The Bay Of Pigs Invasion. Essays (4359 words) -

The Bay Of Pigs Invasion. The story of the failed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs is one of mismanagement, overconfidence, and lack of security. The blame for the failure of the operation falls directly in the lap of the Central Intelligence Agency and a young president and his advisors. The fall out from the invasion caused a rise in tension between the two great superpowers and ironically 34 years after the event, the person that the invasion meant to topple, Fidel Castro, is still in power. To understand the origins of the invasion and its ramifications for the future it is first necessary to look at the invasion and its origins. Part I: The Invasion and its Origins. The Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961, started a few days before on April 15th with the bombing of Cuba by what appeared to be defecting Cuban air force pilots. At 6 a.m. in the morning of that Saturday, three Cuban military bases were bombed by B-26 bombers. The airfields at Camp Libertad, San Antonio de los Ba?os and Antonio Maceo airport at Santiago de Cuba were fired upon. Seven people were killed at Libertad and forty-seven people were killed at other sites on the island. Two of the B-26s left Cuba and flew to Miami, apparently to defect to the United States. The Cuban Revolutionary Council, the government in exile, in New York City released a statement saying that the bombings in Cuba were . . . carried out by 'Cubans inside Cuba' who were 'in contact with' the top command of the Revolutionary Council . . . . The New York Times reporter covering the story alluded to something being wrong with the whole situation when he wondered how the council knew the pilots were coming if the pilots had only decided to leave Cuba on Thursday after . . . a suspected betrayal by a fellow pilot had precipitated a plot to strike . . . . Whatever the case, the planes came down in Miami later that morning, one landed at Key West Naval Air Station at 7:00 a.m. and the other at Miami International Airport at 8:20 a.m. Both planes were badly damaged and their tanks were nearly empty. On the front page of The New York Times the next day, a picture of one of the B-26s was shown along with a picture of one of the pilots cloaked in a baseball hat and hiding behind dark sunglasses, his name was withheld. A sense of conspiracy was even at this early stage beginning to envelope the events of that week. In the early hours of April 17th the assault on the Bay of Pigs began. In the true cloak and dagger spirit of a movie, the assault began at 2 a.m. with a team of frogmen going ashore with orders to set up landing lights to indicate to the main assault force the precise location of their objectives, as well as to clear the area of anything that may impede [Map of Cuba was here] the main landing teams [Link to Map to be added when when they arrived. At time permits] 2:30 a.m. and at 3:00 a.m. two battalions came ashore at Playa Gir?n and one battalion at Playa Larga beaches. The troops at Playa Gir?n had orders to move west, northwest, up the coast and meet with the troops at Playa Larga in the middle of the bay. A small group of men were then to be sent north to the town of Jaguey Grande to secure it as well. (See figure 1). When looking at a modern map of Cuba it is obvious that the troops would have problems in the area that was chosen for them to land at. The area around the Bay of Pigs is a swampy marsh land area which would be hard on the troops. The Cuban forces were quick to react and Castro ordered his T-33 trainer jets, two Sea Furies, and two B-26s into the air to stop the invading forces. Off the coast was the command and control ship and another vessel carrying supplies for the invading forces. The Cuban air force made

Hacienda Tabi - Plantation Archaeology Mexico

Hacienda Tabi - Plantation Archaeology Mexico Hacienda Tabi is a landed estate of colonial origin, located in the Puuc region of the Yucatn Peninsula of Mexico, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Merida, and 20 km (12.5 mi) east of Kabah. Established as a cattle ranch by 1733, it evolved into a sugar plantation that encompassed more than 35,000 acres by the end of the 19th century. Approximately one-tenth of the old plantation now lies within a state-owned ecological reserve. Hacienda Tabi was one of several plantations that were owned by descendants of early Spanish colonists, and, like plantations of the same period in the United States, survived on the basis of near-slavery of native and immigrant laborers. Originally established in the early 18th century as a cattle station or estancia, by 1784 the propertys production had diversified enough to be deemed a hacienda. Production on the hacienda eventually included a sugar mill in a distillery for producing rum, farm fields for cotton, sugar, henequen, tobacco, maize, and domesticated pigs, cattle, chickens, and turkeys; all of this continued until the Mexican Revolution of 1914–15 abruptly ended the peonage system in Yucatn. Timeline of Hacienda Tabi 1500s - much of the Puuc region is part of the Xiu Maya dynasty1531 - Spanish military forces marched into the Yucatn1542 - city of Merida founded by Francisco de Montejo1547 - first Spanish mission founded at Oxkutzcab1550s - encomienda system established in the Puuc1698 - Juan del Castillo y Arrue petitions for a land grant named Tavi to be used as an encomienda1733 - Tabi established as the name of the parcel in the Santa Elena Valley1784 - Tabi designated a hacienda; its owner is Bernadino Del Castillo1815 - Tabi purchased by Francisco Calero y Calero; a land survey commissioned1821 - Mexico achieves independence from Spain1820s - first state laws supporting peonage (debt slavery) system1847 - Caste War (Resistance movement between Maya and Spanish descendants) breaks out1855 - Tabi bought by Felipe Peon1876 - 1911, Porfirio Diaz rules Mexico1880s - narrow gauge rail established in the Yucatn1890s - industrial sugar mill at Tabi1893 - Tabi bought by Eulogio Duarte Troncoso; exten sive renovation of principal buildings undertaken 1900 - Tabi encompasses 35,000 acres and 851 resident laborers1908 - Journalist John Kenneth Turner publishes articles describing slavery on haciendas in Yucatn.1913 - Tabi owned by Eduardo Bolio Rendon Maldonado1914 - Mexican revolution reaches Yucatn, peonage system abolished1915 - Hacienda Tabis village for laborers abandoned The center of the plantation included an area of approximately 300 x 375 m (1000x1200 ft) within a thick wall enclosure of limestone masonry, measuring 2 m (6 ft) high. Three main gates controlled access to the great yard or patio principal, and the largest and main entry frames the sanctuary, which held room for 500 persons. The major architecture within the enclosure included a large two-story plantation house or palacio, consisting of 24 rooms and 22,000 ft ² (~2000 m ²). The house, recently refurbished with long-range plans for the development of a museum, boasts classic architecture, including a double colonnade on the south face and neoclassical pediments on the upper and lower levels. Also within the enclosure was a sugar mill with three chimney stacks, livestock stables, and a sanctuary based on colonial Franciscan monastery architecture. A handful of traditional Maya residences are also located within the enclosure wall apparently reserved for upper-level servants. two small rooms in the lower West and the plantation house were set aside for jailing peasants who disobeyed orders. A small external structure, called the burro building, was, according to oral tradition, used for public punishment. Life as a Laborer Outside the walls was a small village where as many as 700 laborers (peons) lived. Laborers lived in traditional Maya houses consisting of one-room elliptical structures made of masonry, rubble stone, and/or perishable materials. The houses were placed in a regular grid pattern with six or seven houses sharing a residential block, and blocks aligned along straight streets and avenues. The interiors of each of the houses were split into two halves by a mat or screen. One-half was the cooking area including a hearth kitchen and foodstuffs in the second half with the storage bathing area where clothing, machetes, and other personal goods were kept. Hanging from the rafters were hammocks, used for sleeping. Archaeological investigations identified a definite class division within the community outside of the walls. Some of the workers lived in masonry houses that appear to have had preferential placement within the village settlement. These laborers had access to better grades of meat, as well as imported and exotic dry goods. Excavations of a small house inside the enclosure indicated similar access to luxury goods, albeit clearly still occupied by a servant and his family. Historical documentation indicates that life on the plantation for the workers was one of ongoing indebtedness, built into the system, essentially making slaves of the workers. Hacienda Tabi and Archaeology Hacienda Tabi was investigated between 1996 and 2010, under the auspices of the Yucatn Cultural Foundation, the State of Yucatns Secretary of Ecology, and Mexicos National Institute of Anthropology and History. The first four years of the archaeological project were directed by David Carlson of Texas AM University and his graduate students, Allan Meyers and Sam R. Sweitz. The last eleven years of field investigation and excavation were conducted under the direction of Meyers, now at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. Sources Thanks are due to excavator Allan Meyers, author of Outside the Hacienda Walls: The Archaeology of Plantation Peonage in 19th Century Yucatn, for his assistance with this article, and the accompanying photo. Alston LJ, Mattiace S, and Nonnenmacher T. 2009. Coercion, Culture, and Contracts: Labor and Debt on Henequen Haciendas in Yucatn, Mexico, 1870–1915. The Journal of Economic History 69(01):104-137.Juli H. 2003. Perspectives on Mexican hacienda archaeology. The SAA Archaeological Record 3(4):23-24, 44.Meyers AD. 2012. Outside the Hacienda Walls: The Archaeology of Plantation Peonage in 19th Century Yucatn. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. see the reviewMeyers AD. 2005. Lost hacienda: Scholars reconstruct the lives of laborers on a Yucatn plantation. Archaeology 58(One):42-45.Meyers AD. 2005. Material expressions of social inequality at a porfirian sugar hacienda in Yucatn, Mexico. Historical Archaeology 39(4):112-137.Meyers AD. 2005. The challenge and promise of hacienda archaeology in Yucatan. The SAA Archaeological Record 4(1):20-23.Meyers AD, and Carlson DL. 2002. Peonage, power relations, and the built environment at Hacienda Tabi, Yucatn, Mexico. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 6(4):371-388. Meyers AD, Harvey AS, and Levithol SA. 2008. House lot refuse disposal and geochemistry at a late 19th-century Hacienda village in Yucatn, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 33(4):371-388.Palka J. 2009. Historical Archaeology of Indigenous Culture Change in Mesoamerica. Journal of Archaeological Research 17(4):297-346.Sweitz SR. 2005. On the periphery of the periphery: household archaeology at Hacienda Tabi, Yucatn, Mexico. College Station: Texas AM.Sweitz SR. 2012. On the Periphery of the Periphery: Household Archaeology at Hacienda San Juan Bautista Tabi, Yucatn, Mexico. New York: Springer.