Dominican Republic: Independence Movement

Dominican Republic's independence movement unfolded in stages over more than two decades. In 1821, Dominican elites deposed the Spanish colonial governor and briefly declared independence as the Republic of Spanish Haiti, ending three centuries of Spanish rule. That independence proved short-lived: the following year, Haitian forces under President Jean-Pierre Boyer occupied the eastern side of the island, uniting it with Haiti under a single government that would last for twenty-two years.

The Haitian occupation was marked by heavy taxation, land confiscation, and efforts to suppress Dominican language and Catholic institutions, which fueled growing resentment. In 1838, Juan Pablo Duarte founded La Trinitaria, a secret society dedicated to ending Haitian rule and establishing an independent Dominican state. Alongside figures such as Ramon Matias Mella and Francisco del Rosario Sanchez, Duarte's movement built clandestine support across the eastern provinces through the early 1840s, aided by a devastating 1842 earthquake and political instability within Haiti itself.

On February 27, 1844, La Trinitaria's supporters seized the Puerta del Conde fortress in Santo Domingo and proclaimed independence, launching the Dominican War of Independence. Haitian troops withdrew from the eastern territory in the weeks that followed, and the newly formed Dominican Republic adopted its first constitution later that year. The date is now commemorated annually as Dominican Independence Day, and Duarte, Mella, and Sanchez are honored as the country's founding fathers.