1.1 The first colonial stage

Columbus’s second trip in 1493 was the start of the conquest of the Hispaniola as this entire island was called. It was also the start of the destruction of the Taine Culture in the first American colony. The first stage of colonial domination circulated around the exploitation of gold. In order to exploit gold the economy of the colony based itself on the massive exploitation of the natives which brought about their, almost total, extermination in less than fifty years.

The absence of gold, in the expected quantities, caused the substitution of this economical activity as the center of this island’s activities. It was substituted by the sugar production sector. In order to produce sugar cane the importation of African slaves was necessary because of the lack of native working hand. Together with sugar production another sector of economical importance emerged, cattle raising.

Towards the end of the XVI century, sugar had an ascending rhythm which started to stop due to the reduction of Spanish navigation, only means of commerce. As a great reduction in the arrival of Spanish commercial ships came, the inhabitants of the Hispaniola recurred to contraband in order to sell what they produced and buy what they needed.

The focus of the smuggled goods was in the west part of the island dedicated, essentially, to cattle raising. The French, English and Dutch ships became frequent visitors of those zones, characterized by the absence of effective vigilance.

Contraband came to be so outrageous that the authorities took the drastic measure of proceeding, from 1605 to 1606, to devastate the north coast of the island; this historical fact is known as Osorio`s devastations. The devastated zones, ironically, were taken advantage of much more easily by pirates and smugglers.

The Devastations caused such an economical paralysis that, starting from 1608, it was necessary to receive annually from Mexico the “Situado”, money with which the salary of the functionaries and the military garrison could be paid. To this was added the isolation and abandonment of the Spanish crown towards our island, concentrated in taking advantage of their rich colonies in continental America.

Many families opted for emigration to other lands, turning the colony’s social life into a rural one. The production was reduced to mere self consume and, because of the lack of circulating money, commerce, in many cases, turned into simple barter.

The mixing process was accentuated in the XVII century and the mulattos became the majority. Together with the racial mixing came processes of cultural mixing. The unification of two crossed cultures, the Spanish and African, gave birth to a new one: the creole.

1.2 Piracy and Privateering

The Hispaniola, with its unbeatable geographic position and its natural ports, was constantly attacked by pirates and privateers. In 1659, 1657 and 1673 the pirates reached the Cibao, without difficulty, proceeding to rob Santiago and La Vega, amongst other cities. The continuous attacks forced the authorities to reinforce, inside the possible measures, given the situation of economical crisis, the defense of the colony. A period of colonial militarism was produced in which all funds where dedicated to the construction of defense edifications and military supplies.

The presence of aliens in the west side of the island contributed to liven up the militarization in the live of Santo Domingo. Piracy would be the new form which the fights between European potencies would take. The Caribbean was the victim by excellence of the attacks by the pirates and privateers under the orders of the French, English and Dutch kingdoms, countries that where anxious to commerce with Spain`s American colonies.

1.3 Contraband

Attacks by privateers and pirates not always tried to rob and destroy cities, but to force the population to buy their merchandise and replenish the products they needed.

Since Spain maintained a strict monopoly of commerce in America, Spain was the only one that could commerce with Santo Domingo.

But Spain had stayed behind in relation with the rest of the European countries by not developing an industry and an agriculture that could supply the demands of its American colonies, which made their product`s prices generally higher than those of other parts of Europe.

Also, the privateering and piracy had extended in the waters of the Caribbean making it extremely dangerous to navigate through them. In order to navigate the Caribbean`s waters, Spain used the float system, which is several groups of ships with lots of protection. This system complicated the trips in such a way, that the arrival of Spanish ships to the coasts of Santo Domingo was reduced to once a year.

Spain wasn`t in capacity to neither comply with the demand of manufactured products nor with the offer of prime mater and tropical products of its colony.

It would be the smuggling, taken to place by the English, French and Dutch that would supply those demands and what would revitalize the economy and provoke the French occupation of the western part of the island.

2.1 Occupation of La Tortuga and the western part of the island

La Tortuga, which is a small island in the northwestern part of the Hispaniola, currently north of Haiti, was, since 1630, constantly occupied by both adventurers and pirates of English and French origin, who made out of this island their center of operations.

Some of them passed to the north coast of the Hispaniola, abandoned as it was, and took advantage the enormous quantity of cattle, stray since the days of the devastations, the fertility of its land and the abundance of rivers.

The Spanish, warned of the existence of aliens in the western part of the island and in La Tortuga, organized expeditions in several occasions, in order to throw them outside, but, as they never left a garrison behind, this lands where newly repopulated.

Finally, it was the French who took control over the island and even named a governor, Mister Levasseur. In little time, its population had grown. The buccaneers hunted for cattle to prepare its meat and leather, the so called inhabitants dedicated themselves to cultivating tobacco and other products and the pirates and privateers kept their loots there and organized their attacks to other points of the Caribbean.

The Spanish didn`t desist in their intentions of dislodging the new tenants of the west side. In 1653, the governor of Santo Domingo, Don Juan Francisco Montemayor de Cuenca, prepared an attack with which he managed to take out the outsiders. Unlike previous times, he left a garrison of 150 men.

The Spanish domination over La Tortuga was short lasted, for in 1655, as the news of England panning to invade the Hispaniola and the so called “invincible armada” being already on its way was known, the governor ordered to gather in Santo Domingo the biggest quantity of men possible. So, the garrison of La Tortuga had to return to Santo Domingo.

Even after the failure of the English expedition, no one was sent back to La Tortuga. Because of that, in one year France was handing over the property rights of La Tortuga to the Western indie`s French Company which designated as governor to Bertrand D`Oregon.

The stabilization and the economical and population growth brought about the strengthening of the French occupation in the western part of the island and La Tortuga and, also, the start of communications and commerce between both parts of the island. This didn’t mean the end of hostilities between them, for in great measure the relationship between the two parts where tinted by the problems between France and Spain.

It was precisely the Ryswick treaty, in 1697 that implicitly recognized the French presence in the west side of the island. Afterwards, in 1777, the Aranjuez Treaty would establish formally the limits between the two sides.


*Source: I traduced from “Sociedad 3: historia y geografía de la República Dominicana, pages 10, 11 and 12“which was selected by the Ministry of education to be taught in public schools to 3rd grade high school students.

**Personal Analysis of this will come in the next post I guess.

I will throughout posts that I will be updating regularly show the result of an investigation in which, by using the academic material given to me, as a public school student by Ministry of Education of the Dominican Republic, I will try to unravel certain questions that have surged in me about the country`s people through the 11 years that I have been living in this country as a Dominican-Cuban.

I will try to answer this questions, questions that are mostly cultural, through the study of this country`s history.

-Is administrative corruption a consequence of previous historical facts like the piracy which took place in the Caribbean?
-Is there a connection between genetic heritage and social behavior?
-Why would a nation not have a clear identity?
-How the Dominican Republic is going through great changes.


In this investigation I will thoughtfully and as accurately as possible try to traduce the academic texts of concern to the investigation. I might also introduce concepts and tools of understanding borrowed from other sources in disciplines that I have previously studied, sources that I will, as possible, try to always cite properly. As well as show the conclusion I might come to reach through them, in order to show my thoughts about the problems and the possibilities available for improvement. I hope this will bring the thoughts of the reader towards the country I have been living in for so long, which has raised me, feed me and ultimately accepted me within its own possibilities, for which I am very grateful.

I am writing this in English because is a much more international language than Spanish and therefore can bring readers of many more different origins and cultures than Spanish. If there is any error, which I will try to avoid at any cost, please let me know about it since I might be single handedly traducing a large or not so large quantity of text depending on where this investigation about a nation and maybe a little about myself takes me.

This work is in process so please respect the fact that it might take me some time to follow through between one post and another.