Interesante

Seventeenth century: French encroachment
In 1605, Spain was infuriated that Spanish settlements on the northern and western coasts of the island were carrying out large scale and illegal trade with the Dutch, who were at that time fighting a war if independence against Spain in Europe, and the English, a very recent enemy state, and so decided to forcibly resettle their inhabitants closer to thecity of Santo Domingo.[3] This action, known as the Devastaciones de Osorio, proved disastrous; more than half of the resettled colonists died of starvation or disease, over 100,000 cattle were abandoned, and many slaves escaped.[4] Five of the existing thirteen settlements on the island were brutally razed by Spanish troops - many of the inhabitants fought, escaped to the jungle, or fled to thesafety of passing Dutch ships. The settlements of La Yaguana, and Bayaja, on the west and north coasts respectively of modern day Haiti were burned, as were the settlements of Monte Cristi and Puerto Plata on the north coast and San Juan de la Maguana in the south western area of the modern day Dominican Republic. French and English buccaneers took advantage of Spain's retreat into a corner ofHispaniola to settle the island of Tortuga, off the northwest coast of Hispaniola, in 1629. France established direct control in 1640, reorganizing it into an official colony and expanding to the north coast of Hispaniola itself, whose western end Spain ceded to France in 1697 under the Treaty of Ryswick. In 1655, Oliver Cromwell dispatched a fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir William Penn, to conquerSanto Domingo. After meeting heavy resistance, the English retreated, taking the island of Jamaica instead.
French rule
France came to own the island in 1795, when by the Peace of Basel Spain ceded Santo Domingo as a consequence of the French Revolutionary Wars. At the time, Saint-Domingue's slaves, led by Toussaint Louverture, were in revolt against France. In 1801 they captured Santo Domingo,thus controlling the entire island; but in 1802 an army sent by Napoleon captured Toussaint Louverture and sent him to France as prisoner. However, Toussaint Louverture's lieutenants, and yellow fever, succeeded in expelling the French again from Saint-Domingue, which in 1804 the rebels made independent as the Republic of Haiti. Eastwards, France continued to rule Spanish Santo Domingo.
In 1808,following Napoleon's invasion of Spain, the criollos of Santo Domingo revolted against French rule and, with the aid of Great Britain (Spain's ally) and Haiti,[35] returned Santo Domingo to Spanish control.[36]
Ephemeral independence and Haitian occupation
See also: Haitian occupation of Santo Domingo

Juan Pablo Duarte is widely considered the architect of the Dominican Republic anditsindependence from Haitian rule in 1844.
After a dozen years of discontent and failed independence plots by various groups, Santo Domingo's former Lieutenant-Governor (top administrator), José Núñez de Cáceres, declared the colony's independence as Spanish Haiti, on November 30, 1821. He requested the new state's admission toSimón Bolívar's republic of Gran Colombia, but Haitian forces, ledby Jean-Pierre Boyer, invaded just nine weeks later, in February 1822.[37]
As Toussaint Louverture had done two decades earlier, the Haitians abolished slavery. But they also nationalized most private property, including all the property of landowners who had left in the wake of the invasion; much Church property; as well as all property belonging to the former rulers, theSpanish Crown. Boyer also placed moreemphasis on cash crops grown on large plantations, reformed the tax system, and allowed foreign trade. The new system was widely opposed by Dominican farmers, although it produced a boom in sugar and coffee production. All levels of education collapsed; the university was shut down, as it was starved both of resources and students, with young Dominican men from 16 to 25 years old being drafted...