MexCuba: HistoryRevolution

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Mexico and Cuba have been shaped by revolutions more than any other nations in the Americas. Mexico was built upon Mesoamerican communities and forged under Spanish rule, its silver pivotal to early global capitalism. Cuba was long marginal to Spain’s empire and the world economy. The Haitian revolution of 1790 to 1804 led to Cuba’s rise as the Americas leading sugar and slave society—still under Spanish rule. After 1810, the Bajío revolution saw insurgent families claim new lives on the land, cutting silver flows and opening the world to Anglo-American industries sustained by enslaved cotton growers. Mexico began in 1821, rattled by political instability, funded by silver revival, powered by new industries, and fed by family growers—while women claimed new roles at every level of society. Cubans rose against Spain from 1868 to 1878, then again from 1895 to 1898, when they gained national independence constrained by US power. After 1910, Mexicans made a national revolution that renewed access to land—excluding women. In 1959, Cubans—including activist women—made a socialist revolution. Then the world made in revolutions dissolved: a “green revolution” drove families off the land in Mexico, while the collapse of Soviet Socialism broke Cuban’s limited revolutionary gains.