Fidel Castro: The Cuban Revolution

Fidel Castro was born in the small village of Birán, Cuba, in 1926 of an affair between a plantation owner and the maid of his wife. Castro was the third of six children. Castro pursued a career as a lawyer after high school and eventually became active in politics. The more he became active in politics, the more displeased he was with the current Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista, leading to the beginning of his campaign to remove Batista. Castro and his followers began a campaign of guerrilla warfare in an effort to overthrow Batista. After much trial and error, they succeeded in 1958. As the country's new leader, Castro slowly implemented communist policies, denying being a communist in the meantime, and began ties with the Soviet Union