The intent in this paper is to compare and contrast the revolutions in Mexico and Cuba by examining the events of the pre-revolutionary period, the revolutionary period, and the post-revolutionary period in both countries. At the present time, these countries are in very different positions internationally, and in relationship to the United States. Mexico itself is experiencing a new surge of revolutionary activity led by members of the indigenous native population. From what we know of Cuba, although there is tension, there is no active revolutionary activity, or even widespread dissent.
With both Cuba and Mexico, roots of nationalism, and revolution, stretch back several centuries in time, essentially to their colonization. The colonization of the Americas--with its beginnings in 1492 and the military conquests of the 1500s--began a pattern of rule of the indigenous populations first by European conquerors and then by European settlers. This pattern, particularly in South and Central America, was extended into rule of the majority of the population, joined in Cuba and elsewhere by individuals descended from African slaves.
The relationship between the colonies in both Mexico and Cuba and the rulers in mainland Spain varied over the centuries, with both countries being the focus of interest at different periods and the focus of benign neglect at other periods of time. In the meantime, the society of the colonies was gradually changing.
As was the case with the United States, descendants of the original European conquerors and settlers began to associate themselves more closely with their new lands than with the Old Country. The population changed with the interrelationship of the Spanish and both the Indians and African slaves. Although intermarriage was not necessarily common, Spanish men took mistresses from among the conquered and enslaved populations and the mestizo or creole population increased rapidly. Som...