Spanish reconquest of Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo, on eastern Hispaniola, under French control.

The war between Spain and the Convention ended with the cession of the eastern part of the island of Santo Domingo to France, in exchange for the return of the peninsular territories occupied by the army French, as stipulated in the Treaty of Basel, signed on July 22, 1795 between both countries. The situation of general chaos in which the French part of the island was immersed, due to the uprising of the slaves and the struggles unleashed between the various ethnic and social groups, caused the sine day postponement of the definitive handover of the colony by the Spanish authorities to the French ones. However, the consequences of the news were not long in coming, and a large number of Dominican families left the island bound for Puerto Rico, Cuba and Venezuela in a migration process that increased when soldiers commanded by Toussaint Louverture, a former slave who had become general of the French Republic, entered Santo Domingo almost without resistance, in 1801, to take possession of the territory that Spain had ceded to France. The expedition sent by Napoleon Bonaparte to the island in 1802, headed by General Charles Leclerc, did not manage to restore order, but rather lost control over the western part of the island, in which French rule was already more virtual than real, unlike of what was happening in Santo Domingo, whose population supported the new authorities as a safeguard against their neighbors to the west. After the proclamation of Haitian independence in 1804, the eastern part remained under the power of France.

General Jean-Louis Ferrand

During the French era in Santo Domingo, from 1802 and especially from 1804, there were undoubtedly convinced Francophiles among the Dominicans. The brilliance of Napoleonic France was perceived and had its effects in the country. After the failed invasion of Jean-Jacques Dessalines in 1805, it was realized that a competent and progressive administration was beginning; It was noted that the French governor, General Jean-Louis Ferrand, was a capable and well-intentioned man.[1]

During his government, the French took care of the reconstruction and consolidation of the Colony. Ferrand launched proclamations abroad calling on the French to live in Santo Domingo; Many responded to the call, as did some Spanish families, and thus things continued to improve incredibly after so many vicissitudes. In Samaná, for example, which until then had been a poor and forgotten village, the Government encouraged the planting of coffee plantations that already in 1808 promised to give new life to this region, whose French population grew so much that Ferrand even had the plans prepared. of a modern city that would be named Port Napoleon. The wood forests, which until then had been exploited very sporadically, were subject to regular exploitation, since the Island's mahogany, due to its beauty, was in great demand in the United States and Europe. Taxes were reduced to the minimum in order to help the inhabitants of the Colony recover their fortunes.[1]

Ferrand established a paternal government, supported by a decree from Napoleon in 1803, through which he ordered respect for Spanish uses and customs, especially as far as the legal organization was concerned. The truth was that there was collaboration between the population and the authorities, although Ferrand, convinced that Hispanic feelings were still alive among the vast majority of the population, avoided, as much as possible, the opportunities to make them feel his power.[1]

Napoleon Bonaparte

That same year, Napoleon invaded Spain, leading to Tlthe abdication of King Charles IV as a consequence of the Aranjuez mutiny, and the proclamation of Ferdinand VII caused a dynastic and political crisis that was used by Napoleon, whose troops had entered Spain heading towards Portugal, to confine the entire royal family in Bayonne, and put his brother José on the Spanish throne. Following the outbreak of the popular uprising against the French invasion, in May 1808, there was a subsequent reaction in the Spanish territories of America, in favor of the cause of the deposed Ferdinand VII.

In Santo Domingo, particularly, where the French ruled over a population that still considered itself Spanish, Napoleon's betrayal against the monarchs of Spain provoked the indignation of the most important property owners who now considered themselves doubly humiliated by knowing that the "Motherland" had fallen under French rule and saw its businesses damaged by the prohibition on selling its livestock to Haitians.