| February 8 |  |
Editor says, what if Fidel Castro and JFK were allies muses Andrew Beane? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1963, Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, nationalist leader and the primary proponent of abolitionism in the Caribbean, was proclaimed Prime Minister of the new Cuban Republic today. Castro's first official act as prime minister was to free all negro slaves on the island, which was largely ceremonial since the revolution had made slave-owning a very hazardous venture as a total of 158 slave-owners had been murdered by Castro's followers.
One Giant Step by Andrew BeaneThe Confederate States of America, who operated Cuba as a puppet state while maintaining the island's independence, condemned the proclamation and the precedent that the liberation of the island's slaves may set for slavery in Confederate territory as a whole.
"We choose to support freedom. We choose to make certain that every man, woman and child in North America is free in this decade" ~ JFKCastro's rise to power, following a six-year revolution, is being celebrated by both anti-Confederate Cuban nationalists and abolitionists alike. A general strike was called for the day by nationalist union leaders, and millions poured into the streets of Habana to cheer for the freedom of the nation and for that of its negro citizens. The sound of automobile horns played like a symphony in the cities. Pro-Confederate President-elect Manuel Urrutia Lleo, who took over for former-President Fulgencio Batista, was forced to flee to Florida as Castro's rebel army were marching on the capitol.
John F. Kennedy, the President of the United States, welcomed the news of Castro's official capture of power. He had already admitted at the beginning of the year that the CIA had been secretly funneling weapons to the nationalists. In 1962, Kennedy appeared at Rice Stadium and told the nation "We choose to support freedom. We choose to make certain that every man, woman and child in North America is free in this decade". On hearing of the news out of Cuba this morning, Kennedy was quoted as saying we are "One giant leap closer to that goal".
"We choose to support freedom. We choose to make certain that every man, woman and child in North America is free in this decade" ~ JFKConfederate President Strom Thurmond issued a sharp rebuke against the Cuban nationalists, promising an embargo on the island if Castro " .. did not step back from profaning the right and sacred institution of slavery". Thurmond's' words carry little weight. The CSA's economy is still struggling to pull out of a near-twenty year slump following the loss of the Second World War against the Allies. Wide-spread unemployment, the building of the new national capitol in Augusta, Georgia, and the occupation of Panama since the assassination of Cantera have left little finances to allow for an invasion of Cuba. An embargo would be difficult, as merchant vessels in the Caribbean usually enjoy an escort by Union Navy gunboats.
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Andrew Beane
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~ Love the irony :)
~ An independent CSA would have had "gobble up Cuba" as the top thing on their "to-do list" from the minute they acheived independence. Did they do that in this TL?
~ Eric that might be grounds for another article, as things could have stood in the CSA's way of militarily taking over Cuba, such as their weak manufacturing base and a possible US/Spain alliance. The assumption is that the CSA dominated through trade and Cuba simply threw the yoke.
~ Freaky deaky...
~ One has to wonder how slavery survived to 1963 in the CSA. While Confederate independence would surely have delayed abolition (perhaps even in what remained of the USA, since abolitionists and blacks might have been blamed for secession), it's hard to see it surviving another cenury.
This is especially true if the Confederacy hoped to industrialize on a large scale rather than remaining a "cotton republic." Southerners had refused to industrialize because they feared doing so would undermine the "peculiar institution," which depended on the continued perception of blacks as, basically, domestic animals incapable of performing sophisticated tasks. But a CSA which remained a Jeffersonian agrarian society would have become a Third World nation and likely an economic (and eventually political) dependency of the United States, a danger Southern leaders would surely have seen coming long before the mid-twentieth century.
~ Eric I love that perception, and admit I am not yet able to think these things out completely.
~ I agree with Lipps' observation on the results of retaining slavery, but am somewhat dubious about the assumption that the ruling classes of a CSA that remained together (and I would give it 50:50 odds on it coming apart) would see this coming or having the ability to emancipate.
~ Should be enough to spark a war, but with the CSA in such a slump, it might not be in the position to stand up to its old enemy. Then again, nothing stimulates the economy like popular war.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
