Cuba: The Plight of a Nation and its Revolution
             While the isle of Cuba was initially discovered on October 27, 1492 during one of
             Columbus' first voyages, it wasn't actually claimed by Spain until the sixteenth century.
             However, it's tumultuous beginnings as a Spanish sugar colony provides an insightful backdrop
             into the very essence of the country's political and economic unrest. From it's early
             revolutionary days to the insurrectional challenge of the Marxist-Leninist theories emerged the
             totalitarian regime under Fidel Castro in present day Cuba.
             Cuban colonial society was distinguished by the characteristics of colonial societies in
             general, namely a stratified, inegalitarian class system; a poorly differentiated agricultural
             economy; a dominant political class made up of colonial officers, the clergy, and the military; an
             exclusionary and elitist education system controlled by the clergy; and a pervasive religious
             system.1 Cuba's agrarian monocultural character, economically dependant upon sugar
             cultivation, production and export severely restricted its potential for growth as a nation, thereby
             firmly implanting its newly sprouted roots firmly in the trenches of poverty from the very
             beginning of the country's existence.
             In 1868, Cuba entered in to The Ten Years' War against Spain in a struggle for
             independence, but to no avail. Ten years of bitter and destructive conflict ensued, but the goal of
             independence was not achieved. Political divisions among patriot forces, personal quarrels
             among rebel military leaders, and the failure of the rebels to gain the backing of the United
             States, coupled with stiff resistance from Spain and the Cubans' inability to carry the war in
             earnest to the western provinces, produced a military stalemate in the final stages.2 The war had
             a devastating effect on an already weak economic and political infrastructure.
             The defeat, however, did not ...