No 1959 Cuban Revolution

I'm not sure whether or not I should be surprised that no one is considering the Cuban Revolution as a good thing for Cuba.

Cuba under Batista was dirt poor except for a select few oligarchs who were swimming in dirty money or money from the casinos. Everyone else was poor and miserable, with few prospects for advancement, as was the case in most US satellites at the time; really, Cuba was just another Banana Republic (but with mobsters and casinos instead of United Fruit).

Definitely agree with you there. The original Cuban Revolution - that of the 1930's - should have kept going and not just to overthrow the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado. Have that turn into something like the Mexican Revolution (with the 1940 Constitution more or less intact, with the exception of turning Cuba into a federal system with the City of Havana as the "DF" à la México City, as well as Cuba becoming a semi-presidential republic). Who knows, considering that this is the 1930's I'm mentioning here, maybe there could be a tinge of what would later happen in Spain with the Revolution/Civil War, but this would be definitely small-scale compared to OTL Spain. And maybe Cuba will have the same results that it has had under Communism, but better.

Also, there's another dimension to Batista that is overlooked. What is often forgotten is that, in the beginning, Batista was a very popular President and a genuine social reformer - the first time around. The Cuban Constitution of 1940 (in its original form) was probably the best Constitution Cuba has ever had, and Batista's best legacy for Cubans. If you've ever read it, it does have a huge tinge of social democracy throughout - due to the fact that the Constitution of the Second Spanish Republic was used as a model, as well as the huge support Bastista got from the Popular Socialist Party (the original name of the Cuban Communist Party). It's Batista's second time around where Batista's bad reputation comes from.

If Batista stuck to only one term, or was re-elected to a second term in 1944, a TTL Batista second term in 1944-1948 could have seen him continue with his social reforms, including outlawing gambling and the Mafia. In that case, Batista could have, in TTL, been seen in a positive light instead during those TTL eight years à la Castro in OTL.
 
Cuban statehood?

Given the record of small, non-revolutionary (hell,we never even had a real war for independence from Spain!) Puerto Rico,which HAS been a territory for 114 years and still gets slapped down by US conservatives whenever we argue statehood, Cuba has zero possibility of becoming a state.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Given the record of small, non-revolutionary (hell,we never even had a real war for independence from Spain!) Puerto Rico,which HAS been a territory for 114 years and still gets slapped down by US conservatives whenever we argue statehood, Cuba has zero possibility of becoming a state.
I'm amazed that people would think that Cubans would want statehood, as if they would just up and abandon their patriotism because AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!

It's frankly insulting to Cubans, whose oppression at the hand of corporatist thugs vastly outweighed what little money trickled down through the Casinos and fleshpots of Havana.
 

NothingNow

Banned
If Batista stuck to only one term, or was re-elected to a second term in 1944, a TTL Batista second term in 1944-1948 could have seen him continue with his social reforms, including outlawing gambling and the Mafia. In that case, Batista could have, in TTL, been seen in a positive light instead during those TTL eight years à la Castro in OTL.
Yeah, Batista had a huge amount of potential to do pretty much all the good Fidel, Raul and all the others did after the 1959 revolution without all the bloodshed. Unfortunately that Corrupt Bastard Grau won the '44 election, everything started backsliding. Hell, if say, Socarras or Batista had won in '44, and in Batista's case, remained a reformer, Fidel would have been just another lawyer, and Raul would have been just another activist, or involved in Social Science.

EDIT: I've got a rather odd outline for a TL that starts with Machado getting ousted and with the start of the Spanish Civil War, Batista being sent in at the lead of a volunteer unit to uphold democracy and hopefully kill him before he became a figure not unlike Julius Caesar or Augustus.

I'm amazed that people would think that Cubans would want statehood, as if they would just up and abandon their patriotism because AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!

It's frankly insulting to Cubans, whose oppression at the hand of corporatist thugs vastly outweighed what little money trickled down through the Casinos and fleshpots of Havana.
Yeah. The fifites were not a good time to be the average Cuban.
Hell, the only good reasons Cuba could possibly have for becoming a state are purely economic in nature, (like sliding in under the Sugar tariff, or bringing more tourists in.)
But they'd have to give up their own national Baseball teams, and everything else that comes with independence, including that National sense of Dignity, and their top-notch medical system.
 
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Yeah, Batista had a huge amount of potential to do pretty much all the good Fidel, Raul and all the others did after the 1959 revolution without all the bloodshed. Unfortunately that Corrupt Bastard Grau won the '44 election, everything started backsliding. Hell, if say, Socarras or Batista had won in '44, and in Batista's case, remained a reformer, Fidel would have been just another lawyer, and Raul would have been just another activist, or involved in Social Science.

Definitely agree with you there. Or you could have the Cuban Revolution of 1933 simply last longer and turn into a Mexican Revolution-style conflict (though compacted to five years, in my opinion, from the Mexican Revolution's 10). Whether or not it spills into a proxy for the Spanish Civil War is an open question.
 

NothingNow

Banned
Definitely agree with you there. Or you could have the Cuban Revolution of 1933 simply last longer and turn into a Mexican Revolution-style conflict (though compacted to five years, in my opinion, from the Mexican Revolution's 10). Whether or not it spills into a proxy for the Spanish Civil War is an open question.

I wanted to have it set up so that Cuba would be in a good enough shape to send a couple of trained Brigades, with some armor suport over to Spain (partially being financed by the US War Department, as a way of testing new equipment,) with Mexico and Chile later sending another couple Brigades to support the Republicans as well.

It sort of spirals from there, and by the time the Volunteer brigades return to Cuba (incorporated into a single division,) about 8 or 9 years later, well, things are different.
 
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