Case study: Castro and revolutionary Cuba

The big idea: Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba by force and ruled it as a one-party state for nearly 50 years. He traded away political freedom in return for real progress in health and education.

Before 1959, Cuba was run by Fulgencio Batista, a dictator backed by the United States. The economy leaned almost entirely on sugar and on American money, and bribery reached into every corner of public life.

Castro led a small band of rebels called the 26th of July Movement, named after his first failed attack back in 1953. They fought a hit-and-run war from the guerrilla war mountains and toppled Batista on 1 January 1959.

What started as a broad revolt against one dictator soon turned into an openly communist government. Within a few years Castro had tied Cuba firmly to the Soviet Union, America's great Cold War rival.

Hook: the man who outlasted ten presidents: Castro stayed in power so long that ten different US presidents came and went while he ruled.

He survived an invasion, a nuclear scare and decades of trade blockade — a communist state holding firm just 90 miles from America.

Castro won power by force, through a popular guerrilla war, not through the ballot box. Once he was in charge, he set about consolidation his rule so that no rival could ever remove him.

He did this in a few clear ways: he crushed his opponents, took control of what people could read and hear, and tied the whole country to the Revolution. Let's walk through how each step worked.

Why Cuba fell into Soviet arms: American hostility pushed Cuba toward the USSR. A US-backed invasion by Cuban exiles was crushed at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, and its defeat made Castro stronger and bolder.

A year later the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the USSR placed nuclear missiles on the island, locked Cuba firmly inside the Soviet camp.

Once his grip was secure, Castro reshaped Cuba's economy and society. His policies brought real gains for ordinary people, but always at the price of their freedom.

Economic policy: state control and Soviet money: Castro nationalisation US-owned firms and handed land to poor farmers, then ran a centrally-planned economy centrally-planned economy.

Result: basic needs were met for a while, but the system stayed clumsy and leaned heavily on Soviet aid and guaranteed sugar prices. When Soviet help ended after 1991, the economy collapsed into crisis.

Social policy: reading and healthcare for all: The 1961 literacy campaign sent young volunteers across the countryside to teach reading, making Cuba one of the most literate nations in the Americas. Free healthcare for everyone sharply cut the number of babies who died young.

The human cost: these gains came with no political freedom — critics were jailed, the press was censored, and some groups faced persecution.

How this is tested in Paper 2: Castro's region is the Americas, so pair him with a leader from a different region, such as Mao (Asia) or Stalin (Europe) for communist rule, or Hitler (Europe) for contrast.

He is strong evidence for rise by force, methods of consolidation, and social success weighed against human cost.