Constitutional acts of Cuba during the lib-eration wars of the last third of the 19th cen-tury (1868-1898)

Abstract

The liberation struggle of the Cuban people against Spanish domination, which unfolded in the last third of the XIX cen-tury, was a logical continuation of the national liberation pro-cess that began in Latin America at the beginning of the nine-teenth century. There are two most important stages in this struggle: the Ten Yearʹs War for Independence of 1868–1878, which ended with the signing of the compromise Treaty of Zanjon (a treaty without independence), and the War of 1895–1898, the "Necessary War", as its leader José Martí de-scribed it, interrupted by the intervention of the United States in the liberation process in 1898 and the outbreak of the Spanish-American War (April 25 / August 12, 1898), which ended with the elimination of Spanish domination and the creation in 1902 of the so-called "pseudo-republic" (1902–1934). During the years of the Liberation Struggle of 1868–1898, constitutional acts were created that testified to the so-cial orientation of these processes. During the Ten Year's War, important political acts such as the Manifest of Inde-pendence (October 10, 1868) proclaimed by C.M. de Céspedes, the Constitution of Guaymaro (April 1869) and the Constitution of Baraguá (March 17, 1878) were adopted. Dur-ing the liberation struggle of 1895–1898, two constitutions were created: Jimaguayú (September 16, 1895) and Yaya (Oc-tober 29, 1897). The analysis of the constitutional acts of the era of the liberation struggle became the subject of our re-search.

Keywords

• the ten year's war of independence of 1868–1878
• the war of independence of 1895–1898
• the spanish-american war of 1898
• the manifesto of independence
• the constitutions of guáymaro
• baraguá
• jimaguayú