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The Haitian Political Situation and its Effect on the Dominican Republic: 1849-1877

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

William Javier Nelson
William Javier Nelson*
Affiliation:
St. Augustine's College, Raleigh, North Carolina
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Extract

The Dominican Republic, which has once again exhibited the fragility of its political institutions by taking over two weeks to ascertain a winner in its last presidential election, is, in many ways, a land of shared commonalities with other peoples. Its merengue rhythms point to a common musical bond with West Africa; its language and cultural institutions suggest a heavy Spanish stamp and its affiliations with other regional entities such as Puerto Rico and Venezuela are well known. Unfortunately for the Dominicans, however, they share their own island with another society — a decidely unique situation, especially since this schism represents an antipathic clash between different languages, histories and racial philosophies.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , October 1988 , pp. 227 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1988

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References

1 Peguero, Valentina y de los Santos, Danilo Vision General de la Historia Dominicana (Santo Domingo: Editoria Taller, 1981)Google Scholar note that the 1937 massacre had varying figures and included women and children (p. 359); see also Wiarda, Howard J., The Dominican Republic: A Caribbean Crucible (Boulder Colorado: Westview Press, 1982), p. 130.Google Scholar For a graphic account of the massacre, as well as Trujillo’s reaction to it, see Cressweller, Robert D., Trujillo: The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator (New York: MacMillan, 1966), pp. 153–56.Google Scholar

2 Wiarda, , The Dominican Republic, p. 130.Google Scholar

3 Interview with Richard Mendoza, Dominican college student in Santiago, Dominican Republic, June, 1982.

4 See Fagg, John E., Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1965), p. 151 Google Scholar; Walker, Stanley, Journey Toward the Sunlight (New York: The Caribbean Library, 1947)Google Scholar in his Trujillo-backed book makes incredibly racist assertions; Nicholls, David, From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Colour and National Independence in Haiti (London: Cambridge University Press, 1979), pp. 81–82 Google Scholar; Manning, W.R. (ed.), Diplomatic Correspondence of the U.S.: Interamerican Affairs, 1831–1860 (vi), p. 59.Google Scholar Cressweller, , Trujillo: The Life and Times on p. 18 Google Scholar gives additional background of some of the effects of Haitian actions against the Dominican Republic.

5 Nicholls, From Dessalines to Duvalier observes that the Dominicans, seeking U.S. recognition and support in the 1840s and 1850s, made explicit reference to the racial issue. J.M. Caminero, later the foreign minister of the Dominican Republic, told Secretary of State Calhoun that, in freeing itself from the “Haitian Negroes,” the new República Dominica had thus diminished the effect of the bad example offered by these blacks. The new nation and its firm establishment, he claimed, would, therefore, contribute to stability in those territories where slavery still existed (p. 81).

6 There had been, in the literature, no apparent ignorance of the forces behind Haitian interference in Dominican affairs, although the directions of the analyses are frequently toward other points of inquiry.

7 Nicholls, , From Dessalines to Duvalier, p. 82.Google Scholar

8 Heinl, Robert D. and Heinl, Nancy G., Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People 1492–1971 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978), pp. 221–222.Google Scholar Logan, Rayford, Haiti and the Dominican Republic (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968)Google Scholar attributes the success of the Second War of Independence to such factors as General Luperón of the rebels, Spanish sickness and Spanish dissention.

9 Fagg, , Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, p. 127 Google Scholar; Leyburn, James, The Haitian People (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1941), p. 93 Google Scholar; also Nicholls, , From Dessalines to Duvalier, p. 108 Google Scholar; and Rotberg, Robert and Clague, Christopher K., Haiti: The Politics of Squalor (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971), p. 90.Google Scholar

10 Weinstein, Brian and Segal, Aaron, Haiti: Political Failures, Cultural Successes (New York: Praeger, 1984), pp. 17–18.Google Scholar

11 Logan, , Haiti and the Dominican Republic, p. 106.Google Scholar

12 Lacerte, Robert K., “Xenophobia and Economic Decline: The Haitian Case 1820–1843,” Americas Vol.37, no. 4 (April, 1981), 499–515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Ibid.

14 Ibid.

15 Logan, , Haiti and the Dominican Republic, p. 109.Google Scholar

16 Ibid.

17 See Nelson, William Javier, “The Crisis of Dominican Liberalism, 1865–1882,” Revista de Historia de América, Numero 104 (Julio-Diciembre de 1987), 19–29,Google Scholar for a look at these intrigues from the vantage points of the various Dominican governments of the nineteenth century.

18 Lacerte, “Xenophobia and Economic Decline,”

19 Smith, Patrick Bellegarde, “International Relations/Social Theory in a Small State: An Analysis of the Thought of Dantes Bellegarde,” Americas Vol. 39, no. 2 (Oct. 1982), 167–184.Google Scholar

20 Heinl, and Heinl, , Writeen in Blood, p. 254.Google Scholar

21 Welles, Sumner, Naboth’s Vineyard: The Dominican Republic, 1844–1925 (2 vols.) (New York: Payson and Clarke, Ltd., 1928), p. 68 Google Scholar; also Rodman, Selden, Quisqueya (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1964), pp. 60–70.Google Scholar

22 Wiards, , The Dominican Republic, p. 28.Google Scholar

23 Welles, , Naboth’s Vineyard, p. 100.Google Scholar

24 Logan, , Haiti and the Dominican Republic, p. 196 Google Scholar; see also Nicholls, , From Dessalines to Duvalier, p. 81 Google Scholar; Heinl, and Heinl, , Written in Blood, p. 206 Google Scholar; Rodman, , Quisqueya, p. 65.Google Scholar

25 Welles, , Naboth’s Vineyard, p. 156 Google Scholar; Rodman, , Quisqueya, p. 67.Google Scholar

26 Welles, , Naboth’s Vineyard, pp. 156–157.Google Scholar

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29 Rotberg, and Clague, , Haiti: The Politics of Squalor, p. 190.Google Scholar

30 Welles, , Naboth’s Vineyard, p. 334 Google Scholar; also sirJohn, Spencer St., Haiti: The Black Republic (London: Smith, Elder and Co. 1884), pp. 111–112.Google Scholar

31 Welles, , Nabotha’s Vineyard, p. 361 Google Scholar; also Rodman, , Quisqueya, p. 85 Google Scholar; Heinl, and Heinl, , Written in Blood, p. 254.Google Scholar

32 Peguero, y De los Santos, , Vision General, p. 232.Google Scholar

33 Welles, , Naboth’s Vineyard, pp. 392–401.Google Scholar

34 Ibid., p. 401.

35 Fagg, , Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, p. 150.Google Scholar

36 Welles, , Naboth’s Vineyard, pp. 427–428.Google Scholar

37 Ibid.

38 Ibid., p. 414.

39 Logan, , Haiti and the Dominican Republic, p. 47.Google Scholar

40 Wiarda, , The Dominican Republic, pp. 130–131.Google Scholar

41 Lacerte, “Xenophobia and Economic Decline.”