Cuban Revolution triumphs
- Date
- 1 January 1959
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Latin America (Cuba)
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
On 1 January 1959, dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba as the guerrilla insurgency of Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement, with commanders including Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, completed a campaign begun with the failed 1953 Moncada barracks assault and the 1956–58 Sierra Maestra guerrilla war.
Rebel columns entered Havana in early January and a revolutionary government was installed. Over the following years the regime nationalised foreign-owned industry and large landholdings, launched mass literacy and health campaigns, and, after the US severed ties and imposed an economic embargo, aligned with the Soviet Union. The revolution made Cuba a one-party socialist state and a focal point of Cold War confrontation in the Western Hemisphere, leading to the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Beyond the island, the Cuban model and Guevara's call for revolutionary internationalism profoundly influenced guerrilla and liberation movements across Latin America, Africa, and the wider Global South, while prompting the United States to expand counter-insurgency and reform programmes such as the Alliance for Progress.
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Empires active in 1 January 1959
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- French Colonial Empire (Second)1830 CE – 1962 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Construction of the Berlin Wall13 August 1961
- Founding of the People's Republic of China1 October 1949
- Establishment of Apartheid in South Africa1948
- Independence and Partition of British India14–15 August 1947
- Iranian RevolutionJanuary–February 1979
- Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika1985–1991 (from 11 March 1985)
Also relevant
Further reading
The wider story
The Americas: A Hemispheric History
Brisk single-volume history of the whole hemisphere since European contact.
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