Dominican Republic-Haiti relations have long been complex due to the substantial cultural differences between the two nations and their sharing the small island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The living standards in the Dominican Republic are considerably higher than those in Haiti. The deep-set cultural differences have contributed to a long-standing conflict.
Video Dominican Republic-Haiti relations
History
Pre-independence
Though having vast demographic and cultural differences since colonial times, the inhabitants of modern-day Dominican Republic and Haiti have at times been allies and foes, constantly vying for dominance of Hispaniola. The conflicts began during the colonial era which developed into military and political conflicts between the two governments. The political division of the island of Hispaniola is due in part to the European struggle for control of the New World during the 17th century, when France and Spain began fighting for control of the island. They resolved their dispute in 1697 by splitting the island into two countries. It was not until the 19th century that Haiti became independent from France on January 1, 1804. Spanish Haiti, the predecessor of the Dominican Republic, became independent from Spain on December 1, 1821, after more than 300 years of Spanish rule.
Beginning in 1789, free people of color of Saint-Domingue were inspired by the French Revolution to seek an expansion of their rights. Initially, the slave population did not become involved in the conflict. In August 1791, a Vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman marked the start of a major slave rebellion in the north. Toussaint apparently did not take part in the earliest stages of the rebellion, but after a few weeks he sent his family to safety in Spanish Santo Domingo and helped the overseers of the Breda plantation to leave the island.
Throughout 1792, Toussaint, as a leader in an increasingly formal alliance between the black rebellion and the Spanish, ran the fortified post of La Tannerie and maintained the Cordon de l'Ouest, a line of posts between rebel and colonial territory. He gained a reputation for running an orderly camp, trained his men in guerrilla tactics and "the European style of war", and began to attract soldiers who would play an important role throughout the revolution. After hard fighting, he lost La Tannerie in January 1793 to the French General Étienne Maynaud, but it was in these battles that the French first recognised him as a significant military leader.
Despite adhering to royalist political views, Louverture had begun to use the language of freedom and equality associated with the French Revolution. From being willing to bargain for better conditions of slavery late in 1791, he had become committed to its complete abolition. On 29 August 1793 he made his famous declaration of Camp Turel to the blacks of St Domingue:
Brothers and friends, I am Toussaint Louverture; perhaps my name has made itself known to you. I have undertaken vengeance. I want Liberty and Equality to reign in St Domingue. I am working to make that happen. Unite yourselves to us, brothers and fight with us for the same cause.
Your very humble and obedient servant, Toussaint Louverture,
General of the armies of the king, for the public good.
On the same day, the beleaguered French commissioner, Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, proclaimed emancipation for all slaves in French Saint-Domingue, hoping to bring the black troops over to his side. Initially, this failed, perhaps because Toussaint and the other leaders knew that Sonthonax was exceeding his authority. However, on 4 February 1794, the French revolutionary government proclaimed the abolition of slavery. For months, Louverture had been in diplomatic contact with the French general Étienne Maynaud de Bizefranc de Lavaux. During this time, competition between him and other rebel leaders was growing, and the Spanish had started to look with disfavour on his near-autonomous control of a large and strategically important region. In May 1794, when the decision of the French government became known in Saint-Domingue, Louverture switched allegiance from the Spanish to the French and rallied his troops to Lavaux.
Ephemeral Independence and Unification of Hispaniola (1821-1844)
On November 9, 1821 the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo was overthrown by a group of rebels at the command of José Núñez de Cáceres, the colony's former administrator, as they proclaimed independence from the Spanish crown on December 1, 1821. The new nation was known as Republic of Spanish Haiti (Spanish: República del Haití Español), as Haiti had been the indigenous name of the island.
A group of Dominican military officers favored uniting the newly independent nation with Haiti, as they sought for political stability under Haitian president Jean-Pierre Boyer. The Dominicans were unaware that Boyer made a concession with the French, and agreed to pay France for the lost territory of Haiti. Boyer agreed to pay a sum of 150 million Francs (more than twice what France had charged the United States for the much larger Louisiana territory in 1803) thus the Haitians would essentially be forced into paying to maintain their freedom from the French.
During twenty-two years of Haitian occupation, the Haitians implemented what some Dominicans viewed as a brutal military regime. Use of the French language over Spanish was enforced, and the army closed La Universidad Santo Tomas de Aquino. In addition, the Haitian army confiscated all church land and property and imposed mandatory military service. This difficult time for the Dominicans created cultural conflicts in language, race, religion and national tradition between the Dominicans and Haitians. Many Dominicans developed a resentment of Haitians, who they saw as oppressors.
In order to raise funds for the huge indemnity of 150 million francs that Haiti agreed to pay the former French colonists, and which was subsequently lowered to 60 million francs, Haiti imposed heavy taxes on the Dominicans. Since Haiti was unable to adequately provision its army, the occupying forces largely survived by commandeering or confiscating food and supplies at gunpoint. Attempts to redistribute land conflicted with the system of communal land tenure (terrenos comuneros), which had arisen with the ranching economy, and newly emancipated slaves resented being forced to grow cash crops under Boyer's Code Rural. In rural areas, the Haitian administration was usually too inefficient to enforce its own laws. It was in the city of Santo Domingo that the effects of the occupation were most acutely felt, and it was there that the movement for independence originated.
Haiti's constitution also forbade white elites from owning land, and the major landowning families were forcibly deprived of their properties. Most emigrated to Cuba, Puerto Rico (these two being Spanish possessions at the time) or Gran Colombia, usually with the encouragement of Haitian officials, who acquired their lands. The Haitians, who associated the Roman Catholic Church with the French slave-masters who had exploited them before independence, confiscated all church property, deported all foreign clergy, and severed the ties of the remaining clergy to the Vatican. Santo Domingo's university, lacking both students and teachers had to close down, and thus the country suffered from a massive case of human capital flight.
Although the occupation effectively eliminated colonial slavery and instated a constitution modeled after the United States Constitution throughout the island, several resolutions and written dispositions were expressly aimed at converting average Dominicans into second-class citizens: restrictions of movement, prohibition to run for public office, night curfews, inability to travel in groups, banning of civilian organizations, and the indefinite closure of the state university (on the alleged grounds of its being a subversive organization) all led to the creation of movements advocating a forceful separation from Haiti with no compromises.
Dominican War of Independence (1843-1849)
In 1838 Juan Pablo Duarte, an educated Dominican nationalist, founded a resistance movement called La Trinitaria. They initially worked with a liberal Haitian party that overthrew President Jean-Pierre Boyer. However, the Trinitarios' work in the overthrow gained the attention of Boyer's replacement, Charles Rivière-Hérard. Rivière-Hérard imprisoned some Trinitarios and forced Duarte to leave the island. The rebels decided to take action anyway with the new leadership of Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, Ramón Matías Mella, and Pedro Santana, a wealthy cattle-rancher from El Seibo who commanded a private army who worked on his estates.
In the Dominican War of Independence Dominicans fought against the Haitian occupation. On February 27, 1844 the Dominicans gained freedom from Haitian rule, thus giving birth to the Dominican Republic, a self-sufficient nation established on the liberal ideals of a democratic government. After winning the war and ousting the Haitian occupying force from the country, Dominican nationalists fought against a series of attempted invasions at the command of Haitian "emperor" Faustin Soulouque from 1844 to 1856. Haitian soldiers tried to regain control of lost territory, but these efforts were to no avail as the Dominicans would go on to decisively win every battle henceforth. Since then, Dominican-Haitian relations have been unstable.
Parsley Massacre (1937)
In 1937, claiming that Haiti was harboring his former Dominican opponents, Rafael Trujillo ordered an attack on the border, slaughtering tens of thousands of Haitians as they tried to escape. The number of dead is still unknown, though it is now calculated between 20,000 and 30,000.
Maps Dominican Republic-Haiti relations
Contemporary
Cultural and economic factors
In the mid-twentieth century, the economies of the two countries were comparable. Since that time, the Dominican economy has grown while the Haitian economy has diminished. The economic downturn in Haiti has been the result of factors such as internal power struggles, rapid population growth, environmental degradation, and trade embargoes. Today, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. There is a lack of resources, and Haiti's population density exceeds its neighbor's by far. Despite the UN sending missions since the 1990s, in order to maintain peace, terrible conditions persist.
One large contributor to cultural dissonance is the language barrier, as Spanish is the primary language spoken in the eastern part of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic) while French and Haitian Creole are spoken in the western part (Haiti). Race is another defining factor of Dominican-Haitian relations. The ethnic composition of the Dominican population is 73% mixed, 16% white, and 11% black; while 95% of the Haitian population is black.
The development of social classes in the Dominican Republic is somewhat based on race. Since the Haitian invasion of 1822 skin color holds importance in Dominican society. Darker-colored Dominicans are usually found in the lower class, while lighter-skinned (mixed, whites and others) Dominicans are found in the middle and upper classes. Most Haitians are darker-skinned with little non-African admixture. In the Dominican Republic there is a stigma against dark-skinned residents. People with darker skin are usually associated with poor, uneducated Haitians because of their past connections with slavery.
The Dominican economy is also over 600% larger than the Haitian economy. The estimated annual per capita income is US$1,300 in Haiti and US$8,200 in Dominican Republic. The divergence between the level of economic development between Haiti and the Dominican Republic makes their border the one with the highest contrast of all Western world borders and it is evident that the Dominican Republic has one of the highest illegal migration issues in the Americas.
Haitian migration in the Dominican Republic
Some cross-border cooperation exists in areas such as health, business, and infrastructure. Many Haitians travel to the Dominican Republic to find seasonal or long-term work in order to send remittances to their families. Some of these Haitian workers, as well as Dominicans of Haitian descent have reported complaints of discrimination against them by the Dominican majority population. Other Haitians who would seek work, instead remain in Haiti, fearing discrimination on the other side of the border.
Migration has been taking place since the 1920s, when Haitian laborers were actively encouraged to come work in the thriving Dominican sugar industry. With modernization from the 1960s on, fewer workers were required, and other Dominican industries and services started employing more Haitian workers, often an inexpensive, less regulated labor source with fewer legal protections. Many Haitian women find work in Dominican households, and Haitian men at Dominican construction sites, often leading to the move of an entire family.
A large number of migrated Haitian workers have continued to live in the Dominican Republic over several generations. The two governments have been unable to agree upon a legal framework to address the nationality of these descendants, leaving around one million people of Haitian ancestry in the Dominican Republic effectively stateless, restricting their access to health care, education and employment opportunities.
Though migration from Haiti to the Dominican Republic is economically beneficial to both countries, it is one of the leading contributors to tension between the two countries as well; illegal immigration from Haiti resonates high dissonance with the Dominican people. It has led to anti-Haitian feelings and mistrust of the Haitian people. Another problem with Haitian migration into Dominican Republic is that it blurs the line of citizenship. This factor of migration affects not only Dominican economy but its culture as well.
Many have observed that there is a clear distinction between Dominicans and Haitians in the Dominican Republic. The two groups of people do not function as one entity and there are many factors that contribute to those tensions. Some Dominicans view Haitians in the Dominican Republic as an invasion of their own space that they have fought very long and hard to live in. Some Dominicans view Haitians as inferior and believe that their only function in the Dominican Republic is as labor. There is a strong sense of Dominican pride in the Dominican Republic, and oftentimes, Haitians cannot fit into their culture or way of life. Many of these current day beliefs have been influenced by the former Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo.
Trujillo strongly disliked the Haitian people and made it his mission to clearly distinguish the Dominican Republic from Haiti. Trujillo was not fond of dark skin, and targeted anyone of dark complexion that appeared to be Haitian. In 1937, Trujillo carried out the Parsley Massacre in which he sought to destroy anyone who looked dark enough to be Haitian and anyone who could not roll the "r" in "perejil," the Spanish word for parsley. Even without Trujillo in power, some still carry these negative connotations and approach Haitians with anger and scorn.
2010 Haitian earthquake
After the devastating earthquake of 12 January 2010, countless Haitians fled across the border to escape the quake's effects. The Dominican government was one of the first to send teams to help distribute food and medicine to the victims and made it easier for Haitians to acquire visas to receive treatment in Dominican hospitals. Supplies were transported to Haiti through the Dominican Republic, and many injured Haitians have been treated in Dominican hospitals. Virtually, every level of the Dominican efforts assisted its neighboring country.
Haitian refugees were also taken in and supported by many Dominicans, though relations deteriorated as the refugees have remained in the Dominican Republic. This has led to reported concerns among some Dominicans that quake refugees contribute to rising crime, over-crowding, cholera and unemployment. More and more discrimination has been attributed to the massive numbers of Haitian refugees in the Dominican Republic. Over the past years tensions have risen, causing the International Organization for Migration to offer Haitians $50 each plus additional relocation assistance to return to Haiti. More than 1,500 have accepted that assistance and returned.
Sports
The baseball federations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti have agreed to develop and promote baseball in Haiti (especially at the border), on the basis that sport is a developmental element to foster peace, as well as strengthening friendship and mutual respect between the two peoples. With the support of the Dominican ministry of Sports, the president of the Dominican Baseball Federation (FEDOBE) was thankful and quoted saying "it allows our federation to fulfill the dream of helping Haiti in baseball." He has pledged to put the Haitian Baseball Federation in relation to the international organizations. Coaches will be sent to Haiti for technical courses, referees and scorers by the Dominican Baseball Federation, while the Haitian Federation will support the logistics in the training and training programs.
Footnotes
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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