The Cuban Revolution and British-American Relations

Abstract

Cuba’s cricketers never made it to Lord’s. The hopes of the young Winston Churchill in 1898 reflected a previous British involvement in Cuba’s history, and an acceptance of the pre-eminent American role in Cuban affairs that characterised British policy in the nineteenth century and thereafter. This chapter briefly traces the history of Cuban-American affairs, and examines the impact of Castro’s revolution on British-American relations.

I sympathise with the rebellion — not with the rebels … It may be that as the pages of history are turned brighter futures and better times will come to Cuba. It may be that future years will see the island as it would be now, had England never lost it — a Cuba free and prosperous under just laws and a patriotic administration, throwing open her ports to the commerce of the world, sending her ponies to Hurlingham and her cricketers to Lord’s, exchanging the cigars of Havana for the cottons of Lancashire, and the sugars of Matanzas for the cutlery of Sheffield. At least let us hope so.¹