) to protect economic interests and restore political stability by ensuring American friendly rulers led Cuba. When Cubas political elite shifted loyalties from Madrid to Washington, the islands landed aristocracy became tightly integrated into the U.S. economy. Between 1909 and 1929, US capital investments in Cuba increased 700 percent. The sugar slump after World War I saw the islands monoculture economy virtually taken over by foreign V based companies, a process that drove small and independent farmers into sugar cultivation, marking the island a virtual plantation for US business. (1J)After about a half a century of American influence, Cubans decided they had had enough. On March 10, 1952, Fulgencio Batista abrogated the constitution and staged a military coup, prompting the new generation of Cubans to take up arms, led by Fidel Castro. The rebels failed attack at the Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953, inaugurated the most recent phase of the Cuban revolution. In his defense of the Moncada attack, Fidel Castro said, History will absolve me. He then cataloged the many ills that had turned Cuba into a defenseless colony, unable to feed and house its people, educate its young, or control its politics, economy and culture. By the 1950s, the complete loss of nationhood and personal dignity was readily apparent, as the island had become a brothel for North American businessmen and a casino for the Mafia. (Brenner, 79) Indeed, America had become the modern day equivalent to an oppressive Spain that Cubans had fought so hard to overthrow.After the trial, jail and exile awaited the small band of survivors who attacked the Moncada barracks. However, they inspired a broad movement with supporters among the peasantry, professionals, white-collar urban workers, and the dispossessed. Returning from Mexico in 1956, Castro and the other leaders of the July 26 attack announced their intentions in a manifesto: Let it be clear we are not fighting to ...
