IB History Castro: Why Did Authoritarian Rule Emerge? Key Definitions

The revolutionary organization founded by Fidel Castro in 1955, named after the date of the failed Moncada Barracks attack. It led the guerrilla campaign against Batista from the Sierra Maestra mountains.

The authoritarian government of Fulgencio Batista, established through a March 1952 coup, characterised by corruption, US business influence, and repression, ultimately overthrown by Castro's revolution.

A sudden, illegal overthrow of a government, often carried out by the military. The term comes from French, meaning 'blow of state.'

The November 1956 voyage of the yacht Granma carrying Castro and 81 fighters from exile in Mexico to Cuba to launch the revolutionary war, most of whom were killed or captured shortly after landing.

Castro's manifesto outlining five revolutionary laws for Cuba, developed during his trial after the failed 1953 Moncada Barracks attack. It promised land reform, profit-sharing, education reform, and nationalization of utilities.

Batista's major military offensive in summer 1958 aimed at destroying Castro's rebel forces in the Sierra Maestra, which ended in a decisive rebel victory that shifted momentum toward Castro.

The easternmost and historically poorest province of pre-revolutionary Cuba, a stronghold of support for Castro's rebel movement and site of the Sierra Maestra guerrilla campaign.

A US congressional amendment incorporated into Cuba's constitution that gave the USA the right to intervene in Cuban affairs, required Cuba to lease naval bases to the USA, and vetoed Cuba's ability to sign treaties with other powers or incur debts beyond a certain level. It made Cuba nominally independent but functionally a US protectorate, and remained in force until 1934.

The rebel radio station established by Castro's 26th of July Movement in the Sierra Maestra mountains in 1958, used to broadcast news and propaganda to the Cuban public during the revolutionary war.

The dead season of seasonal unemployment in Cuba's sugar-dependent economy, when sugarcane workers had no paid work for several months each year outside the harvest.