Cuban Revolution of 1933 in the context of "Fulgencio Batista"

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⭐ Core Definition: Cuban Revolution of 1933

The Cuban Revolution of 1933 (Spanish: Revolución cubana de 1933), also called the Sergeants' Revolt, was a coup d'etat that occurred in Cuba in September 1933. It began as a revolt of sergeants and enlisted men in the military, who soon allied with student activists in the Directorio Estudiantil Universitario. The coup deposed Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada as president, installing a new government led by a five-man coalition, known as the Pentarchy of 1933.

After only five days, the Pentarchy gave way to the presidency of Ramón Grau, whose term is known as the One Hundred Days Government. The leader of the coup, Sergeant Fulgencio Batista, became the head of the armed forces and began a long period of influence on Cuban politics.

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👉 Cuban Revolution of 1933 in the context of Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (born Rubén Zaldívar; January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer, political leader and dictator who played a dominant role in Cuban politics from his initial rise to power in the 1930s until his overthrow in the Cuban Revolution in 1959. He served as president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, and again from 1952 to his 1959 resignation.

Batista first came to prominence in the Revolt of the Sergeants, which overthrew the provisional government of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada. Batista then appointed himself chief of the armed forces, with the rank of colonel, and effectively controlled the five-member "pentarchy" that functioned as the collective head of state. He maintained control through a series of puppet presidents until 1940, when he was elected president on a populist platform. He then instated the 1940 Constitution of Cuba and presided over Cuban support for the Allies during World War II. After finishing his term in 1944, Batista moved to Florida, returning to Cuba to run for president in 1952. Facing certain electoral defeat, he led a military coup against President Carlos Prío Socarrás that pre-empted the election.

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Cuban Revolution of 1933 in the context of Cuba

Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country in the Caribbean. It comprises 4,195 islands, islets and cays, including the eponymous main island and Isla de la Juventud. Situated at the confluence of the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean, Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula, south of both Florida (the United States) and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and north of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital. Cuba is the third-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with about 10 million inhabitants. It is the largest country in the Caribbean by area. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America.

Cuba was inhabited as early as the fourth millennium BC, with the Guanahatabey and Taíno peoples present at the time of Spanish colonization in the 15th century. Cuba remained part of the Spanish Empire until the Spanish–American War of 1898, after which it was occupied by the United States and gained independence in 1902. A 1933 coup toppled the democratically elected government of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada and began a long period of military influence, particularly by Fulgencio Batista. In 1940, Cuba implemented a new constitution, but mounting political unrest culminated in the 1952 Cuban coup d'état by Batista. His autocratic government was overthrown in January 1959 by the 26th of July Movement during the Cuban Revolution. That revolution established communist rule under the leadership of Fidel Castro. The country under Castro was a point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is widely considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into nuclear war.

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