Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
field with forces led by the former slave Francois Dominique
Toussaint Louverture. By mid-1795, Spain had signed a peace
treaty with France in which it surrendered the eastern part of
the island; the terms of the treaty reflected Spain's setbacks in
Europe and its relative decline as a world power. In recognition
of his leadership against the Spanish (under whose banner he
had begun his military career) ,
British, and rebellious royalists
and mulattoes, Toussaint was named governor general of Saint-
Domingue by the French Republic in 1796. After losing more
than 25,000 troops, Britain withdrew from the island in April
1798. Toussaint marched into Santo Domingo in January 1801;
one of his first measures was to abolish slavery.
France occupied the devastated Spanish-speaking colony in
February 1802. The Spanish and Dominican elites on the Spanish
part of the island allied themselves with the French, who
reinstituted slavery in that part of the island. However, the
expeditionary force dispatched by Napoleon Bonaparte was
defeated by the forces of the former French slaves, led by Toussaint
—and later by Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Yellow fever,
malaria, and war led to the loss of 52,000 French soldiers.
Upon defeating the French, Dessalines and his followers established
the independent Republic of Haiti in January 1804 (see
Fight for Independence, 1791-1803, ch.6). A small French
presence, however, remained in the former Spanish colony, in
spite of Haitian pressures.
By 1808 a number of emigre Spanish landowners had
returned to Santo Domingo. These royalists had no intention
of living under French rule, however, and sought foreign aid
and assistance to restore Spanish sovereignty. Help came from
the Haitians, who provided arms, and the British, who occupied
Samana and blockaded the port of Santo Domingo in
1809. The remaining French representatives fled the island in
July 1809.
The 1809 restoration of Spanish rule ushered in an era
referred to by some historians as Espaha Boba (Foolish Spain).
Under the despotic rule of Ferdinand VII, the colony's economy
deteriorated severely. Some Dominicans began to wonder
if their interests would not best be served by the sort of independence
movement that was sweeping the South American
colonies. In keeping with this sentiment, Spanish lieutenant
governor Jose Nunez de Caceres announced the colony's independence
as the state of Spanish Haiti on November 30, 1821.
Caceres requested admission to the Republic of Gran Colombo