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109-695: 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

218-613: 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

327-516: 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

436-565: 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

545-537: 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

654-534: 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

763-544: 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

872-729: 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,

981-457: 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,

1090-471: 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

1199-540: 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

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1308-483: 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

1417-451: 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

1526-403: 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

1635-527: 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

1744-664: A tradition that all the descendants adopted as well. Dedicated to the clergy and became Prior Provincial of the Dominican Order ( Order of the Preachers ) in 1720 for the area of Santa Cruz de las Indias with a wide jurisdiction over the convents of Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico , Venezuela , Cuba and Jamaica . He received his doctorate of theology in the Convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome in 1721. Captain of

1853-499: 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

1962-509: 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,

2071-515: A wealthy rancher and Maria Magdalena Catalina who married Ignacio Perez Caro, great-grandson of former Governor Ignacio Perez Caro . Adrian Campuzano-Polanco was the first criollo from Santo Domingo to be elected as a deputy to the Cortes of Cádiz in 1811 as a Member for America and the Philippines, positions to which he resigned or did not accept. He married Rosa Perez-Caro, granddaughter of

2180-546: 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

2289-647: Is known as "El Cantor del Niagara" and was named National Poet of Cuba . Jose Maria Heredia's mentor and professor was his own cousin, Francisco Javier Caro. In the early 18th century Francisco Gregorio Campuzano-Polanco built the Chapel of Virgin del Rosario in the Church of the Convent of the Dominican Order . The family became the owners of the chapel and most its members are buried there. The vault of

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2398-596: 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

2507-503: 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

2616-539: 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

2725-626: The Santa Hermandad when the title was first created in the island in 1758. Jose Campuzano, also known as Dr. Don Jose Polanco, obtained a doctorate in law from the University of Santo Tomas de Aquino in 1751 and was named mayor of Santo Domingo in 1752 by Governor Francisco Rubio y Peñaranda (1751-1759). He married Rosa Fernandez de Lara and had one son, Adrian and three daughters, Maria Magdalena who married Nicolas Heredia Serrano Pimentel, Josefa who married Jose Maria Mieses Guridi,

2834-613: 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

2943-449: 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

3052-549: 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

3161-495: 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

3270-457: 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 . Campuzano Polanco family#Francisco Javier Caro .28Santo Domingo.2C 1773- Madrid.2C 1848.29 Pedro Perez Polanco (c.1635-1714) was a captain of the military bands of the "cincuentenas" (bands of 50 cavalry lancers ) from the northern part of

3379-731: The Captains" and was in charge of the incorporation to the island of the families and victims of the Guadalupe and Tolosa Shipwreck in 1724. Later he was mayor of Santo Domingo from 1752 to 1754. His son, Antonio Bruno Campuzano-Polanco, became the head/rector priest of the Cathedral Primate of the Americas . Arguably the most successful privateer corsair from Santo Domingo during the Caribbean 's Golden Age of Piracy in

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3488-530: 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

3597-442: 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

3706-547: 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

3815-930: The Governor Ignacio Perez Caro. He was the last mayor of Santo Domingo in 1797-1798 before the Era of France of Santo Domingo . He was also rector of the University of Santo Tomas de Aquino in 1795 after obtaining his doctorate in law that same year, asesor of the Army in Cuba and lawyer for the Royal Audencia in Camaguey, Cuba . Francisco Javier Caro was the son of Maria Magdalena Catalina Campuzano-Polanco Fernandez and Ignacio Perez Caro y Oviedo, great-grandson of former Governor Ignacio Perez Caro. One of his three sisters, Maria Belen Caro Campuzano-Polanco,

3924-456: 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,

4033-599: 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

4142-552: 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

4251-484: 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

4360-485: 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

4469-465: The Royal Armies from 1708 to 1719. He was Lieutenant Colonel of the city of La Vega, Villa del Cotuí, and its parties in 1719, in charge of evicting the enemies who were approaching the coasts. Along with his brother Jose, he financed many successful privateer corsair expeditions in the early 1700s. He played a major role in pacifying the uprising in the city of Santiago, known as the "Revolt of

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4578-494: 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

4687-445: 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

4796-515: 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

4905-677: 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

5014-627: 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

5123-581: The chapel is decorated with the twelve zodiacal sign around the sun, and because of this the chapel is also called the Chapel of the Zodiac . In addition in the vault there are other personages like the Olympic Gods that represent the four seasons. This unique chapel is the only one of its kind in America and one of the four vaults with astrological representations that exist today in the world, along with

5232-547: The city in 1715 and provincial official of the Cajas Reales. His children were assigned military positions and engaged in agricultural activities. One of his sons Francisco Campuzano-Polanco Morillo was mayor of Coro as well and Jose moved back and resided in Santo Domingo. Returned to Santo Domingo to manage the sugar mill of Barbarroja in Hato Mayor which belonged to the family and became the first Provincial Mayor of

5341-403: 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

5450-475: 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,

5559-410: 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

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5668-592: 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

5777-453: 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

5886-508: 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

5995-412: 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

6104-573: The first half of the 18th century operating under a " patente de corso" ( letter of marque ). One of the most daring and active corsairs of the Caribbean region in the fight against illicit trade with countries other than Spain, capturing more than 50 foreign ships with his ships El Firme (his first vessel), N.S. Popa , and Maria . Known for his deep knowledge of the seas, he was awarded patente de corso to operate expeditions in Cartagena , Santa Marta , Maracaibo , Florida , Puerto Rico and

6213-667: 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

6322-593: 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

6431-511: 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

6540-579: 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

6649-514: 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

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6758-414: 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

6867-415: The island in 1680 as an assessor of the Governor Francisco de Segura Sandoval y Castilla (1678-1684). He was also Mayor of Santiago de los Caballeros and wrote a chronicle titled "Memorial" where the living conditions and economy of the north of the island at the time were described. They had at least five sons and three daughters, who used the compound surname Campuzano-Polanco as a sign of distinction,

6976-492: The island of Santa Cruz , among other areas. In theory privateering aimed to stop contraband but in reality it was a very important activity for the island of Santo Domingo providing basic necessities to the population. Jose Campuzano-Polanco was also one of the naval Captains who, along with Lorenzo Alderete and Carlos Desnaux , defended Cartagena in the Spanish victory in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias in 1741 commanded by Admiral Blas de Lezo (known as "Half Man"),

7085-426: The island of Hispaniola who successfully led military campaigns in the English invasion of Penn and Venables in 1655 and in the Battle of the Limonade in 1691. Along with other captains such as Luis Lopez Tirado, Antonio Pichardo Vinuesa , Jose Morel de Santa Cruz, Francisco del Monte and others, Polanco constituted the military and political class of Santiago de los Caballeros and the North coast. Perez Polanco

7194-403: The island of Santo Domingo in charge of the institutional reorganization of the country at the start of the 2nd Spanish Colony after La Reconquista of Juan Sanchez Ramirez in 1808. He was deputy for America in the Cortes of Cádiz from 1813 to 1814 and in 1821, minister of the Consejo de Indias from 1815 to 1817 and in 1834 and a member of the court of Isabel II from 1833 to 1836. Caro

7303-512: 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

7412-416: 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

7521-455: 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

7630-407: 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

7739-407: 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

7848-412: 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

7957-681: 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

8066-719: The most crucial battle of the War of Jenkins' Ear ( La Guerra del Asiento ). He wrote a diary about the battle which along with the diary of English lieutenant William Forbes, are the two main sources for the telling of this historical encounter in the Caribbean. Juan Campuzano Polanco was an hatero and landowner in Santiago de los Caballeros and the north west region of the island involved in livestock exports and tobacco haciendas. He married Beatriz Sanchez Firpo, daughter of Captain corsair Domingo Moreno Sanchez from Santa Cruz de Tenerife and had at least 5 children: fray Antonio, who

8175-489: 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,

8284-574: 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

8393-452: 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,

8502-480: 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

8611-490: 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

8720-470: 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

8829-452: 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

8938-537: 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

9047-459: 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

9156-430: 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

9265-399: 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

9374-448: 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

9483-423: 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

9592-572: 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

9701-598: 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

9810-402: 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

9919-545: 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

10028-572: 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

10137-578: Was Mayor of the town Concepcion de La Vega in 1623 and was married to Ana Minaya Alconchel. His great-grandparents Garcia Perez Polanco (c.1535) and Apolinaria de Henao y Almeida Casasola were descendants of nobles and the earliest settlers of Santiago de los Caballeros, La Vega, and Cotui , three of the oldest European settlements in the American continent . Garcia Perez Polanco was also Mayor of La Vega around 1575 His great-great-grandfather, Garcia de Polanco ( Santillana del Mar , Spain, c.1480- )

10246-704: Was Prior Provincial of the Mercedarian Order ; Luis, Mariana, Dr. Pbr . Pedro, and Diego. His youngest son Col. Lt. Diego Polanco (1770-c.1840) was the military commander for the Cibao region of Santo Domingo in the Battle of Palo Hincado in 1808 as well as the president of the Assembly of Bondillo which returned Santo Domingo to Spain from France. A maestre de campo who moved to Coro, Venezuela and there he married Francisca Morillo de Ayala and founded cacao farms for exportation. He became Teniente gobernador (lieutenant governor) of Coro, mayor of

10355-563: 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

10464-446: Was also Mayor of Santiago de los Caballeros and well off hatero (herder), rancher, and sugar mill owner. He was the only son and successor of Garcia Perez Polanco (c.1620- 1656), who had also been a captain of the northern military bands defending the northern coast and towns against buccaneers and filibusters from Tortuga Island . His mother was Ines Martinez Mejia de Henao. His grandfather, Pedro Polanco de Henao (c.1585-1679),

10573-441: 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

10682-524: 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

10791-473: 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

10900-518: 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

11009-476: 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

11118-516: Was married to Manuel Zequeira y Arango , considered the first Cuban poet. He became rector of the University of Salamanca from 1798 to 1800 after studying there years before, being one of the few American criollos ever to do so. He was member of the Supreme Central and Governing Junta and Captain General of Castilla la Vieja (1808-1810) and was the royal commissary for the King of Spain in

11227-405: Was named Procer del Reino by Isabel II in 1834. He was also testamentary of King Fernando VII . Maria Mercedes Heredia Campuzano-Polanco, daughter of Nicolas Heredia Serrano and Maria Magdalena Campuzano-Polanco Fernandez, married Jose Francisco Heredia Mieses. They were the parents of poet Jose Maria Heredia (1803-1839), considered by many to be the first romantic poet of America He

11336-550: Was one of the first settlers who landed in the New World . He arrived with Christopher Columbus in the Gallega ship on his 4th voyage in 1502 that attempted to circumnavigate the world for the first time. His relatives include Luis Polanco mayor of Cotui in 1638 and Garcia Polanco, Vicar General in 1660 under Archbishop Francisco Pio Guadalupe Tellez Pedro Perez Polanco married Bernarda Martinez de Rojas. Bernarda

11445-437: 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

11554-585: Was the daughter of Fulgencio Martinez de Ugarte, a relator of the Royal Audiencia, and Ana de Rojas Figueroa, sister of Don Gabriel de Rojas Valle Figueroa, leader and commander of the Capture of Fort Rocher in the Tortuga Island in 1654. Their daughter, Maria Josefa Perez Polanco (c.1660-1744) married Gregorio Semillan Campuzano. Campuzano (b. 1648) was from Guadalajara , Spain and arrived in

11663-457: 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

11772-458: 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

11881-401: 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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