He oversaw the reestablishment of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, exiled and imprisoned a number of nationalist dissidents who had fought with him in the Dominican War of Independence.

14 November 1805), who was disabled, mute and mentally ill.[4] Santana's father became a militia captain and fought at the 1808 Battle of Palo Hincado under general Juan Sánchez Ramírez, during the Spanish reconquest of Santo Domingo.

Boyer abolished slavery, confiscated the properties of the Catholic Church and criollo landowners, and distributed plots of land among the freedmen and others as had been done in Haiti.

][7] Due to a conflict with the Haitian Richiez family,[clarification needed] the new president Charles Rivière-Hérard forced the Santana brothers to go daily to the Palace in Santo Domingo's Plaza de Armas, but the Santanas fled to Sabana Buey, near Baní, and hid in Los Médanos on the property of Luis Tejeda and Rosa Pimentel, from there they went to Loma del Pinto.

Hours before Sánchez proclaimed the Dominican Republic on February 27, 1844, Pedro and Ramón Santana took El Seibo and prepared to march on Santo Domingo.

Small theft was also punished with the death penalty, as exemplified when an elderly man named Bonifacio Paredes was shot in El Seibo for stealing bananas.

In gratitude for his services, he was awarded the title of El Libertador, the honorary Sword of the Liberator, and his portrait was placed in the government palace along with those of Christopher Columbus and Juan Sánchez Ramírez.

[16] Between 1849 and 1853, Báez developed an efficient administration and obtained diplomatic recognition by the United Kingdom (1850), Denmark (1851), France (ratified in 1852, though informally recognized in 1848), and the Netherlands (1853).

Santana also negotiated the lease of the Samaná Peninsula to the United States, but he canceled it due to the pressures of the consuls of Great Britain and France.

Valverde recalled Santana and appointed him commander in chief of military operations against Báez, who was holed in the walled capital of Santo Domingo.

[17] Envoys from the Spanish captain-general of Cuba, Francisco Serrano, arrived in Santo Domingo, and the Dominican Secretary of the Treasury, Pedro Ricart, moved to Havana.

[23] At the end of 1860,[dubious – discuss] Francisco del Rosario Sánchez and José María Cabral, who had been part of Báez's presidency, launched a manifesto in Saint Thomas[which?]

The government that always watches over the health of the Homeland did not lose sight of the traitors who were forging their liberticidal plans from abroad: it followed their steps, discovered their secrets and prepared to render their criminal efforts useless.

ALERT, you already see the ties that they set for you, you already know the plans of those men who boast so much about their Dominicanism; who have so often implored and obtained grace; You already see them today, when the Government is preparing to grant an almost general amnesty in their favor, heading to Haiti to demonstrate to you their true intentions, their false patriotism and even the lack of political modesty, which has not allowed others to change their Dominican nationality by that of his perpetual opposites.

Trust in the strength of the Government, rest in the deep love for your country that has been for so many years and in so many battles has sealed it with your blood, and hope, finally, in that Providence that has given us Victory so many times: She will protect our weapons; and with them as always, we will win.A conspiracy led by José Contreras was discovered in Moca and the instigators were shot.

Sánchez returned to the country in June, but the population did not rise against Santana and he was captured, tried in San Juan de la Maguana on July 4, and shot along with twenty of his companions.

[25] In February 1863 uprisings against Spanish rule broke out in Neiba, Santiago, and Guayubín, a prelude to the beginning of the Dominican Restoration War in August.

[27] In July 1865, as the Spanish were preparing to leave Santo Domingo, prime minister Ramón María Narváez and the conservative deputy Antonio Cánovas del Castillo unsuccessfully requested that Santana's remains be taken to the Iberian Peninsula: I beg the Deputies of the majority to fulfill an obligation that Spain has and that we will not be able to fulfill due to the natural distrust, I recognize, that the opposition governments have.

It is impossible to remember his actions, to have complete knowledge of his patriotism and to have been able to appreciate through authentic documents everything that that noble heart felt and suffered for the cause of Spain, and not experience the feeling that moves me to pronounce these words.

Do not leave, no, exposed to the ferocious instincts of his enemies the venerable relics of Santana: the ashes of Columbus have already left Santo Domingo and have stopped in Cuba!

There were ten panelists of what was called the First Forum of the School of History and Anthropology of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD): “Santana, outside or inside the National Pantheon?” Only two of them chose to defend the figure of hero attributed to the first president of the Republic.

"Pedro Santana was a son of his time, he committed crimes and carried out persecutions and betrayed more than one, he was relentless, brutal and atrocious, but there is no doubt that his actions in defense of the country in such critical moments were transcendental.

"[31] Álvaro Caamaño, with a similar position, recalled that the three-time president of the country was not the only one who fought in the Battle of Azua, and that he always acted with a wrong vision of what the Republic was.

While the historian Cassá elaborated on the fact that Santana enjoyed a historical mystification, a “sort of extraordinary blundering falsification” that began from his dictatorial administration and contributed to the annexation of 1861.

He believes that the claim made by Balaguer was due to a strategy of political legalization of the chain of autocrats who have governed the country and of which the reformist leader was a part.

The first insisted on the need to study the character based on the events that surrounded his life, while the second highlighted his military glory and questioned the biased data given on the subject.

[31] Santana was engaged to María del Carmen Ruiz, who died when she was thrown off her horse as she was returning to El Seibo from a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Our Lady of Altagracia in Higüey.

He listens and weighs his words well before giving an affirmation; but when he is upset or encouraged, he speaks in the strong dialect of his province with rough intonation, without, however, losing control over himself.

He wins their affection by insinuating manners, and commands their respect with the air of authority with which nature has endowed him.Brigadier Antonio Peláez de Campomanes, who visited him in 1860, said of him:[39] With the courage of a lion he brings together a noble and generous heart, as can be certified by the many orphans and helpless whom he has welcomed into his home, and later established.

He founded the army, the navy, probity in the Public Treasury, equity in justice, respect for laws and property; He instilled true morality and honesty in the masses and was the most prestigious and popular leader ever known..His longtime archrival Juan Pablo Duarte dedicated a poem to Santana.