ABSTRACT
Fidel Castro was born in 1926 and received a rigorous education at Jesuit schools. Castro enrolled at Havana University in 1945, joined the Law Faculty, an institution that groomed Cuba's elite, and earned his degree in 1950. Always exercising Cuban independence, Castro engaged in development that was often at odds with mainstream socialism by its emphasis on the peasantry and local control. By improving public welfare and reiterating his enthusiasm for socialism, Fidel Castro created a popular regime in Cuba that serves as an international example of socialism's potential—both to improve social welfare and to hinder democracy. Castro liberated Cubans from the exploitation of traditional elites only to destroy Cubans‘ potential political rights. Castro also influenced the rest of the world by becoming the most ardent supporter of socialist revolution in the lesser-developed world, much to the chagrin of the United States and Castro's partners in the Soviet Union, who felt upstaged by Castro.
