Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic: Historical Setting
The Council of the Indies, created by Charles V in 1524, was
the Spanish crown's main agency for directing colonial affairs.
During most of its existence, the council exercised almost absolute
power in making laws, administering justice, controlling
finance and trade, supervising the church, and directing
armies.
The arm of the Council of the Indies that dealt with all matters
concerned with commerce between Spain and the colonies
in the Americas was the House of Trade (Casa de Contratacion),
organized in 1503. Control of commerce in general,
and of tax collection in particular, was facilitated by the designation
of monopoly seaports on either side of the Atlantic
Ocean. Trade between the colonies and countries other than
Spain was prohibited. The crown also restricted trade among
the colonies. These restrictions hampered economic activity in
the New World and encouraged contraband traffic.
The Roman Catholic Church became the primary agent in
spreading Spanish culture in the Americas. The ecclesiastical
organization developed for Santo Domingo and later established
throughout Spanish America reflected a union of
church and state closer than that which actually prevailed in
Spain itself. The Royal Patronage of the Indies (Real Patronato
de Indias, or, as it was called later, the Patronato Real) served as
the organizational agent of this affiliation of the church and
the Spanish crown.
Santo Domingo's importance to Spain declined in the first
part of the sixteenth century as the gold mines became
exhausted and the local Indian population was decimated.
With the conquest of Mexico by Hernan Cortes in 1521 and
the discovery there, and later in Peru, of great wealth in gold
and silver, large numbers of colonists left for Mexico and Peru,
and new immigrants from Spain also largely bypassed Santo
Do-mingo.
The stagnation that prevailed in Santo Domingo for the next
250 years was interrupted on several occasions by armed
engagements, as the French and British attempted to weaken
Spain's economic and political dominance in the New World.
In 1586 the British admiral, Sir Francis Drake, captured the city
of Santo Domingo and collected a ransom for its return to
Spanish control. In 1655 Oliver Cromwell dispatched a British
fleet commanded by Sir William Penn to take Santo Domingo.
After meeting heavy resistance, the British sailed farther west
and took Jamaica instead.
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