I. Origins - Conditions which produce single-party states Cuba, as the largest and most important island of the West Indies, is a country with a colorful and eventful history. Ruled by Spain until the twentieth century, control of Cuba eventually passed to General Fulgencio Batista and his regime, which was able to maintain control over the volatile Cuban people only through constant military aid supplied by the United States. Under Batista, the people of Cuba were unhappy, unhealthy, and repressed. The lived in a state of absolute poverty. The United States supported the Batista regime only because Batista was a staunch abominator of Communism, which we feared above all other things, especially since …show more content…
In 1959, there were over one million illiterate citizens in Cuba, and the majority of the remainder were semi-literate. However, illiteracy has now been virtually eliminated. Over a million adults were taught to read and write in a literacy campaign which began three years after the revolution. Also, education, from nursery school to the State University, is free for all Cubans. Textbooks, school transportation, equipment and school meals are all provided to citizens at no charge by the state. Cuba has the largest per-capita teaching force in the world. The United States has one teacher for every seventy-seven students. In Cuba, there is one teacher for every thirty-nine students. In addition, nearly all Cuban children complete their education to the high-school level or beyond. The media in Cuba is largely state-sponsored. The only newspaper in wide circulation is mostly communist propaganda and distorted socialist views about the outside world. Censorship abounds. The only small-scale media operations in existence operate under the constant scrutiny of the Cuban government. All printing presses and instruments capable of mass-communication are registered to and controlled by the Cuban government. All voices speaking out against the state are quickly