This thesis examines the educational system in Cuba between 1899 and 1958, specifically primary and secondary schooling, with occasional reference to teacher training and non-formal programmes. It explores the relationship between education and Cuban political economy, demonstrating how expectations of education determined demands upon the state, how the educational system was affected by the interplay between external influences and domestic pressures and in what ways it reflected national concerns and debates. Chapters one and two investigate the role that independentistas expected education to play in an independent Cuba and how the intervention of the United States affected the foundation of the system of public education. Chapters three, four and five analyse why the system became a focus of national anxiety in the 1920s, the ways in which those anxieties were manifested during the crisis of the early 1930s and how the government used rural education in its campaign to pacify the island following the "revolution" of 1933 and the national strike of 1935. Chapters six and seven explore the impact of the Constitution of 1940 and the condition of the educational system as the revolutionary struggle commenced in 1953. The major themes addressed by this research are the relationship between education and nationalism, and between education, capitalism and dependence. The faith placed by liberals in the power of public education to forge national consciousness and to foster development is considered in the context of the principal characteristics of pre-revolutionary Cuba: its monocrop economy, significant class divisions and unequal relationship with the United States. The thesis concludes that these structural constraints prevented the educational system from realizing expectations. Furthermore, the vision of education held dear by Cubans could not be achieved without radical political and economic transformation.