The birth of constitutional thinking in Cuba. The first constitutional projects

The emergence of Cuban constitutional thinking as a political culture is directly related to the events in Spain of the early decades of the 19th century, in particular, with the abdication of the Spanish King of Charles IV and the captivity of the legitimate Spanish King Ferdinand VII, the ascension to the Spanish throne of a new dynasty, the libera-tion war of the Spanish people against the French occupation (1808-1814), preparations for the convening of the General Courtes (1808–1810), the drafting and adoption of the 1812 Cadiz Constitution. The participation and legislative activities of Cuban deputies in the discus-sion of the articles of the Cadiz Constitution have become a kind of school and an important experience of constitutional creation. The first constitutional drafts that had emerged on the island at the time showed that Cuba, despite its colonial status, had embraced new liberal politi-cal and philosophical ideas brought from the European centre to the Latin American periphery. The authors of the first constitutional pro-jects were prominent public and political figures of Cuba, philosophers and economists, representatives of the "Creole" Enlightenment - Francisco Arango y Parrenio (1765–1837), Jose Agustin Caballero (1762–1835) and lawyer Joaquin Infante (1775–1827?). The article introduces the reader to the first projects of autonomy for Cuba and the first project of independence.