Cubans on Monday recall the 154th anniversary of the date that marked a new course, October 10, 1868, for the then jewel of the Spanish crown in America.

That day in history not only marked the beginning of the war of independence that would last ten years and ended without the insurrectionists, exhausted and divided, could achieve freedom from Spanish colonialism.

It also marked the end of slavery in Cuba when lawyer Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, ringing the bells of La Demajagua sugar mill, proclaimed the liberation of slaves and called the Cubans to take up arms along with other patriots of eastern Cuba.

That event was, according to historians, a triumph of the independentist ideas against those who advocated for continuing the submission to the metropolis, those who were satisfied with reformism, or those who were even in favor of the annexation into the United States.

With the struggles that would continue for a decade in the first war for Cuba’s independence, the patriotic conscience among the Cubans matured, and with it, the Cuban nation emerged.

The struggle started in eastern Cuba soon spread to other regions of the country. Although independence was not finally achieved, it had a decisive influence on the history of Cuba.