're communists I can't say it any more clearly We are not communists And at that point stuff's going to happen And I'm just a little bit too tired to keep going into it So I'm going to stop here but I think that I'm going to turn to my friend the groovy historian to take over this huge Cuban football because this is really not the end This is the beginning So let me see if I can get him on the phone convince him maybe to tell a little bit of story to keep this video going and giddy up for more learning So let me grab my phone All right we're going to do it We're calling the groovy historian We're calling London He's from over there in Great Britain Hey groovy historian man It's Pew How are you brother Oh hip How you doing I'm doing good It's July 26 You know what that means right Oh is it It's the Cuban Revolution today Oh wow I'm really am groovy excited A vivo love revolution and I just cut a Cuban revolution video and I got a problem man I'm going to tell you that I got all the way up to where the guys march into Havana So like the revolution is now successful and I'm so full of like democracy and freedom I'm so excited But I know what's going to happen and I was wondering if you'd finish my video Sure No problem mate I can do the second part of the video It would be hip and groovy It would be groovy hip Oh okay Yeah definitely We can make it a groovy hip start So cut your video Send me your video I'll put your video in my video and the world will be a little bit groovier and a little bit heer Yeah why not I think that's quite cool Make it a groovy world All right man I'm really excited So I'm going to go I'm looking forward to you giving me your video and uh we'll get it done Thanks bro All right Definitely I'll send it to you All right man Enjoy Take care bro We'll talk to you later Hey there This is the groovy story Today I should be talking about when Fido Castro takes power But what is ever so interesting in the year 1958 Fido Castro took power of the army Then he entered into Havana 1959 as a hero while Basti lives as a traitor and basically got the second part from when he took power Fido Castro He was the prime minister in the year 1959 Fido Castro and he became a revolutionary leader of Cuba and he was such an economic and powerful leader which he was the leader for the next 40 years as prime minister and presidency which was ever so important and fiercely kept his power During the 1959s and 1960 he radically changed the ideas in Cuba such as industry nationalized and collectivizing agriculture which the first person he kicked out was his mother who never forgave him This literacy campaign through the 1960 Castro started a major speech in United Nations He would eliminate the literacy in Cuba And he had 100,000 volunteers in a campaign for young to help between n 10 and 19 to sign up alongside thousands of teachers and factory workers to eradicate literacy as well to other teachers to read Catch straight also used exercise of promoting unity across the country through literacy high education to many people travel to rural areas to teach through some more important historical events that's happened USA hatched a plan to topple Castro with in year of 1961 approximately 1,500 Cuban exiles were trained to finance by the CIA which was launched an evasion of the Bay of the Pigs which was known but after this point through the US invasion of Castro in Cuba there was a secret deal with Soviet Union and Cuba which was Nikki in order to strongen nuclear ties and military bases as well The Cuban missile crisis was a very heightened point through political and military bases where America had demiles in Turkey and Russia had demiles in Cuba So there was proxy wars and in density The base was spotted by US spy planes and as well President Kenny sent a major French unit to remove the base and missiles from the island But nevertheless the major frustration and people around the world held their breath and due through 13 days of negligation and cast treat but nevertheless the peaceful resolution was reached and this was a very important point of how far things were going in developing through the cold war as well and Cuba Cuba still continued gaining and receiving economical support for the Soviet Union And as well Cuba went around Latin Mana Africa and held revolutions for many movements And Castro saw himself as the leader of the pressed people around the world such as areas of South Africa where he sent many troops in 1970 to support the commun forces Angola Ethiopia and Yemen But now in the years in his 40s where CIA had many attempts to assassinate him including cigars including plots bombs explosion fungus and various other attempts even poison and scuba diving attacks To remember he had 638 attempts on his life But later Cuba economically founded there were many job sausages and houses but through the 1985 Cubans smashed their way into the Pervian embassy and after this aftermath there was 10,000 Cubans which had amassed and consil seeking entry of Cashra was angered when he saw this at this time America had the strong influence in Cuba and the Cubans were going against their country and Castro said he opened up the port to let them go But however through the collapse of Soviet Union in 1990s this flew Cuban economy into major chaos and Castro's adant Cuba to survive But Cuba lost around 6 billion subsidize from Soviet Union which was evidently strong effects due to the sugar and oil Cuban factories exchange and agriculture But nevertheless he introduced stricted fu ties and Fidel Castro's legacy is ever so important because he's seen one of the most extraordinary eccentric political figures of the 20th century known as the world hero and even he helped anti-imperialist efforts such as he's been seen with Nelson Mandala and he sent troops to help out in South African rebellions So the interest is of his individual political ideologies and changes as he was described as influential world leader which was greatly respected and in Cuba and across the world for what his beliefs was Hope you enjoy this video guys Well wasn't that groovy and hip That's the worst English accent ever Thanks Groovy historian If you guys haven't checked him out on YouTube you can subscribe right now by clicking the big fat red button That would be groovy That would be hip And always remember guys where tension goes energy flows And we'll see you next time that you press my buttons [Music] La