Establishment of mambisa inventiveness in Cuba's Ten Years' War (1868-1878)

Abstract

The beginning of the Ten Years' War (1868-1878) in Cuba represented a challenge for the independentists of
the largest of the Antilles not only because it meant the opening of the independence process of the Island
against the Spanish colonial regime, but also because of the lack of military experience and the lack of
weapons of the Cubans to face a well-structured and organized army like the Iberian one. For this reason, this
article is aimed at analyzing the factors that motivated the creation of military innovations within the Liberation
Army and their application during the aforementioned conflagration, using for such purposes the basic
concepts used in the social studies of science and technology, such as technological obsolescence,
technological transfer, innovation and technological diffusion. To carry it out, an extensive specialized
bibliography was consulted, some written by the participants in said process themselves, which allow the
understanding of the motives that motivated the implementation of these innovations. In this sense, its novelty
lies in the enrichment of the historiographical conceptions already existing within the work of historians and
other social scientists of the Island and, at the same time, its use as a pedagogical complement for the teaching
of national history in the different educational levels of the country.