Annexation of the Dominican Republic to Spain
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| Province of Santo Domingo Provincia de Santo Domingo (Spanish) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province of Spain | |||||||||
| July 11, 1865 | |||||||||
 Map of the Spanish Province of Santo Domingo (1861) | |||||||||
| Anthem | |||||||||
| Marcha Real | |||||||||
| Demonym | Dominican | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1860 | 200,000 | ||||||||
| Government | |||||||||
| • Type | Captaincy General | ||||||||
| Queen | |||||||||
• 1861–1865 | Isabella II of Spain | ||||||||
| Governor-General | |||||||||
• 1861–1862 | Pedro Santana | ||||||||
• 1864–1865 | José de la Gándara | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Reincorporation of Santo Domingo | 18 March 1861 | ||||||||
• Reestablishment of the Dominican Republic | 11 July 1865 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Dominican Republic | ||||||||
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The Annexation of the Dominican Republic to Spain (Spanish: Anexión de la República Dominicana a España) or Reintegration of Santo Domingo (Reintegración de Santo Domingo) was a brief period in 1861–1865 during which the Dominican Republic returned to the sovereignty of Spain, following the request of the Dominican government and its president, Pedro Santana.[1] The period coincided with the American Civil War, during which the United States was unable to enforce the Monroe Doctrine. After fighting an insurgency of two years in the Dominican Restoration War, Spain left the country in 1865. Some Dominicans that left with Spain later fought in Cuba's independence wars, most notably Máximo Gómez.
Previous annexations
[edit]Spain had ruled the Dominican Republic's territory since Christopher Columbus claimed the island of Hispaniola for the Crown of Castile in 1492. In the 1795 Peace of Basel, Spain ceded the Dominican territory to France, which controlled the colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) on the western side of the island, but French control wasn't effective until Toussaint Louverture occupied Santo Domingo in 1801. Following the Haitian victory in the Revolution and the 1804 massacre of whites and mulattos in Haiti, the Criollos of Santo Domingo asked to return to Spanish rule in 1809. With Spain distracted first by the Peninsular War and then by the Spanish American wars of independence, this second period of Spanish rule (called España Boba, "Foolish Spain") was almost testimonial. On 1 December 1821, the Criollos proclaimed independence as the Republic of Spanish Haiti and asked Simón Bolívar for integration into Gran Colombia, but the country was invaded and annexed to Haiti just two months later.[1]
The Haitians abolished slavery, banned Criollos and the Catholic Church[2] from owning land, and redistributed it as they had done in Haiti. During the long Dominican War of Independence (1844-1856), mostly fought as an insurgency, the country was severely depopulated, impoverished, indebted, politically fragmented, and open to Haitian incursions. Starting in 1846, the most prominent Dominican rival leaders, Pedro Santana and Buenaventura Báez, repeatedly offered the United Kingdom and France a protectorate or annexation as a way to repair the economy and keep their own factions in power.[3] However, the British were only interested in trade and the French favored a return to Haiti because it would accelerate payments of the Haitian independence debt.[4]
In 1853, Santana sent Matías Ramón Mella and Felipe Alfau to Spain to offer the choice between annexation and diplomatic recognition. Spain chose recognition, fearing British and French opposition to annexation. However, the new Spanish consul in Santo Domingo, Antonio María Segovia, offered any Dominicans the possibility to register as Spanish citizens. In this way, hundreds of Dominicans acquired Spanish citizenship without leaving the country.[3]
In 1854, the American filibuster William L. Cazneau drafted a treaty that would cede Samaná Bay to the United States for the building of a naval base,[5] but it was rejected due to the opposition of Samaná Americans, who feared that the treaty would be followed by annexation and slavery.[4]
In 1858, Santana overthrew president José Desiderio Valverde and began discussing annexation to Spain with the captain-general of Cuba Francisco Serrano, bypassing the government in Madrid which had favored Báez.[3] Santana promised that reintegration would be easy because of cultural ties: "Religion, language, beliefs, and customs, all we preserve with purity."[4]
However, by 1859 Britain and France still opposed the return of Santo Domingo to Spain, and discussed protectorates by Sardinia, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, Naples, the Netherlands, Belgium, and even Haiti as alternatives.[3]
Spanish annexation
[edit]On 18 March 1861, secret negotiations between Santana and Serrano agreed to the annexation of the country to Spain with the conditions that Dominican laws, currency, and property ownership would not change, and Dominican officials and clergy would remain in their positions. Chiefly, Slavery would remain illegal in Santo Domingo despite its existence in Cuba and Puerto Rico. The annexation was delayed to avoid opposition from the United States until it was fully immersed in civil war.[1]
The news surprised many in Spain, but were welcomed by the government, press, and public as the first step in the restoration of the Spanish Empire,[4] either through annexations, alliances, or the establishment of local monarchies under members of the Spanish royal family.[1] For Spanish abolitionists, Santo Domingo was a testing ground for the post-slavery economies of Cuba and Puerto Rico,[4] the only parts of the Spanish Empire where slavery remained legal.[1]
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Spanish troops poured into Santo Domingo to support the "army" of Spanish bureaucrats and priests who displaced Dominicans as civil and religious servants. Within a few months, 6,000 Spanish troops occupied the island. Soon the number swelled to 30,000 soldiers supported by twenty-two warships. These were supplemented by battalions of Cuban and Puerto Rican volunteers. Additionally, more than 12,000 Dominicans, principally from the provinces of Azua, Santo Domingo, El Seibo, and the town of Baní, served the Spanish queen.[6]
At first, only a few Dominicans opposed the Spaniards. This was more a result of the shortage of weapons than the will to fight. On May 2, 1861, Colonel José Contreras led a group of Dominicans against the barracks at fortress Moca. Santana, leading his cowboys, captured the ringleaders and executed them. Soon, Dominicans, who had fled to Haiti from Spanish rule, began raiding across the border. In June, General Francisco del Rosario Sánchez and José María Cabral began a better organized rebellion; however, Santana enticed Sánchez into a trap at El Cercado where Sánchez was captured. He and twenty-one followers were executed. A Spanish fleet was dispatched to Port-au-Prince and extracted an indemnity in retaliation for Haiti's meddling and a promise from the Haitians to prevent further crossings.
Before long, tactics settled into a pattern. The Spanish, having superior artillery and rifles, preferred fighting at a distance. The Dominicans, knowing the terrain, preferred close quarters where they could employ lances and edged weapons.[6]
Santana, believing that his services and those of his followers were not adequately rewarded, resigned on March 28, 1862, as Spanish rule became increasingly unpopular. Santana was replaced as captain-general by the Spaniard Felipe Ribero y Lemoine, an incredibly inept administrator. Compounding the problems of Spain, yellow fever broke out in the summer of 1862.
Dominican Restoration War
[edit]By 1863, uprisings spread throughout Santo Domingo, and guerrilla warfare erupted. In February, the Spanish authorities declared Santo Domingo under a state of siege. In April, the Spanish Army defeated the Dominicans led by General Lucas de Peña at Cibao. In August, Dominican dissidents in collaboration with the Haitian rebel Sylvain Salnave established sanctuaries along the Haitian-Dominican border to their mutual advantage. On August 16, fourteen dissidents led by Santiago Rodríquez, Benito Morción, and José Cabrera crossed the northeast frontier into Santo Domingo and called for the nation to rise up against the invaders. On that day, they routed a small Spanish detachment. Soon the insurrection had spread to the outskirts of the capital. On September 9, Spanish reinforcements of two battalions arrived at Puerto Plata on board the Isabel la Católica and the El Pájaro del Océano. Spain, believing it had no choice, once again turned to Santana to salvage the situation.
Santana led an army composed mostly of mercenaries against his countrymen at Cibao. When he reached Monte Plata, Santana discovered that the rebels had seized 6,000 rifles at Santiago. The rebels burned Santiago and Puerto Plata to delay his advance. On September 14, the insurgents established a provisional government led by General José Antonio Salcedo in Santiago de los Caballeros. It declared Santana a traitor and ordered that he be shot on sight. Santana's march stalled at Monte Plata. Rebel forces led by General Gregorio Luperón harassed his troops and depleted his strength. The Dominicans captured Santana's entire supply train along with two Spanish generals and some one hundred Spanish soldiers at Yamasá.[6] Many deserted Santana's army and the Spanish authorities refused to send reinforcements. Frustrated, Santana retired to El Seibo. Yellow fever continued to take a heavy toll. By March 1864, of the 21,000 troops sent to the island, 9,000 had died from the fever or were incapacitated, and another 1,000 men had been killed in combat.[6]
In May 1864, the Spanish Captain-General ordered Santana to face court-martial. However, on June 14, 1864, he probably died from a stroke. The Captain-General of Santo Domingo, now the Spaniard José de la Gándara y Navarro, embraced a strategy of occupying the northern ports, thus cutting off the dissident Dominican government in Santiago from outside support. La Gándara pulled together some men, which included Dominicans, and joined a force of 6,000 men who sailed from Santiago de Cuba to Manzanillo Bay on board fourteen ships. The Spanish attacked and captured Monte Cristi, but sustained heavy losses, including the wounding of Field Marshal Primo de Rivera. Next, La Gándara attempted to subdue the rebels between Monte Cristi and Santiago. This played into the hands of the Dominicans. They resorted to hit-and-run tactics and intercepted many of the supplies intended for La Gándara. The only victory in the campaign was the capture of Monte Cristi, and that at great cost.[6]
By 1865, the Dominican forces confined the Spaniards to the capital and they were afraid to venture out. Realizing that the reconquest of Santo Domingo would be costly and complicated due to the ending of the U.S. Civil War, the Queen authorized the abandonment of the territory on May 3, 1865. The last Spanish troops withdrew on July 11.
During the War of Restoration, Spain lost some 18,000 men. This number does not include the Dominicans, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans fighting on its side.[6] The Dominicans fighting for independence against Spain lost more than 4,000 men. The Dominicans were better acclimated to local diseases, this explaining the large difference between the losses on the two sides.
Governors
[edit]1861–1865
[edit]- 1861–1862: Pedro Santana
- 1862–1863: Felipe Ribero y Lemoine
- 1863–1864: Carlos de Vargas
- 1864–1865: José de la Gándara
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Bowen, W. H. (2011). Spain and the American Civil War. University of Missouri Press. 208 pages.
- ^ Keane-Dawes, A. W. (2020). Remaking the Catholic Church in Santo Domingo: Haitian State Reform and Its Consequences. New West Indian Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids, 94(3-4), 245-271.
- ^ a b c d Gallego Cosme, M. J. (2014). Contexto histórico e internacional de las relaciones diplomáticas de la república dominicana con españa durante la segunda mitad del siglo xix. REIB: Revista Electrónica Iberoamericana, 8(2), 90-110.
- ^ a b c d e Doyle, D. H. (Ed.). (2017). American Civil Wars: The United States, Latin America, Europe, and the Crisis of the 1860s. UNC Press Books. pgs. 147-167.
- ^ Tavárez, Fidel (2011). ""The Moral Miasma of the Tropics": American Imperialism and the Failed Annexation of the Dominican Republic, 1869-1871". Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos. doi:10.4000/nuevomundo.61771.
- ^ a b c d e f Scheina (2003). Latin America's Wars Volume I: The Age of the Caudillo, 1791–1899. pp. 1078–1084.
- Colony of Santo Domingo
- 1865 disestablishments
- 1860s in the Dominican Republic
- Colonial government in the West Indies
- Dominican Restoration War
- Dominican Republic–Spain relations
- History of the Colony of Santo Domingo
- Former countries in the Caribbean
- Spanish West Indies
- States and territories established in 1861
- 1861 establishments in the Spanish Empire
- Military occupation