Cuba also ranked among the highest in Latin America at that time in terms of literacy rate, food consumption, and access to mass media.
Cuba's economy unravelled during 1958, as political unrest and economic damage caused by revolutionary forces disrupted economic production and precipitated capital flight. Cuba's tourism industry collapsed as the numbers of U.S. tourists declined. Economic problems continued into 1959, after the Castro government assumed power, and conditions worsened as low world sugar prices further drained Cuba's foreign exchange.
This essay reviews Cubans economic fortunes since 1994 up until 2002, grouping the most important events into three broad categories: Cuba during the 1940's-1950's, Cuba during the 1960-1989, and Cuba during 1990-2002. In conclusion I will discuss Cuba's trade policy and Cuba's main trading partner.
CUBA DURING THE 1940-1950's:.
Cuba in the fifties was virtually an American colony run by Batiste for the benefit of American sugar barons and the Mafia. Against overwhelming odds, Castro and his comrades of the 26th of July Movement marched into Havana on New Years Day 1959, victorious.
Only the truly nave would have thought that American business in Cuba would survive the revolution unscathed. Still, to his credit, Castro made no attempt to get rid of American property without compensation until the United States government, already committed to Castro's liquidation, suspended Cuba's sugar quota, denying Cuban sugar access to the U.S. market. This was a potentially lethal blow to the Cuban economy, as it was intended to be. Castro had warned that American business in Cuba would suffer if the United States prohibited the importation of Cuban sugar, and he made good on his threat. The nationalization Act of 1960 expropriated $850 million woth of American properties in Cuba-thirty-six sugar mills, two oil refineries, and two utilities. To save the Cuban economy, Castro had no choice but to become a client of the Soviet Union, bartering its sugars for Russian oil.