Cuba has confirmed that Miguel Diaz-Canel, a Communist Party loyalist, is to replace Raul Castro as president – bringing an end to the 59-year era of rule under the Castro brothers, though almost certainly not their influence or power.

Politicians in the country’s National Assembly announced the vice president had been selected to replace the brother of Fidel Castro, who had taken charge of the country after his brother fell ill in 2011. Fidel Castro, the driving force behind the country’s revolution and who ruled it it with a fist that was frequently cast of iron, died in 2016.

Reports said there was little surprise about the ascension of Mr Diaz-Canel, of which little is said to be known by the international community; he was the sole candidate in the assembly secret ballot and therefore all but guaranteed of victory in Cuba’s single-party system.

In his first televised address to the nation, Mr Diaz-Canel vowed to continue the socialist revolution that was established by the Castros. He said that Cuban foreign policy would not change and he would not negotiate the nation’s principles.

At the same time, he said Cuba was always ready to to engage in dialogue with those who “treat us as equals”.

The replacing of the 86-year-old Mr Castro by the 57-year-old vice president, marks an obvious generational shift and underscores that many in the country – 70 per cent of people are aged below 54 – have no first hand experience of the early, dramatic days of the revolution, that made the Castros heroes to many around the world, yet which would set them against the US for decades.

Rather, many have grown up knowing years of both plenty and shortage. For years, the island was supported financially and strategically by the Soviet Union. But after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the subsidies that had helped maintain life in Cuba dried up; daily calorie intake fell from 2,908 calories per day in the 1980s to a reported 1,863 calories per day in 1993.

This moment was when many in the US believed Castro’s regime would collapse. As it was, the country re-engineered its agriculture system, being forced to adopt an almost organic approach across the island in the absence of imported fertilisers.

Cuban students vow to continue Fidel Castro's legacy

In more recent years, Cuba developed an important relationship with the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, a man who idolised Fidel Castro and sought to spread their ideology across the region. In exchange for Cuban doctors who were dispatched to work in Venezuelan clinics, Chavez dispatched oil.

As the Venezuelan economy has imploded following Chavez’s death and the era of incompetence and apparent corruption that has played out under his successor Nicolas Maduro, Cuba has looked to develop tourism, allow some private business and loosen some of the state-imposed economic regulations that marked many of the Castro years.

Fidel Castro funeral procession Show all 20 1 /20 Fidel Castro funeral procession Fidel Castro funeral procession The funeral procession carrying the ashes of Fidel Castro departs after a ceremony in Santa Clara, Cuba AP Fidel Castro funeral procession People line a road to watch as the caravan carrying Cuba's late President Fidel Castro's ashes passes by in Camaguey, Cuba Reuters Fidel Castro funeral procession People line a road to watch as the caravan carrying Cuba's late President Fidel Castro's ashes enters Camaguey, Cuba Reuters Fidel Castro funeral procession People line a road to watch as the caravan carrying Cuba's late President Fidel Castro's ashes goes past Reuters Fidel Castro funeral procession Daniel Hernandez, 4, salutes while awaiting the caravan carrying the late Cuban President Fidel Castro's ashes in Camaguey, Cuba Reuters Fidel Castro funeral procession A military jeep is taking the ashes of Fidel Castro on a four-day journey across Cuba, with islanders lining the roads to bid farewell to the late communist icon Getty Fidel Castro funeral procession A military jeep is taking the ashes of Fidel Castro on a four-day journey across Cuba, with islanders lining the roads to bid farewell to the late communist icon Getty Fidel Castro funeral procession A boy and a girl in their special position waiting for the arrival of the convoy carrying the remains of Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro in Cienfuegos, 240 km southeast from Havana Getty Fidel Castro funeral procession A military jeep is taking the ashes of Fidel Castro on a four-day journey across Cuba, with islanders lining the roads to bid farewell to the late communist icon Getty Fidel Castro funeral procession People wait along the Carretera Central to see the convoy carrying the urn with the ashes of late Cuban leader Fidel Castro AFP/Getty Images Fidel Castro funeral procession People watch the funeral procession carrying Fidel Castro's ashes through Santa Spiritus province in Cuba AP Fidel Castro funeral procession Cubans wait for the passage of the convoy carrying the remains of Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro Getty Fidel Castro funeral procession A woman holds an image of Cuba's late President Fidel Castro while awaiting the caravan carrying Castro's ashes Reuters Fidel Castro funeral procession Yenia Coutinio poses for a picture while waiting for the funeral procession carrying Fidel Castro's ashes AP Fidel Castro funeral procession A military jeep is taking the ashes of Fidel Castro on a four-day journey across Cuba, with islanders lining the roads to bid farewell to the late communist icon Getty Fidel Castro funeral procession A man waits for the caravan carrying the ashes of Cuba's leader Fidel Castro at a sugar cane plantation in Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, Cuba AP Fidel Castro funeral procession A student holds an image of Cuba's late President Fidel Castro while awaiting the caravan carrying Castro's ashes in Camaguey, Cuba Reuters Fidel Castro funeral procession A child reacts to the camera as he stands next to a truck used to carry people to a spot where they could watch the convoy carrying Fidel Castro's ashes in Gaspar, Cuba AP Fidel Castro funeral procession Wearing signs that read in Spanish 'I am Fidel', men sit on their horses as they wait to see the convoy carrying the ashes of Cuba's leader Fidel Castro on its way to the east of the country in Florida, Cuba AP Fidel Castro funeral procession People paint stones laid out as a tribute to Cuba's late President Fidel Castro in Las Tunas, Cuba Reuters

The changes presaged a remarkable announcement at the end of 2014 when Raul Castro and Barack Obama revealed they had been secretly negotiating to end the diplomatic standoff that has existed for 54 years, during which time Washington had tried to assassinate Fidel Castro on countless occasions.

The rapprochement saw a lifting of US sanctions that had been aggressively enforced for decades, and the opening of embassies in the countries’ respective capitals. That re-engagement has somewhat faltered since the election of Donald Trump, who rolled back some of the Obama administration’s changes.

Mr Castro will remain head of the Communist Party, which is designated by the constitution as “the superior guiding force of society and the state”. As a result, he may still be the most powerful person in Cuba for the time being.