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 four-year period between 1861 and 1865 during which the former Spanish possession of Santo Domingo in the eastern part of the island of Hispaniola, then the independent Dominican Republic, was occupied and annexed by the Spanish Empire, following the request of Dominican dictator Pedro Santana. 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. Several Dominicans who sided with Spain left for the Spanish possessions of Cuba and Puerto Rico and played a role in their later struggle for independence.
Previous annexations
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 Haitian massacre, 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 (dubbed locally the España Boba, "Foolish Spain") was almost testimonial. On 1 December 1821, José Núñez de Cáceres proclaimed independence as the Republic of Spanish Haiti and asked Simón Bolívar for integration into Gran Colombia, but the country was invaded and annexed by Haiti just two months later.
The Haitians abolished slavery, banned Criollos and the Catholic Church 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 depopulated, impoverished, indebted, politically fragmented, corrupt, illiterate, and open to Haitian incursions. Starting in 1846, the two most prominent Dominican 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 respective faction in power. Santana's powerbase were the ranchers and cowboys, and Báez's the bourgeoisie of the capital. Both shared the goal of annexation, but neither was willing to see it happening under their rival's watch. 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.
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 the opposition of France, Britain, and the United States to annexation. However, the Spanish consul in Santo Domingo, Antonio María Segovia, offered any Dominicans the possibility to register as Spanish citizens. This figure, known as the Matrícula de Segovia ("Segovia's Registration"), allowed hundreds of Dominicans to acquire Spanish citizenship without leaving the country, and was used by Báez's supporters to protect themselves from Santana.
In 1854, the American filibuster William Leslie Cazneau drafted a treaty that would cede Samaná Bay to the United States for the building of a naval base, but it was rejected due to the opposition of Samaná Americans, who feared that the treaty would be followed by annexation and slavery.
In 1858, Santana overthrew president José Desiderio Valverde and sounded the idea of annexation by France or Spain again. Britain and France opposed annexation by Spain, and in 1859 discussed protectorates by Sardinia, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, Naples, the Netherlands, Belgium, and even Haiti as alternatives. In 1860, Santana wrote a letter to queen Isabella II and sent Felipe Alfau to Spain again, proposing the annexation of Santo Domingo not as a colony but as a province of Spain with representation in the Cortes Generales. Though they met little interest at first, prime minister Leopoldo O'Donnell sent a military mission to train the Dominican Army and explore the strategic value of the country for Spain.
Communication was established between Santana and the Spanish captain-general of Cuba, Francisco Serrano, who was instructed to negotiate without moving precipitously to avoid a conflict with the United States. Spain would only consider annexation in case of clear and overwhelming support from the Dominican population. Santana promised that reintegration would be easy because of cultural ties: "Religion, language, beliefs, and customs, all we preserve with purity."
1861 annexation
Beginning and reactions
Frustrated with Spain's cautious approach, Santana staged a plebiscite in March 1861 in which 4,000 Dominicans voted overwhelmingly for annexation (the total population of the country was 280,000). Most votes were cast by the wealthy and allies of Santana, sometimes in private homes or government facilities, and others were coerced, pushing Santana's enemies against the annexation. On 18 March, Santana announced the plebiscite's result and the immediate annexation of the Dominican Republic to Spain, claiming it the will of the Dominican people.
Serrano, O'Donnell, and Isabella II were upset by the news, feeling outmaneuvered by Santana and with little choice but to proceed with the annexation, thought its official acceptance by the queen was delayed until 19 May, when the American Civil War had begun and it was clear that the United States would not oppose the annexation by force. Secretary of State William H. Seward presented war as an option to Abraham Lincoln, but he only protested, along with some Latin American countries. Great Britain "reluctantly" acquiesced to the annexation because it would not be followed by the reinstatement of slavery, and France supported it by claiming "no menace to French interests," in a possible bid to win Spanish support towards the establishment of a French-controlled Second Mexican Empire. Haiti was the only country to threaten war, but it was unable to oppose Spain meaningfully, despite being repeatedly accused of the contrary.
The annexation terms were very generous to Santana. Dominican law and property ownership would not change, and Dominican officials and clergy would remain in their positions, effectively meaning that Spain would upheld the power of Santana's supporters. Santana himself was sworn in as Governor and Captain-General of Santo Domingo on 8 August, the same title used by Spanish colonial administrators before 1821. However, Santo Domingo would be a province of Spain, not a colony, and slavery would remain illegal despite its persistence in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Spain would also validate all actions taken by the Dominican government since 1844.
It was also agreed that Dominican paper money, devalued due to hyperinflation caused by mass printing to finance the war against Valverde and a military buildup against possible Haitian invasions, would be exchanged by Spanish currency as if they had the same value. As Spain recognized the ranks of the Dominican military as their own, Dominican officers received much higher pay and pensions than they did before the annexation. Most of them, including 57 generals, retired and were replaced by 3,000 soldiers and 2,000 sailors from Cuba and Puerto Rico under the command of Spanish general Antonio Peláez de Campomanes. With only one month before deployment to Santo Domingo, many came unprepared, with no maps, no information about the island, and no instructions about what to do upon arrival. Meanwhile, up to 20 warships cordoned the Dominican coast at the height of Spanish deployment, in order to prevent interference by Haiti, the United States, and other countries. However, this precaution turned unnecessary in the case of the United States, which kept the Union Navy out of Dominican waters and abstained from arming the resistance as to not invite Spain to recognize the Confederate States of America in retaliation.
The annexation surprised the press and public in Spain, but was welcomed as the first step in the restoration of the Spanish Empire in the Americas through annexations, alliances, or the establishment of local monarchies under members of the Spanish royal family. For Spanish abolitionists, Santo Domingo was a testing ground for the post-slavery economies of Cuba and Puerto Rico, the only parts of the Spanish Empire where slavery remained. The main supporters of the annexation in Spain were the "propertied classes, aristocrats, Catalan industrialists, urban landowners, military, and religious leaders," who believed it would revitalize Spain's image and economy, restore Catholicism in the island, and protect Cuba. In the Dominican Republic, annexation found support among some merchants, would-be industrialists, and political aspirants in the cities, but was opposed in rural areas where the population was used to a lighter presence of the national government. It was also more popular generally in the richer south than in the poorer north of the country, and among White Dominicans than Black Dominicans.
Early opposition
On 2 May 1861, colonel José Contreras attacked the barracks at Moca but was captured by Santana and executed. At the end of May and still before Spanish troops were deployed, Báez led an army from Haiti, which was repelled by Santana. In June, generals José María Cabral and Francisco del Rosario Sánchez rebelled and occupied some villages near the border with Haiti, where president Fabre Geffrard allowed them to operate and provided them with weapons. However, Santana enticed Sánchez to a trap and captured him at El Cercado, then executed him by firing squad along with twenty of his supporters. The executions were protested by Peláez.
By July, the annexationists secured control over all Dominican territory. On the 6th, six Spanish warships commanded by Joaquín Gutiérrez de Rubalcava sailed to Port-au-Prince and threatened to bomb the city unless Haiti paid 200,000 duros and saluted the Spanish flag 21 times without Spanish response. After five days and the mediation of the British consul, Haiti agreed to pay 25,000 duros and saluted the Spanish flag, then was saluted back by the Spanish. Haiti also promised to prevent further crossings of Dominican rebels and expelled Cabral and Báez from its territory.
Santana's relief
At the end of the 1861 summer, Serrano visited Santo Domingo to study the situation. In a secret message to Madrid, he claimed that the country had no administration, taxing authority, justice, trade, industry, or communications. The climate was "horrible and unhealthy", and the population "ignorant and primitive". The Catholic Church was the only institution with some normality and cohesion, and Santana only wanted money and to secure his own power. Serrano requested the urgent shipment of public officials to reorganize the administration, and that Santana be called to Spain with the excuse of meeting with Queen Isabella II, who would give him a title in Castile and a seat in the Senate of Spain to keep him there, while another governor and captain-general was appointed in his place.
Spain sent engineers to study the construction of roads, railroads, mines, river channels, docks and bridges; and jurists and public officials to reorganize the Dominican administration. It was decided that the most immediate course of action should be the stimulation of cotton and tobacco agriculture, and the exact delimitation of the border with Haiti. Santana resigned as governor in January 1862, but retained the position of captain-general. In March, the Spanish official Eduardo Alonso Colmenares, assigned to reorganize justice, denounced that Santana still opposed any modernization and behaved like a dictator, breaking the law and usurping the queen's authority to give pardons. Colmenares also requested the urgent relief of Santana as captain-general.