Pre-revolution Cuba was prosperous—and deeply unequal.

The Cuban Revolution, from 1953 to 1959, overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and established the first socialist state in the Western Hemisphere.

Embargoes and economic mismanagement have pushed Cuba into its worst crisis in decades

For more than 60 years, Cuba has been pressured by two forces—the US economic embargo and its own government's repression and mismanagement. NPR's Throughline podcast explains how both contributed to today's blackouts, food shortages, and mass exodus.

See a timeline of the tumultuous relationship between Cuba and the US since 1959

Only 90 miles separate Cuba from the US, yet Cold War hostility froze relations for decades. This timeline traces six decades of tension, from revolution and missile crisis to renewed hardline US policies reintroduced in 2025

US–Cuba contentious relations began long before the Cold War

Long before the revolution and missile crisis, US involvement in Cuba stretched back over 150 years—rooted in slavery, sugar, and shifting imperial ambitions. This short video traces how cycles of intervention and neglect shaped the island’s modern history.

See a timeline of the Cuban Revolution

A small rebel force toppled Batista through a series of unlikely breaks, including a decisive 1958 ambush in which Castro’s fighters seized an arms train bound for Santa Clara. This timeline charts the revolution’s causes, key turning points, and enduring legacy.

Since the revolution, approximately 1.4 million Cubans have fled to the US

Although Castro initially enjoyed broad support after toppling Batista in 1959, nearly 2 million Cubans chose exile in the years that followed. Most settled in the US, while others dispersed across Latin America and Europe, shaping migration patterns that persist to this day

Read the New York Times 2016 obituary of Fidel Castro, the defining figure of the Cuban Revolution.

Fidel Castro first launched the Cuban revolution on a small yacht

Fidel Castro's regime has lasted almost seven decades. That story began on Dec. 2, 1956, with the landing of a small yacht—dubbed the Granma—with 82 soldiers and Castro himself, as his onshore allies attacked military and government installations in advance of their arrival.

The US embargo on Cuba was designed to cause hardship and eventual regime change

A secret 1960 memo by State Department official Lester Mallory argued that trade restrictions were “the only foreseeable means” to unseat Castro by provoking hunger and desperation. This page compiles declassified US documents detailing that strategy and its aftermath.

Explore the material culture of socialist Cuba

Even the objects of everyday life were politicized under socialism. This catalog of Cuban artifacts, collected between 1959 and the fall of the Soviet Union, reveals how revolutionary values infiltrated the most ordinary of items—from cocktail coasters to cologne.

Explore the fraught relations between the United States and Cuba since 1959

From the Cuban Missile Crisis and decades of economic embargo to President Obama's normalization efforts and President Trump's reversion to "maximum pressure," US-Cuba relations have fluctuated between hostility and fleeting diplomacy since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.

Hear about the US role in the Cuban Revolution—and the blowback it caused

Against long odds, Fidel Castro launched a socialist revolution just 90 miles from the US and kept it alive for decades. This 10-part podcast traces Washington's pivot from early support to an obsessive campaign of sabotage and hundreds of alleged assassination plots.

The US tried to overthrow the communist government in Cuba—and failed

In 1961, the US backed an invasion of Cuba by anti-Castro exiles, aiming to spark an uprising against the communist government. The operation collapsed within days, embarrassing the US and pushing Cuba closer to the Soviet Union.

US intelligence allegedly pursued more than 600 schemes to assassinate Fidel Castro

From exploding cigars and poisoned Cohibas to an infected scuba suit and plans to drug a TV studio with LSD, this account catalogs the CIA's strangest—and consistently unsuccessful—attempts to kill Fidel Castro over decades.

See photos from the day Havana fell

When news broke that Batista had fled on New Year’s Eve 1958, photographer Burt Glinn rushed from Miami to Havana without an assignment. His iconic images—tanks in Old Havana and tearful reunions—captured a nation celebrating, uncertain, and on the brink of radical change.

How life ranks in South Korea

As South Korea developed over the last half of the 20th century, quality of life soared. The country now outperforms the world average when it comes to education, health, and civic engagement, according to the OECD’s Better Life Index. In this dashboard, you can see where South Korea ranks in terms of housing, jobs, income, and more, and compare it against other developed countries.

Explore 100 years of communism across the globe, from the 1917 October Revolution to North Korea's modern nuclear defiance.

The US intervened in Latin America to block communist influence during the Cold War

Fearing Soviet expansion, the US intervened across Latin America by backing coups, funding right-wing regimes, and supporting anti-communist militias—most notably in Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua and Guatemala.

The disparity in life expectancy between wealthy and impoverished nations has notably narrowed

In 1950, people in Norway lived to age 72, on average, while those in Mali lived to just 26. By 2015, the countries with the worst conditions had made such significant progress that the global average life expectancy had surpassed the rate of any nation in 1950.

Why Haiti is in crisis

Haiti’s crisis is decades in the making. Burdened by colonial debt, political instability, and economic collapse, the country faces worsening conditions. Gangs now control much of Port-au-Prince, hunger has reached near-famine levels, and violence continues to escalate. Here’s how Haiti got here—and what’s happening now.

What was the impact of the Haitian Revolution of 1791?

This 53-minute podcast explores the context surrounding the Haitian Revolution, a 13-year rebellion led by the then-French colony's enslaved population. The Spanish colonized the Caribbean island after Christopher Columbus landed on it in 1492,...

A secret airlift sent 14,000 Cuban children to the US

As part of the covert Operation Pedro Pan, roughly 14,000 Cuban children were quietly flown to the US in the early 1960s—often with no warning, no luggage, and no certainty they would ever see their parents again.

Revolutionary leader Che Guevara has a complicated historical legacy

Revolutionary icon or ruthless enforcer? This animated courtroom-style video weighs Che Guevara’s life and actions—tracing his rise alongside Castro, his role in revolutionary violence, and his global symbolism—before leaving viewers to render their own verdict.

The CIA once tried to poison Fidel Castro's milkshake during the Cold War.

The American Revolution became a template for a colonized world

The robust and radical transformation during the American Revolution created a template for dozens of future independence movements. Its key ideas of republicanism, individualism, and equality inspired revolutions in France, Haiti, Ireland, and more, paving the way for the broadly democratic world we know today.

Hear the story of a doctor who decided to flee Cuba with his family in 1963

In this StoryCorps conversation, Gustavo Mestas reflects on leaving the island with his family in 1963 and the difficult transition that followed—from treating patients in Cuba to picking tomatoes and cleaning motels while rebuilding a life in the US.

Enslaved and in debt: the French roots of Haiti's struggles

This investigative infographic details how Haiti was forced to pay for its freedom twice: once in blood and once in cash. In August 1791, Haiti's enslaved population launched a revolt against French colonists, successfully establishing Haiti as a...

The failed Bay of Pigs invasion led to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation

Moscow's decision to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba—just 90 miles from the US—pushed the world to the brink of nuclear war. To prevent future crises, both sides later set up a direct hotline and boosted arms-control diplomacy

Women lost legal rights after the revolution, despite educational gains

The revolution rolled back women's legal protections, including the Family Protection Law, and imposed the mandatory hijab. Paradoxically, women later achieved significant educational gains, with university enrollment and literacy rates dramatically improving.

Establishing an independent Haiti: a timeline

This map and timeline shows the history of the Caribbean Island nation of Haiti and its fight for independence. In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and crashed one of his ships, the Santa Maria, along reefs near the island nation...

The colonial origins of Haiti/Dominican Republic divide

This 16-minute video explores the colonial origins of the modern-day split between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haiti previously was the French-Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue, which was torn off the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo in 1697....

The world reached historic levels of democracy under the rules-based order, though that trend has reversed

The share of democracies worldwide grew dramatically from the mid-20th century, reaching an all-time high in the early 2010s. Since then, the trend has reversed, with an increasing number of countries experiencing democratic backsliding.

Communism grew in appeal during the Great Depression

With at least a quarter of the country out of work, some Americans disenchanted with capitalism began looking at alternatives. Watch this five-minute video to learn about communism's growing allure during the Great Depression.

The Soviet Union explained

From 1922 to 1991, the Soviet Union spanned one-sixth of Earth’s landmass and housed nearly 300 million people. As the most significant test of Marxist governance, it sat at the center of the century’s defining struggle between capitalism and communism.