Under his administration, Cuba became a one-party communist state , while industry and business were nationalized and state socialist reforms were implemented throughout society. After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia , he planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista , launching a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in Returning to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra.
After Batista's overthrow in , Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's Prime Minister. The United States came to oppose Castro's government and unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by assassination , economic blockade and counter-revolution, including the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Adopting a MarxistβLeninist model of development, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the Western Hemisphere.
Policies introducing central economic planning and expanding healthcare and education were accompanied by state control of the press and the suppression of internal dissent. Abroad, Castro supported anti-imperialist revolutionary groups, backing the establishment of Marxist governments in Chile , Nicaragua and Grenada , as well as sending troops to aid allies in the Yom Kippur , Ogaden , and Angolan Civil War.
These actions, coupled with Castro's leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement from to and Cuba's medical internationalism , increased Cuba's profile on the world stage. Following the Soviet Union's dissolution in , Castro led Cuba through the economic downturn of the " Special Period ", embracing environmentalist and anti-globalization ideas. The longest-serving non-royal head of state in the 20th and 21st centuries, Castro polarized world opinion.
His supporters view him as a champion of socialism and anti-imperialism whose revolutionary regime advanced economic and social justice while securing Cuba's independence from American imperialism.
