Transcript History of the Caribbean

History of the Caribbean
Wednesday 13 April 2011
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
O Holy Spirit, soul of my soul
I adore you.
Enlighten, guide, strengthen and console me.
Tell me what I ought to do and command me to do
it.
I promise to submit to everything that you ask of me
and to accept all that you allow to happen to me.
Only show me what is your will.
Examinations Prayer to St. Joseph
of Cupertino
O Great St. Joseph of Cupertino who while on earth
did obtain from God the grace to be asked at your
examination only the questions you knew, obtain for
me a like favour in the examinations for which I am
now preparing.
In return I promise to make you known and cause you
to be invoked.
Through Christ our Lord.
St. Joseph of Cupertino, Pray for us.
Our Lady of Good Studies pray for me
Sacred Head of Jesus, Seat of divine wisdom,
enlighten me. Amen.
Quick logic questions!
1. Three mature and hefty women were walking in San
Francisco under one regular-sized umbrella. Why didn't
they get wet?
2. What can a jug be filled with so that it is lighter than
when it is filled with air?
3. What occurs once in a minute, twice in a week, and
once in a year?
4. A man travelling in a taxi and is talking to the driver.
After a while the driver tells him, " You must excuse me,
I am deaf and cannot hear a word that you are saying.
The passenger stops talking. After the passenger gets
out of the cab, he realizes that the driver had lied to
him. How did he know?
Answers
1.
2.
3.
4.
It was not raining
A hole
The letter 'E‘
If the cab driver had been deaf, He
would not have heard the address the
passenger had giving to him. He only
motioned he was deaf when the
passenger wouldn't stop talking
Review activity (10 minutes)
“I took Panama”
• How true is this statement made by
Theodore Roosevelt about events in 1904?
• Give examples to support your answer.
The Castro Revolution
Objectives
• Describe the policies of the Castro
revolution
• Assess the United States’ response to the
Castro revolution, 1959 to 1962
• Explain the impact on the Caribbean of the
Castro revolution between 1959 and 1985
Some terms to understand and use
• Socialism/Communism
• The Cold War
– info
• Reform
• Embargo
• Spheres of influence
• Nationalisation
Who is Fidel Castro?
– One description
not online?
Why is Castro’s coming to power in
1959 considered a revolution?
What were the social and economic
policies (decisions made and
actions taken) of Castro’s regime?
Social and economic policies
• Castro followed the policies of the Soviet
Union and China
• Sought to make Cuba less dependent on
the USA
• Instead became very dependent on the
Soviet Union.
A socialist economy: state
ownership
• nationalisation of property. Government takeover of
– most farms larger than about 400 hectares (about 1000 acres).
– foreign-owned petroleum refineries that refused to process
Soviet oil
– all private firms except small agricultural plots belonging to
individual Cubans.
• encouraged industrialization, including the manufacture
•
of light consumer goods, as well as machinery and
equipment.
tried to increase the variety of agricultural crops grown
by Cuban farmers.
Pair-share activity
• You are the manager of a US owned sugar
plantation.
• Prepare a brief statement either agreeing
with OR condemning the nationalisation of
all business firms and large farms in Cuba.
• Give at least one reason.
• Make a brief speech for the group.
• The Soviet Union (USSR) became Cuba’s
main trading partner especially after…
Reaction to Castro’s economic
policies
• When Cuba re-established diplomatic ties with the USSR,
•
•
•
•
and made an agreement to import Soviet oil and took
over foreign-owned petroleum refineries that refused to
process Soviet oil:
the U.S. government outlawed the purchase of Cuban
sugar, the mainstay of Cuba’s economy.
Cuba then assumed control of all U.S. property on the
island and established a military alliance with the USSR.
In January 1961 the United States broke diplomatic
relations with Cuba.
As Cuban policy shifted to the left, many moderate
leaders resigned from the government or were forced
out of office.
Trade embargo
• The United States organized a partial embargo
•
•
on trade with Cuba in late 1960 and expanded it
to a full embargo in early 1962.
The embargo made it illegal to import goods
from Cuba to the United States, or to export to
Cuba any products that were manufactured or
had parts that were manufactured in the United
States.
The result was severe shortages of consumer
goods in Cuba within a few years.
Economic difficulties
• Effects of the trade embargo on Cuba
• Failures due to
– poor planning, organization,
– lack of incentives
Also:
• many of Cuba’s most qualified
businessmen and technicians fled the
country when Castro began nationalizing
businesses in the early 1960s.
• The Cuban economy declined drastically in
the years that followed and the
government began rationing food,
clothing, and most goods and services.
Socialist social programmes
Improving social conditions among
poor and uneducated Cubans
• crash program to increase literacy, and
follow-up efforts
• all health paid for by the state
• clinics in rural areas
• graduates of medical schools to provide
two years of health care service
Promotion of cooperative activities
• Neighbourhood clean ups,
• recycling of materials,
• helped in mass vaccination campaigns.
• Workers built housing units next to their
work places.
• A favourable view
not online?
Review question:
• Why is Castro’s coming to power in 1959
considered a revolution?
• Give one example to support your answer
Why did the USA respond
negatively to the Castro
Revolution?
What were some of the ways in
which the US reacted to Castro’s
revolution
Role of ideology
• Capitalism vs. communism
• Rejection of socialism
• Reaction to spread of socialism
• How socialism affected investments
Role of politics and defence issues:
The Cold War
The Bay of Pigs invasion
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/35_k
ennedy/filmmore/ra_cuban.html
A group of Cuban counterrevolutionaries, members of Assault
Brigade 2506, after their capture in
the Bay of Pigs. 1,000 people were
imprisoned by Castro's forces during
the US supported invasion
Kennedy was very concerned
about getting rid of the Cuban
issue. He knew that as long as
Castro remained in Havana, as
long as a communist regime was
allowed to flower, he would have a
very bad domestic political
problem. In 1961 the CIA came to
him and said that Eisenhower had
ordered them to plan for an
invasion of Cuba. In retrospect the
plans for the invasion look a little
bit silly… more. See also
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The closest the world has come to
nuclear war was the Cuban Missile Crisis
of October 1962. The Soviets had
installed nuclear missiles in Cuba, just
90 miles off the coast of the United
States. U.S. armed forces were at their
highest state of readiness. Soviet field
commanders in Cuba were authorized to
use tactical nuclear weapons if invaded
by the U.S. The fate of millions literally
hinged upon the ability of two men,
President John F. Kennedy and Premier
Nikita Khrushchev, to reach a
compromise…. more