Upon beginning the conquista, or conquest, of the continental lands, rich in gold, silver and precious stones, the Spanish crown’s interest shifted; Santo Domingo lost importance to the viceroys of Mexico and Peru.  The colony was abandoned.  During this period, pirate and corsair invasions were constant, as the marauders cleaved the waters of the Caribbean to engage in trade with the inhabitants of the Spanish colony, moving the Crown to abandon the western part of the island in the so-called “Osorio evictions” (1605-1606).

Around the end of the 17th century, buccaneers and filibusters, predominantly French, took possession of the western part of the island, which then became the Saint Domingue colony.  In 1795, due the war between Spain and France, the former ceded the eastern part of Hispaniola to the latter, placing the entire territory under French control.

After enduring the control of the French and of the freed slaves of Saint Domingue, the colony returned to Spain’s hands, until a handful of men with a national conscience established what came to be known as the Ephemeral Independence.  After one month, in January 1822, using to their advantage the military and economic weakness of the eastern section of the island, the Haitians occupied the territory and took power for 22 years.

In 1844, the citizens won their independence and the Dominican Republic is founded.  In its initial stages, the Republic dedicated itself to defending against Haitian attacks, even while experiencing internal struggles over political organization.  On March 18, 1861, the annexation of the country to Spain was announced in the cathedral of Santo Domingo.  From the beginning, the Dominican people demonstrated their deep displeasure with the annexation and after four years of intense struggle against Spanish forces, Dominicans obtained the restoration of the Republic.

The War of Restoration and its guerrilla war technique left the country fragmented among innumerable local bosses that began to argue over power.  The utter political confusion brought about economic chaos that resulted in multiple small loans from the United States and Europe.  Consequently, in 1907, the Dominican government turned over the administration and control of its customs to the government of the United States; and in 1916, the first U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic occured.

The second half of the 1920s signals the beginning of Dominican modernity, with a flourishing of trade and agricultural, incipient industrial activity and important modes of land communication.  But this boom does not abolish caudillismo, or strong man politics, which gave birth to unstable governments and then to the creation of the iron dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo in 1930.

Thirty years of tyranny ended in 1961 with the execution of the dictator.  In the midst of great political upheaval, a provisional government organized the first free elections, which in 1962, placed Professor Juan Bosch in power.  The overthrow of the eminent writer, seven months later, dissolved into a bloody civil war that culminated with the second U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic (1965).

In 1966, elections were held and Joaquín Balaguer began 12 years of government characterized by political repression.  Balaguer overwhelmingly lost the 1978 elections and in spite of attempts to cover up his defeat, he had to allow the winner, the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD), to assume power.  Dominican democracy began, in this way, toward the consolidation of democracy.  PRD won again in 1982, but four years later, Balaguer again took power by the vote of the majority.  During this time, a significant monetary/financial expansion took place that produced high economic growth rates and an increase in the internal market.  Miscalculations of public investment then provoked high inflation, which brought political repercussions.

Balaguer secured his reelection in 1990 and applied an economic reform package that staved off the crisis.  Four years later, a new election concluded with a questionable Balaguer victory.  The PRD and its presidential candidate, José Francisco Peña Gómez, alleged that they were victims of electoral fraud.  The Balaguer government was obligated to agree and its new period of government was reduced to two years.

In 1996, new national elections were held and Dr. Leonel Fernández, the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD) candidate, came to power.  After four years of government, in which economic growth continued at the levels of the early nineties, PLD lost their position in power and made way for the PRD and its candidate, Hipólito Mejía.  An economic policy influenced by external factors brought the country into total chaos, with history-making monetary devaluations that caused the improverishment of wide sectors of the country.  In the midst of the confusion caused by this economic crisis, the population gave an overwhelming election victory to the PLD and its candidate, Dr. Leonel Fernández, who took power for the second time, with 57% of the vote.

The first Spanish settlement in the new world.

Because the Santa María had run aground on the coasts of Haiti, it was impossible for the entire crew to return to Spain with the ship that remained, as La Pinta and its captain, Martín Alonso Pinzón, had separated from the group a month earlier to search for the island the natives called Babeque.  The admiral decided to leave a small group of men in a military fort constructed with the remains of the destroyed ship.  This installation was located in what is today known as Punta Picolet in the far northeast of the island.  It was named “La Navidad” or “Christmas”, after the day on which the shipwreck occurred, December 25.  Diego de Arana, Pedro Gutiérrez and Rodrigo Escobedo stayed on in command of the fort and its 39 men.  The Europeans also had the support of Chief Guacanagarix, who had been very friendly toward the foreigners since their disembarkation.

First sign of resistance. Bordering the island to the east after encountering Martín Alonso Pinzón and Columbus, the ships La Pinta and La Niña arrived together in the Bahía de Samaná, where they saw natives aiming with bows and arrows for the first time.  Thus, they named the area “Gulf of Arrows”.  The inhabitants of the area were Ciguayo and Macori.

First armed encounter. Chief Canoabo and his people destroyed the fort “La Navidad” and killed all of the men in reprisal for the abuses that some committed against the natives and their women.  According to the story of Chief Guacanagarix to Columbus when he disembarked in Hispaniola on his second voyage, members of the fort crew had pulled some Tainos from their homes and abused their spouses.

First Spanish town in America.  First mass. Upon arriving to Hispaniola in his second voyage, and in spite of the destruction of the fort, Columbus decided to build a small Spanish-style villa on the island.  The villa was named La Isabela and was located at the mouth of the Bajabonico river.  It was quickly constructed and January 6, 1494, Father Boil held the first mass on the continent inside of it.

Trading post system. It was the first economic plan implanted by the Spanish.  Based on the Portuguese experience on the western coast of Africa, it consisted of the exploitation of unsalaried work by Spaniards, the subjugation of the native peoples, their sale as slaves in Spain and the payment of tribute in gold powder or cotton.  The exploitation of natural resources and the indigenous work force could only carried out for the profit of the Crown or Columbus, not for individuals.  This situation only caused ill will among the Spaniards, who soon rebelled.  In addition, the majority of Tainos could not endure the voyage to Spain, dying of sadness in transit or arriving to the metropolis in critical condition.

Roldán Rebellion. Uncomfortable with the trading post system as Columbus and his brothers governed it, and due to the precariousness of life in Hispaniola and the difficulty of returning to Spain, various groups of Spaniards attempted to rise up in arms against the administration of the incipient colony.  The first attempt at insurrection in 1494, led by Bernal Díaz de Pisa, was put down by Columbus.  But the second was successful.

Francisco Roldán, Mayor of La Isabela and long-time servant of the Admiral, started his rebellion, winning growing support from the colonists, as he defended the right to search for gold for personal profit, to use indigenous labor, and to take native women as wives as well as the freedom to return to Spain.  He also demanded the abolition of the tribute required of the natives.

In 1498, all of the Spanish towns and forts located in Hispaniola, except the towns of La Vega and La Isabela, had joined Roldán.  Christopher Columbus had no choice but to concede, signing the Capitulaciones de Azua in 1499.  This document named Francisco Roldán as Mayor of the city of Santo Domingo (already founded) for perpetuity, gave amnesty to all the rebels, allowed them the right to return to Spain, to wed Taino women and to use the native work force in search of gold for personal profit.  He also conceded the payment of their back salaries, though they had not worked in the past two years, and gave them lands for their Taino slaves to work.  This was the origin of the encomienda system.

The Destitution of Christopher Columbus. The manner in which Columbus dealt with the Roldán uprising displeased the Spanish Crown, as the people that occupied the lowest social strata in Spain came to command the colonizing enterprise and acquired a higher economic position, allowing for a possible social ascent.  They decided to strip Christopher Columbus of his position as governor of the island and send Francisco Bobadilla to succeed him, who arrived in August 1500.  He immediately ordered the imprisonment of Columbus and his brothers, sending them back to Spain in shackles.

Encomienda System. Bobadilla could not impose on Roldán; on the contrary, he had to almost completely accept the Capitulaciones de Azua, and reduced from a third to an eleventh the taxes that the Spanish were required to pay to the Crown for the right to search for gold for personal profit.  The next governor, Nicolás de Ovando, arrived in 1502 to subdue the Roldán supporters and sent Roldan and his closest conspirators back to Spain (they died in a shipwreck upon leaving the island).  Still, he had to support the distribution of land and Tainos, and favored his men when distributing possessions.  The encomienda system was formally established by a Royal Provision issued on December 20, 1503), which eventually became the foundation of the economic structure of conquered Hispaniola and America in the first decades of the colonization.  In this mechanism, land and natives were assigned for life to the Spanish colonists, who forced them to work intensively in the mines for the extraction of gold and in agricultural labor, instead of evangelizing them and “ensuring their well-being”.
At first considered by the Crown to be “free vassals” required to pay tribute to the Kings (1501), the indigenous people lived in this way, under the guise of evangelization and civilization, to support Spain’s imperial need to find gold, completely enslaved.

Reduction of the Taino population.  The brutal treatment of the indigenous people (considered as property; fair compensation for working in the conquista) caused a decrease in their health and life expectancy, which reached alarming levels in the case of Hispaniola, as its population rapidly decreased.  The Tainos began to commit suicide en masse and to have abortions, as these methods constituted the only escape from exploitation.  From 400,000 that lived on the island at the time of the 1492 arrival of Columbus, by 1508, there were only 60,000.

This situation, of course, also contributed to the enraged violence that friar Nicolás de Ovando unleashed against the indigenous communities that resisted slavery.  He beheaded, burned and hung entire towns, no matter the age or gender of the victims.  It was slavery or death.  In the Jaragua killings, he attacked through trickery, after being receiving and attended as a distinguished visitor by Chief Anacaona.

The decrease in the native work force obliged the colonists to import Indians from the Lucaya islands.

The Advent sermón. Facing the brutality of the treatment of the Indians, a voice of protest emerged from the Dominican friars, led by Pedro de Córdoba, Bernardo de Santo Domingo and Antonio de Montesinos.  In an event without historical precedent, these priests of the conquering empire voiced their alarm for the suffering inflicted on the conquered.  This protest generated a debate on the right of the conquista, just or unjust war and the condition of man that resounded on a global scale and came to be one of the foundations for what we know today as public international law and human rights.

In Santo Domingo, the fourth Sunday of Advent, Friar Antonio de Montesinos delivered the following words from the pulpit (“Ego vox clamanti in deserto”):

“So that you may know why I have mounted this pulpit, I who am the voice of Christ crying in the wilderness of this island, and therefore, it behooves you to listen to me with all of your heart and your senses, listen; for this voice will be the strangest that you have ever heard, the harshest and hardest and most terrifying and dangerous that you will ever hear…This voice proclaims that all are in mortal sin, and in it you live and die, for the cruelty and tyranny that you practice on these innocent people.  Tell me, by what right and what justice do you hold these Indians in such cruel and horrible slavery?  By what authority have you waged such detestable wars against these people, who lived gently and peacefully on their lands, in which you have consumed infinite numbers of them with unheard of murders and destruction?  How do you hold them, oppressed and fatigued, without giving them food nor curing them of diseases brought about by excessive labor, and so they die, or rather, you kill them, so that you may extract and acquire gold every day?  And what care do you take for them to receive religious instruction and come to know their God and creator, be baptized, hear mass and observe religious holidays and Sundays?  Are they not men?  Do they not have rational souls?  Are you not obligated to love them as you love yourselves?  Do you not understand this?  Do you not feel this?  How can you lie in such a profound and lethargic slumber?   Be certain that in your present state, you can no more be saved than the Moors or the Turks who do not have and do not want the faith of Jesus Christ.”

The Burgos Laws. The campaign in defense of the indigenous people engendered a series of discussions organized by the Spanish Crown in the cities of Burgos and Valladolid.  In these session, in which scholars and theologians participated, the analysis revolved around the human condition of the Indian: if he was an inferior being that lacked a soul and therefore deserved the treatment given him by his master; or if he had a soul, which demanded treatment that facilitated his freedom and evangelization.  After almost a year of debates, in December 1512, the Burgos laws were approved, which recognized the “rational” character of the native peoples and stated the following:

•  Right to appropriate nutrition

•  Right to access to hammocks for sleep.

•  Work leave for pregnant women

•  Exoneration from heavy loads for men.

•  Prohibition of jailing.

•  Prohibition of physical punishment.

•  Free baptism.

•  Obligatory Christian teaching.

•  Obligatory construction of their bohíos next to houses of Spaniards.

•  Prohibition of bigamy.

•  Encomienda limit of 40 to 150 Indians per master.

In addition, the position of Indian distributor was created, directly responsible to the Crown, in order to solve the conflicts caused by the distributions of the governor of Hispaniola, at that moment Diego Colón.

These laws composed the first code of law for the Spanish in the Indies.  They were first applied in Hispaniola and later extended to Puerto Rico and Jamaica.  But the rights and guarantees conceded to the natives were never implemented and their extermination continued at full speed.  Around 1514, in the first Spanish colony in America, only 25,500 Tainos remained; in 1517, the figure fell to 11,000; and between December 1518 and January 1519, a smallpox epidemic reduced it to 3,000.

La Trinitaria.

The Oath

The oath written by Juan Pablo Duarte, which sealed the foundation of La Trinitaria, expressed the following:
“In the name of the Holy, August and Indivisible Trinity of Omnipotent God: I swear and promise, by my honor and my conscience, in the hands of our President, Juan Pablo Duarte, to cooperate with my person, life and goods in the definitive separation from the Haitian government and to plant a free, sovereign and independent republic, free from all foreign domination, that will be called the Dominican Republic, and which will have its tri-colored flag in crimson and blue quarters traversed by a white cross.”

“In the meantime, we will be recognized as the Trinitarians, with the sacred expressions of God, Country and Freedom.  I promise this before God and the world.  If I do this, may God protect me, and if not, may He take it into account; and may my associates punish me for perjury and treachery if I betray them.”

Founding Members

There were nine founding members of la Trinitaria: Juan Pablo Duarte, Juan Isidro Pérez, Félix María Ruiz, Felipe Alfáu, José María Serra, Juan Nepomuceno Ravelo, Jacinto de la Concha, Pedro Alejandrino Pina and Benito González.

Organization

As they acted secretly, to avoid discovery, they structured the group in cells of three people each, called iniciados. Each one of the members responded to a pseudonym, and they communicated among each other with a cryptic alphabet created by Juan Pablo Duarte.

Work of dissemination

The Trinitarians developed a powerful educational effort on nationalist and independence ideals.  They created two cultural societies to this end (La Filantrópica and La Dramática) that brought theatrical works to the stage that represented the struggle against the oppression of other peoples.

The Trinitarians and the overthrow of Boyer. While the Trinitarians established and strengthened the group in old Spanish Santo Domingo, the Haitian side was building strong opposition to President Boyer under the “Society of the Rights of Man and Citizen”, also known by the name “La Reforma”.  The Trinitarians collaborated with this movement, which brought Charles Hérard to power in early March 1843.  Ramón Matía Mella and Juan Nepomuceno Ravelo (members of La Trinitaria) served as special emissaries for the coordination of the conspiracy between both sides of the island.  The conspiracy effort was so great that even Juan Pablo Duarte took the responsibility of helping to organize popular groups for the election of new local authorities in various towns.

Other separatist groups. The removal of Boyer intensified the activity of the separatist sectores that had been forming on the eastern side of the island:

• Pro-Spanish group, led by priests Gaspar Hernández y Pedro Pamiés in Santo Domingo, and General Andrés López Villanueva in Puerto Plata.  They sought a return to Spain.
• Pro-English Group, headed by an owner of the Matas of Farfán named Pimentel.  It sough the help of England in the fight for separation from Haiti in exchange for granting trading preferences.
• Pro-French group, the majority of which occupied administrative positions in the Haitian government.  They sought French support in exchange for political, customs and territorial privileges, like the cession of perpetuity of the Bahía de Samaná.  Buenaventure Báez, land owner in Azua, and lawyer and trader Manuel Joaquín Delmonte were its key figures.

Triumph of the Trinitarians in the Popular Juntas. As a foundation for the establishment of a new group that would reform the Haitian Constitution, the government of Charles Hérard planned elections for the Popular Juntas, in order to then form the corresponding electoral colleges.  The triumph of the Trinitarians in all of the districts of the Dominican side in June 1843 caused the Haitian government to decree the persecution of the political party: the government ordered the imprisonment of its known members (Ramón Matías Mella, José Joaquín Puello, Juan Nepomuceno Ravelo, Pepillo Salcedo and Esteban Roca, among others, were jailed).  Juan Pablo Duarte was forced into exile in Venezuela.

The separatist manifesto of January 16, 1844. Despite their momentary dissolution, the Trinitarians regrouped under the leadership of Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, Vicente Celestino Duarte and Ramón Matías Mella, released a short time after his imprisonment.  They took advantage of Hérard’s oversight and the new Haitian authorities, who had the attention focused on the consolidation of their power in Haiti.  But they also were urged on by the pro-French group’s actions together with the French consulate in Puerto Príncipe, M. Levassuer, to acquire the “protection” of France and start a coup for the Haitians on the eastern part of the island, on April 25, 1844.

For this coup, after the group led by Buenaventura Báez and Manuel María Valencia presented a manifesto that justified their intentions to separate the Dominican people from Haiti, placing it under French protection, the Trinitarians hurried to produce, on January 16, 1844, their “Demonstration of the people of the East of the Island formerly known as Hispaniola or Santo Domingo, on the causes of its separation from the Haitian Republic”.   In this act of independence, they cited essential cultural characteristics of dominicanidad and the basic principles of the new State were established on the basis of the fundamentals stated in the Trinitarian oath:

• Democratic government.
• Abolition of slavery.
• Citizen equality, without distinction due to origin or birth.
• Protection of Catholicism and its establishment as an official religion, without persecution of other creeds.
• Freedom of press.
• Responsibility of public officials.
• Prohibition of the confiscation of goods.
• Promotion and protection of education.
• Reduction of taxes.
• Amnesty for stated political opinions.
• Preservation of military rank.
• Protection for agriculture, trade, the sciences and the arts.
• Issuance of money with a real guarantee.

Written with the participation of Tomás de Bobadilla, a Dominican that had been an official in the Haitian government during the Boyer period, the Manifesto of January 16, 1844 sealed the pact between the Trinitarians and a significant portion of the conservative Dominican forces, which would allow it the imminent declaration of independence.

Proclamation of independence. The Trinitarians proclaimed the independence of the Dominican Republic on February 27, 1844, with a shot fired by Ramón Matías Mella in the Puerta de la Misericordia in the city of Santo Domingo.  Immediately afterward, they went to the Puerta del Conde, where Francisco del Rosario Sánchez lifted the national flag and where the Constitutive Act of the Dominican State was read and sworn.

The next day, February 28, the Haitian authorities capitulated.

The Republic in chaos.  The conspiracies.

Consolidation of the independence. The first Haitian attacks against the new state were carried out in early March.  The Generals Pierrot and Agustín Souffront and President Hérard advanced simultaneously over Dominican territory, the former in the north and the others in the south.

The Dominican resistance was organized under the command of a cattleman of Seibo, Pedro Santana, the colonels Manuel More and Feliciano Martínez, Ramón Matías Mella and Francisco Antonio Salcedo, Antonio Duvergé, Vicente Noble and many others.

The key struggles that served to establish the new sovereign state were the battles of Fuente del Rodeo (first armed encounter, March 3, 1844), the battle of Azua (March 19, 1844), the battle of March 30, El Memiso (April 13, 1844), the battle of la Estrelleta (September 17, 1845), the battle of Beller (October 27, 1845), El Número (April 17, 1849), Las Carreras (April 21, 1849), Battle of Santomé (December 22, 1855), Battle of Sabana Larga (last confrontation with the Haitians, January 24, 1856).

Political domination of the annexationist conservatives. The conservative forces were indispensable for the declaration and first military support of the independence, and they proved to by decisive in internal politics from the first days of the Republic.  The representatives of the predominant economic sectors, with little faith in the possibilities of the new country, quickly rejected the liberal nationalist current embodied by the Trinitarians.

The presidency of the Central Governing Junta, installed on March 1, 1844, fell to Tomás Bobadilla, former official of the Boyer government, who had great prestige among the upper class of Santo Domingo.  One of the first measures of this Junta was to attempt to solidify the “Plan Levasseur”, which would guarantee protection from France.

While the Trinitarians carried out a coup d’etat to avoid the implementation of the Plan (June 9, 1844), they did not control the situation for long, as Pedro Santana deposed the Governing Junta, led by Juan Pablo Duarte, reinstating the previous government on the condition that he, Santana, would assume the presidency.

Santana then persecuted the Trinitarians.  He declared many traitors, unfaithful to the country, and exiled them forever, including Juan Pablo Duarte, Ramón Matías Mella, Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, Pedro Alejandrino Pina, Gregorio del Valle, Juan Evangelista Jiménez, Juan José Illas and Juan Isidro Pérez.
The triumph of the conservatives during this first stage of the Republic was recorded in the text of the first Dominican Constitution.

Constitution of November 6, 1844. It was the first Magna Carta of the Dominican Republic.  It was called the Constitution of San Cristóbal, as it was written and ratified there.  Though in principle, it established the separation of powers and the preeminence of the Legislative Power over the Executive Power, Santana, who arrived with a battalion of soldiers to the constituting assembly, forced them to include an article in the text that gave the president of the Republic all power to carry out his will, without institutional counterbalance.  In effect, article 210 expressed the following “…during the current war and while a peace has not been signed, the President of the Republic can freely organize the armyand navy, move the nation’s guards; and is therefore able to give all orders, provisions and decrees necessary, without being subject to any responsibility.”

The search for protectorates. The successful, though arduous, rejection of the Haitian troops, which often attempted to enter Dominican territory, was not an obstacle to part of the political leadership, as it continued to garner the favor of powerful countries: Haiti was seen as a threat.  In 1846, President Santana sent Buenaventura Báez on a diplomatic mission to the governments of Spain, France and England to negotiate the recognition of the Dominican Republic as an independent state and at the same time, attempt to reach a treaty of protection with the power that offered the greatest benefits.  For the moment, he did not achieve his desired objective, but he did impress upon these countries, as well as the United States, which had also received the petition for support, to be extremely aware of the political life of the nation.

France, the United States and England showed the most interest in the Dominican offer.  In the case of the first two, the possibility of possessing the bay and peninsula of Samaná represented a large incentive.  England, on the other hand, for maintaining or increasing its level of commercial exchange with the Dominican Republic, supported the nation by the signing of the Treaty of recognition, peace, friendship, trade and shipping between the two states in 1850, which sought to rein in the influence that the other two countries planned to wield (including the possession of Samaná).  The country’s interest in preventing the Dominican Republic from needing the protection of another world power led it to attempt to hamper Haiti’s attacks on its neighbor to the east for a time.  Consequently, between 1851 and 1855, inhabitants of the Republic enjoyed relative tranquility.

As Spain still considered that it maintained rights to the eastern part of the island of Santo Domingo, it denied, on principle, recognition of Dominican independence.  But in 1855, it was forced to change this policy.  Advances in negotiations of the United States with the Dominican government to rent the Bahía de Samaná encroached on Spain’s maritime interests in the Antilles, which motivated the country to sign a Treaty of recognition, peace, friendship, trade, shipping and extradition with the Dominican Republic (February 18, 1855).  Likewise, it sent a new Consul to Santo Domingo in the same year.  His name was Antonio María Valencia and his mission was to offer political support to all enemies of then President Santana and to those that opposed the agreement with the United States, registering them as Spaniards and consequently protecting them from Dominican government persecution.

http://www.dominicanaonline.org/portal/english/cpo_independencia.asp

Crisis situation.

Annexation to Spain. In 1858, a possibility loomed on the Dominican horizon that the United States would take advantage of the political weakness and economic crisis to do what it had done in Nicaragua, that is, overthrow the government and occupy the country.  Alarm grew when, in 1860, the Dominican government was forced to capture a group of U.S. adventurers that had “taken possession” of the island adjacent to Alta Vela to exploit its guano deposits.  After the incident, negotiations with Spain for protectorate status changed.  The Dominican President at the time was Pedro Santana, who decided to request an agreement of reincorporation or annexation of the country to Spain.  The conditions that Spain was required to follow for the annexation were:

• Preserve individual liberty and not reestablish slavery in Dominican territory.
• Consider Dominican territory a Spanish province, allowing it to enjoy the same rights as others.
• Use the services of the greatest possible number of Dominican public and military officials in the new Spanish government.
• Pay out all circulating paper money.
• Recognize as good and valid all of the acts of the Dominican governments from 1844 to date.

With these measures, the plans of the conservative political elites, (especially those that followed and had benefited from Santana) to guarantee the enjoyment of the privileges that a possible U.S. occupation or the strengthening of the liberal forces would bring, were placed in danger.

On March 18, 1861, the annexation to Spain was proclaimed in the esplanade of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo.

First reactions. The popular reactions contrary to annexation began to manifest themselves a few days after its proclamation.  There were towns that attempted to mutiny, General José Contreras rose up in arms, and Francisco del Rosario Sánchez (exiled years earlier) formed an expedition that, entering through Haiti, attempted the “Regeneration of the Republic”.  All of these patriotic expressions were smothered and their leaders, shot.

Measures and attitudes of the new colonial government.

• Loss of Santana’s authority.  In spite of being named Captain General of the Province of Santo Domingo, Pedro Santana depended on the Captain General of Cuba and his functions and decisions were subject to the supervision and authorization of his superiors in the Spanish bureaucratic hierarchy.
• Replacement of all officials and military supporting Santana.  Despite the commitment made by the Spanish Crown to use the largest number of Dominican officials and military possible in its government in Santo Domingo, the reality was that many Dominicans in positions of public and military administration were exchanged at the time of the annexation for Spanish officials, generally from Cuba and Puerto Rico.
• Discrimination against the mulatto and black Dominican population.  As Spain continued to support slavery, the authorities and families that arrived to the Province of Santo Domingo treated the Dominican population in an offensive and discriminatory manner, as the majority was mulatto.
• Delayed payment of Dominican reserve soldiers’ salaries and prohibition of the use of the Spanish uniform by Dominicans.  The salary paid to Dominican military men was inferior to that of the Spanish.
• Baggage System.  Put into practice by the Spanish army, it consisted of requisitioning, without guarantee of return, all animals of burden the Spanish troops needed for their military missions, though said animals were being used at the moment of requisition.
• Imposition of higher taxes on the non-Spanish goods and boats that arrived to the Province.
• Attempt to establish a monopoly on tobacco production in favor of metropolitan interests.
• Attempt to obligate the Dominican public, who generally cohabitated or had common-law marriage, to obtain ecclesiastical marriage.
• Confrontation of the new Archbishop from Spain, Bienvenido de Monzón, with the Dominican clergy, as the Dominican priests often had children or were Masons.  He also wanted to require priests to receive a fixed salary of only fifty pesos monthly and to give the rest of the offerings received from ecclesiastical services to the Church.  The clergy, accustomed to giving a minimal portion of their income to the Church, rejected the idea.

War of Restoration. From the start, the Dominican people expressed the deep discontentment with the annexation.  They rejected the discrimination and oppression of the treatment of the Spanish authorities.  Consequently, the provincial period did not last long, as the uprisings began in early 1863 (in Neiba and in Santiago), and by August 16, the War of Restoration broke out, when a group of 14 men, commanded by Santiago Rodríguez, raised the Dominican flag over the hill of Capotillo.

Provisional Restoration Government and the Act of Independence. On September 6, some 6000 men expelled the Spanish from the city of Santiago in a fierce battle that resulted in the burning of the city.  The following day, the liberators formed a Provisional Restoration Government, electing General Jose Antonio Salcedo as President.  This Government proceeded to write an Act of Independence that was signed by 10,000 Dominicans residing in the Cibao region.

Restoration Leaders. During this war, which lasted almost two years and cost Spain more than 10,000 casualties and 33 million pesos, Santiago Rodríguez, General Gaspar Polanco, General Gregorio Luperón, Benito Monción, Pedro Francisco Bonó, Benigno Filomeno Rojas, Ulises Franco Espaillat, José Antonio Salcedo and Gregorio de Lora were some of the heroes.

Factors in favor of the Dominican victory

• All Dominicans supported the War of Restoration.
• Use of the guerrilla war tactics of attack and hide.  Each of the country’s communities organized its own forces in small independent groups that harasses and pursued the Spanish troops.
• The Dominican occupation of all of the mountain passes of the Cordillera Central and the Cordillera Septentrional, such that the Spanish had to cross them in other ways.  These difficult passages caused them to contract serious diseases that killed 1,500 per month.

Decree of the Spanish Crown. March 3, 1865, the Kingdom of Spain signed the decree repealing the annexation and the following July 10, Spanish troops began to embark.  The Dominican Republic had recovered its independence.

Thanks to Dominican Online

]]> http://180sur.wordpress.com/2008/10/24/los-coletazos-de-la-crisis-de-las-hipotecas-de-alto-riesgo-han-asestado-un-severo-golpe-al-proyecto-turistico-residencial-cap-cana/feed/ 0 History gregorio-luperon http://180sur.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/piloto-del-presidente-leonel-fernandez-es-cancelado-por-narcotrafico/ http://180sur.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/piloto-del-presidente-leonel-fernandez-es-cancelado-por-narcotrafico/#comments Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:16:23 +0000 180sur http://180sur.wordpress.com/?p=137 ]]> Local caciquismo. The War of Restoration and its guerrilla war tactics left the country fragmented, with any number of local “bosses” that began to dispute power.  The political instability was such that, in the period from August 1865 to September 1880, for 15 years, there were more than 50 uprisings and 19 different governments, lasting from 5 years and eight months for the government of Buenaventura Báez (May 1868 to January 1874) to less than a month for Marcos A. Cabral (December 1876).

The conservative and liberal factions, whose geographical centers were located in the south and east for the former and in Cibao and Santo Domingo for the latter, faced the loggers and cattle ranchers, who continued to seek support from foreign influences, along with the tobacco farmers and intellectuals that fought for autonomy.

The struggle between conservatives and liberals, each governing with their own constitution, birthed the creation of the Red and Blue Parties.  The former claimed Buenaventura Báez as its absolute leader, who was declared field marshal by the Spanish government during the War of Restoration.  The second, also known as the Partido Nacional Liberal, was less compact group in which the men of the Restoration and the Revolution of 1875 found allies in former Santana followers.

The centralization of leadership around one figure, Báez, recognized throughout the country, lent strategic superiority to Reds over the Blues, who suffered a fragmented authority with many regional leaders that often clashed with each other.

United States presence. Only two years after the Restoration, in 1867, secret machinations to rent or sell the Bahía de Samaná to the United States were underway.  These plans cost General José María Cabral the presidency, but his successor, Buenaventura Báez, instead of amassing fortune and personal power, dedicated all of his attentions to annexing the country to the U.S.  November 29, 1869, an annexation treaty was signed.  The U.S. Senate never ratified the treaty, nullifying it, thanks to the opposition of exiled Dominicans and various U.S. senators (among them, Charles Sumner).

Unphased by this failure, Báez then agreed to the rental of the bay of Samaná to a U.S. company named Samaná Bay Company, led by adventurer investor Joseph Fabens.  The company would enjoy all of the privileges that were conceded to the U.S. government in the treaty: power to name the executive, legislative and judicial authorities in the Samaná territory, as well as property: for each mile of railroad or canal constructed, the State would grant one square mile of the area surrounding those routes.  Signed on December 28, 1872 and ratified February 19 of the following year by the Senate of the Republic, the agreement was rescinded a short time later (in 1874) by the Dominican government, under the Ignacio María González presidency (who had defeated Báez), who took advantage of the company’s late annual payment to end the treaty.

Later, in the 1890s, the Ulises Heureaux government would propose the rental of the bay and peninsula of Samaná to the United States in exchange for economic assistance and military protection for defending against external threats.

Hartmont Loan. While the annexation was negotiated with the U.S. in 1869, Báez took out, in the name of the Dominican Republic, a loan of 420,000 pounds sterling (around 2,000,000 dollars) at 6% interest for 25 years.  This transaction represented immediate income for Edward Hartmont – the financier that facilitated the loan – from customs income, national goods, coal mines, State forests and guano deposits on the Alta Vela island.  In reality, the Dominican government only received a portion of the agreed loan, in addition to Hartmont authorizing an English bank to issue bonds on the debt for a value of more than 337,700 pounds over the amount indicated in the contract.

The Westendorp y Cía Loan. In October 1888, late in General Ulysses Heureaux’s second presidency, the Dominican government took out a loan of 770,000 pounds sterling at 6% annual interest for 30 years.  The creditor, Westendorp y Cía., had the right to charge up to 30% of customs income and to that end named various fiscal agents in the country in charge of collecting said funds in customs and delivering the rest to the Dominican authorities.
With this loan, the government paid 142,860 pounds sterling claimed by the Hartmont firm, settled part of the internal debt that it held with public servants and local loans and greased the political machinery that maintained Ulysses Heureaux in power with the purchase of loyalties, weapons, army uniforms and the acquisition and construction of war ships.

A short time later, in 1890, Heureaux obtained another loan from Westerndorp y Cía. for 900,000 pounds sterling, at 6% annual interest for 50 years.  He presented the construction of a railway between Santiago and Puerto Plata as the justification, though in reality, a significant portion of the money was destined for bribery and political payments.

Contraband, supported by the Government as a way to evade the payment of the Westendorp custom agents, bankrupted the company in 1893, which preferred to use the Samaná bay and peninsula rental negotiations with the U.S. to sell its Dominican holdings to U.S. capitalists.  These capitalists formed the Santo Doming Improvement Company, and among their principal investors was the U.S. Secretary of State and other U.S. government officials.

Santo Domingo Improvement Company. Once the company was created, the Dominican Government solicited two new loans of 1,250,000 dollars and 2,035,000 pounds sterling; in 1893, the amount of the Dominican Republic’s debt rose to 17 million pesos.

The Santo Domingo Improvement Company remained in complete control of national customs and catapulted the U.S. influence in the country to new levels.  In addition, maritime transportation between Santo Domingo and New York was monopolized by the Clyde Steamer Line of the United States, and a large portion of foreign-held sugar industry, which had begun to grow during the 1874 Ignacio María González government, again found itself in U.S. hands.

The opposition to U.S. interests, organized by European powers and the presidential candidate opposing General Heureaux, Generoso de Marchena, ended with the imprisonment and execution of De Marchena and the departure of the Banco Nacional de Santo Domingo from the country (1893), as it was the financial center that, since the days of Westendorp, had supported European values.

Other secret and fraudulent loans were taken out in conspiracy with the directors of the Santo Domingo Improvement Company.  In 1898, one year before the execution of Heureaux, more than 15,000,000 pesos were owed to the company, which maintained total control over the customs of the country.  On the other hand, debts to public officials and national creditors were drowning the government.  The distribution of un-backed currency (the so-called “papeletas de Lilís”) and the creation of a new international loan, now with European financiers, aggravated the situation.

In 1900, the Dominican Republic “owed” the U.S. company, and with it, bonds that the company had sold in France, Belgium, Germany, Italy and England, the sum of 23,957,078 dollars, as the internal debt increased to 10,126,628 dollars.

The Americanization of the Dominican economic elites, the growth of the large sugar plantations and the eight years of occupation, which served at the seed of modernity, had to leave their mark:

• More than half of Dominican imports came to be from the United States.
• The popularity of baseball, which replaced cockfighting as the national sport.
• The use of cars and buses was preferred for internal journeys, setting aside the railroad use.
• The Dominican economy became characterized by a system of large plantations dependent on the international market.
• The sugar industry, with its foreign capital, became the enclave outside of Dominican government control. At the end of the occupation, this industry owned more than two million hectares of land, on which a poor work force was employed that was not only Dominican, but also imported from other countries of the Caribbean.

The Horacio Vásquez Mandate. In this new era, the Horacio Vásquez mandate was a continuation of the political principles developed by the U.S. occupation government: development of public works, growth of agricultural development and education and the improvement of sanitation services.

Upon beginning his presidency, Vásquez ratified the American-Dominican Convention through a new treaty, signed in December 1924, and arranged for a loan in December 1926, which supplied 10,000,000 to the government.

During his administration, the Santo Domingo aqueduct was constructed; the ports of Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata and San Pedro de Macorís were dredged and improved; the plan for irrigation and agricultural colonization of the Northeast Line and the border was developed; schools were built in 10 cities and the highway network was continued so that before 1930, it was almost complete.

Caudillismo or Strong Man Politics. The economic and social changes were not sufficient to uproot strong man politics, cronyism, the distribution of positions and the internal struggles of Dominican politics, although, paradoxically, the changes would allow the concentration of power at levels unequaled in the life of the Republic.

In spite of the rupture of the alliance that brought him to power in the 1924 elections, Horacio Vásquez would obtain a two year prolongation of his presidency by virtue of a constitutional reform prepared and approved in 1927. On the other hand, he would end his presidency by capitulating to the forces of the man he had named as head of the Army. The man that was his confidant would put an end to Vásquez’s plans for reelection in a coup d’etat on February 23, 1930.

Aunque muchos de estos procesos concluyen con sentencias que liberan de responsabilidad a los periodistas y medios de información, los comunicadores se ven expuestos a situaciones largas y tediosas que les afectan en su ejercicio profesional y crean temores a reporteros que pueden sentirse disuadidos a tocar asuntos conflictivos relacionados con intereses grupales o particulares.

Debemos también mencionar que el jefe de Redacción del vespertino El Nacional, Domingo del Pilar y el reportero de ese diario Aquino Arroyo fueron descargados, luego de que un tribunal conociera la demanda de un ciudadano que se consideró difamado en una información.

Otro caso relevante en el último semestre es el de la periodista Alicia Ortega, favorecida por el dictamen de un tribunal que declaró inadmisible una demanda de 300 millones de pesos incoada por representantes de una entidad que se consideró afectada por otro trabajo de investigación periodística, luego de la divulgación de un reportaje en que personas denunciaban la forma en que habían sido estafadas con promesas de empleos.

El programa de televisión de Eduardo Castellanos fue sacado del aire en la provincia de Montecristi por órdenes del entonces del Poder Ejecutivo, el gobernador provincial Rafael Caba Abreu, luego de que se hicieran críticas al funcionario. El programa fue reabierto por gestiones realizadas por el Colegio Dominicano de Periodistas.

El gobernador fue luego destituido por el presidente Leonel Fernández, quien, a diferencia de algunos funcionarios, dirigentes políticos y representantes del sector privado que actúan con hostilidad e intolerancia hacia la prensa, ha mantenido una actitud de respeto y reconocimiento a la labor que realizan periodistas y medios de comunicación.

Igual actitud mantiene el vicepresidente de la República, Rafael Alburquerque, quien en dos oportunidades, ante críticas difundidas en los periódicos sobre programas a cargo de su despacho, de manera pública ha expresado su agradecimiento, por considerar que le ayudan a mejorar la eficiencia de esas iniciativas.

Olivo De León, secretario general del gremio, condenó la modalidad de someter a la justicia a los periodistas por parte de sectores ligados al crimen organizado, la delincuencia e incluso empresarios y particulares, como un mecanismo encaminado a que se silencien situaciones de escándalo, corrupción y narcotráfico.

Political Succession of Lilís (Ulises Heureaux). Among the figures that participated in the overthrow of President Heureaux, putting an end to his 15 years in power, were Juan Isidro Jimenes and Horacio Vásquez.  The first had organized an anti-Heureaux expedition in a steamed named Fanita just before the assassination of the dictator.  The second participated, together with Ramón Cáceres and Jacobino de Lara, in the actual execution.

Both men were among the principal leaders antagonistic to the presidency in a period characterized by political upheaval and foreign pressure that would end in the U.S. invasion and occupation in 1916.  Their opposing factions were named the Jimenistas or bolos and the Horacistas or coludos.  The Jimenistas were composed of former Heureaux supporters, while the Horacistas issued from the most liberal extreme of the former Blue Party.

Coup d’etats against one group and another, armed uprisings and political persecution among parties were the distinguishing characteristic of internal politics, which increased the foreign pursuit of sovereignty over the Dominican Republic.

European and U.S. pressures. Early in the 20th century, the European bond holders of the Dominican debt embarked on a campaign to their respective governments to force the Dominican government to pay its balance.  The Santo Domingo Improvement Company brought its case before the U.S. State Department in order to have the very U.S. Government protecting the Company’s interests.

1903 Protocol

In 1903, when Horacio Vásquez was president, a protocol was signed by the Dominican Republic and the Improvement Company in which the country recognized its obligations to the company for more than 4.5 million dollars and promised to settle the debt in accordance with the form of payment established by an international arbitration.  The arbitration would be composed of an arbiter named by the Dominican Republic, another by the United States and a third by agreement of both governments, which would, in reality, be a member of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Arbitration decision, 1904

The following arbitration decision of June 1904 arranged the specialization of the customs income of Montecristi, Puerto Plata, Samaná and Sánchez toward the payment on the debts owed to the Improvement Company.  This decision dispatched a financial agent from the Company to be responsible for the budgeting of the customs income and to authorize the Dominican State’s expenditures.  Due to the rejection of the clause by European bond holders and Dominican creditors, it was never applied.

Modus Vivendi, 1905

After a series of negotiations held between the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt,  and the President of the Dominican Republic, Carlos Morales Languasco, and in an agreement never ratified by the U.S. Senate, due to its virtual establishment of a protectorate over the Dominican Republic, on March 31, 1905, the provisional arrangement “Modus Vivendi” was created.

Through this pact, the Dominican President authorized his U.S. counterpart to name a person in charge of collecting customs income to be distributed in the following manner: 45% of the total income delivered to the Dominican government to cover the national public administration’s needs; the other 55% to be used by the U.S. government for the payment of the customs employees and to make a deposit in a New York bank “…to the benefit of all of the creditors of the Republic, Dominican as well as foreign”.  The general head of customs designated by the U.S. Government was Colonel George R. Colton.

This plan contributed to reducing contraband, increased the quantity of income that the Dominican government received and calmed the European bond holders that now saw that the U.S. Government, and not a private company, was concerned with guaranteeing the payment of the credit balance.

Fifteen months after initiating the arrangement, some two million dollars had been deposited in the National Bank of New York.

Adjustment plan

Later in 1905, President Roosevelt sent a financial expert to determine exactly how much the debt of the Dominican Republic had increased and what proportion was legitimate or fraudulent debt.  Mr. Jacobo Hollander reported that, to the date, the amount of the debts claimed on national and international levels settled at around 40 million dollars.  This sum could be reduced by half, as many of the claims lacked legitimacy.  From then on, between March and September 1906, the two governments worked together to verify each record and obligated creditors to accept a reduction in their demands.  The total debt of the Dominican Republic thus fell to 17 million dollars.

Debt consolidation and the American-Dominican Fiscal Convention of 1907

As one of the foreign policy objectives of the United States was to gain full control of the Antilles in order to strengthen its position in the Panama Canal, as it was clear to President Roosevelt that the Dominican Republic should not have European creditors that could attract their governments’ influence to the area.  To this end, he orchestrated for the Kuhn, Loeb and Company firm of New York to lend 20 million dollars to the country, destined for the cancellation of all pending debts, while the remaining three million would be dedicated to carrying out public works and other investment.  In reality, they were used discretionally by President Ramón Cáceres to consolidate his power in the First Magistrate of the Republic.  The technicians at the Bank of New York received a commission of 800,000 dollars.

Accompanying this loan, the Congress approved the American-Dominican Fiscal Convention on May 3, 1907, a treaty in which the Dominican government turned over the administration and control of its customs to the government of the United States until completing the payment of the new debt and promising to not modify its customs tariff nor increase its public debt without the previous consent of the president of the United States.  The customs income would be distributed in the manner established in the “Modus Vivendi”: 45% for the Dominican government, 5% for the payment of the employees of the customs administration and 50% for the payment of the loan.

The second article of the Convention stated that the head administrator of customs, named by the president of the United States, would have the protection of the U.S. government if the Dominican government was unable to provide it.

In this way, the U.S. segured its control over the Dominican Republic early in the 20th century.

In an argument against the approval of the Convention of 1907, Congressman Alfredo Morales stated (excerpted from the Enciclopedia Ilustrada de la República Dominicana, Vol. VII, pag. 201):

“Treaties of protectorate or subjection, which are always between powerful States and weak or unorganized States, have often had, as the only goal, what is now called pacific conquest.  A strong State lends help to a weak one only when it is guided by specific interests.  The list of usurpations committed by the great Republic of North American under the pretext of the Monroe doctrine is long (…) if we approve the current negotiations, the Dominican Republic will not be able to work as equals with another Nation in the future; it will cease to be an Independent State, to have an international personality.”

Collections

Though these “agreements”, customs collections experienced a constant increase as a result of the growth, increase and diversification of agricultural production, the rise of its prices on the international market and, in 1910, by the approval  of the president of the United States, William Howard Taft, the 15% reduction in the customs tariff on importation rights and 50% reduction on exportation.

In those years, the following customs income was recorded:

Death of Ramón Cáceres

The assassination of President Ramón Cáceres in November 1911, unleashed a civil war between the head of the Army, Alfredo Victoria, the Horacistas, who had planned the fall of the Cáceres government, and the Jimenista rebels, led by Desiderio Arias, that momentarily gained control of border customs.  The two latter factions, united by the fact that Haitians had taken advantage of the power vacuum to occupy Dominican territories, pushed the United States to exercise the American-Dominican Fiscal Convention of 1907 to intervene and mediate internal Dominican politics, which had again dissolved into instability and chaos.  Between November 1911 and November 1916, eight different presidencies rose to power, of which only two, that of Eladio Victoria, begun in December 1911 and that of Juan Isidro Jimenes in December 1914, were constitutional.

U.S. administration, 1914

In January 1914, the provisional government of José Bordas accepted the naming of an administrator by the United States that would have under his care the supervision of all of the expenditures of the Dominican government and the execution of the national budget.  From this arrangement, 40,000 dollars of customs income was advanced to the Dominican government, which was permitted to use 1,200,000 dollars in unsold bonds from the 1907 loan.

Wilson Plan, 1914

In the face of the confrontation of the Horacista and Jimenista forces and other political factions (Velazquistas and Vitalistas) that wanted to remove José Bordas from power, won through fraudulent elections, the United States sent a mediating committee to the country in July 1914 that carried a proposal written by the president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson.  Under threat of the invasion of U.S. infantry, the “Wilson Plan” established:

• The laying down of arms by all revolutionaries.
• Election of a provisional president by agreement between forces.  Without an agreement, the U.S. government would choose and maintain the president and secure him with its own forces.
• Organization of elections by the provisional president, which would be supervised by the United States.
• Commitment of all factions to respect the new government, which in addition would enjoy the support the U.S. government, as it refused to tolerate more revolutions.

Juan Isidro Jimenez was elected president in the elections held on December 1914.

• The impasse between the Juan Isidro Jimenes government and the United States, as it did not accept some of the measures that the United States wanted to impose (among them, express approval of the U.S. administrator).
• Uprising of the Horacista generals in the north.
• U.S. military occupation of Haiti in 1915.
• Increase in the Desiderio Arias’s power, who, as secretary of War and Navy, rebelled against Jimenes in April 1916.

In May 1916, the U.S. Marine disembarkment began. On May 16, they took Santo Domingo, and by the end of July, the principal military posts in the country were in their hands. On November 29, 1916, Captain H.S. Knapp published the official proclamation of the occupation.

U.S. military government measures in the Dominican Republic

Military and police control

In order to replace the old armed forces in the Navy and the Republican Guard of the period of Ramón Cáceres, in 1917, the invaders created the National Guard, an organization of repression whose end was to efficiently combat any intent at sedition. The Dominicans that joined its ranks were almost all from a lower socio-economic status or unemployed and were trained according to the regulations of the Marine Infantry of the United States, making them into a sort of extension of the force. It is from this “body of order”, later named the National Police and even later converted into the National Army, that the dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo emerges.

Internal income, accounting and land registration.

In 1918, the Directorate General of Internal Income was created with the purpose of regulating the application and payment of taxes on national manufacturing. A modern system of public accounting was also incorporated, as well as a new land registration system.

Public Works

The need for greater military control over the country motivated the invading authorities develop a plan for highway construction that reached the various regions and that facilitated a real political unification of the country. In 1922, the Duarte highway was inaugurated between the cities of Santo Domingo and Santiago. The highway to the east traveled from Santo Domingo to San Pedro de Macorís, while the highway to the south stretched from the capital to Azua. This network was completed a short time after the occupation was finalized, after being planned and initiated during the Ramón Cáceres presidency.
Other works consisted of the air-conditioning of the docks and customs buildings, the establishment of a telecommunications system and educational and sanitary buildings.

Education

It is estimated that in 1916, more than 90% of the Dominican population was illiterate.
One of the first initiatives of the occupation government was the promotion of a law that established primary education as obligatory and free of charge for children from 7 to 14 years old and the creation of the National Council on Education, charged with the general supervision of public instruction. Numerous primary school establishments were built in the rural areas.
On the other hand, little attention was paid to secondary education, the Universidad de Santiago was closed and the Universidad de Santo Domingo was given the category of institution.

Public health and sanitation

• Cleanliness of cities and towns, markets and slaughterhouses, installation of latrines.
• Creation of the Secretariat of State of Health and Wellness.
• Creation of a National Laboratory.
• Regulation of the medical and pharmaceutical practice and related fields.
• Execution of vaccination programs.
• Control of the preparation and sale of foodstuffs.
• Prohibition of prostitution
• Arrival of health professionals from the United States and Puerto Rico. According to the occupation authorities, in 1917, less than 95 doctors and licensed medical care personnel worked in the Dominican Republic, many of which were poorly educated.
• Construction of three hospitals.

“Dance of the Millions”. The World War I caused an increase in the demand for Dominican sugar, tobacco, coffee and cocoa, raising the price of these products on the international market. The resulting greater buying capacity of Dominicans produced a rise in the demand for imported manufactured articles and contributed to the incipient urbanization and modernization process in towns such as Santiago, La Vega, San Pedro de Macorís and Puerto Plata, along with Santo Domingo. This economic effervescence was especially present between 1918 and 1921, when it was known as the “Dance of the Millions”.

It ended in 1921 with the sharp plunge of the Dominican product prices on the international market, pushing the country into a new crisis.

New loans. It is important to note that the investments made by the occupation government were sustained, in part, by customs funding that belonged to the Dominican government and had been retained by the U.S. authorities as a pressure mechanism since the impasse with President Jimenes. The measures were also supported by loans authorized by the State Department under the Convention of 1907. Thanks to the new loans, the debt of the Dominican Republic climbed to almost 15,000,000 dollars.

Dominican political leaders and businessmen manifested their disagreement, alleging that the foreign government did not have the right to place the country in debt.

Resistance

Gavilleros

In spite of censorship and disarmament, a group of rebels continued to struggle against the foreign authority. The “gavilleros” operated in the eastern part of the country and were, for the most part, composed of peasants dispossessed of their land during the apogee of the foreign investment sugar industry, beginning in the late 19th century and growing in the first 15 years of the 20th. They hid in the mountainous zones and attacked using guerilla war tactics, relying on the collaboration of the population and even the administrators of the sugar refineries that, in order to avoid the burning or assault of their fields and storage facilities, gave them food and money.

They could only be pushed back when operations against them received the help of the Dominican National Guard soldiers. In 1922, they accepted a general amnesty offered by the occupation government with the understanding that a Dominican provisional government would be installed that year under the Hughes-Peynado Plan.

The Gavilleros’ most important leaders were Vicente Evangelista, Ramón Natera, Martín Peguero, José Piña, Luciano Reyes, Pedro Tolete, Marcial Guerrero and Félix Laureano.

Civic Resistance

The civic resistance was based in urban areas and was structured on the various initiatives of the Dominican intellectual class that expressed a preference for a free country with revolutions rather than an occupied country with an imposed peace.

• Campaign carried out by ex-president Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal. He traveled to various countries in Latin America denouncing the occupation, the lack of freedoms, the censorship, the military courts of justice and the torture that Dominicans suffered. In 1919, he founded the Comisión Nacionalista Dominicana, a nationalist organization that operated in Washington and attempted to push the U.S. State Department to modify its policies in the country and name a Consultant Junta that would prepare the laws to ensure the transition to a new Dominican civil government.

• Campaign of the Dominican worker leaders of the Federación Americana del Trabajo, an organization which demanded a rectification of the U.S. president’s policy in Santo Domingo.

• Creation of the Unión Nacional Dominicana in 1920. Chaired by Don Emiliano Tejera, it demanded “pure and simple deoccupation”. Its members were Américo Lugo, Fabio Fiallo, Pelegrín Castillo, Enrique Apolinar Henríquez, Max Henríquez Ureña, César Tolentino and many others.

The defense of the reestablishment of Dominican sovereignty was expressed through various cultural manifestations: speeches, books, letters, plays, editorials. Even the baseball games held between Dominicans and teams composed of U.S. Marines served to channel the rejection of the oppressive authority

Hughes-Peynado Plan, 1922. The economic crisis unleashed in 1921, the national and international campaigns against the intervention and the election of a new U.S. president favorable to the departure of the occupation troops, provided for this new agreement that set the foundation for the Dominican Republic’s return to independent life. It was named for its negotiators: Francisco J. Peynado for the Dominican Republic and Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes for the United States. The plan stipulated:

• Installation of a provisional government elected by the principal Dominican political leaders and the Archbishop of Santo Domingo.

• Preparation and organization of elections by the provisional government

• Recognition of the legal acts of the military government that created law in favor of a third party.

• Recognition of the validity of the loans taken out during the years of occupation.

• Recognition of the customs tariffs established by the military government in 1919, which favored more than 945 U.S. products.

• Validity of the American-Dominican Convention of 1907 until the Dominican Republic paid its external debt, therefore leaving the U.S. in control of customs and with the right to authorize or reject the acquisition of any further public debt in the country.

Juan Bautista Vicini Burgos assumed the provisional presidency in October 1922 and constitutional elections were held March 15, 1924, resulting in the election of candidate Horacio Vásquez of the Partido Nacional. In August of the same year, the evacuation of the occupation army concluded.

After Trujillo and his ally, Estrella Ureña, led a successful coup d’etat on February 23, 1930, they proceeded to organize the elections of May 16. One of the candidacies was that of Trujillo for President and Estrella Ureña for Vice-president. They were supported by a large part of the country’s nationalist, liberal and republican elite. The other candidacy was that of Federico Velazquez and Angel Morales for President and Vice-president respectively.

The electoral campaign was conducted under the terror produced by Trujillo and his paramilitary band known as “La 42”. This group was led by army major Miguel Angel Paulino and was dedicated to persecute, intimidate and kill. Even the members of the Central Electoral Board were forced to resign on May 7, and were replaced by people who responded to the will of whom had already become the dictator.  Under these conditions, on May 24, 1930, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina was declared President of the Republic.

Monopolies
If he had obtained great financial gains during his tenure as Chief of the Army, the presidency would give him the opportunity to turn the country into his own farm:

• Salt- In 1931 he took ownership of salt production and sale when he closed the operations of sea salt mining and forced the country to consume salt from the mines in Barahona which were controlled by him. This would generate DR$400,000 net annually.
• Meat- He took over the butcher shops in Santo Domingo, which produced a DR$500,000 annually.
• Rice- He banned the importation of rice and only allowed the consumption of domestic rice which was distributed by one of this many personal companies.
• Milk- He controlled the sale and distribution of dairy products through the Central Lechera (Central Dairy).
• Tobacco- He forced the owner of the Compañía Anónima Tabacalera (Tobacco Company) to sell him shares of the company and later, forced them to hand the company over to him almost entirely.
• Footwear- Citizens were not allowed to walk barefoot, and the only source of footwear was his shoe factory, Dominican Factory of Footwear.
• Paint- He ordered every house to be painted annually, which guaranteed good revenue from his company, Dominican Paint.
• Sugar- In 1948, he started investing in the sugar industry. He took away land from small farmers, and bought sugar refineries. By 1955, he owned the refineries: Porvenir, Ozama, Amistad, Monte Blanco, Barahona, Consuelo, Quisqueya, Boca Chica, Las Pajas, Santa Fe, Catarey and Rio Haina.
• Banking- He opened a bank to process government checks. The bank was managed by his wife and State employees could receive their paychecks in advance after paying a fee.
• Insurance- He “purchased” shares of an insurance company, and then renamed it “San Rafael”.
• Public Works. He received hefty commissions for the concession of every public work construction contract.
• The following were also part of his personal wealth: La Altagracia Distillery, Dominican Industrial Society, Cottonseed Oil Refinery, Dominican Windmills, Dominican Cement Factory, Sacks and Cord Factory, Glass Factory, National Paper Industry, Atlas Commercial Co., Caribbean Motors, Dominican Aviation Company, Read Hardware Store, La Nacion Newspaper, Mahogany Industry, Sawmill Santelises, Dominican Shipping Company, and Niguas Industries.
• He also intervened in the operations of the San Cristobal Armory, the Electric Company and the Haina Shipyard.
• Ten percent of the salary of public officials went to the Dominican Party (Trujillo’s political party).

At the end of his life and his government, Trujillo controlled close to 80% of the industrial production, employing, through the State and his own corporations, 60% of the country’s economically active population.

Economic Growth – Since the national economy was indeed his personal economy, Trujillo insisted on developing the country’s production activity.

Agriculture
Trujillo continued the agricultural development policy initiated by the government during the occupation and sustained by his predecessor, Horacio Vasquez. In this way, he promoted a program of agricultural colonization, and dedicated to cultivation tens of thousands of hectares of land that had been previously abandoned. Agricultural production increased in every area, and the country became self sufficient in the cultivation of rice, maize, beans, and other provisions. At the end of the fifties, sugar, coffee, cacao and tobacco represented 90% of Dominican exports.

Industrialization
Under Trujillo’s personal empire operated a series of industries in the areas of edible oil, cement, drinks, liquor, paper, sausages, processed milk, nails, bottles, glass, coffee, meats, chocolate, candies, marble, medicines, bread, pain, sacks, cords and knits.

Urbanization
The enormous public works plan implemented throughout his thirty years of tyranny, the increasing modernization of the cities and towns that were provided with electricity, aqueducts, medical centers, and schools, and the location of the industries in cities (particularly Santo Domingo), contributed to the modification of the demographic pattern, and motivated the relocation of many rural families to urban areas. In 1930, 84% or the population lived in the countryside, and by 1960, only 60% of the population remained there.

Finances
In 1940, after years of negotiations with the United States, the Trujillo-Hull Treaty was signed, and ratified later on February 15, 1941. The treaty modified part of a decision reached by the Convention in 1924, and returned the control of Dominican Customs to its people. However, the agreement was that the funds collected by the Dominican authorities had to be deposited in Santo Domingo at the main branch of the National City Bank of New York. Once there, one of the officials would distribute the income between the Dominican government and foreign creditors. With this event, the creation of the Banco de Reservas (Bank of Reserves) in 1941, and the increase of fiscal revenue, due to the rise of Creole products in the international markets caused by World War II, a process of reorganization of public finances began and on July 21, 1947, the external debt was paid.

The 1937 Slaughter of Haitians and the “Dominicanization” of the Border
A silent mass of Haitians, attracted by land and employment opportunity, lived in the Dominican Republic. The sugar industry was sustained to a great extent by this work force. The settlement of Haitians on Dominican soil abandoned by Dominicans near the border, was an over a century old habit that the country had not been able to control. In 1937, the Hatian currency circulated through the town of Mao in El Cibao, and to Azua in the south, and it was accepted in Santiago’s markets.

In October of the same year, after a speech in the border city of Dajabon, Trujillo gave the order to assassinate all the Haitians who were found in national territory. More than 18,000 people died. The only lives that survived were those who managed to cross the border and those protected by sugar refineries.

The genocide brought about an international repulsion and Trujillo, referring to the event as “border conflicts”, paid the Haitian government DR$750,000 of “compensation”.

From then on, a type of crusade for the “Dominicanization” of the border takes place, promoting the repopulation of the region with Dominican families who received land from the government, and with the creation of provinces that through administrative routes connected the border regions with the Capital of Republic.

Oppression
The massacre of Haitians was part of the regime of terror that afflicted Dominicans and shed Dominican blood. The country was a big prison where surveillance, control, torture and murders were part of the everyday life. Nothing that was not service and acceptance of the will of the tyrant was allowed.

Trujillo used numerous instruments to keep under submission, not only his political adversaries and the entire population, but even his own collaborators. Among these instruments stand out the Army, the Military Intelligence Service (SIM), groups such as the University Guard, the Trujillista Youth, and mechanisms such as the obligation to affiliate to his political party, Partido Dominicano, the mandatory military service and the entire school system. One of his fundamental strategies consisted on infiltrating the day to day life of the citizens through a network of “calieses” or spies who would do anything to get the favor of the “Jefe” (Chief). However, his biggest accomplishment was to place each citizen on a permanent dilemma to whether actively collaborate with the regime or to expose themselves and be classified as a “desafecto” (adversary) and suffer the consequences.

Opposition
In spite of the tyranny, there was resistance and political opposition. Different clandestine organizations and unions arose at the beginning of the 40s: Dominican Democratic and Revolutionary Party (1943), the Revolutionary Youth Party (1944), the Patriotic and Revolutionary Union Party, Socialist Popular Party (1946), the Local Work Federation (created by Mauricio Baez), the Dominican Liberation Movement (MLD).

Between 1942 and 1946, syndicates activism reached a momentum in their fight against the dictatorship, when the number of labor unions reached 113, and a strike that affected the entire country took place in the refineries of La Romana and San Pedro de Macoris.

Juan Bosch, Juan Isidro Jimenez Grullon, Juancito Rodriguez, Miguel Angel Ramirez, Horacio Julio Ornes Coiscou, Tulio Arvelo, Rolando Martinez Bonilla and Miguel Angel Feliz Arzeno, are some of the names of the Dominicans that confronted the dictatorship from exile.

The expeditions of patriots from Cayo Confites, Luperon, and Constanza, Maimon and Estero Hondo deserve particular mention. The first one, was organized from the Cuban province of Camaguey, and was aborted in 1947 due to the pressure that the United States government was exerting on the Cuban government. The Luperon expedition was planned from Guatemala to attack different military objectives, although one group was able to reach the Dominican coast through the Luperon bay, they were suddenly attacked by the Trujillo’s military forces in June 1949. Ten years later, in 1959, the expedition Constanza, Maimon and Estero Hondo takes place. This one had been planned by the Dominican Liberation Movement, from Pinar del Rio, Cuba, where the revolutionaries had trained for three months.

Although the expedition of June 1959 was taken down, it produced a sudden fervor of political dissidence in the country which was encouraged even further by a series of events, such as, the victory of the Cuban Revolution, the patent deterioration of the dictatorship expressed in the frustrated assassination attempt of Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt, the break up with the Catholic Church and the increase on horrible crimes that were committed out of desperation by the killers of the regime.

One of those crimes was committed against three sisters, Patria, Maria Teresa and Minerva Mirabal, and their driver, Rufino de la Cruz, who were cold-bloodedly assassinated on November 25, 1960.

Execution
The evening of May 30, 1961, a group of former officials and military men of Trujillo’s government, ambushed the dictator as he was leaving the city on his way to his “Hacienda Fundacion”, in San Cristobal. Among the conspirators were Juan Tomas Diaz, Antonio de la Maza, Antonio Imbert Barreras and Luis Amiama Tio.

Three significant tendencies tinged the actions of the different political forces. One attempted to maintain the principal points of the Trujillo power scheme; another sought to create a party democracy as in the majority of Latin American countries and a third wanted to follow in the steps of the Cuban revolution.

Council of the State. Joaquín Balaguer, a prominent figure during the Trujillo regime, had arranged to take the presidency upon the death of the dictator. However, pressure from the popular sectors resulted in the establishment of a Council of the State on January 1, 1962. Balaguer managed to chair the Council, but he was replaced by Rafael F. Bonelly after a failed coup attempt.

This transition government occupied itself with organizing the first free elections in more than thirty years.

The constitutional government of Juan Bosch. In the elections held on December 20, 1962, Professor Juan Bosch won by an overwhelming majority and assumed the presidency on February 27, 1963. His regime of public liberties and his promotion of a markedly liberal Constitution of the Republic were such obvious achievements in his seven months of government that they provoked contempt from conservative forces, allied with powerful U.S. interests. Businessmen, landholders, military men, traders, prominent members of the Catholic Church, the far right (of Trujillo roots), and the U.S. State Department, unified by the “threat” of Communism, joined in a common front to attack the democratic government of Professor Juan Bosch.

The coup d’etat of September 25, 1963 put the Triumvirate in power, a repressive government that would be led, after its brief initial period, by Donald Read Cabral.

Civil War

The Triumvirate established itself in the Dominican State by bloody and repressive force: it dissolved the National Congress and annulled the democratic Constitution of 1963. In December, guerrillas directed by the leaders of the Movimiento Revolucionario 14 de Junio stirred up a revolt in the mountains and were imprisoned and massacred by the army. The disgruntled population organized itself in an attempt to reestablish constitutionality. A group of military men, led by Colonel Francisco Alberto Caamaño Deñó and the Lieutenant Colonel Rafael Tomás Fernández Domínguez decided to defend popular will: on April 25, 1965, the Civil War erupted in the city of Santo Domingo. Three days later, April 28, the disembarkment of 42,000 U.S. soldiers began on the Dominican coast.

Various months of confrontation between the parallel governments passed (the “constitutionalist” and the “national reconstruction” governments, the latter supported by the United States) until in September, the Act of Reconciliation was signed and the provisional government of Hector García Godoy was inaugurated. The elections supervised by the invading troops that, on their campaign, had assassinated more then 350 political activists of the PRD and the left, gave the title of “victor” to Doctor Joaquín Balaguer and his Partido Reformista Social Cristiano. Dominican conservatism, Trujillo ideology in a new suit, retook power. The “twelve years” began.