The island of Hispaniola was an important enclave throughout the colonial period and hosted the Court of Santo Domingo, the first in America (1511), whose jurisdiction extended over the entire Caribbean.

Due to these political ups and downs and its position and strategic situation, the war history of the Dominican Republic is long and complex.

However, in the interior of the island along the border between the Spanish and French possessions, a North-South line, not at all clear and poorly defined; It constituted an area of continuous friction and problems.

Therefore, the same division that so markedly characterized colonial society remained intact when it came to raising and regulating the militias and classifying them into units of whites, blacks and mixed-race.

In 1757, there was an uprising by the troops of the fixed battalion of Santo Domingo who locked themselves in the Primate Cathedral and threatened to murder their officers for non-payment of their salaries (3 years), with the mediation of the Archbishop they were paid the only amount that the royal funds can contribute (3 months each) and the rest is requested from Mexico as extraordinary, forgiveness is also granted.

In addition, the Company of Faithful Practicals of the Border was created, a type of Baquian experts with good knowledge of the area, the passes and the relief, who had to act as support for the normal infantry troops.

It established the composition, the use of uniforms, flags and banners; provision on the use and handling of weapons (cannon instruction for artillerymen, rifle and saber for infantry and lance for cavalry), both of the Permanent Army and the National Civic Guard.

The Dominican Army also had a logistical structure based on the nation's war priority and extremely elaborate effective military regulations.

The social extraction of this Army was predominantly peasant and this constituted in principle a serious problem, since during the campaigns, Dominican agriculture and livestock were stripped of labor, leading national production to moments of almost total inactivity, therefore that on the basis of a wise organization, a rotation method was established in the registration, which left human forces in the rear for such purposes.

After the victory of the restorative forces and the return to national sovereignty, the reorganization and continuity of the Dominican Army was extremely eventful due to a period of more than 50 years of political instability, a product of caudillismo and frequent and endless civil wars.

[3] On May 15, 1876, during the government of Francisco Ulises Espaillat, Law 523 was promulgated on the organization and service of the National Civic Guard, a force of militiamen and volunteers raised in the event of a state of war, all men between the ages of 18 and 50 years old had to serve in the Civic Guard, with the exception of high government officials, judges, priests and invalids.

1834 dated February 18, 1880, instituted compulsory military service, defining the functions of the national reserve as support for regular troops, in war actions against foreigners or internal conflicts.

By 1892, in the government of Ulises Heureaux, the army was organized into military corps, scattered throughout the provinces; auxiliary units, in the common ones; and reserve forces, in the cantons.

This created the Peacekeeping Battalion units in Santo Domingo; Yaque Hunters in Santiago; San Felipe in Puerto Plata; Snipers in Azua; and Santa Bárbara in Samaná.

This Corps was organized militarily, but its operation was essentially civil, with the main objective being the preservation of public order; protect property and people and assist judicial authorities when required to repress crimes and offenses.

It will also have a Staff, making up a total of about 940 troops, whose organization was as follows: On July 10, 1907, Ramón Cáceres reorganized it, changing its name to the Republican Guard.

Which only constituted a simple armed body with very little military training used basically for repressive purposes, and to preserve the interests of foreign investors and the ruling Creole elite, it was a force lacking discipline, and very fragmented, so Fortunately, it had a horizontal structure made up of some 461 generals and 479 colonels.

In reality, however, only the band members were safe at the post, in wartime the rest of the military establishments were much larger, and in peacetime consisted of numerous ghost soldiers, whose salaries were, however regularly paid by the national treasury.

The service was supposed to be voluntary, but in reality, the "volunteers" were generally collected by the communal chiefs and taken under surveillance, sometimes tied with ropes to prevent them from deserting.

There was also an inefficient and authoritarian rural police called the "Republican Guard" or "Guardia de Mon", supposedly composed of seven companies of around 800 officers and men, but here too things were not what they seemed.

That same day, the first contingent of 150 marines disembarked from the transport USS Prairie in two companies, the 6th infantry commanded by Captain Frederic M. Wise, and the 9th equipped with field artillery, consisting of 4 3-inch cannons.

On June 26, Colonel Pendleton with a force of 34 officers and 803 men began the march to occupy the city of Santiago, on July 5 under the threat of bombing.

In a formal and apparent manner, the measure to dissolve the army adopted by the provisional president Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal through decree No.

By means of Executive Order Number 47 of the military governor of Santo Domingo, Admiral HS Knapp, the Dominican National Guard (GND) was established on May 14, 1917, with an initial investment of US$500,000, constituting a corps of sepoys, the which at the time of its founding had 21 American officers, some Puerto Ricans, 17 Dominicans and 691 enlisted personnel, for a grand total of 729 troops.

The Government of President Horacio Vásquez, which emerged in 1924, following the end of the American occupation, once again gave warmth and Army appearances to this body, achieving relative stability always threatened by the ghost of the resurrection of the regional leaders and fratricidal wars.

The Navy, 7 Coast Guard vessels, and the Air Force had a 1937 Curtis Wright, 634 bombs, a 1934 Bellanca, a 1937 fleet trainer, and four Piper Cubs.

The authorized forces of the National Army of 1937 were the following: Territorially, these forces were organized into two Departments and the General Headquarters, distributed as follows: On August 1, 1947, by General Order the army created the Presidential Guard a few weeks before the inauguration of the new government building, the National Palace, with the mission of guarding it and forming troops to render military honors at official events.

The 3rd brigade (based in San Juan de la Maguana), commanded by Colonel Francisco Medina Sánchez, formed 2 battalions and a force of 1,285 men.

Several of the battalions were assigned outside the capital area and performed police functions that included participation in local, political and administrative affairs.

Another independent and very powerful organization was the Combat Support Command, which included the presidential guard battalion and the military police, health and quartermaster units.