Page 300 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

revolution—france 1601

regime adopted a limited opening to global capital (but
not capital from the United States), which produced a sig- Revolution—
nificant improvement in living conditions. Reliance on
tourism and remittances (now the two biggest economic France
sectors), however, brought with it social difficulties. Cuba,
for example, has not experienced a civil rights movement he troubles that led to the French Revolution began
or even an oppositional racial discourse. In many ways, Twith the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), a world-
racial relations on the island remain frozen in the 1950s, wide struggle in which France lost its colonial holdings
with a significant decline in the black-white gap in living in North America and India to Great Britain and suffered
standards but a clearly racist culture and a continued defeat on the European continent at the hands of
monopoly by whites in high government positions.This Britain’s powerful German ally, the kingdom of Prussia.
also means that whites predominate in the sought-after The expenses of war had required King Louis XV (1710–
jobs in the tourist sector. Since the exile population is 1774) to levy new taxes on his population; and since the
overwhelmingly white, remittances are also distributed in nobles were among the richest subjects in the kingdom,
a racially nonsymmetrical way. This has created some- he refused to exempt them, despite their historical claims
thing of a “dollar apartheid” in Havana. to such fiscal privileges. Paradoxically, this treatment
contributed to the education of the king’s subjects in egal-
Outlook itarianism. By treating them as equals, the king taught
Whether the revolution, as a political regime or as a them to think of themselves as equals. Initially the nobil-
social system, can survive the inevitable death of Fidel ity sought only to preserve its own privileges, yet when
Castro is not clear, but the level of institutionalization of they saw that the monarchy was inflexible on matters of
power is relatively low. Given the proximity of the now taxation, they demanded a say in government, thus echo-
wealthy exile community and U.S. interests, it is likely ing the Anglo-American principle of “no taxation without
that the revolution will not survive in its current state. Per- representation.” In the process they whittled away at
haps the most significant disappointment of the revolu- absolutism, or the king’s right to rule without checks
tion is that it was unable to escape the historical tendency or balances, and prepared the realm for republican
toward “sultanistic regimes” led by caudillos. In at least government.
this way, the Cuban revolution did not represent a new
stage of history, but merely a slightly different variant of Toward a
an old theme in Latin America. Constitutional Monarchy
In addition to the political arguments raised by fiscal cri-
Miguel A. Centeno
sis of the Seven Years’ War, defeat at the hands of the
See also Guevara, Che; Revolutions, Communist British provoked a desire for revenge, both at the royal
court and in the metaphorical court of public opinion.
The American Revolution of 1776 provided the awaited
Further Reading opportunity, and General Washington’s victory at York-
Centeno, M., & Font, M. (1997). Toward a new Cuba? Boulder, CO: town (1781), which would have been impossible without
Lynne Rienner. French support on land and at sea, inflicted a wound on
Eckstein, S. (2003). Back from the future. New York: Routledge.
Fernández, D. (2000). Cuba and the politics of passion. Austin: Univer- France’s great rival. Yet this victory was as expensive as
sity of Texas Press. the defeat in the prior war had been, and though Jacques
Pérez, L. (1995). Cuba: Between reform and revolution. New York: Oxford
University Press. Necker, the finance minister of Louis XVI (1754–1793),
Thomas,H.(1977).Cuba:The pursuit of freedom. New York: Harper & Row. had made it appear as though the state’s coffers were well