Spain's colony of Cuba rebelled in 1868, leading to a sequence of brutal guerrilla insurgencies and retaliations, through the Ten Years ' War ( 1868 – 1878 ), the Little War ( 1879 – 1880 ) and finally the Cuban War of Independence ( 1895 – 1898 ).

But the Latin American republics who have been rather inclined to drag their feet on taking action against Castro also reacted swiftly last week by finally throwing Cuba off the Inter-American Defense Board.

In Cuba, the U. S. had blundered badly and created the impression of impotency against Communist penetration even on its own doorstep.

Diario De La Marina was the oldest and most influential paper in Cuba, with a reputation for speaking out against tyranny.

Emilio Bacardí, Don Facundo's eldest son, was repeatedly imprisoned and was exiled from Cuba for having fought in the rebel army against Spain in the Cuban War of Independence.

More recently, Bacardi lawyers were influential in the drafting of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act which sought to extend the scope of the United States embargo against Cuba.

In the War of Austrian Succession, the British carried out unsuccessful attacks against Santiago de Cuba in 1741 and again in 1748.

As early as 1961, Cuba supported the FLN in Algeria against France.

The USSR saw Cuba as having far more appeal with new revolutionary movements, western intellectuals, and members of the New Left, given Cuba's perceived David and Goliath struggle against US " imperialism ".

Cuba consistently supported Iraq at the United Nations against sanctions and threats made by the United States.

Cuba has also lent support to Palestinian nationalist groups against Israel.

In February 1962, the United States launched an embargo against Cuba, and Lansdale presented a 26-page, top-secret timetable for implementation of the overthrow of the Cuban Government, mandating that guerrilla operations begin in August and September, and in the first two weeks of October: " Open revolt and overthrow of the Communist regime ".

First, Kennedy had explicitly promised the American people less than a month before the crisis that " if Cuba should possess a capacity to carry out offensive actions against the United States ... the United States would act.

Kennedy met with members of EXCOMM and other top advisers throughout October 21, considering two remaining options: an air strike primarily against the Cuban missile bases, or a naval blockade of Cuba.

* 1985 – Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and vows to continue the transformation to socialism and alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba ; American policy continues to support the Contras in their revolt against the Nicaraguan government.

President Ortega's decision to support radical regimes such as Iran and Cuba, his harsh rhetoric against the United States and capitalism, and his use of government institutions to persecute political enemies and their businesses, has had a negative effect on perceptions of country risk, which by some accounts has quadrupled since he assumed office.

Tough unilateral economic sanctions, often at congressional behest, were imposed on or tightened against Iran, Libya, Cuba, Sudan, and Afghanistan.

Former British Intelligence officer Graham Greene examined the morality of espionage in left-wing, anti-imperialist novels such as The Heart of the Matter ( 1948 ) set in Sierra Leone, the seriocomic Our Man in Havana ( 1959 ) occurring in the Cuba of dictator Fulgencio Batista before his deposition by Fidel Castro's popular Cuban Revolution ( 1953 – 59 ), and The Human Factor ( 1978 ) about British support for the apartheid National Party government of South Africa, against the Red Menace.

For example, the United States has had an embargo against Cuba for over 40 years.

At the UN September 2001 World Conference against Racism, when the issue of compensation for colonialism and slavery arose in the agenda, Fidel Castro, the President of Cuba, advocated the Tobin Tax to address that issue.

** Cuban Revolution: In response to a United States embargo against Cuba, Fidel Castro nationalizes all American and foreign-owned property in Cuba.

* October 10 – Carlos Manuel de Céspedes declares a revolt against Spanish rule in Cuba in an event known as El Grito de Yara, initiating a war that lasts ten years ( Cuba ultimately loses the war at a cost of 400, 000 lives and widespread destruction ).

According to founding SEAL team member Roy Boehm the SEAL's first missions were directed against communist Cuba.

These include: Albania, Afghanistan Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chad, Chile, the People's Republic of China, Côte d ' Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, DR Congo, Egypt, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Holy See ( Vatican City ), Honduras, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, North Korea, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Order of Malta, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Uruguay, and Vietnam.

The aim was to secede Cuba from Spain, and annex it as a US state as Florida had been in 1824 through the Adams-Onis Treaty.

During his reign, Spain lost its last colonies in the Americas ( Cuba and Puerto Rico ) and the Philippines ; fought and, after several setbacks, won a war in Morocco ; witnessed the start of the Spanish Generation of 1927, and endured the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera.

Facundo Bacardí Massó, a Catalan wine merchant, was born in Sitges, Catalonia, ( Spain ) in 1814, and emigrated to Cuba in 1830.

A 1736 map of the West Indies and Mexico, together comprising " New Spain ", with Cuba visible in the center.

However, increased tensions between Spain and the United States, which culminated in the Spanish-American War, finally led to a Spanish withdrawal in 1898, and in 1902 Cuba gained formal independence.

In 1511, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar set out from Hispaniola to form the first Spanish settlement in Cuba, with orders from Spain to conquer the island.

The resultant stagnation of economic growth was particularly pronounced in Cuba because of its great strategic importance in the Caribbean, and the stranglehold that Spain kept on it as a result.

The treaty gave Britain Florida in exchange for Cuba on the recommendation of the French, who advised that declining the offer could result in Spain losing Mexico and much of the South American mainland to the British.

Adams wrote, " There are laws of political as well as physical gravitation ; and if an apple severed by its native tree cannot choose but fall to the ground, Cuba, forcibly disjoined from its own unnatural connection with Spain, and incapable of self-support, can gravitate only towards the North American Union which by the same law of nature, cannot cast her off its bosom.

" Adams voiced concern that a country outside of North America would attempt to occupy Cuba upon its separation from Spain.

" That rich island ," he wrote on 1 December 1881, " the key to the Gulf of Mexico, is, though in the hands of Spain, a part of the American commercial system … If ever ceasing to be Spanish, Cuba must necessarily become American and not fall under any other European domination.

* Offner, John L. An Unwanted War: The Diplomacy of the United States and Spain over Cuba, 1895 – 1898.

Prior to achieving its independence, Cuba was a colony of Spain.

193-Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, People's Republic of China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d ' Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, European Union, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, North Korea, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Republic of Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Victory over Spain in 1898 brought the Philippines, and Puerto Rico, as well as oversight of Cuba.

Fascism and dictatorships flourished in Nazi Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal, as well as nondemocratic regimes in the Baltics, the Balkans, Brazil, Cuba, China, and Japan, among others.

By the war's end, the U. S. government had obtained control of all of Cuba from Spain.

The reign of Alfonso XIII ( 1886 – 1931 ) saw the Spanish-American War of 1898, culminating in the loss of the Philippines plus Spain's last colonies in the Americas, Cuba and Puerto Rico ; the " Great War " in Europe ( now known as World War I, 1914 – 1918 ), although Spain maintained neutrality throughout the conflict ; the influenza pandemic nicknamed the Spanish Flu ( 1918 – 1919 ); and the Rif War in Morocco ( 1920 – 1926 ).

Cuba gained its independence and Spain lost its remaining New World colony, Puerto Rico, which together with Guam and the Philippines were ceded to the United States for 20 million dollars.

Large-scale emigration, principally to the United States, and Canada ( predominantly to Quebec, with other areas of the country )-but also to Cuba, other areas of Europe and the Americas such as France ( with French Guiana ), Spain, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Ireland ; and Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and other Caribbean neighbors-has created what Haitians refer to as the Eleventh Department or the Diaspora.

In mid-1848, President Polk authorized his ambassador to Spain, Romulus Mitchell Saunders, to negotiate the purchase of Cuba and offer Spain up to $ 100 million, an astounding sum at the time for one territory, equal to $ in present day terms.