Cuba Celebrates Beginning of Independent Wars

Havana, Oct 10. -Cuban people celebrate on Monday the 143rd anniversary of the beginning of Ten-Year War (1868-1878), which was the first war of independence from Spain colonial rule in the country.On October 10, 1868, lawyer Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, who led the war, liberated his slaves in La Demajagua sugar mill (eastern Cuba) and fought the Spanish troops for the first time at the town of Yara.

Cespedes also launched a manifesto in which he defined the reasons for the rebellion and the principles of the new nation.

The Ten-Year War ended on 1878 with the Pact of Zanjon that which did not provide the independence or the abolition, which were the main goals of the war.

Leading figures in the history of Cuba emerged over a decade of struggles, including Ignacio Agramonte, who died in 1873, and Antonio Maceo and Dominican Maximo Gomez, who would also contribute to the war in 1895. (Prensa Latina)