A brief history of America and Cuba

America is opening up relations with Cuba, and it's a big deal, ending decades of hostility,

and beginning a new era between the two countries.

But to understand just how big of a deal , where that hostility really came from, and why it

took so long to end, you've go to go back — way back, not to the 1950s as many Americans

think, but to the 1850s.

The story starts with America divided between pro-slavery and anti-slavery politics.

And one of their many fights is over the Spanish colony of Cuba.

Pro-slavery lawmakers want to buy Cuba from Spain, or take it by force, to turn into a

new slave state.

Anti-slavery politicians oppose this, calling it imperialism.

In 1898, after slavery ends, Americans have a different version of this argument again,

when Cubans rise up against Spain.

The US joins them, starting the Spanish-American war.

But Americans divide: should the US seize Cuba from Spain for itself, or liberate it?

This is part of a much bigger debate at the time over whether the US should explicitly

become a European-style imperial power.

So this is an argument about Cuba, but it's also an argument about America and what kind