The Ten Years' War (Spanish: Guerra de los Diez Años; 1868–1878), also known as the Great War (Guerra Grande) and the War of '68, was a war of independence of Cuba from Spain. The uprising was led by Cuban-born planters and other wealthy natives. On 10 October 1868, sugar mill owner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and his followers proclaimed independence, beginning the conflict. This was the first of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Little War (1879–1880) and the Cuban War of Independence (1895–1898). The final three months of the last conflict escalated with United States involvement, leading to the Spanish–American War.
Background
Slavery
The Cuban bourgeoisie demanded fundamental social and economic reforms from the Spanish Crown. Lax enforcement of the slave trade ban had resulted in a dramatic increase in imports of Africans, estimated at 90,000 slaves from 1856 to 1860. This occurred despite a strong abolitionist movement on the island, and rising costs among the slave-holding planters in the east. New technologies and farming techniques made large numbers of slaves unnecessary and prohibitively expensive. In the economic crisis of 1857 many businesses failed, including many sugar plantations and sugar refineries. The abolitionist cause gained strength, favoring a gradual emancipation of slaves with financial compensation from the government for slaveholders. Additionally, some planters preferred hiring Chinese immigrants as indentured workers and in anticipation of ending slavery. Before the 1870s, more than 125,000 were sent to Cuba.
In May 1865, Cuban criollo elites placed four demands upon the Spanish Parliament: tariff reform, political representation in Parliament, judicial equality for all Spaniards (including Cubans), and full enforcement of the slave trade ban.
Colonial policies
The Spanish Parliament at the time was changing; gaining much influence were reactionary, traditionalist politicians who intended to eliminate all liberal reforms. The power of military tribunals was increased; the colonial government imposed a six percent tax increase on the Cuban planters and businesses. Additionally, all political opposition and the press were silenced. Dissatisfaction in Cuba spread on a massive scale as the mechanisms to express it were restricted. This discontent was particularly felt by the powerful planters and hacienda owners in Eastern Cuba.
The failure of the latest efforts by the reformist movements, the demise of the "Information Board," and another economic crisis in 1866/67 heightened social tensions on the island. The colonial administration continued to make huge profits which were not re-invested in the island for the benefit of its residents. It funded military expenditures (44% of the revenue), colonial government's expenses (41%), and sent some money to the Spanish colony of Fernando Po (12%). The European Spaniards (known as peninsulares) concentrated a good deal of the island's wealth through their paramount role in Cuban trade. In addition, the Cuban-born population still had no political rights and no representation in Parliament. Objections to these conditions sparked the first serious independence movement, especially in the eastern part of the island.
Revolutionary conspiracy
In July 1867, the "Revolutionary Committee of Bayamo" was founded under the leadership of Cuba's wealthiest plantation owner, Francisco Vicente Aguilera. The conspiracy rapidly spread to Oriente's larger towns, most of all Manzanillo, where Carlos Manuel de Céspedes became the main protagonist of the uprising in 1868. Originally from Bayamo, Céspedes owned an estate and sugar mill known as La Demajagua. The Spanish, aware of Céspedes' anti-colonial intransigence, tried to force him into submission by imprisoning his son Oscar. Céspedes refused to negotiate and Oscar was executed.
History
Cry of Yara uprising and the 10th of October Manifesto
Céspedes and his followers had planned the uprising to begin 14 October, but it had to be moved up four days earlier, because the Spaniards had discovered their plan of revolt. In the early morning of 10 October, Céspedes issued the cry of independence, the "10th of October Manifesto" at La Demajagua, which signaled the start of an all-out military uprising against Spanish rule in Cuba. Céspedes freed his slaves and asked them to join the struggle. 10 October is now commemorated in Cuba as a national holiday called the Cry of Yara (Spanish: Grito de Yara).
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes called on men of all races to join the fight for freedom. He raised the new flag of an independent Cuba, and rang the Bell of La Demajagua to celebrate his proclamation from the steps of the sugar mill of the manifesto signed by him and 15 others. It cataloged Spain's mistreatment of Cuba and then expressed the movement's aims:
Our aim is to enjoy the benefits of freedom, for whose use, God created man. We sincerely profess a policy of brotherhood, tolerance, and justice, and to consider all men equal, and to not exclude anyone from these benefits, not even Spaniards, if they choose to remain and live peacefully among us.
Our aim is that the people participate in the creation of laws, and in the distribution and investment of the contributions.
Our aim is to abolish slavery and to compensate those deserving compensation. We seek freedom of assembly, freedom of the press and the freedom to bring back honest governance; and to honor and practice the inalienable rights of men, which is the foundations of the independence and the greatness of a people.
Our aim is to throw off the Spanish yoke, and to establish a free and independent nation….
When Cuba is free, it will have a constitutional government created in an enlightened manner.
During the first few days, the uprising almost failed: Céspedes intended to occupy the nearby town of Yara on 11 October. In spite of this initial setback, the uprising of Yara was supported in various regions of the Oriente province, and the independence movement continued to spread throughout the eastern region of Cuba. On 13 October, the rebels took eight towns in the province that favoured the insurgency and acquisition of arms. By October's end, the insurrection had enlisted some 12,000 volunteers.
Military responses
That same month, Máximo Gómez taught the Cuban forces what would be their most lethal tactic: the machete charge. He was a former cavalry officer for the Spanish Army in the Dominican Republic. Forces were taught to combine use of firearms with machetes, for a double attack against the Spanish. When the Spaniards (following then-standard tactics) formed a square, they were vulnerable to rifle fire from infantry under cover, and pistol and carbine fire from charging cavalry. In the event, as with the Haitian Revolution, the European forces suffered the most fatalities due to yellow fever because the Spanish-born troops had no acquired immunity to this endemic tropical disease of the island.
Escalation
After three days of combat, the rebels seized the important city of Bayamo. In the enthusiasm of this victory, poet and musician Perucho Figueredo composed Cuba's national anthem, "La Bayamesa”. The first government of the Republic in Arms, headed by Céspedes, was established in Bayamo. The city was retaken by the Spanish after 3 months on 12 January, but the fighting had burned it to the ground.
The war spread in Oriente: on 4 November 1868, Camagüey rose up in arms during the Las Clavellinas Uprising and, in early February 1869, Las Villas followed. The uprising was not supported in the westernmost provinces of Pinar del Río, Havana and Matanzas. With few exceptions (Vuelta Abajo), resistance was clandestine. A staunch supporter of the rebellion was José Martí who, at the age of 16, was detained and condemned to 16 years of hard labour. He was later deported to Spain. Eventually he developed as a leading Latin American intellectual and Cuba's foremost national hero, its primary architect of the 1895–98 Cuban War of Independence.
After some initial victories and defeats, in 1868 Céspedes replaced Gomez as head of the Cuban Army with United States General Thomas Jordan, a veteran of Confederate States Army in the American Civil War. He brought a well-equipped force, but General Jordan's reliance on regular tactics, although initially effective, left the families of Cuban rebels far too vulnerable to the "ethnic cleansing" tactics of the ruthless Blas Villate, Count of Valmaceda (also spelled Balmaceda). Valeriano Weyler, known as the "Butcher Weyler" in the 1895–1898 War, fought alongside the Count of Balmaceda.
After General Jordan resigned and returned to the US, Cespedes returned Máximo Gómez to his command. Gradually a new generation of skilled battle-tested Cuban commanders rose from the ranks, including Antonio Maceo Grajales, José Maceo, Calixto García, Vicente García González and Federico Fernández Cavada. Raised in the United States and with an American mother, Fernández Cavada had served as a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War. His brother Adolfo Fernández Cavada also joined the Cuban fighting for independence. On 4 April 1870, the senior Federico Fernández Cavada was named Commander-in-Chief of all the Cuban forces. Other war leaders of note fighting on the Cuban Mambí side included Donato Mármol, Luis Marcano-Alvarez, Carlos Roloff, Enrique Loret de Mola, Julio Sanguily, Domingo de Goicuría, Guillermo Moncada, Quintin Bandera, Benjamín Ramirez, and Julio Grave de Peralta.
Because of the escalating violence, after the first year of the war, around 100,000 Cubans fled the country. Generally speaking, those rich enough settled in Europe or else in northern cities in America like New York, Philadelphia, or Boston. Meanwhile, the poorer workers moved to south Florida, first settling in Key West, and then in Tampa.
Constitutional assembly
On 10 April 1869, a constitutional assembly took place in the town of Guáimaro. It was intended to provide the revolution with greater organizational and juridical unity, with representatives from the areas that had joined the uprising. The assembly discussed whether a centralized leadership should be in charge of both military and civilian affairs, or if there should be a separation between civilian government and military leadership, the latter being subordinate to the first. The overwhelming majority voted for the separation option. Céspedes was elected president of this assembly; and General Ignacio Agramonte y Loynáz and Antonio Zambrana, principal authors of the proposed Constitution, were elected secretaries. After completing its work, the Assembly reconstituted itself as the House of Representatives and the state's supreme power. They elected Salvador Cisneros Betancourt as president, Miguel Jerónimo Gutiérrez as vice president, and Agramonte and Zambrana as secretaries. Céspedes was elected on 12 April 1869, as the first president of the Republic in Arms and General Manuel de Quesada (who had fought in Mexico under Benito Juárez during the French invasion of that country), as Chief of the Armed Forces.
Spanish repressions
By early 1869, the Spanish authorities had failed to reach an agreement with the insurrection forces. Harsher measures to repress the insurrection and its supporters were taken, and troops began to flood in from the Peninsula.
Apart from the regular army, the government relied on the Voluntary Corps, a militia created in 1855 a few years earlier to face the announced invasion by John A. Quitman in collaboration with Ramón Pintó. By early-1869 more than 70,000 men, both peninsulares and creoles had joined the Volunteers. In the big cities, the Volunteers were used to keep public order in the cities, earning some notoriety for their lack of discipline and harsh acts of repression against independence supporters. Its forces executed eight students from the University of Havana on 27 November 1871. The corps seized the steamship Virginius in international waters on 31 October 1873. Starting on 4 November, its forces executed 53 persons, including the captain, most of the crew, and a number of Cuban insurgents on board. The serial executions were stopped only by the intervention of a British man-of-war under the command of Sir Lambton Lorraine.