Republic of Cuba (1902–1959)

The Republic of Cuba was the Cuban state that existed from 1902, when the island gained formal independence from the United States after the Spanish-American War, until the Cuban Revolution brought down Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Its first constitution carried the Platt Amendment, which gave Washington the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and to lease Guantánamo Bay; the United States duly occupied the island again from 1906 to 1909. Sugar dominated the economy, and the world sugar boom of the First World War made Cuba wealthy but dangerously dependent on a single export and on the American market. Politics swung between reformist governments, coups and authoritarian rule. The Revolution of 1933 overthrew Gerardo Machado and produced the progressive constitution of 1940, but Batista seized power in 1952 and closed the constitutional order. Fidel Castro's guerrilla campaign in the Sierra Maestra forced Batista into exile on 1 January 1959, ending the republic and opening the revolutionary period. Havana remained the capital throughout.