Definition of Restoration War

When a country achieves independence and full sovereignty of its territory the most common is that the new nation break political ties with the dominant nation. This was not what happened in the Republican, since in 1860 the Dominican rulers proposed that the Spanish crown take power again.

Annexation to Spain

In 1860 Pedro Santana wrote a letter to Queen Isabel ll and in it he proposed to become part of her mother country again. Santana's purpose was to achieve national stability and protect the Dominican territory from possible interference by the United States.

So that his proposal was not unpopular, he proposed a series of conditions: that there should be no way of slavery, that the Dominican territory became a Spanish province and that Spain assumed the circulating paper money.

The conditions of the annexationists were accepted by the government Spanish and the local authorities launched a propaganda campaign to communicate to the population the new Spanish dominion. Pedro Santana immediately became the new governor of the Suburb.

The return to the colonial situation had several immediate consequences: the establishment of the Spanish legal system, the social and political predominance of Spanish elites, the resurgence of racial prejudice and a climate of intolerance religious

In the economic sphere, the consequences were equally negative, since the Commerce and the production of raw materials fell notably. The new framework generated the discontent of the popular classes and patriotic sentiment quickly became more acute. The pockets of resistance began to organize in 1863 and in this way the War of Restoration began. Little by little the restaurateurs took control of several Dominican towns, for which they had the economic and military support of Venezuela and Haiti.

In 1864 the push of the restorers achieved control of the entire territory and finally in 1865 the Spanish government decided to abandon the Dominican territory (the economic costs of the war were very high and, in addition, the war was very unpopular in the whole of society Spanish).

Consequences

While many cities were destroyed and many crops disappeared, national pride spread throughout the Dominican Republic.

At the same time, the inhabitants of Cuba and Puerto Rico, at that time were Spanish colonies, saw that their yearnings for independence were viable and that the Spanish could be defeated. Finally, the attitude The militants of the restaurateurs caused the Haitians to renounce the armed invasion.

Photo: Fotolia - Silvio