Fidel Castro led the revolution that overthrew Fulgencio Batista and took power in Cuba in 1959.
Castro began organizing against Batista after the dictator seized power in a 1952 coup. In 1953, Castro led an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks. After imprisonment and exile, he formed the 26th of July Movement and returned to Cuba aboard the yacht Granma in 1956 with a small group of revolutionaries, including his brother Raúl Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
From bases in the Sierra Maestra, Castro directed a guerrilla campaign while allied groups fought Batista elsewhere. Rebel victories, including the capture of Santa Clara by forces associated with Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, helped bring down the regime. Batista fled Cuba on January 1, 1959, and Castro's forces soon took control.
Castro was the revolution's most prominent leader, but he did not act alone. Raúl Castro, Guevara, Cienfuegos, and many civilian and underground organizers played major roles. Castro became prime minister in February 1959 and gradually consolidated political power, transforming the revolutionary victory into a long-lasting one-party communist government.