Shut Up and Dribble

Monroe Doctrine and the White Man's Burden the case of Santo Domingo  

 

 

Whereas a slave rebellion precipitated the Haitian revolution, the one in Santo Domingo resulted from three revolutions orchestrated by white planters, mulattoes, and enslaved people. Although separate, they nevertheless fed upon each other as the call for liberation was paved through massacres, atrocities, and violence. (Hazard 1873)  Strangely enough, the catalyst of these revolutions was another -The French Revolution of 1789. The French National Assembly ratified the Declaration of the Rights of Man and granted Santo Dominguez free people of color full citizenship rights. This immediately created a conflict, as the white planters refused to acknowledge these rights and instead decided to seek independence from France. As these tensions led to conflict, first by whites, then between whites and free people of color, the slaves of Santo Dominguez rebelled on August 22, 1791.

Civil war enveloped the country, as the enslaved people occupied the northern province of the country. The rebellion was led by three black leaders, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and Henri Christopher. Their connection to the white planter elite varied from being a slave to serving as an officer in the French Army. Attempts by the French to stabilize the situation were ineffectual, as freedmen rebels continued to control the northern provinces, and the southern regions were a virtual lawless territory. The final straw came as France declared war on England; as the white planters supported England, slave-backed Spain (who was also at war with France over the control of the rest of Hispaniola). L'Ouverture, in May of 1794, and his Army of formerly enslaved people took the side of the French. Their aid allowed the French to regain control over Santo Domingo. L'Ouverture, exuberant with the possibilities of liberation, defeated the British in 1798, then invaded Santo Domingo to free the sales in 1801. He declared himself governor for life as he instituted the first constitution for Santo Domingo. (Bradshaw 2014)

In 1802 when Leclerc was sent to reestablish French rule, they were partially successful as Toussaint was forced to flee Santo Domingo. As the Republic of Haiti celebrated its first year of independence, JJ Dessalines led a Haitian force to expel the remaining French occupiers in Santo Domingo. The attempts to remove the Europeans resulted in a bloody trail of destruction as hundreds of residents were slaughtered and dozens of towns destroyed. When Haiti finally gained independence in 1804, it took control and ruled over Santo Domingo for 22 years. It was not until 1844 that the Dominican Republic was formed, but not until 1865 before it finally gained its independence from Spain. Coincidently, it was Haiti that helped the Dominican Republic defeat Spain. (Bishop and Fernandez 2017) From the beginning, the Dominican Republic was primarily a light-skinned population that espoused Eurocentric ideologies, whereas Haiti was a nation of formerly enslaved people and considered black. Dominican leaders often presented the Haitians as racially inferior and institutionalized whiteness.

It was more than ironic that President Ulysses S. Grant, in 1869, attempted to annex Santo Domingo as a United States territory. His promise of statehood was partly fueled by his fears that European nations would violate the Monroe Doctrine and attempt to retake the island nation. (Hidalgo 1997)  Oddly, it was a strange mix of climate and geographical determination of races. Sumner, taking this notion from Alexis De Tocqueville, was the chief opponent of the annexation. Accordingly, he argued that this idea, first articulated by Alexis De Tocqueville, prophesied that the English race was destined to occupy the North American continent "between the polar ice and the tropics." This race would "belong to the same family, who will have the same point of departure, the same civilization, the same language, the same religion, the same habits, the same manners, and over which thought will circulate in the same form and paint itself in the same colors." (Sumner 1874:163,164 cited by Hidalgo ibid)  Sumner advocated a version of the "Manifest Destiny" of the White race. In the end, the failed U.S. and its leaders were more concerned with their racial problems and how the compatibility of the African and Anglo races was so much a part of the Reconstruction period.

The leading racialized arguments favored the race and geographical determination argument and the idea that the Anglo race could never operate and prosper in hotter climates. (Hidalgo ibid). Racial determinism aside, this did not stop several other attempts by U.S. presidents to annex the Dominican Republic. And if annexation was not feasible, special rights and concessions were frequently proposed, particularly regarding Samaná Bay. (Lowenthal 1970) Over the next decades, U.S. interests guided by strategic interests in the region and economic interests expanded. Both these interests merged with the creation of the San Domingo Improvement Company. This establishment represented a two decades interest in commercial and financial domination of the Dominican Republic by U.S. commercial entities. The U.S. complicity in this signaled the formal beginning of U.S. active involvement in the Dominican Republic through closer control of the country's economic and political institutions. (Duin, 1955 cited by Lowenthal ibid).

President Theodore Roosevelt, fearing European intervention, utilized the Monroe Doctrine to justify his intervention into the Dominican Republic. Consequently, he negotiated with the Dominican Republic a protocol in which the U.S. would guarantee the republic's territorial integrity, take control of its customs houses, administer its finances, and become responsible for foreign debts. Although the Senate Democrats blocked ratification for two years, Roosevelt implemented the plan through executive order. (Blassingame 1969)

Formally, the United States' road to imperialism started here and was fully implemented by the beginning of the 20^th century. From this point till 1915, the U.S. would exert its influence on several nations from the Caribbean to the Pacific. Ignoring the national sovereignty of these people who coincidently were exclusively people of color, second-class citizens, and considered inferior to white Americans.

Events reached a climax as the U.S. pressured the Dominicans to disband their armies and allow the U.S. to establish and control a civil, non-military police force. Dominican factions were also pressured to allow the U.S. to supervise and declare the outcomes of the elections. When the Dominican authorities said "hell no" in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson sent in the Marines.