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126-639: Cuba , officially the Republic of Cuba , is an island country , comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud , and 4,195 islands , islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the northern Caribbean Sea , Gulf of Mexico , and Atlantic Ocean meet. Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both Florida and the Bahamas , west of Hispaniola ( Haiti / Dominican Republic ), and north of Jamaica and

252-413: A market economy , a free price system is intended to serve this purpose). This difficulty was notably written about by economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek , who referred to subtly distinct aspects of the problem as the economic calculation problem and local knowledge problem , respectively. These distinct aspects were also present in the economic thought of Michael Polanyi . Whereas

378-571: A spontaneous protest in Havana. From the start of the crisis until 1995, Cuba saw its gross domestic product (GDP) shrink by 35%. It took another five years for its GDP to reach pre-crisis levels. Cuba has since found a new source of aid and support in the People's Republic of China. In addition, Hugo Chávez , then president of Venezuela , and Evo Morales , former president of Bolivia , became allies and both countries are major oil and gas exporters. In 2003,

504-428: A "uniquely Cuban development"), according to historian Herbert S. Klein. Due to a shortage of white labor, blacks dominated urban industries "to such an extent that when whites in large numbers came to Cuba in the middle of the nineteenth century, they were unable to displace Negro workers." A system of diversified agriculture, with small farms and fewer slaves, served to supply the cities with produce and other goods. In

630-683: A New Socialism (1993), the computer scientist Paul Cockshott from the University of Glasgow and the economist Allin Cottrell from Wake Forest University claim to demonstrate how a democratically planned economy built on modern computer technology is possible and drives the thesis that it would be both economically more stable than the free-market economies and also morally desirable. The use of computers to coordinate production in an optimal fashion has been variously proposed for socialist economies . The Polish economist Oskar Lange (1904–1965) argued that

756-523: A century, the Indigenous people faced high incidence of mortality due to multiple factors, primarily Eurasian infectious diseases , to which they had no natural resistance (immunity), aggravated by the harsh conditions of the repressive colonial subjugation. In 1529, a measles outbreak killed two-thirds of those few Natives who had previously survived smallpox . On 18 May 1539, conquistador Hernando de Soto departed from Havana with some 600 followers into

882-411: A competing marketplace to meet the needs of the most consumers most efficiently. This phenomenon is recognized as spontaneous order . Additionally, misallocation of resources would naturally ensue by redirecting capital away from individuals with direct knowledge and circumventing it into markets where a coercive monopoly influences behavior, ignoring market signals. According to Tibor Machan , "[w]ithout

1008-486: A deadline for an annual sugar harvest of 10 million tons by 1970. The economic focus on sugar production involved international volunteers and the mobilization of workers from all sectors of the Cuban economy. Economic mobilization also coincided with greater militarization of Cuban political structures and society in general. The ten million ton harvest goal was not reached. The Cuban economy fell into decline after large sectors of

1134-481: A decree condemning slavery in theory but accepting it in practice and declaring free any slaves whose masters present them for military service. The 1868 rebellion resulted in a prolonged conflict known as the Ten Years' War . According to one military historian, "The thirty-eight individuals who responded to the call for independence on 9 October 1868, had almost no military experience. They, and other Cubans, ignorant of

1260-510: A desired pattern. In international comparisons, state-socialist nations have compared favorably with capitalist nations in health indicators such as infant mortality and life expectancy. However, according to Michael Ellman , the reality of this, at least regarding infant mortality, varies depending on whether official Soviet or WHO definitions are used. The state can begin building massive heavy industries at once in an underdeveloped economy without waiting years for capital to accumulate through

1386-562: A difficult target. Many developing small island countries rely heavily on fish for their main supply of food. Some are turning to renewable energy —such as wind power , hydropower , geothermal power and biodiesel from copra oil —to defend against potential rises in oil prices . Some island countries are more affected than other countries by climate change , which produces problems such as reduced land use , water scarcity , and sometimes even resettlement issues. Some low-lying island countries are slowly being submerged by

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1512-555: A distributed network of disparate economic agents or even production units itself. Decentralized planning is usually held in contrast to centralized planning, in particular the Soviet-type economic planning of the Soviet Union 's command economy, where economic information is aggregated and used to formulate a plan for production, investment and resource allocation by a single central authority. Decentralized planning can take shape both in

1638-404: A fictional planned economy in a United States around the year 2000 which has become a socialist utopia. Other literary portrayals of planned economies include Yevgeny Zamyatin 's We (1924). The government can harness land , labor , and capital to serve the economic objectives of the state. Consumer demand can be restrained in favor of greater capital investment for economic development in

1764-543: A focus on the management of the Soviet economy. Opposition from the Defence Ministry killed Kitov's plan. In 1971 the socialist Allende administration of Chile launched Project Cybersyn to install a telex machine in every corporation and organization in the economy for the communication of economic data between firms and the government. The data was also fed into a computer-simulated economy for forecasting. A control room

1890-813: A hasty version of planning with unrealistic targets, bureaucratic waste, bottlenecks and shortages . Stalin's formulations of national plans in terms of physical quantity of output was also attributed by Daniels as a source for the stagnant levels of efficiency and quality. Economist Robin Hahnel , who supports participatory economics , a form of socialist decentralized planned economy, notes that even if central planning overcame its inherent inhibitions of incentives and innovation, it would nevertheless be unable to maximize economic democracy and self-management, which he believes are concepts that are more intellectually coherent, consistent and just than mainstream notions of economic freedom. Furthermore, Hahnel states: Combined with

2016-560: A joint U.S.-Latin American assault on Francoist Spain to overthrow its authoritarian regime. Cuba lost six merchant ships during the war, and the Cuban Navy was credited with sinking the German submarine  U-176 . Batista adhered to the 1940 constitution's strictures preventing his re-election. Ramon Grau San Martin was the winner of the next election, in 1944. Grau further corroded the base of

2142-533: A market in which allocations can be made in obedience to the law of supply and demand, it is difficult or impossible to funnel resources with respect to actual human preferences and goals". Historian Robert Vincent Daniels regarded the Stalinist period to represent an abrupt break with Lenin's government in terms of economic planning in which an deliberated, scientific system of planning that featured former Menshevik economists at Gosplan had been replaced with

2268-533: A middle class in most urban areas. After finishing his term in 1944 Batista lived in Florida, returning to Cuba to run for president in 1952. Facing certain electoral defeat, he led a military coup that preempted the election. Back in power, and receiving financial, military, and logistical support from the United States government, Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including

2394-547: A mixture of Spanish, African, and Taíno heritages. Cuba developed slowly and, unlike the plantation islands of the Caribbean, had a diversified agriculture. Most importantly, the colony developed as an urbanized society that primarily supported the Spanish colonial empire. By the mid-18th century, there were 50,000 slaves on the island. Estimates suggest that between 1790 and 1820 some 325,000 Africans were imported to Cuba as slaves, which

2520-404: A more democratic political system, and redone to closer approximate a best case version, centrally planned economies no doubt would have performed better. But they could never have delivered economic self-management, they would always have been slow to innovate as apathy and frustration took their inevitable toll, and they would always have been susceptible to growing inequities and inefficiencies as

2646-407: A planned economy in that a comprehensive and binding plan did not guide production and investment. The further distinction of an administrative-command system emerged as a new designation in some academic circles for the economic system that existed in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc , highlighting the role of centralized hierarchical decision-making in the absence of popular control over

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2772-457: A post-capitalist society. Decentralized planning has been a feature of anarchist and socialist economics . Variations of decentralized planning such as economic democracy , industrial democracy and participatory economics have been promoted by various political groups, most notably anarchists , democratic socialists , guild socialists , libertarian Marxists , libertarian socialists , revolutionary syndicalists and Trotskyists . During

2898-631: A project called Million Programme , implemented from 1965 to 1974. Some decentralized participation in economic planning occurred across Revolutionary Spain, most notably in Catalonia, during the Spanish Revolution of 1936 . In the May 1949 issue of the Monthly Review titled " Why Socialism? ", Albert Einstein wrote: I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through

3024-460: A strategic point in the middle of the country, fell into the rebels hands on December 31, in a conflict known as the Battle of Santa Clara ). In the 1950s, various organizations, including some advocating armed uprising, competed for public support in bringing about political change. In 1956, Fidel Castro and about 80 supporters landed from the yacht Granma in an attempt to start a rebellion against

3150-566: A vast expedition through the American Southeast , in search of gold, treasure, fame and power. On 1 September 1548, Gonzalo Perez de Angulo was appointed governor of Cuba. He arrived in Santiago, Cuba, on 4 November 1549, and immediately declared the liberty of all Natives. He became Cuba's first permanent governor to reside in Havana instead of Santiago, and he built Havana's first church made of masonry. By 1570, most residents of Cuba comprised

3276-797: A year, providing training to the Algerian army. Che Guevara , authorized by Fidel Castro, engaged in guerrilla activities in Africa and was killed in 1967 while attempting to start a revolution in Bolivia . By the middle of 1965, Cuba had begun supplying arms to the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola . In 1966, Cuban aid also reached the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde . Furthermore, by

3402-580: Is considered part of Latin America. Cuba is a founding member of the United Nations, G77 , Non-Aligned Movement , Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States , ALBA , and Organization of American States . It has one of the world's few planned economies , and its economy is dominated by tourism and the exports of skilled labor, sugar, tobacco, and coffee. Cuba has historically—before and during communist rule—performed better than other countries in

3528-467: Is contested by some Marxists . Decentralized planning has been proposed as a basis for socialism and has been variously advocated by anarchists , council communists , libertarian Marxists and other democratic and libertarian socialists who advocate a non-market form of socialism, in total rejection of the type of planning adopted in the economy of the Soviet Union . Most of a command economy

3654-424: Is highly undemocratic and totalitarian in practice. Indicative planning is a form of economic planning in market economies that directs the economy through incentive-based methods. Economic planning can be practiced in a decentralized manner through different government authorities. In some predominantly market-oriented and Western mixed economies, the state utilizes economic planning in strategic industries such as

3780-701: Is linked to Saudi Arabia by the King Fahd Causeway , Singapore to Malaysia by the Johor–Singapore Causeway and Second Link , and the United Kingdom has a railway connection to France through the Channel Tunnel . Geographically, the country of Australia is considered a continental landmass rather than an island, covering the largest landmass of the Australian continent . In the past, however, it

3906-461: Is organized in a top-down administrative model by a central authority, where decisions regarding investment and production output requirements are decided upon at the top in the chain of command , with little input from lower levels. Advocates of economic planning have sometimes been staunch critics of these command economies. Leon Trotsky believed that those at the top of the chain of command, regardless of their intellectual capacity, operated without

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4032-485: The Battle of Dos Rios on 19 May 1895. His death immortalized him as Cuba's national hero. Around 200,000 Spanish troops outnumbered the much smaller rebel army, which relied mostly on guerrilla and sabotage tactics. The Spaniards began a campaign of suppression. General Valeriano Weyler , the military governor of Cuba, herded the rural population into what he called reconcentrados , described by international observers as "fortified towns". These are often considered

4158-624: 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. The territory that is now Cuba was inhabited as early as the 4th millennium BC , with the Guanahatabey and Taíno peoples inhabiting the area at

4284-789: The Egyptian countryside, for Hellenistic India , and to a lesser degree the more barbaric regions of the Seleucid , the Pergamenian , the southern Arabian , and the Parthian empires". Scholars have argued that the Incan economy was a flexible type of command economy, centered around the movement and utilization of labor instead of goods. One view of mercantilism sees it as involving planned economies. The Soviet-style planned economy in Soviet Russia evolved in

4410-403: The Guanahatabey people, who lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. After first landing on an island then called Guanahani on 12 October 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on Cuba on 27 October 1492, and landing in the northeastern coast on 28 October. Columbus claimed the island for the new Kingdom of Spain and named it Isla Juana ("John's Island") after John, Prince of Asturias . In 1511,

4536-525: The Guantánamo Bay Naval Base from Cuba. Following disputed elections in 1906, the first president, Tomás Estrada Palma , faced an armed revolt by independence war veterans who defeated the meager government forces. The U.S. intervened by occupying Cuba and named Charles Edward Magoon as Governor for three years. Cuban historians have characterized Magoon's governorship as having introduced political and social corruption. In 1908, self-government

4662-512: The Maldives . Some island countries share one or more of their islands with other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Ireland ; Haiti and the Dominican Republic ; and Indonesia, which shares islands with Papua New Guinea , Brunei , East Timor , and Malaysia . Bahrain, Singapore, and the United Kingdom have fixed links such as bridges and tunnels to the continental landmass: Bahrain

4788-484: The NEP period to counter structural inefficiency and the problem of bureaucracy. Economist Pat Devine has created a model of decentralized economic planning called "negotiated coordination" which is based upon social ownership of the means of production by those affected by the use of the assets involved, with the allocation of consumer and capital goods made through a participatory form of decision-making by those at

4914-512: The Philippines are notable exceptions. Some island countries are centred on one or two major islands, such as the United Kingdom , Trinidad and Tobago , New Zealand , Cuba , Bahrain , Singapore , Sri Lanka , Iceland , Malta , and Taiwan . Others are spread out over hundreds or thousands of smaller islands, such as Japan , Indonesia, the Philippines , The Bahamas , Seychelles , and

5040-518: The Philippines , and Guam to the United States for the sum of US$ 20 million and Cuba became a protectorate of the United States. Cuba gained formal independence from the U.S. on 20 May 1902, as the Republic of Cuba. Under Cuba's new constitution, the U.S. retained the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and to supervise its finances and foreign relations. Under the Platt Amendment , the U.S. leased

5166-531: The Spanish Revolution , some areas where anarchist and libertarian socialist influence through the CNT and UGT was extensive, particularly rural regions, were run on the basis of decentralized planning resembling the principles laid out by anarcho-syndicalist Diego Abad de Santillan in the book After the Revolution . Trotsky had urged economic decentralisation between the state, oblast regions and factories during

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5292-542: The Taíno people arrived in the Caribbean in a separate migration from South America around 1,700 years ago. Unlike the previous settlers of Cuba, the Taíno extensively produced pottery and engaged in intensive agriculture. The earliest evidence of the Taíno people on Cuba dates to the 9th century AD. Descendants of the first settlers of Cuba persisted on the western part of the island until Columbian contact, where they were recorded as

5418-516: The dissolution of the Soviet Union , Cuba faced a severe economic downturn in the 1990s, known as the Special Period . In 2008, Fidel Castro retired after 49 years; Raúl Castro was elected his successor. Raúl Castro retired as president in 2018 and Miguel Díaz-Canel was elected president by the National Assembly following parliamentary elections . Raúl Castro retired as First Secretary of

5544-500: The global economy . Due to the nature of island countries their economies are often characterised by being smaller, relatively isolated from world trade and economy, more vulnerable to shipping costs, and more likely to suffer environmental damage to infrastructure; exceptions include Japan, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. The dominant industry for many island countries is tourism . Island countries are typically small with low populations, although some, like Indonesia , Japan , and

5670-488: The right to strike . He then aligned with the wealthiest landowners who owned the largest sugar plantations , and presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans. Batista outlawed the Cuban Communist Party in 1952. After the coup, Cuba had Latin America's highest per capita consumption rates of meat, vegetables, cereals, automobiles, telephones and radios, though about one-third of

5796-557: The 1820s, when the rest of Spain's empire in Latin America rebelled and formed independent states , Cuba remained loyal to Spain. Its economy was based on serving the empire. By 1860, Cuba had 213,167 free people of color (39% of its non-white population of 550,000). Full independence from Spain was the goal of a rebellion in 1868 led by planter Carlos Manuel de Céspedes . De Céspedes, a sugar planter, freed his slaves to fight with him for an independent Cuba. On 27 December 1868, he issued

5922-518: The 1970 Chilean distributed decision support system Project Cybersyn in an attempt to move towards a decentralized planned economy with the experimental viable system model of computed organisational structure of autonomous operative units through an algedonic feedback setting and bottom-up participative decision-making in the form of participative democracy by the Cyberfolk component. The 1888 novel Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy depicts

6048-574: The 1983 coup that resulted in the execution of Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and establishment of the military government led by Hudson Austin , U.S. forces invaded Grenada in 1983, overthrowing the Government. Most resistance came from Cuban construction workers, while the Grenadan People's Revolutionary Army and militia surrendered without putting up much of a fight. 24 Cubans were killed, with only 2 of them being professional soldiers, and

6174-652: The Army. A new constitution was adopted in 1940, which engineered radical progressive ideas, including the right to labor and health care. Batista was elected president in the same year, holding the post until 1944. He is so far the only non-white Cuban to win the nation's highest political office. His government carried out major social reforms. Several members of the Communist Party held office under his administration. Cuban armed forces were not greatly involved in combat during World War II—though president Batista did suggest

6300-581: The Batista government. In 1958, Castro's July 26th Movement emerged as the leading revolutionary group. The U.S. supported Castro by imposing a 1958 arms embargo against Batista's government. Batista evaded the American embargo and acquired weapons from the Dominican Republic. By late 1958, the rebels had broken out of the Sierra Maestra and launched a general popular insurrection . After Castro's fighters captured Santa Clara , Batista fled with his family to

6426-606: The Cold War, Cuban forces were deployed to all corners of Africa, either as military advisors or as combatants. During the 1970s, Fidel Castro dispatched tens of thousands of troops in support of Soviet-backed wars in Africa. He supported the MPLA in Angola and Mengistu Haile Mariam in Ethiopia. In November 1975, Cuba deployed more than 65,000 troops and 400 Soviet-made tanks in Angola in one of

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6552-545: The Communist Party in 2021 and Díaz-Canel was elected. Cuba is a socialist state , in which the role of the Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution . Cuba has an authoritarian government where political opposition is not permitted. Censorship is extensive and independent journalism is repressed; Reporters Without Borders has characterized Cuba as one of the worst countries for press freedom. Culturally, Cuba

6678-459: The Cuban forces. According to one source, more than 300,000 Cuban military personnel and civilian experts were deployed in Africa. The source also states that out of the 50,000 Cubans sent to Angola, half contracted AIDS and that 10,000 Cubans died as a consequence of their military actions in Africa. Soviet troops began to withdraw from Cuba in September 1991, and Castro's rule was severely tested in

6804-511: The Cuban government had imposed broad restrictions on travel to prevent the mass emigration of people after the 1959 revolution; it approved exit visas only on rare occasions. Requirements were simplified: Cubans need only a passport and a national ID card to leave; and they are allowed to take their young children with them for the first time. However, a passport costs on average five months' salary. Observers expect that Cubans with paying relatives abroad are most likely to be able to take advantage of

6930-693: The Cuban population. The United States government initially reacted favorably to the Cuban Revolution, seeing it as part of a movement to bring democracy to Latin America. Castro's legalization of the Communist Party and the hundreds of executions of Batista agents, policemen, and soldiers that followed caused a deterioration in the relationship between the two countries. The promulgation of the Agrarian Reform Law , expropriating thousands of acres of farmland (including from large U.S. landholders), further worsened relations. In response, between 1960 and 1964

7056-695: The Dominican Republic on 1 January 1959. Later he went into exile on the Portuguese island of Madeira and finally settled in Estoril, near Lisbon. Fidel Castro's forces entered the capital on 8 January 1959. The liberal Manuel Urrutia Lleó became the provisional president. Militant anti-Castro groups, funded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Rafael Trujillo , carried out armed attacks and set up guerrilla bases in Cuba's mountainous regions. This led to

7182-456: The OAS". Fidel Castro wrote that Cuba would not rejoin the OAS, which, he said, was a "U.S. Trojan horse" and "complicit" in actions taken by the U.S. against Cuba and other Latin American nations. Effective 14 January 2013, Cuba ended the requirement established in 1961, that any citizens who wish to travel abroad were required to obtain an expensive government permit and a letter of invitation. In 1961

7308-550: The People's Republic of the Congo, and the Caribbean to Ethiopia, assisted by mechanized Soviet battalions, to help defeat a Somali invasion. On 24 January 1978, Ethiopian and Cuban troops counterattacked, inflicting 3,000 casualties on the Somali forces. In February, Cuban troops launched a major offensive and forced the Somali army back into its own territory. Cuban forces remained in Ethiopia until September 1989. Despite Cuba's small size and

7434-472: The Soviet economy on the basis of a network of computing centers in 1959. Kitov's proposal was rejected, as later was the 1962 OGAS economy management network project. Soviet cybernetician , Viktor Glushkov argued that his OGAS information network would have delivered a fivefold savings return for the Soviet economy over the first fifteen-year investment. Salvador Allende 's socialist government pioneered

7560-691: The Syrian-Israeli War of Attrition (November 1973–May 1974) that followed the Yom Kippur War (October 1973). Israeli sources reported the presence of a Cuban tank brigade in the Golan Heights , which was supported by two brigades. The Israelis and the Cuban-Syrian tank forces engaged in battle on the Golan front. In 1979, the U.S. objected to the presence of Soviet combat troops on the island. Following

7686-469: The U.S. imposed a range of sanctions, eventually including a total ban on trade between the countries and a freeze on all Cuban-owned assets in the U.S. In February 1960, Castro signed a commercial agreement with Soviet Vice-Premier Anastas Mikoyan . In March 1960, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his approval to a CIA plan to arm and train a group of Cuban refugees to overthrow the Castro government. The CIA provided B-26 light bombers and ships to

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7812-459: The aerospace industry. Mixed economies usually employ macroeconomic planning while micro-economic affairs are left to the market and price system. A decentralized-planned economy, occasionally called horizontally planned economy due to its horizontalism , is a type of planned economy in which the investment and allocation of consumer and capital goods is explicated accordingly to an economy-wide plan built and operatively coordinated through

7938-431: The aftermath of the Soviet collapse in December 1991 (known in Cuba as the Special Period ). The country faced a severe economic downturn following the withdrawal of Soviet subsidies worth $ 4 billion to $ 6 billion annually, resulting in effects such as food and fuel shortages. The government did not accept American donations of food, medicines and cash until 1993. On 5 August 1994, state security dispersed protesters in

8064-407: The already teetering legitimacy of the Cuban political system, in particular by undermining the deeply flawed, though not entirely ineffectual, Congress and Supreme Court. Carlos Prío Socarrás , a protégé of Grau, became president in 1948. The two terms of the Auténtico Party brought an influx of investment, which fueled an economic boom, raised living standards for all segments of society, and created

8190-412: The attacks on the Cuban government, manufacturing a reason for the United States to invade Cuba. This plan was rejected by President Kennedy. By 1963, Cuba was moving towards a full-fledged communist system modeled on the USSR. In 1963, Cuba sent 686 troops together with 22 tanks and other military equipment to support Algeria in the Sand War against Morocco. The Cuban forces remained in Algeria for over

8316-428: The computer is more efficient than the market process at solving the multitude of simultaneous equations required for allocating economic inputs efficiently (either in terms of physical quantities or monetary prices). In the Soviet Union, Anatoly Kitov had proposed to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union a detailed plan for the re-organization of the control of the Soviet armed forces and of

8442-406: The conflict, with Spain promising greater autonomy to Cuba. In 1879–80, Cuban patriot Calixto García attempted to start another war known as the Little War but failed to receive enough support. Slavery in Cuba was abolished in 1875 but the process was completed only in 1886. An exiled dissident named José Martí founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party in New York City in 1892. The aim of the party

8568-563: The context of a mixed economy as well as in a post-capitalist economic system. This form of economic planning implies some process of democratic and participatory decision-making within the economy and within firms itself in the form of industrial democracy . Computer-based forms of democratic economic planning and coordination between economic enterprises have also been proposed by various computer scientists and radical economists . Proponents present decentralized and participatory economic planning as an alternative to market socialism for

8694-445: The crew. The cause and responsibility for the sinking of the ship remained unclear after a board of inquiry. Popular opinion in the U.S., fueled by active yellow press , concluded that the Spanish were to blame and demanded action. Spain and the United States declared war on each other in late April 1898. After the Spanish–American War , Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris (1898) , by which Spain ceded Puerto Rico ,

8820-429: The economy were neglected when large amounts of urban labor mobilized to the countryside. The standard of living in the 1970s was "extremely spartan" and discontent was rife. Fidel Castro admitted the failures of economic policies in a 1970 speech. In 1975, the OAS lifted its sanctions against Cuba, with the approval of 16 member states, including the United States. The U.S., however, maintained its own sanctions. During

8946-695: The economy. More recent approaches to socialist planning and allocation have come from some economists and computer scientists proposing planning mechanisms based on advances in computer science and information technology. Planned economies contrast with unplanned economies , specifically market economies , where autonomous firms operating in markets make decisions about production, distribution, pricing and investment. Market economies that use indicative planning are variously referred to as planned market economies , mixed economies and mixed market economies . A command economy follows an administrative-command system and uses Soviet-type economic planning which

9072-607: The economy. The possibility of a digital planned economy was explored in Chile between 1971 and 1973 with the development of Project Cybersyn and by Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Kharkevich , head of the Department of Technical Physics in Kiev in 1962. While both economic planning and a planned economy can be either authoritarian or democratic and participatory , democratic socialist critics argue that command economies under modern-day communism

9198-457: The economy. The goal of such an economic system would be to achieve conscious control over the economy by the population, specifically so that the use of the surplus product is controlled by the producers. The specific forms of planning proposed for socialism and their feasibility are subjects of the socialist calculation debate . In 1959 Anatoly Kitov proposed a distributed computing system (Project "Red Book", Russian : Красная книга ) with

9324-420: The effects of differential economic power grew. Under central planning neither planners, managers, nor workers had incentives to promote the social economic interest. Nor did impeding markets for final goods to the planning system enfranchise consumers in meaningful ways. But central planning would have been incompatible with economic democracy even if it had overcome its information and incentive liabilities. And

9450-556: The effects of the climate , especially sea level changes . Remote or significant islands and archipelagos that are not themselves sovereign are often known as dependencies or overseas territories . Historically, island countries have tended to be less prone to political instability than their continental counterparts. The percentage of island countries that are democratic is higher than that of continental countries. While island countries by definition are sovereign states , there are also several islands and archipelagos around

9576-494: The embargo between the United States and Cuba was not immediately lifted, it was relaxed to allow import, export, and certain limited commerce. Raúl Castro stepped down from the presidency on 19 April 2018 and Miguel Díaz-Canel was elected president by the National Assembly following parliamentary elections . Raúl Castro remained the First Secretary of the Communist Party and retained broad authority, including oversight over

9702-457: The establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of

9828-421: The expansion of light industry and without reliance on external financing. This is what happened in the Soviet Union during the 1930s when the government forced the share of gross national income dedicated to private consumption down from 80% to 50%. As a result of this development, the Soviet Union experienced massive growth in heavy industry, with a concurrent massive contraction of its agricultural sector due to

9954-458: The fastest military mobilizations in history. South Africa developed nuclear weapons due to the threat to its security posed by the presence of large numbers of Cuban troops in Angola . In 1976 and again in 1988 at the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale , the Cubans alongside their MPLA allies defeated UNITA rebels and apartheid South African forces. In December 1977, Cuba sent its combat troops from Angola,

10080-418: The first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa . Other settlements soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana , founded in 1514 (southern coast of the island) and then in 1519 (current place), which later became the capital (1607). The Indigenous Taíno were forced to work under the encomienda system, which resembled the feudal system in medieval Europe. Within

10206-441: The former stressed the theoretical underpinnings of a market economy to subjective value theory while attacking the labor theory of value , the latter argued that the only way to satisfy individuals who have a constantly changing hierarchy of needs and are the only ones to possess their particular individual's circumstances is by allowing those with the most knowledge of their needs to have it in their power to use their resources in

10332-668: The government under the banner of Patria y Vida . Cuban exiles also conducted protests overseas. The song associated with the movement received international acclaim including a Latin Grammy Award . Island country There are great variations between island country economies: they may rely mainly on extractive industries, such as mining, fishing and agriculture, and/or on services such as transit hubs, tourism , and financial services. Many islands have low-lying geographies and their economies and population centers develop along coast plains and ports ; such states may be vulnerable to

10458-535: The government arrested and imprisoned a large number of civil activists, a period known as the "Black Spring" . In February 2008, Fidel Castro resigned as President of the State Council due to the serious gastrointestinal illness which he had suffered since July 2006. On 24 February, the National Assembly elected his brother Raúl Castro the new president. In his inauguration speech, Raúl promised that some of

10584-483: The individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow-men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society. While socialism is not equivalent to economic planning or to the concept of a planned economy, an influential conception of socialism involves the replacement of capital markets with some form of economic planning in order to achieve ex-ante coordination of

10710-595: The influx of tourists. The tourist boom led to increases in gambling and prostitution in Cuba . The Wall Street Crash of 1929 led to a collapse in the price of sugar, political unrest, and repression. Protesting students, known as the Generation of 1930, turned to violence in opposition to the increasingly unpopular Machado. A general strike (in which the Communist Party sided with Machado), uprisings among sugar workers, and an army revolt forced Machado into exile in August 1933. He

10836-450: The input and participation of the millions of people who participate in the economy and who understand/respond to local conditions and changes in the economy. Therefore, they would be unable to effectively coordinate all economic activity. Historians have associated planned economies with Marxist–Leninist states and the Soviet economic model . Since the 1980s, it has been contested that the Soviet economic model did not actually constitute

10962-542: The labor shortage. Studies of command economies of the Eastern Bloc in the 1950s and 1960s by both American and Eastern European economists found that contrary to the expectations of both groups they showed greater fluctuations in output than market economies during the same period. Critics of planned economies argue that planners cannot detect consumer preferences, shortages and surpluses with sufficient accuracy and therefore cannot efficiently co-ordinate production (in

11088-418: The largest labor union privileges in Latin America, including bans on dismissals and mechanization. They were obtained in large measure "at the cost of the unemployed and the peasants", leading to disparities. Between 1933 and 1958, Cuba extended economic regulations enormously, causing economic problems. Unemployment became a problem as graduates entering the workforce could not find jobs. The middle class, which

11214-493: The late 1960s, Cuban instructors were providing military training to members of the Mozambique Liberation Front . Starting in 1968 a campaign titled the "revolutionary offensive" was initiated to nationalize all remaining private small businesses, which at the time totaled to be about 58,000 small enterprises. The campaign would spur industrialization in Cuba and focus the economy on sugar production, specifically to

11340-460: The long distance separating it from the Middle East, Castro's Cuba played an active role in the region during the Cold War. In 1972, a major Cuban military mission consisting of tank, air, and artillery specialists was dispatched to South Yemen . Cuban military advisors were sent to Iraq in the mid-1970s but their mission was canceled after Iraq invaded Iran in 1980. The Cubans were also involved in

11466-462: The martial skills, were soon joined by a small band of political refugees from Santo Domingo. A number of these in­ dividuals had fought for Spain in Santo Domingo following its re-annexation (1861–65). When Spain quit Santo Domingo for the second time, some Dominican colonial officers immigrated to Cuba. Most were unable to find service in the Spanish army in Cuba. Some of these former soldiers joined

11592-452: The most localized level of production. Moreover, organizations that utilize modularity in their production processes may distribute problem solving and decision making. The planning structure of a decentralized planned economy is generally based on a consumers council and producer council (or jointly, a distributive cooperative) which is sometimes called a consumers' cooperative . Producers and consumers, or their representatives, negotiate

11718-418: The name is unclear, but it may be translated either as 'where fertile land is abundant' ( cubao ), or 'great place' ( coabana ). Humans first settled Cuba around 6,000 years ago, descending from migrations from northern South America or Central America. The arrival of humans on Cuba is associated with extinctions of the islands native fauna, particularly its endemic sloths . The Arawakan -speaking ancestors of

11844-616: The new Revolutionary army and provided its initial training and leadership." Mercenaries from Canada, Colombia, France, Mexico, and the United States also joined the Cuban Revolutionary Army. Chinese nationals, brought to Cuba as indentured servants , also fought for the cause. By 1876, the Cuban Revolutionary movement was facing internal strife, largely driven by racial tensions. General Máximo Gómez surrendered his command after officers refused to follow his orders because he

11970-436: The new policy. In the first year of the program, over 180,000 left Cuba and returned. As of December 2014, talks with Cuban officials and American officials, including President Barack Obama , resulted in the release of Alan Gross , fifty-two political prisoners, and an unnamed non-citizen agent of the United States in return for the release of three Cuban agents currently imprisoned in the United States. Additionally, while

12096-409: The next 25 years, at first through a series of puppet-presidents. The period from 1933 to 1937 was a time of "virtually unremitting social and political warfare". On balance, during the period 1933–1940 Cuba suffered from fragile political structures, reflected in the fact that it saw three different presidents in two years (1935–1936), and in the militaristic and repressive policies of Batista as Head of

12222-478: The planned system of regular five-year plans started in 1928. Leon Trotsky was one of the earliest proponents of economic planning during the NEP period. Trotsky argued that specialization , the concentration of production and the use of planning could "raise in the near future the coefficient of industrial growth not only two, but even three times higher than the pre-war rate of 6% and, perhaps, even higher". According to historian Sheila Fitzpatrick ,

12348-529: The population is living in extreme poverty. The traditional diet is of international concern due to micronutrient deficiencies and lack of diversity. As highlighted by the World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations, rationed food meets only a fraction of daily nutritional needs for many Cubans, leading to health issues. Historians believe the name Cuba comes from the Taíno language ; however, "its exact derivation [is] unknown". The exact meaning of

12474-416: The population was considered poor and enjoyed relatively little of this consumption. However, in his " History Will Absolve Me " speech, Fidel Castro mentioned that national issues relating to land, industrialization, housing, unemployment, education, and health were contemporary problems. In 1958, Cuba was a well-advanced country in comparison to other Latin American regions. Cuba was also affected by perhaps

12600-480: The president. Cuba approved a new constitution in 2019. The optional vote attracted 84.4% of eligible voters. 90% of those who voted approved of the new constitution and 9% opposed it. The new constitution states that the Communist Party is the only legitimate political party, describes access to health and education as fundamental rights, imposes presidential term limits, enshrines the right to legal representation upon arrest, recognizes private property, and strengthens

12726-587: The prototype for 20th-century concentration camps . Between 200,000 and 400,000 Cuban civilians died from starvation and disease in the Spanish concentration camps, numbers verified by the Red Cross and United States Senator Redfield Proctor , a former Secretary of War . American and European protests against Spanish conduct on the island followed. The U.S. battleship USS Maine was sent to protect American interests, but soon after arrival, it exploded in Havana harbor and sank quickly, killing nearly three-quarters of

12852-520: The quality and quantity of what is to be produced. This structure is central to guild socialism , participatory economics and the economic theories related to anarchism . Some decentralized participation in economic planning has been implemented in various regions and states in India , most notably in Kerala . Local level planning agencies assess the needs of people who are able to give their direct input through

12978-452: The rebels for the invasion. The invasion (known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion ) took place on 17 April 1961, during the term of President John F. Kennedy . About 1,400 Cuban exiles disembarked at the Bay of Pigs . Cuban troops and local militias defeated the invasion by 19 April, killing over 100 invaders and taking the remainder prisoner. Five rebel B-26s were shot down by the Cuban air force, and one

13104-490: The region on several socioeconomic indicators, such as literacy, infant mortality and life expectancy. Cuba has a universal health care system which provides free medical treatment to all Cuban citizens, although challenges include low salaries for doctors, poor facilities, poor provision of equipment, and the frequent absence of essential drugs. A 2023 study by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), estimated 88% of

13230-508: The remainder were expelled from the island. U.S. casualties amounted to 19 killed, 116 wounded, and 9 helicopters destroyed. During the 1970s and 1980s, Castro supported Marxist insurgencies in Guatemala , El Salvador , and Nicaragua . Cuba gradually withdrew its troops from Angola in 1989–91. An important psychological and political aspect of the Cuban military involvement in Africa was the significant presence of black or mixed-race soldiers among

13356-460: The restrictions on freedom in Cuba would be removed. In March 2009, Raúl Castro removed some of his brother's appointees . On 3 June 2009, the Organization of American States adopted a resolution to end the 47-year ban on Cuban membership of the group. The resolution stated, however, that full membership would be delayed until Cuba was "in conformity with the practices, purposes, and principles of

13482-490: The rights of multinationals investing with the state. Any form of discrimination harmful to human dignity is banned under the new constitution. Raúl Castro announced at the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba , which began on 16 April 2021, that he was retiring as secretary of the Communist Party. His successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel, was voted in on 19 April. In July 2021, there were several large protests against

13608-655: The rising water levels of the Pacific Ocean . Climate change also impacts island countries by causing natural disasters such as tropical cyclones , hurricanes, flash floods and droughts . Some small and low population islands do not have the resources to protect their islands and natural resources. They experience climate hazards which impact on human health, livelihoods, and inhabitable space. This can lead to pressure to leave these islands but resources to do so are often lacking as well. Many island countries rely heavily on imports and are greatly affected by changes in

13734-458: The scholarly consensus was that Stalin appropriated the position of the Left Opposition on such matters as industrialisation and collectivisation . After World War II (1939–1945) France and Great Britain practiced dirigisme – government direction of the economy through non-coercive means. The Swedish government planned public-housing models in a similar fashion as urban planning in

13860-445: The specific type of planning mechanism employed. Socialist states based on the Soviet model have used central planning, although a minority such as the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have adopted some degree of market socialism . Market abolitionist socialism replaces factor markets with direct calculation as the means to coordinate the activities of the various socially owned economic enterprises that make up

13986-521: The time of Spanish colonization in the 15th century. It was then a colony of Spain , through the abolition of slavery in 1886, until the Spanish–American War of 1898, when Cuba was occupied by the United States and gained independence in 1902. In 1940, Cuba implemented a new constitution , but mounting political unrest culminated in the 1952 Cuban coup d'état and the subsequent dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista . The Batista government

14112-561: The truth is that it survived as long as it did only because it was propped up by unprecedented totalitarian political power. Planned economies contrast with command economies in that a planned economy is "an economic system in which the government controls and regulates production, distribution, prices, etc." whereas a command economy necessarily has substantial public ownership of industry while also having this type of regulation. In command economies, important allocation decisions are made by government authorities and are imposed by law. This

14238-519: The unsuccessful Escambray rebellion (1959–65), which lasted longer and involved more soldiers than the Cuban Revolution. According to Amnesty International , official death sentences from 1959 to 1987 numbered 237 of which all but 21 were carried out. The vast majority of those executed directly following the 1959 Revolution were policemen, politicians, and informers of the Batista regime accused of crimes such as torture and murder, and their public trials and executions had widespread popular support among

14364-567: The wake of a continuing existing World War I war-economy as well as other policies, known as war communism (1918–1921), shaped to the requirements of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1923. These policies began their formal consolidation under an official organ of government in 1921, when the Soviet government founded Gosplan . However, the period of the New Economic Policy ( c.  1921 to c.  1928 ) intervened before

14490-611: The world that operate semi-autonomously from their official sovereign states. These are often known as dependencies or overseas territories and can be similar in nature to proper island countries. Island countries have often been the basis of maritime conquest and historical rivalry between other countries. Island countries are more susceptible to attack by large, continental countries due to their size and dependence on sea and air lines of communication . Many island countries are also vulnerable to predation by mercenaries and other foreign invaders, although their isolation also makes them

14616-532: Was Dominican. At the same time, the campaign against Antonio Maceo, a mulatto leader, grew stronger as white factions sought to undermine his leadership because of his race. These racial divisions contributed to a decline in morale within the Revolutionary Army. The United States declined to recognize the new Cuban government, although many European and Latin American nations did so. In 1878, the Pact of Zanjón ended

14742-433: Was built for real-time observation and management of the overall economy. The prototype-stage of the project showed promise when it was used to redirect supplies around a trucker's strike, but after CIA-backed Augusto Pinochet led a coup in 1973 that established a military dictatorship under his rule the program was abolished and Pinochet moved Chile towards a more liberalized market economy . In their book Towards

14868-475: Was characteristic of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc before most of these countries converted to market economies. This highlights the central role of hierarchical administration and public ownership of production in guiding the allocation of resources in these economic systems. In the Hellenistic and post-Hellenistic world, "compulsory state planning was the most characteristic trade condition for

14994-554: Was comparable to that of the United States, became increasingly dissatisfied with unemployment and political persecution. The labor unions, manipulated by the previous government since 1948 through union "yellowness", supported Batista until the very end. Batista stayed in power until he resigned in December 1958 under the pressure of the US Embassy and as the revolutionary forces headed by Fidel Castro were winning militarily (Santa Clara city,

15120-560: Was considered an island country for tourism purposes (among others) and is sometimes referred to as such. Planned economies A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment , production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized , decentralized , participatory or Soviet-type forms of economic planning . The level of centralization or decentralization in decision-making and participation depends on

15246-475: Was downed by anti-aircraft fire. In January 1962, Cuba was suspended from the Organization of American States (OAS), and later the same year the OAS started to impose sanctions against Cuba of similar nature to the U.S. sanctions. The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 almost sparked World War III . In 1962, American generals proposed Operation Northwoods which would entail committing terrorist attacks in American cities and against refugees and falsely blaming

15372-540: Was four times the amount that had arrived between 1760 and 1790. In 1812, the Aponte Slave Rebellion took place, but it was ultimately suppressed. The population of Cuba in 1817 was 630,980 (of which 291,021 were white, 115,691 were free people of color (mixed-race), and 224,268 black slaves). In part due to Cuban slaves working primarily in urbanized settings, by the 19th century, the practice of coartacion had developed (or "buying oneself out of slavery",

15498-639: 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 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 . Following

15624-524: Was replaced by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada . In September 1933, the Sergeants' Revolt , led by Sergeant Fulgencio Batista , overthrew Céspedes. A five-member executive committee (the Pentarchy of 1933 ) was chosen to head a provisional government. Ramón Grau San Martín was then appointed as provisional president. Grau resigned in 1934, leaving the way clear for Batista, who dominated Cuban politics for

15750-596: Was restored when José Miguel Gómez was elected president, but the U.S. continued intervening in Cuban affairs. In 1912, the Partido Independiente de Color attempted to establish a separate black republic in Oriente Province, but was suppressed by General Monteagudo with considerable bloodshed. In 1924, Gerardo Machado was elected president. During his administration, tourism increased markedly, and American-owned hotels and restaurants were built to accommodate

15876-449: Was to achieve Cuban independence from Spain. In January 1895, Martí traveled to Monte Cristi and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to join the efforts of Máximo Gómez . Martí recorded his political views in the Manifesto of Montecristi . Fighting against the Spanish army began in Cuba on 24 February 1895, but Martí was unable to reach Cuba until 11 April 1895. Martí was killed in

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