An illustrated history of Cuba from the beginnings of the independent Republic in 1902 until the Revolution in 1959, which completely put a permanent end to the established republican and democratic system. In the book are hundreds of black and white photographs with descriptions of Cuban life, culture, economic progress, social and political problems and their solutions. Also contained are 5 appendices: A chronology of the Spanish-Cuban-American War of 1898; A Quick Chronological of US-Cuba relations (1898-1959); Information about the presidents of Cuba during the Wars of Independence and the Republic; Brief biographies of the main characters during Cuba's Republican era and an onomastic index. Raúl Eduardo Chao received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University and after a brief stint in industry spent 18 years as Full Professor and Department Chairman at the Universities of Puerto Rico and Detroit. In 1986 he founded a very successful management consultancy, assisting companies and government agencies to develop positive work environments and process improvement techniques as the means to secure improvements in productivity and quality. The Systema Group had as clients many Fortune 100 companies and Federal and State organizations, both in the US and abroad. Chao is the author of 14 previous history books, all skillfully documented with hundreds of photographs and quick biographies of all important characters. Complementing his narrative with timely images -many of them seldom seen in serious historical treatises- has been Chao's distinctive contribution to modern historiography.