Cubans Mark Anniversary of 1895 War against Spanish Colonial Rule

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 24 (acn) Cubans mark the 120 anniversary of the resumption in 1895 of the independence war against Spanish colonial rule.

The 1895 independence campaign took place after the 10-year 1868 war and following activism of independence leader and champion of the war Jose Marti, who traveled to different US and Latin American cities to bring together the main chiefs of the previous war and collect resources for the new campaign.

By that time, Cuba was plunged into economic crisis, while the Spanish colonial rule denied Cubans their political rights. In this scenario, the war took place but was unsuccessful due to lack of unity among military chiefs, which was taken advantage of by the United States.

The lack of consensus among the Cubans gave the U.S. the chance to break the representative bodies of the nation, and add to this the killing in combat of main leaders like Jose Marti and Antonio Maceo.

However, the 1895 independence war served for further actions in the military and political arena as a learned lesson, particularly in reference to a single command and the danger posed by the United States not only to Cuba but for the rest of Latin America.