China had a Nationalist government. The government was a one party dictatorship. Opposed to the Nationalists was the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This was because the CCP was given no say in the governing of the country. In addition, because the Nationalists' leader, Chiang Kai-Shek, had the CCP forced from membership in the ruling body. Before they were completely wiped out, the CCP took to the rural areas of the country where they rallied peasant support. The Nationalist party had severely limits to its powe

The CCP promised many social reforms, and delivered on these promises. The Chinese people were happy, for a time. In the early 1960s, the economy became badly disorganized, and industrial production dropped by as much as 50 percent. As the Cold War ended, Soviet assistance also ceased. China deteriorated to the state it is in today.

Castro and 11 followers escaped to the Sierra Maestra Mountains. From there, they carried out surprise attacks against the Cuban government. Later, they attacked army units. Castro worked up much support with the peasants. Batista ruthlessly attacked Pro-Castro towns, but this only stirred up more support for Castro. Though greatly outnumbered, the rebels inflicted heavy casualties. Cubans lost confidence in Batista. Batista and his generals soon saw the situation as hopeless, and fled the country to Spain.

The military easily took over the rest of the country. Many Cubans who opposed Castro fled the country, much as Castro had earlier. Although Castro had won his support under different ideals, once he had control, he publicly announced that he was actually a Marxist-Leninist. He then allied Cuba with the Soviet Union. Cuba was now a communist country.

In March of 1952, former Cuban president Batista decided he was not quite ready to leave office. He seized power, suspended the constitution, dissolved the congress, and instituted a provisional government. A young lawyer named Fidel Castro attempted to rise against Batista by attacking the army barracks at Moncada with a rebel army. The attack was a tremendous failure, and Fidel was imprisoned. He was released two years later, and "chose" to go into exile.

Fidel went to Mexico, where he began to train an army for guerilla warfare. In 1956, Castro returned with a small army of 80 followers. The return was meticulously planned, a decoy attack on a city, a perfectly timed landing, and then into hiding. However, the more details to a plan, the more things to go wrong. The landing was delayed, the attack was early, and many of the rebels were killed shortly after landing.

Although the two revolutions are incredibly similar, there are some subtle differences. All of the differences are in details and the individual actions of the revolutionaries and their foes. Mao Zedong never made any pretense about his communist intentions for China, but Fidel Castro had to go his entire revolution without revealing where his true ideals lay, only revealing them once he was in power. This is because while the CCP was an already established party before Chiang's hostile takeover, Cuba had no communist party and Castro would not be able to rally the support he needed

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1813
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)