IB History Cuba: Castro Key Definitions

Early legal measures taken by Castro's government banning racial discrimination in employment and public life, though without dismantling deeper structural inequalities.

A nationwide mobilisation in which thousands of young volunteers were sent to teach reading and writing in rural Cuba, reducing illiteracy from around 23.6 percent to around 3.9 percent within a year.

A Cuban law requiring both spouses to share household and childcare duties equally, intended to promote gender equality within the family alongside women's expanding workforce participation.

Cuba's formal socialist constitution, adopted in 1976, which established the Communist Party as the leading force in society and formalised the structures of one-party rule.

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 failed CIA-backed invasion of Cuba in April 1961 by Cuban exiles attempting to overthrow Castro. Its failure strengthened Castro's position domestically and pushed Cuba closer to the Soviet Union.

Argentine revolutionary and close ally of Castro who fought in the Cuban Revolution and became a central figure in its propaganda and international image before his death in Bolivia in 1967.

The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, established in January 1949 to coordinate economic development within the Soviet bloc. COMECON standardised trade, technical norms, and production across member states, supplied Soviet energy to Eastern Europe at below-market prices, and integrated Eastern European economies in ways that served Soviet interests. It was dissolved in 1991.

Neighbourhood-level organizations established in 1960 to defend the revolution. CDRs organized community services (vaccination drives, blood donations, literacy programmes) but also monitored political loyalty and reported dissent. By the mid-1960s, around 80% of Cuba's adult population belonged to a CDR.

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

A 13-day confrontation in October 1962 between the US and Soviet Union over Soviet nuclear missiles placed in Cuba. It ended with the Soviets withdrawing the missiles in exchange for a US pledge not to invade Cuba.

An anti-Castro guerrilla insurgency in the Escambray Mountains of central Cuba (1960-1965), involving former revolutionaries, peasants, and CIA-supported fighters. It was crushed by the Cuban military.

A mass women's organisation founded in 1960 under Vilma Espin to promote gender equality in post-revolutionary Cuba. The FMC led initiatives including the national literacy campaign and efforts to bring women into the workforce.

A law passed by Castro's government in May 1959 that capped individual landholdings at around 400 hectares, redistributed the surplus to landless and small farmers, and nationalised much land owned by large domestic and foreign, especially American, sugar companies. It was the first major legal step in dismantling Cuba's pre-revolutionary landowning elite and provoked early US diplomatic protests over compensation.

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.

The Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry, founded in 1959 as the state's film production body and a key instrument of revolutionary cultural propaganda.

Cuba's ration book system, introduced in 1962, which controlled and rationed access to basic food and household goods for the population.

A mass emigration of around 125,000 Cubans to the United States in 1980 after Castro temporarily permitted departures from the port of Mariel.

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.

The process by which a government takes ownership of privately owned businesses, industries, or property. In post-1975 Vietnam, the Communist government nationalized private enterprises as part of its transition to a socialist economy.

An early United States restriction on exports to Cuba, tightening in response to Castro's nationalisation of American-owned property, which marked the start of the long-term US economic embargo.

The trial and execution of General Arnaldo Ochoa, a senior and popular military commander, on drug-trafficking charges in 1989, widely viewed as Castro eliminating a potential internal rival.

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.