the soviet union falls.
December of 1991 marked a historic moment in global history. The Soviet Union, one of the greatest powers of the world for decades, dissolved into 15 different countries in Eastern Europe. As successful as the Soviet Union had been, the design of the communist could not last long leading to economic and political crisis, and the revolts of the people living in the Soviet Union proved too powerful for the Union to stay together.
Since the Cuban Missile Crisis and the close relations between the USSR and Cuba of the 1960's, the 1980's marked a cooler period between the country. The Soviet Union was faltering economically and politically, and Castro's ideals no longer matched with those of Cuba. However, Cuba still relied on the Soviet Union economic support. When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Cuba was facing a drastic economic crisis. |
The end of the Cold War also marked the end of an era in Cuba. From the fall of the Soviet Union on, Cubans had to ration all supplies and Cuba would be riddled with rolling power outages, in a time named "The Special Period". In order to deal with the economic vacuum left by the disappearance of the Soviet Union, Fidel Castro put into place economic, industrial, and agricultural reforms with the hope of industrializing Cuba and restoring economic prosperity. Unfortunately for the Cuban peoples, especially the poorest, this "special period" had to begin with severe government cutbacks. |
The Special Period began with the breakdown of the agricultural system and transportation. Food shortages also became a common fear for many Cubans, in addition to the up to sixteen hour power outages and 3 hour bus waits. Life in Cuba had gotten worse.
But was it all in vain? Not necessarily. Today, although Cuba is in no way the global power that Fidel Castro had imaged, the Cuban people are much better off, with a small unemployment rate of 3.8% in 2012, and exporting about 5.6 billion dollars in 2012. However, there is still a large wealth gap between those who make their money dealing with the dollar, who tend to be wealthier, and those dealing with the pesos, who tend to be poorer. |