134-667: In the history of the Dominican Republic , the period of España Boba (Spanish: "Meek Spain") lasted from 9 July 1809 to 1 December 1821, during which the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo was under Spanish rule, but the Spanish government exercised minimal powers because its resources were attenuated by the Peninsular War and the various Spanish American wars of independence . The period ended when Dominican officials declared
268-613: A 10,000-strong army. Having no capacity to resist, Núñez de Cáceres surrendered the capital. The twenty-two-year Haitian occupation that followed is recalled by Dominicans as a period of brutal military rule, though the reality is more complex. It led to large-scale land expropriations and failed efforts to force production of export crops, impose military services, restrict the use of the Spanish language, and eliminate traditional customs such as cockfighting . It reinforced Dominicans' perceptions of themselves as different from Haitians in "language, race, religion and domestic customs". Yet, this
402-506: A French-appointed king, Joseph Bonaparte , tried to claim the allegiance of Spaniards everywhere. Exiled Dominicans who were opposed to the French began returning to the island and organized small expeditionary forces in Puerto Rico under Juan Sánchez Ramírez , which received British naval aid. Britain had never accepted the cessation of Santo Domingo to France, which it considered a violation of
536-545: A Haitian movement in overthrowing Boyer. Because they had revealed themselves as revolutionaries working for Dominican independence, the new Haitian president, Charles Rivière-Hérard , exiled or imprisoned the leading Trinitarios (Trinitarians). At the same time, Buenaventura Báez , an Azua mahogany exporter and deputy in the Haitian National Assembly , was negotiating with the French Consul-General for
670-527: A constitutive act was ordered to petition the union of Spanish Haiti with Simon Bolivar ’s Gran Colombia . In November 1821 a new conspiracy emerged in the mountainous region bordering Haiti to join Santo Domingo to Haiti. The conspiracy was popular among the middle and lower classes, small shop keepers, a few key ranchers , and among Criollos and Mulattoes . The movement spread in the Sur and Cibao regions. At
804-520: A coup d'état to return Santo Domingo to French rule. Their effort failed and they were executed. Also executed were the leaders of an attempted slave and free black revolt. When the authorities refused to consider freeing the Dominican slaves, as had been hoped, or fully implementing the Spanish Constitution of 1812 , which would have granted Spanish nationality to free blacks, if not granting them
938-455: A distinction between nationality and citizenship (that is, those with the right to vote). The Constitution gave Spanish citizenship to natives of the territories that had belonged to the Spanish monarchy in both hemispheres. The Constitution of 1812 included Indigenous peoples of the Americas to Spanish citizenship, but the acquisition of citizenship for any casta of Afro-American peoples of
1072-539: A fortified position. The Haitian army counterattacked on July 22, driving the invaders back across the frontier. On August 6, 1845, Haitian President Luis Pierrot ordered an invasion of the Dominican Republic. On September 17, Dominican troops defeated the Haitian vanguard on the southern frontier, repelling a cavalry charge. Pierrot issued " letters of marque " against ships trading with the Dominican Republic and declared all Dominican ports closed on September 27, but lacked
1206-720: A fraud on the Spaniards similar to those he had carried out in the Cibao. When negotiations concluded and Spain agreed on an amortization rate for Dominican pesos, Santana printed 33 million more, so Spain would be forced to provide far more money to him and his associates, to whom he distributed the pesos as gifts. Under the annexation terms, General Santana retained military command of the new Spanish province, answering only to Spain's regional commander in Puerto Rico, but it soon became obvious that Spanish authorities planned to deprive him of his power. His associates were removed from military positions,
1340-452: A group who fled to the mountains and attacked the Spanish repeatedly for fourteen years. The Spanish ultimately offered him a peace treaty and gave Enriquillo and his followers their own town in 1534. In 1501, the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand I and Isabella , first granted permission to the colonists of the Caribbean to import African slaves, who began arriving to the island in 1503. In 1510,
1474-464: A labor force to meet the growing demands of sugar cane cultivation led to an exponential increase in the importation of slaves over the following two decades. The sugar mill owners soon formed a new colonial elite and convinced the Spanish king to allow them to elect the members of the Real Audiencia from their ranks. Poorer colonists subsisted by hunting the herds of wild cattle that roamed throughout
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#17330853026731608-540: A lot of the captured rebels hanged. While sugar cane dramatically increased Spain's earnings on the island, large numbers of the newly imported slaves fled into the nearly impassable mountain ranges in the island's interior, joining the growing communities of cimarrónes —literally, 'wild animals'. By the 1530s, cimarrón bands had become so numerous that in rural areas the Spaniards could only safely travel outside their plantations in large armed groups. When Archdeacon Alonso de Castro toured Hispaniola in 1542, he estimated
1742-409: A majority in the future Cortes. The majority of representatives from peninsular Spain opposed those proposals as they wished to limit the weight of non- peninsulares . According to the best estimates of the time, continental Spain had an estimated population of between 10 and 11 million, and the overseas provinces had a combined population of around 15 to 16 million. The Cortes ultimately approved
1876-733: A model for liberal constitutions of several Mediterranean and Latin American nations. It served as the model for the Norwegian Constitution of 1814, the Portuguese Constitution of 1822 and the Mexican one of 1824 , and was implemented with minor modifications in various Italian states by the Carbonari during their revolt of 1820 and 1821. The Plan de Iguala in Mexico in 1821 was a reaction to
2010-655: A mutiny of army officers in Andalusia demanding the implementation of the Constitution. The movement found support among the northern cities and provinces of Spain, and by 7 March the king had restored the Constitution. Over the next two years, the other European monarchies became alarmed at the liberals' success and at the Congress of Verona in 1822 approved the intervention of royalist French forces in Spain to support Ferdinand VII. After
2144-483: A navy to enforce this. Haitian privateers attacked Dominican merchant ships, damaging their trade. On September 27, 1845, Dominican troops defeated a Haitian army at the battle of "Beler," a frontier fortification, resulting in the deaths of three Haitian generals, including the army’s commander. On October 28, another Haitian force attacked the frontier fort "El Invencible" but was repulsed after five hours of fighting. A Haitian squadron carrying troops to Puerto Plata
2278-451: A new Haitian invasion in 1849, Santana marched on Santo Domingo, deposing Jimenes. At his behest, Congress elected Buenaventura Báez as president. In 1853, Santana was elected president for his second term, forcing Báez into exile. After repulsing the last Haitian invasion, Santana negotiated a treaty leasing a portion of Samaná Peninsula to a U.S. company; popular opposition forced him to abdicate, enabling Báez to return and seize power. With
2412-615: A political revolution were taken, since prior to the Napoleonic intervention, Spain had been ruled as an absolute monarchy by the Bourbons and their Hapsburg predecessors. Although the Cortes was not unanimous in its liberalism, the new Constitution significantly reduced the power of the crown, and the Catholic Church (although Catholicism remained the state religion ). As the principal aim of
2546-403: A presidential form of government with many liberal tendencies, but it was marred by Article 210, imposed by Santana on the constitutional assembly by force, giving him the privileges of a dictatorship until the war of independence was over. These privileges not only served him to win the war but also allowed him to persecute, execute and drive into exile his political opponents, among which Duarte
2680-469: A process that led to the collapse of the Spanish empire. The Napoleonic regime in Madrid forced two issues: the relative freedom of the colonies to pursue their own affairs, and the rights to representation in imperial assemblies." As Spaniards in the peninsula and overseas grappled with the new political reality, for them it created a crisis of legitimacy of rule. Many places in Spain created juntas to rule in
2814-689: A rebellion and the promulgation of a new system of government under the Constitution. Abascal was able to control the electoral process and control of the press (article 371) despite the provisions of the Constitution mandating its freedom. The constitution was not promulgated in Quito until 18 July 1813. When Ferdinand VII was restored in March 1814 by the Allied Powers, it is not clear whether he immediately made up his mind as to whether to accept or reject this new charter of Spanish government. He first promised to uphold
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#17330853026732948-453: A reform of the tax system, the replacement of feudal privileges by freedom of contract , and the recognition of the property owner's right to use his property as he saw fit. Three basic principles were soon ratified by the Cortes: that sovereignty resides in the nation , the legitimacy of Ferdinand VII as king of Spain, and the inviolability of the deputies. With this, the first steps towards
3082-519: A short-lived independence on 30 November 1821. In February 1822, Haiti annexed former Santo Domingo, leading to an occupation that lasted until 1844. Spanish Santo Domingo had been ceded to France as a result of the Peace of Basel in 1795. Many Dominicans chose to go into exile in Cuba , Puerto Rico and other Spanish areas. France, nevertheless, maintained only nominal control over the acquired area, with most of
3216-495: A transition towards more stable democracy . The islands of the Caribbean were first settled around 6,000 years ago by hunter-gatherer peoples originating from Central America or northern South America. The Arawakan-speaking ancestors of the Taíno moved into the Caribbean from South America during the 1st millennium BC, reaching Hispaniola by around 600 AD. These Arawakan peoples engaged in farming, fishing, hunting and gathering, and
3350-502: A twelve-year period of Spanish rule, known in Dominican history as España Boba ('the Foolish Spain'). The population of the new Spanish colony stood at approximately 104,000. Of this number, about 30,000 were slaves, working predominantly on cattle ranches, and the rest a mixture of Spanish, taino and black. The European Spaniards were few, and consisted principally of Catalans and Canary Islanders . During this period in time,
3484-535: A year of civil war, Santana captured Santo Domingo in June 1858, overthrew both Báez and Valverde and installed himself as president. Pedro Santana inherited a bankrupt government on the brink of collapse and initiated negotiations with Queen Isabella II of Spain to have the eastern two-thirds of the island reconverted into a Spanish overseas territory. The U.S. Civil War rendered the United States incapable of enforcing
3618-608: The Antiguo Régimen , the taxes from Spain's overseas possessions went directly to the royal treasury. Under the Constitution of 1812, it would go to the state administrative apparatus. The impact of the 1812 Constitution on the emerging states of Spanish America was quite direct. Miguel Ramos Arizpe of Mexico, Joaquín Fernández de Leiva of Chile, Vicente Morales Duárez of Peru and José Mejía Lequerica of Ecuador , among other significant figures in founding Spanish American republics, were active participants at Cádiz. One provision of
3752-529: The Battle of Trocadero liberated Ferdinand from control by the Cortes in August 1823, he turned on the liberals and constitutionalists with fury. After Ferdinand's death in 1833, the Constitution was in force again briefly in 1836 and 1837, while the Constitution of 1837 was being drafted. Since 1812, Spain has had a total of seven constitutions; the current one has been in force since 1978. The Cortes of Cádiz produced
3886-519: The Catholic Church with the French slave-masters who had exploited them before independence, confiscated all church property, deported all foreign clergy, and severed the ties of the remaining clergy to the Vatican . Santo Domingo's university , the oldest in the Western Hemisphere, lacking students, teachers, and resources, closed down. In order to receive diplomatic recognition from France and end
4020-447: The House of Habsburg in Spain in 1700 and introduced economic reforms that gradually began to revive trade in Santo Domingo. The crown progressively relaxed the rigid controls and restrictions on commerce between Spain and the colonies and among the colonies. The last flotas sailed in 1737; the monopoly port system was abolished shortly thereafter. By the middle of the century, the population
4154-532: The Monroe Doctrine . In March 1861, Santana officially restored the Dominican Republic to Spain . This move was widely rejected and there were several failed uprisings against Spanish rule. On July 4, 1861, former President Francisco del Rosario Sánchez was captured and executed by Santana after leading a failed invasion of Santo Domingo from Haiti. Santana, who had been given the title of Marquess of Las Carreras by Queen Isabella II, thought he could perpetrate
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4288-520: The Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, he abolished the constitution on 4 May and arrested many liberal leaders on 10 May, justifying his actions as the repudiation of an unlawful constitution made by a Cortes assembled in his absence and without his consent. Thus he came back to assert the Bourbon doctrine that the sovereign authority resided in his person only. Ferdinand's absolutist rule rewarded
4422-556: The Río de la Plata , three from New Granada , and three from Venezuela , one from Santo Domingo , two from Cuba , one from Puerto Rico and two from the Philippines. Although most of the overseas representatives were Criollos , the majority wanted to extend suffrage to all indigenous, mixed-race and free black people of the Spanish Empire, which would have granted the overseas territories
4556-592: The Second Dominican Republic was established. The country later experienced its first occupation by the United States from 1916 to 1924, followed by the establishment of the Third Dominican Republic . During the 19th century, the Dominican Republic frequently engaged in conflicts involving the French, Haitians, Spanish, and internal factions. This period was characterized by a society heavily influenced by caudillos , who exercised control over
4690-449: The Taíno genocide . By 1535, only a few dozen were still alive. During this period, the colony's Spanish leadership changed several times. When Columbus departed on another exploration, Francisco de Bobadilla became governor. Settlers' allegations of mismanagement by Columbus helped create a tumultuous political situation. In 1502, Nicolás de Ovando replaced de Bobadilla as governor, with an ambitious plan to expand Spanish influence in
4824-540: The Treaty of Ryswick . In 1655, Oliver Cromwell of England dispatched a fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir William Penn , to capture Santo Domingo. After meeting heavy resistance, the English retreated. Despite the fact that the English were defeated in their attempt to capture the island , they nevertheless captured the nearby Spanish colony of Jamaica , and other foreign strongholds subsequently began to be established throughout
4958-443: The Treaty of Utrecht . The Dominican and Puerto Rican forces defeated the smaller but better-armed French army on 7 November 1808, at the Battle of Palo Hincado . During the next twelve years, Santo Domingo's economy suffered. Most farming was solely for subsistence, there was little specie on the island, and, once political stability returned to Spain in 1814, its focus was on the more productive island of Cuba . However, during
5092-507: The bourgeoisie at the expense of the hereditary aristocracy both on the Peninsula and in the Americas, where it was particularly to the advantage of the Criollos since they came to dominate the ayuntamientos . In Cuzco , the local elites welcomed the opportunity to participate in governance on the ayuntamiento. They distributed copies of the Constitution, allied with the provincial deputation and
5226-566: The 33 million pesos he printed were refused for amortization, and he was ultimately deposed in July 1862 and replaced with Felipe Ribero y Lemoine . Spanish Constitution of 1812 The Political Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy (Spanish: Constitución Política de la Monarquía Española ), also known as the Constitution of Cádiz (Spanish: Constitución de Cádiz ) and as La Pepa ,
5360-408: The American and Asian territories. Most of the peninsulares , therefore, shared the absolutists' inclination towards centralized government . Another aspect of the treatment of the overseas territories in the constitution, one of the many that would prove not to be to the taste of Ferdinand VII, that by converting the territories to provinces, the king was deprived of a great economic resource. Under
5494-402: The Americas was through naturalization excluding slaves . Spanish nationals were defined as all people born, naturalized or permanently residing for more than ten years in Spanish territories. Article 1 of the Constitution read: "The Spanish nation is the collectivity of the Spaniards of both hemispheres." Voting rights were granted to Spanish nationals whose ancestry originated from Spain or
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5628-403: The Constitution (article 310) provided for the creation of a local government (an ayuntamiento ) for every settlement of over 1,000 people. The provision was designed to transform the institution from one controlled by elites to representative institutions through elections. Elections were indirect, favouring the wealthy and socially prominent. The proposal came from Ramos Arizpe. That benefited
5762-632: The Constitution while besieged by French troops, first on Isla de León (now San Fernando ), then an island separated from the mainland by a shallow waterway on the Atlantic side of the Bay of Cádiz , and within the small, strategically located city of Cádiz itself When the Cortes convened in Cádiz in 1810, there appeared to be two possibilities for Spain's political future if the French could be driven out. The first, represented especially by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos ,
5896-518: The Cuban economy, and so, while Santo Domingo was experiencing a loss of its white planter and landowning class, Cuba was welcoming a growing and enterprising bourgeoisie , which complimented well the increasingly powerful sugar planter class. The Dominican colonial elite, on the other hand, had suffered substantially from the effects of the Haitian Revolution and did not recover. The ruling elite of
6030-442: The Dominican Republic came under the rule of Rafael Trujillo , a dictator who maintained control until his assassination in 1961. Following Trujillo's regime, Juan Bosch was democratically elected president in 1962 but was removed from office in a military coup d'état in 1963 . The Dominican Civil War in 1965 lead to a U.S.-led intervention prompted by an uprising to restore Bosch to power and allegations of communist support for
6164-541: The Dominican Republic, but the Dominicans defeated the Haitian army by March 30. On April 15, three Dominican schooners defeated a Haitian brigantine and two Haitian schooners off the coast of Azua. As a result of these Haitian defeats, Rivière-Hérard was overthrown on May 3, leading to a temporary suspension of Haitian military operations. On June 17, 1845, Dominican troops invaded Haitian territory in retaliation for border raids, capturing two Haitian towns and establishing
6298-456: The Haitian army personally commanded by Soulouque during the two-day Battle of Las Carreras . The battle opened with a cannon barrage and devolved into hand-to-hand combat, with neither side taking prisoners. In November 1849, President Báez launched a naval offensive against Haiti. Entire villages along the Haitian coast were plundered and burned, and the crews of captured enemy ships were butchered without regard to age or gender. By late 1854,
6432-588: The Hispaniolan nations were at war again. In November, two Dominican ships captured a Haitian warship and bombarded two Haitian ports. In November 1855, a force of 30,000 Haitian troops invaded the Dominican Republic along three routes: one from the north, one through the center, and one from the south. The Dominican frontier forces retreated in good order and the Dominican navy prevented the Haitians from receiving supplies by sea. On December 22, Dominican troops defeated
6566-749: The Internal Government of Provinces and of the Pueblos (articles 309–323) lays out governance at the provincial and local level. Chapter VII Of the Financial Contributions (articles 338–355) dealt with taxation. Chapter VIII Of the National Military Force (articles 356–365) specified how the military would operate. Chapter IX Of Public Education (articles 366–371) called for uniform public education from primary schools through university, as well as freedom of expression (article 371). Chapter X Of
6700-540: The Netherlands cutting them off from the critical salt supplies necessary for their herring industry. The Dutch responded by sourcing new salt supplies from Spanish America where colonists were more than happy to trade. So large numbers of Dutch traders and buccaneers joined their English and French counterparts on the Spanish Main . In 1605, Spain was infuriated that Spanish settlements on the northern and western coasts of
6834-479: The New World, the city of La Isabela . Isabela nearly failed because of hunger and disease. In 1496, Santo Domingo was built and became the new capital, and remains the oldest continuously inhabited European city in the Americas. An estimated 400,000 Tainos living on the island were soon enslaved to work in gold mines. By 1508, their numbers had decreased to around 60,000 because of forced labor, hunger, disease, and
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#17330853026736968-572: The Observance of the Constitution and the Way to Proceed to Amend it (articles 366–384). The constitution had no bill of rights , which had been the case of the Constitution of the United States when it was first ratified. Rights and obligations of citizens were embedded in individual articles of the Spanish Constitution. Male suffrage , which was not determined by property qualifications, favoured
7102-478: The Peninsular War, there were several attempts to establish juntas , during the years 1809-1812. Some of these conspiracies attempted to create an independent state, while others sought to join the area to Haiti. An early attempt took place in 1809 under the leadership of a Habanero , simply known as "Don Fermín." He was arrested, held for seven years at Fort Ozama before being sent to Spain. Another conspiracy
7236-488: The Spanish crown wielded little to no influence in the colony of Santo Domingo. Some wealthy cattle ranchers had become leaders, and sought to bring control and order in the southeast of the colony where the "law of machete" ruled the land. On December 1, 1821, the former Captain general in charge of the colony, José Núñez de Cáceres , influenced by all the Revolutions that were going on around him, finally decided to overthrow
7370-445: The Spanish government and proclaimed the independence of " Spanish Haiti ". The white and mulatto slave owners on the eastern part of the island—recognizing their vulnerability both to Spanish and to Haitian attack and also seeking to maintain their slaves as property—attempted to annex themselves to Gran Colombia . While this request was in transit, Jean-Pierre Boyer , the ruler of Haiti, invaded Santo Domingo on February 9, 1822, with
7504-505: The Taínos to be either weak or misleading, and they began to treat the tribes with violence. Columbus successfully tempered this trend, and he and his men departed from Quisqueya, the Taínos' name for the island, on good terms. After the sinking of the Santa María , Columbus established a small fort to support his claim to the island. The fort was called La Navidad because the shipwrecking and
7638-663: The West Indies. Madrid sought to contest such encroachments on its own imperial control by using Santo Domingo as a forward military base , but Spanish power was by now too depleted to recapture lost colonies. The city itself was furthermore subjected to a smallpox epidemic, cacao blight, and hurricane in 1666; another storm two years later; a second epidemic in 1669; a third hurricane in September 1672; plus an earthquake in May 1673 that killed twenty-four residents. The House of Bourbon replaced
7772-606: The abolition of slavery on behalf of the French Republic. Shortly afterwards, Napoleon dispatched an army which subdued the whole island and ruled it for a few months. Mulattoes and blacks again rose up against these French in October 1802 and finally defeated them in November 1803. On 1 January 1804, the victors declared Saint-Domingue to be the independent republic of Haiti, the Taíno name for
7906-545: The building now known as the Real Teatro de las Cortes . The opening ceremonies included a civic procession, a mass , and a call by the president of the Regency, Pedro Quevedo y Quintana, the bishop of Ourense , for those present to fulfill their task loyally and efficiently. Still, the very act of resistance to the French involved a certain degree of deviation from the doctrine of royal sovereignty: if sovereignty resided entirely in
8040-492: The capital Guadalajara was the site of ongoing fighting. Among the most debated questions during the drafting of the constitution was the status of the native and mixed-race populations in Spain's possessions around the world. Most of the overseas provinces were represented, especially the most populous regions. Both the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the Viceroyalty of Peru had deputies present, as did Central America ,
8174-418: The cathedral chapter, all dominated by creoles, to oppose peninsular-born bureaucrats. The Constitution also brought in a certain measure of federalism through the back door, both on the peninsula and overseas: elected bodies at the local and provincial level might not always be in lockstep with the central government. The Constitution was signed in March 1812, but it was not promulgated immediately throughout
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#17330853026738308-403: The colony's administration staffed by Dominicans and Spaniards and Spanish laws and traditions maintained. The situation turned worse when the declaration of an independent Haiti in 1804 increased hostilities on the island and commerce with the western part of the island was lost. The start of the Peninsular War changed the political situation. Spain was now once again at war with France, although
8442-476: The constitution, but was repeatedly met in numerous towns by crowds who welcomed him as an absolute monarch, often smashing the markers that had renamed their central plazas as Plaza of the Constitution. Sixty-nine deputies of the Cortes signed the so-called Manifiesto de los Persas ("Manifesto of the Persians") encouraging him to restore absolutism. Within a matter of weeks, encouraged by conservatives and backed by
8576-469: The construction of Santo Domingo's fortified wall, and in 1560 decided to restrict sea travel to enormous, well-armed convoys. In another move, which would destroy Hispaniola 's sugar industry, in 1561 Havana , more strategically located in relation to the Gulf Stream , was selected as the designated stopping point for the merchant flotas , which had a royal monopoly on commerce with the Americas. In 1564,
8710-410: The coup. In 1966, Joaquín Balaguer , a caudillo , defeated Bosch in the presidential election and remained in power for 30 years. Due to U.S. pressure in response to flawed elections, Balaguer was compelled to shorten his term in 1996. Subsequent to this period, the Dominican Republic has conducted regular competitive elections, with opposition candidates successfully assuming the presidency, showing
8844-751: The empire. A new Cortes was called with delegates from Spain and the overseas components of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and the Philippines. The Spanish organized an interim Spanish government, the Supreme Central Junta and called for a Cortes to convene with representatives from all the Spanish provinces throughout the worldwide empire, in order to establish a government with a firm claim to legitimacy. The Junta first met on 25 September 1808 in Aranjuez and later in Seville , before retreating to Cádiz. Cádiz
8978-489: The empire. In New Spain, Viceroy Francisco Javier Venegas allowed the Constitution to be published on 19 September 1812. In Peru, the other major viceroyalty, Viceroy José Fernando Abascal had the Constitution published on 1 October 1812. Venegas had to deal immediately upon taking up his post as viceroy the massive uprising of Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla that had broken out days earlier. The inexperienced Venegas scrambled to handle two major simultaneous crises of power:
9112-479: The entire island was either Ayiti (land of high mountains) or Quisqueya (mother of all lands). Christopher Columbus reached the island of Hispañola on his first voyage , in December 1492. Guacanagarí , the chief who hosted Columbus and his men, treated them kindly and provided them with everything they desired. However, the Taínos' egalitarian social system clashed with the Europeans' feudalist system, which had more rigid class structures. The Europeans believed
9246-402: The entire island. Even after their defeat by the Haitians, a small French garrison remained in Santo Domingo. Slavery was reestablished and many of the émigré Spanish colonists returned. In 1805, after crowning himself Emperor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines invaded, reaching Santo Domingo before retreating in the face of a French naval squadron. In their retreat through the Cibao , the Haitians sacked
9380-448: The establishment of a French protectorate. In an uprising timed to preempt Báez, on February 27, 1844, the Trinitarios declared independence from Haiti, expelling all Haitians and confiscating their property. The Trinitarios were backed by Pedro Santana , a wealthy cattle-rancher from El Seibo who commanded a private army of peons who worked on his estates. On March 10, 1844, Rivière-Hérard sent three columns totaling 30,000 troops into
9514-412: The existing thirteen settlements on the island were brutally razed by Spanish troops – many of the inhabitants fought, escaped to the jungle, or fled to the safety of passing Dutch ships. The settlements of La Yaguana, and Bayaja, on the west and north coasts respectively of modern-day Haiti were burned, as were the settlements of Monte Cristi and Puerto Plata on the north coast and San Juan de la Maguana in
9648-450: The first constitutions that allowed universal male suffrage , with some exceptions, through a complex indirect electoral system . It extended political rights for representation to Spanish America and the Philippines, a significant step for the demands of American-born Spaniards. When King Ferdinand VII returned to power in 1814, he dissolved the Cortes and abrogated the constitution, re-establishing absolute monarchy . The constitution
9782-641: The first sizable shipment, consisting of 250 Black Ladinos , arrived in Hispaniola from Spain. Eight years later African-born slaves arrived in the West Indies . The Colony of Santo Domingo was organized as the Royal Audiencia of Santo Domingo in 1511. Sugar cane was introduced to Hispaniola from the Canary Islands , and the first sugar mill in the New World was established in 1516, on Hispaniola. The need for
9916-465: The first written Spanish constitution, promulgated in Cádiz on 19 March 1812, and is regarded as the founding document of liberalism in Spain. It is one of the first examples of classical liberalism or conservative liberalism worldwide. It came to be called the "sacred code" of the branch of liberalism that rejected a part of the French Revolution . During the early nineteenth century it served as
10050-583: The founding of the fort occurred on Christmas Day. While Columbus was away, the garrison manning the fort was wracked by divisions that evolved into conflict. The more rapacious men began to terrorize the Taíno, the Ciguayo , and the Macorix peoples, which included attempts to take their women. Guacanagarix tried to reach an accommodation with the Spaniards; however, the Spaniards and some of his own people viewed him as weak. The Spaniards treated him with contempt, including
10184-506: The great ranching families such as the Santanas came to be the leaders in the south east, and the law of the "machete" ruled for a time. Then on 9 November 1821 the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo was toppled by a group led by Spanish lieutenant governor Núñez de Cáceres, the colony's former administrator, and the rebels proclaimed independence from Spain on 30 November 1821. The new nation was known as Republic of Spanish Haiti . On 1 December 1821
10318-563: The island and selling their hides. The first major slave revolt in the Americas occurred in Santo Domingo on December 25, 1521, when enslaved Muslims of the Wolof nation led an uprising in the sugar plantation of admiral Don Diego Colon , son of Christopher Columbus . Many of these insurgents managed to escape to the mountains where they formed independent maroon communities, but the Admiral had
10452-503: The island drastically decreased due to the Taíno genocide . With fewer than 50,000 survivors, those remaining intermixed with Spaniards, Africans, and others, leading to the formation of the present-day tripartite Dominican population . The area that would become the Dominican Republic remained the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo until 1821, except during the Era de Francia , when it
10586-532: The island during the pre-Columbian era , dividing it into five chiefdoms . They referred to the eastern part of the island as Quisqueya , meaning 'mother of all lands.' Columbus claimed the island for Castile, naming it La Isla Española ('the Spanish Island'), which was later Latinized to Hispaniola . Following 25 years of Spanish occupation, the Taíno population in the Spanish-controlled regions of
10720-663: The island were carrying out large scale and illegal trade with the Dutch, who were at that time fighting a war of independence against Spain in Europe, and the English, a very recent enemy state, and so decided to forcibly resettle the colony's inhabitants closer to the city of Santo Domingo. This action, known as the Devastaciones de Osorio , proved disastrous; more than half of the resettled colonists died of starvation or disease, over 100,000 cattle were abandoned, and many slaves escaped. Five of
10854-416: The island's main inland cities Santiago de los Caballeros and Concepción de la Vega were destroyed by an earthquake. In the 1560s, English privateers joined the French in regularly raiding Spanish shipping in the Americas. With the conquest of the American mainland, Hispaniola quickly declined. Most Spanish colonists left for the silver-mines of Mexico and Peru , while new immigrants from Spain bypassed
10988-455: The island. Agriculture dwindled, new imports of slaves ceased, and white colonists, free blacks, and slaves alike lived in poverty, weakening the racial hierarchy and aiding intermixing, resulting in a population of predominantly mixed Spaniard, African, and Taíno descent. Except for the city of Santo Domingo, which managed to maintain some legal exports, Dominican ports were forced to rely on contraband trade, which, along with livestock, became
11122-515: The islands of the Spanish Caribbean , Florida , Chile , Upper Peru and the Philippines . The total number of representatives was 303, of which 37 were born in overseas territories although several of them were temporary substitute deputies [ suplentes ] elected by American refugees in the city of Cádiz: seven from New Spain, two from Central America, five from Peru, two from Chile, three from
11256-517: The kidnapping of some of his wives. Fed up, the powerful Cacique Caonabo of the Maguana Chiefdom attacked the Europeans and destroyed La Navidad. Guacanagarix was dismayed by these events but did not try hard to aid the Europeans, probably hoping that the troublesome outsiders would never return. In 1493, Columbus came back to the island on his second voyage and founded the first Spanish colony in
11390-407: The last Dominican stronghold before the capital. Since a Dominican flotilla dominated the coastal road with its cannons, he had to take a longer route to Azua and could not receive supplies from the sea. On April 2, President Manuel Jimenes called upon former President Santana to lead the defense. Azua fell to the Haitians on April 6, and a Dominican counterattack failed. On April 22, Santana defeated
11524-412: The liberal president Francisco del Rosario Sánchez in a military coup after Rosario Sánchez ousted the conservative Tomás Bobadilla from power. Santana inaugurated a military dictatorship with Bobadilla as a member of his junta. The Dominican Republic's first constitution was adopted on November 6, 1844. The state was commonly known as Santo Domingo in English until the early 20th century. It featured
11658-657: The maroon population at 2,000–3,000 persons, living mainly on the Cape of San Nicolas, in the Ciguayos, on the Samana peninsular, and on the Cape of Iguey. Latter that decade, there were also rebellions of enslaved people, led by Diego de Guzman, Diego de Campo, and Captain Lemba. Beginning in the 1520s, the Caribbean Sea was raided by increasingly numerous French pirates. In 1541, Spain authorized
11792-418: The monarch, then Charles and Ferdinand's abdications in favor of Napoleon would have made Joseph Bonaparte the legitimate ruler of Spain. The representatives who gathered at Cádiz were far more liberal than the elite of Spain taken as a whole, and they produced a document far more liberal than might have been produced in Spain were it not for the war. Few of the most conservative voices were at Cádiz, and there
11926-403: The name Spain persisted in using to designate Spanish American and the Philippines, which would be under the control of American-born and Philippine-born Spaniards. Despite these formal attempts to legitimize the rule of Joseph Bonaparte by gaining consent of the Cortes, it was rejected by Spaniards on the peninsula and Spanish America and the Philippines. It had great importance, since it "set off
12060-489: The nation as a personalised dictatorship . Between 1844 and 1914, the Dominican Republic underwent numerous leadership transitions, with 53 individuals assuming the presidency, although only three completed their terms. The country also saw the adoption of 19 constitutions, with many leaders obtaining power through military force. During this period, three presidents were assassinated: José Antonio Salcedo in 1864, Ulises Heureaux in 1899, and Ramón Cáceres in 1911. In 1930,
12194-502: The new constitution was the prevention of arbitrary and corrupt royal rule, it provided for a limited monarchy, which governed through ministers subject to parliamentary control. It laid out the structure of the three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. The constitution has 384 articles in 10 major chapters or (Títulos). Chapter I was Of the Spanish Nation and Spaniards (articles 1–9). Chapter II (articles 12–26)
12328-401: The notable exception of proclaiming Roman Catholicism as the official and sole legal religion in Spain, the constitution was one of the most liberal of its time: it affirmed national sovereignty , separation of powers , freedom of the press , free enterprise , abolished corporate privileges ( fueros ), and established a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system . It was one of
12462-421: The place of the legitimate monarch. A Supreme Central Junta was created to coordinate the multiplicity of juntas. Napoleon opened a new way for the Spanish Empire to be constituted. His vision acknowledged the aspirations of Spanish colonies for greater equality and autonomy. Spaniards rejecting Napoleon's rule meant they needed to offer political inducements for Spanish America and the Philippines to stay loyal to
12596-455: The position of the commercial class in the new parliament since there was no special provision for the Church or the nobility. Repeal of traditional property restrictions gave liberals the freer economy that they wanted. There was no provision for literacy of voters until 1830, which allowed men in the popular groups access to suffrage. The constitution set up a centralized administrative system for
12730-501: The region. It was he who dealt most brutally with the Taíno people. The Taino population declined by up to 95% in the century after the Spanish arrival, from a pre contact population of tens of thousands to 8,000,000. Many authors have described the treatment of the Taino in Hispaniola under the Spanish Empire as genocide. One rebel, however, successfully fought back. Enriquillo led
12864-496: The restoration or the re-conquest. Reflections on these terms, however, delve into differences between the two. All in all, being pondered whether this period should be viewed as a restoration of Spanish authority or a re-conquest of territories. Until the Napoleonic invasion of Spain in 1808, Ferdinand VII ruled as an absolute monarch. Napoleon forced Ferdinand's abdication as well as the renunciation of his father Charles IV 's rights, and then placed his brother Joseph Bonaparte on
12998-452: The right to vote , slaves and free blacks conspired to end slavery and to join the region to Haiti. The conspiracy was discovered and many were sentenced to lashes and jail terms. The four principal leaders, Pedro Seda, José Leocadio, Pedro Henríquez and a person simply known as Marcos were executed. Their heads were publicly displayed at various points of the capital. As the Spanish authorities showed little interest in their restored colony,
13132-480: The rural hateros (cattle ranchers) remained, even though they lost their principal market. Spain saw in the unrest an opportunity to seize all, or part, of the western third of the island in an alliance of convenience with the rebellious slaves. But after the slaves and French reconciled, the Spanish suffered a setback, and in 1795, France gained control of the whole island under the Treaty of Basel . In 1801, Toussaint Louverture arrived in Santo Domingo, proclaiming
13266-482: The same time another conspiracy in the capital, headed by José Núñez de Cáceres sought to free Santo Domingo and join it to Gran Colombia . Realizing that the pro-Haiti movement was gaining ground, he and his followers deposed Governor Pascual Real on 30 November 1821, and established the Independent State of Spanish Haiti . The new state had little support in the other regions of Santo Domingo and Núñez de Cáceres
13400-423: The same time, the Constitution recognized the civil rights of free blacks and mulatos but explicitly denied them automatic citizenship. Furthermore, they were not to be counted for the purposes of establishing the number of representatives a given province was to send to the Cortes. That had the effect of removing an estimated six million people from the rolls in the overseas territories. In part, that arrangement
13534-470: The second decade of the 19th century the colonial neglect acquired epic proportions. In fact, for all practical purposes, the colony in Santo Domingo during these years (1809–1821) was governed as an afterthought through the more significant Cuban administration . Cuba, in contrast with Santo Domingo, had ceased to be considered a marginal colony after the brief, yet consequential, British occupation of 1763. Spain had since been pouring resources into developing
13668-452: The sole source of livelihood for the island dwellers. In 1586, the privateer Francis Drake of England captured the city of Santo Domingo, collecting a ransom for its return to Spanish rule. In 1592, Christopher Newport of England attacked the town of Azua on the bay of Ocoa, which was taken and plundered. In 1595, the Spanish, frustrated by the twenty-year rebellion of their Dutch subjects , closed their home ports to rebel shipping from
13802-531: The southeastern savannah) and cutting mahogany and other hardwoods for export. This region retained a semi-feudal character, with little commercial agriculture, the hacienda as the dominant social unit, and the majority of the population living at a subsistence level. In the Cibao Valley , the nation's richest farmland, peasants supplemented their subsistence crops by growing tobacco for export, mainly to Germany. Tobacco required less land than cattle ranching and
13936-459: The southern column at the Battle of Santomé , killing 695 Haitians, including General Antoine Pierrot. On January 27, 1856, some 8,000 Dominicans defeated 22,000 Haitians at the Battle of Sabana Larga near Dajabón after eight hours of fighting, which came down to hand-to-hand combat. Thousands of Haitian dead or dying were abandoned on the battlefield as their forces retreated back across the border. In July 1844, Pedro Santana seized power from
14070-430: The southwestern area of the modern-day Dominican Republic. French and English buccaneers took advantage of Spain's retreat into a corner of Hispaniola to settle the island of Tortuga , off the northwest coast of Hispaniola, in 1629. France established direct control in 1640, reorganizing it into an official colony and expanding to the north coast of Hispaniola itself, whose western end Spain ceded to France in 1697 under
14204-399: The system of communal land tenure ( terrenos comuneros ), which had arisen with the ranching economy, and newly emancipated slaves resented being forced to grow cash crops under Boyer's Code Rural . In rural areas, the Haitian administration was usually too inefficient to enforce its own laws. It was in the city of Santo Domingo that the effects of the occupation were most acutely felt, and it
14338-482: The territories of the Spanish Empire. That had the effect of changing the legal status of the people not only in Peninsular Spain but also in Spanish possessions overseas. In the latter case, not only people of Spanish ancestry but also indigenous peoples as well were transformed from the subjects of an absolute monarch to the citizens of a nation rooted in the doctrine of national, rather than royal, sovereignty. At
14472-448: The threat of a French invasion, Haiti was forced to pay an indemnity of 150 million francs to the former French colonists, which was subsequently lowered to 60 million francs, and Haiti imposed heavy taxes on the eastern part of the island. Since Haiti was unable to adequately provision its army, the occupying forces largely survived by commandeering or confiscating food and supplies at gunpoint. Attempts to redistribute land conflicted with
14606-475: The throne of Spain. Seeking to create legitimacy for Joseph I of Spain, Napoleon called the Cortes, whose delegates he had selected, to proclaim Joseph as the legitimate monarch. The Cortes then approved the French-style Bayonne Constitution and called for a Cortes with 172 members, of which 62 were to be from Spanish America. There was to be a Council of State with a section for The Indies,
14740-470: The time lamented that they had been abandoned by Spain—little economic aid was invested in the island, the only money the royal government sent to the island was the salaries of royal employees. But while the growth of the sugar economy in Cuba created an economically and racially polarized society, in Santo Domingo the material gap among the social classes was not as marked. As in the other Spanish colonies during
14874-551: The towns of Santiago and Moca , slaughtering most of their residents. The French held on to the eastern part of the island until dealt a serious blow by the Dominican General Juan Sánchez Ramírez at the Battle of Palo Hincado on November 7, 1808. With help from the British Navy , Ramírez laid siege to the city of Santo Domingo. The French in the besieged city finally capitulated on July 9, 1809, initiating
15008-488: The traditional holders of power— prelates , nobles and those who held office before 1808—but not liberals, who wished to see a constitutional monarchy in Spain, or many who led the war effort against the French but had not been part of the pre-war government. This discontent resulted in several unsuccessful attempts to restore the Constitution in the five years after Ferdinand's restoration. Finally on 1 January 1820 Rafael del Riego , Antonio Quiroga and other officers initiated
15142-649: The treasury depleted, Báez printed eighteen million uninsured pesos, purchasing the 1857 tobacco crop with this currency and exporting it for hard cash at immense profit to himself and his followers. The Cibanian tobacco planters, who were ruined when inflation ensued, revolted and formed a new government headed by José Desiderio Valverde and headquartered in Santiago de los Caballeros. In July 1857, General Juan Luis Franco Bidó besieged Santo Domingo. The Cibao-based government declared an amnesty to exiles and Santana returned and managed to replace Franco Bidó in September 1857. After
15276-402: The wealthiest colony in the New World and had half a million inhabitants. As restrictions on colonial trade were relaxed, the colonial elites of St. Domingue offered the principal market for Santo Domingo's exports of beef, hides, mahogany, and tobacco. With the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution in 1791, the rich urban families linked to the colonial bureaucracy fled the island, while most of
15410-460: The whole empire, in both Iberia and overseas components, based on newly-reformed and uniform provincial governments and municipalities, rather than maintaining some form of the varied historical local governmental structures. The first provincial government created under the Constitution was in the province of Guadalajara con Molina. Its deputation first met in the village of Anguita in April 1813, since
15544-582: The whole island . This was the beginning of a 22-year occupation by Haitian forces. History of the Dominican Republic The recorded history of the Dominican Republic began in 1492 when Christopher Columbus , working for the Crown of Castile , arrived at a large island in the western Atlantic Ocean , later known as the Caribbean . The native Taíno people, an Arawakan people, had inhabited
15678-572: The widespread production of ceramic goods. The estimates of Hispaniola's population in 1492 vary widely, including tens of thousands, 100,000, 300,000, and 400,000-2,000,000. Estimating how many people lived on the island in pre-Columbian times is challenging, as no accurate records exist. At the time of Columbus' arrival in 1492, the island's territory consisted of five Taíno chiefdoms: Marién, Maguá, Maguana, Jaragua , and Higüey. These were ruled respectively by caciques Guacanagarix, Guarionex, Caonabo, Bohechío, and Cayacoa. The Taíno name for
15812-600: Was Of the Spanish Territory, Religion, Government and Rights of Citizenship. Chapter III (articles 27–167) dealt with the Cortes, the legislative branch of government. Chapter IV Of the King (articles 168–241) defined the powers of and the restrictions on the monarchy. Chapter V Of the Tribunals, and Administration of Civil and Criminal Justice (articles 242–308) concerned how laws would be administered by specific courts. Chapter VI Of
15946-548: Was a French colony from 1795 to 1815. It briefly became an independent state in 1821, known as the Republic of Spanish Haiti , until it was annexed and merged by Haiti into Republic of Haiti from 1822 to 1844. In 1844, the Dominican Republic declared its independence, establishing the First Dominican Republic . The republic maintained its independence except for a brief annexation by Spain from 1861 to 1865, after which
16080-465: Was a strategy by the peninsular deputies to achieve equality in the number of American and peninsular deputies in the future Cortes, but it also served the interests of conservative Criollo representatives, who wished to keep political power within a limited group of people. The peninsular deputies, for the most part, were also not inclined towards ideas of federalism promoted by many of the overseas deputies, which would have granted greater self-rule to
16214-441: Was also a period that definitively ended slavery as an institution in the eastern part of the island. Haiti's constitution forbade whites from owning land, and the major landowning families were forcibly deprived of their properties. Most emigrated to the Spanish colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico, or to independent Gran Colombia, usually with the encouragement of Haitian officials, who acquired their lands. The Haitians, who associated
16348-524: Was bolstered by emigration from the Canary Islands , resettling the northern part of the colony and planting tobacco in the Cibao Valley , and importation of slaves was renewed. The population of Santo Domingo grew from about 6,000 in 1737 to approximately 125,000 in 1790. Of this number, about 40,000 were white landowners, about 25,000 were mulatto freedmen, and some 60,000 were slaves. However, it remained poor and neglected, particularly in contrast with its western, French neighbor Saint-Domingue , which became
16482-468: Was driven aground by bad weather on December 21, and the admiral and 148 others were taken prisoner. Shortly after announcing a new campaign for 1846, Pierrot was overthrown on February 27. Faustin Soulouque, now governing Haiti, launched a new invasion of the Dominican Republic. On March 21, 1849, Haitian soldiers attacked the Dominican garrison at Las Matas. Soulouque then captured San Juan, leaving Azua as
16616-506: Was headed by Manuel del Monte, a close relative of the royal commissioner sent by the Supreme Central and Governing Junta of the Kingdom , Francisco Javier Caro . Del Monte was discovered, arrested and indicted and sent to Spain, where he was acquitted, possibly due to the influence of his relative. Four French sergeants, who had remained after Spanish rule was restored attempted to organize
16750-476: Was mainly grown by smallholders, who relied on itinerant traders to transport their crops to Puerto Plata and Monte Cristi . Santana antagonized the Cibao farmers, enriching himself and his supporters at their expense by resorting to multiple peso printings that allowed him to buy their crops for a fraction of their value. In 1848, Santana was forced to resign and was succeeded by his vice-president, Manuel Jimenes . After returning to lead Dominican forces against
16884-502: Was no effective communication with King Ferdinand, who was a virtual prisoner in France. In the Cortes of 1810–1812, liberal deputies, who had the implicit support of the British who were protecting the city, were in the majority and representatives of the Church and nobility constituted a minority. Liberals wanted equality before the law, a centralized government, an efficient modern civil service,
17018-526: Was reinstated during the Trienio Liberal (1820–1823) and again in 1836–1837 while the Progressives prepared the Constitution of 1837 . It was an important model for later constitutions in Spain and Spanish America. However, during the interim, in 1815, a fresh wave of military conflict unfolded as Ferdinand VII dispatched Royalist troops to reclaim control of the Americas. This era is commonly labeled as
17152-437: Was sufficient to seek protection from a foreign power . Offering the deepwater harbor of Samaná bay as bait, over the next two decades, negotiations were made with Britain, France, the United States and Spain to declare a protectorate over the country. Without adequate roads, the regions of the Dominican Republic developed in isolation from one another. In the south, the economy was dominated by cattle-ranching (particularly in
17286-460: Was the first Constitution of Spain and one of the earliest codified constitutions in world history. The Constitution was ratified on 19 March 1812 by the Cortes of Cádiz , the first Spanish legislature that included delegates from the entire nation and its possessions, including Spanish America and the Philippines . "It defined Spanish and Spanish American liberalism for the early 19th century." With
17420-457: Was the most important. Santana imprisoned and ultimately exiled Duarte to Germany. Santana made the first martyr of the republic when he had María Trinidad Sánchez executed for refusing to name "conspirators" against him. Santana used the ever-present threat of Haitian invasion as a justification for consolidating dictatorial powers. For the Dominican elite—mostly landowners, merchants and priests—the threat of re-annexation by more populous Haiti
17554-420: Was the most secure place for the Cortes to take place, since it was a fortified port. Retreating before the advancing French and an outbreak of yellow fever , the Supreme Central Junta moved to Isla de León, where it could be supplied and defended with the help of the Spanish and British navies, and abolished itself, leaving a regency to rule until the Cortes could convene. The Cortes of Cádiz crafted and adopted
17688-476: Was the restoration of the absolutist Antiguo Régimen ("Old Regime"); the second was to adopt some sort of written constitution. The Cortes did not have revolutionary intentions, since the Supreme Central Junta saw itself simply as a continuation of the legitimate government of Spain in the absence of a monarch considered legitimate. The opening session of the new Cortes was held on 24 September 1810 in
17822-458: Was there that the movement for independence originated. On July 16, 1838, Juan Pablo Duarte together with Pedro Alejandrino Pina, Juan Isidro Pérez, Felipe Alfau, Benito González, Félix María Ruiz, Juan Nepumoceno Ravelo and Jacinto de la Concha founded a secret society called La Trinitaria to win independence from Haiti. A short time later, they were joined by Ramón Matías Mella , and Francisco del Rosario Sánchez . In 1843, they allied with
17956-401: Was unable to secure a commitment from Simón Bolívar that Gran Colombia would send aid. Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer wrote to Núñez de Cáceres expressing the importance that the island be united. Núñez de Cáceres subsequently saw no other option than to place Santo Domingo under Haitian rule. Nine weeks later on 9 February 1822, Boyer took formal possession of Santo Domingo and occupied
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