by Mj Ferruzza

Created on: January 30, 2009

There are points to cover on your study of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. By touching lightly on side stories that led to the invasion, the average high school sophomore will be attentive and find the material of particular interest. I have listed these as follows:

1. The History of Cuba
Cuba is a Caribbean Island. The largest, but second most populated island in a chain known as the Greater Antilles. 1n 1492, Christopher Columbus claimed the island for Spain. The Spanish control of the population saw the decline of Cuba's original inhabitants and indigenous people. By the 1820s, while other Latin American countries sought independence from Spain, Cuba held fast to their ties to the European nation. Probably more out of fear of the United States than any love of Spain.

In 1868, Cuba took part in the Ten Years War which was a revolution led by wealthy lawyer/land owner Carlos Manuel de Cespedes. He would later be named president of the Cuban Republic-in-arms, mandating all slaves be free (formal civic equality granted in 1893).
In 1978, The Pact of Zanjon promised Cuba more rights and autonomy from Spain. By the 1890s, the Cuban people would realize that provisions from that pact were not going to be taken in effect and started a new revolution to independence from Spain.
In 1895, a small group of rebels was outnumbered and captured by over 200,000 Spanish troops. 300,000+ Cuban civilians were placed in concentration camplike fortified towns by the Spanish. By this time US and Europe started to protest Spanish rule of the island. Spain promised home rule with a legislature, the native Cubans rejected it and fought on for independence.
US Battleship Maine arrived in Havana to protect a large number of Americans on the island. The Spanish saw this as intimidation. The Maine exploded on March 22nd, 1898, under possible belief it was from a Spanish mine (later believed a coal fire may have started the whole thing), Congress asked for intervention which President McKinley complied.
After the Spanish/American War, Spain surrendered the region (under the 1898 Treaty of Paris) and Cuba received its independence by 1902. But under the Cuban Constitution, the US could intervene in its finances and foreign affairs. The Platt Amendment allowed the US to build a base of its own on Cuba known as Guantanamo Bay (a base still US controlled today).
By 1906, A group of rebels again seized the government, but US intervened and took control. This lead to what Cubans would view as the start

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