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 ofthe largest of the Antilles not only because it meant the opening of the independence process of the Islandagainst the Spanish colonial regime, but also because of the lack of military experience and the lack ofweapons of the Cubans to face a well-structured and organized army like the Iberian one. For this reason, thisarticle is aimed at analyzing the factors that motivated the creation of military innovations within the LiberationArmy and their application during the aforementioned conflagration, using for such purposes the basicconcepts 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 specializedbibliography was consulted, some written by the participants in said process themselves, which allow theunderstanding of the motives that motivated the implementation of these innovations. In this sense, its noveltylies in the enrichment of the historiographical conceptions already existing within the work of historians andother social scientists of the Island and, at the same time, its use as a pedagogical complement for the teachingof national history in the different educational levels of the country.