Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic: Historical Setting
were twenty-one different governments and at least fifty military
uprisings. A power struggle began between the conservative,
cacique-dominated south and the more liberal Cibao,
where the prevalence of medium-sized landholdings contributed
to a more egalitarian social structure. The two camps
eventually coalesced under the banners of separate political
parties. The cibaenos adhered to the National Liberal Party
(Partido Nacional Liberal), which became known as the Blue
Party (Partido Azul). The southerners rallied to Baez and the
Red Party (Partido Rojo).
The conservative Reds effectively employed their numerical
superiority in the capital to force the restoration of Baez, who
returned triumphantly from exile and assumed the presidency
on December 8, 1865. However, he was unable to assert the
kind of dictatorial control over the whole nation that he and
Santana had once alternately enjoyed because power had been
diffused, particularly between the opposing poles of the Cibao
and the south.
After a successful uprising that forced Baez to flee the country
in May 1866, a triumvirate of cibaeno military leaders, the
most prominent of whom was Gregorio Luperon, assumed provisional
power. General Jose Maria Cabral Luna, who had
served briefly as president in 1865, was reelected to the post on
September 29, 1866. The baecistas, however, were still a potent
force in the republic; they forced Cabral out and reinstalled
Baez on May 2, 1868. Once again, his rule was marked by peculation
and efforts to sell or lease portions of the country to foreign
interests. These included an intermittent campaign to
have the entire country annexed by the United States, which
President Ulysses S. Grant also strongly supported. However,
the United States Senate rejected the 1869 treaty calling for
annexation, giving President Grant his first major legislative
defeat. Grant continued efforts to annex Dominican territory
until 1873. Baez, in turn, was again overthrown by rebellious
Blues in January 1874.
After a period of infighting among the Blues, backing from
Luperon helped Ulises Francisco Espaillat Quihones win election
as president on March 24, 1876. Espaillat, a political and
economic liberal and the first individual who was not a general
to reach the presidency, apparently intended to broaden personal
freedoms and to set the nation's economy on a firmer
footing. He never had the opportunity to do either, however.
Rebellions in the south and east forced Espaillat to resign on
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