There was difficulty in the United States finding money to fund the project, especially after a financial crisis in 1873. A fundraising drive led by newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer was embraced by New Yorkers and helped push work forward. 80% of the donations were of less than $1.
Czechoslovakia became a communist-ruled state in 1948. Dissatisfaction with the communist regime resulted in troops from neighboring communist countries invading in 1968 and remaining until the peaceful 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed.
The United States had a strong influence over the island until 1959, when communist revolutionaries, led by Fidel Castro, took over. The country remains one of the world's four self-declared communist states today, although Castro himself stepped aside in 2008 due to health complications.