The war between Spain and the Convention ended with the cession of the eastern part of the island of Santo Domingo to France, in exchange for the return of the peninsular territories occupied by the French army, as stipulated in the Treaty of Basel, signed on July 22, 1795, between both countries.

However, the consequences of the news were not long in coming, and a large number of Dominican families left the island bound for Puerto Rico, Cuba and Venezuela in a migration process that increased when soldiers commanded by Toussaint Louverture, a former slave who had become general of the French Republic, entered Santo Domingo almost without resistance, in 1801, to take possession of the territory that Spain had ceded to France.

This explains the coup of command given by General Jean-Louis Ferrand, authority in the Department of Cibao, who with a hundred soldiers left from Monte Cristi, passing through Santiago and arrived in Santo Domingo, where on January 1, 1804, he displaced Kerverseau.

The decree issued by Ferrand on January 6, 1805, not only ignored the existence of the neighboring State but also clearly established the need to "annihilate the rebellion of the blacks in the colony of Santo Domingo" through the reduction of its population, and particularly authorizing the capture of minors under 14 years of age to be sold as slaves.

These areas were already constrained by the difficulty of exporting wood, tobacco and sugar to the North American market due to the war between France and England, and the naval blockade that the latter had established on the island of Santo Domingo as a result of the breach of the Peace of Amiens in July 1803.

The French Government on the island applied a series of social policies that responded to the intention of Napoleon Bonaparte's regime to reestablish slavery, or, failing that, the subjugation of the population of Santo Domingo, to promote the plantation as a productive model.

Not only were there expropriations of rural property and ecclesiastical income, but they were also encouraged to ignore the payment of the tithe, which found sympathy in sectors of the property-owning class, but rejection in the priests, figures with great leadership among a population of deep-rooted Catholics.

The spirit of rebellion was strengthened by the Bayonne abdications on May 5, the day on which King Charles IV successively renounced the throne, and who was to be his successor, Fernando VII, to give way to the reign of Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte.

On August 9, he landed in El Jobero, in the east of the island, where he took refuge in the house of Sánchez Ramírez, for whom he had a letter of recommendation from the priest Juan Pichardo in which he presented him "as a subject who had a lot of knowledge in the Department of the North" and "to direct it under the protection of the neighbors who seem more on purpose."

Cristóbal Huber Franco and Salvador Félix, with the support of the governor of Puerto Rico, arrived on the coast of Barahona on September 23, 1808, and began the agitation of the South of the Spanish Part, where they established contact with Ciriaco Ramírez, a key figure of the Reconquista process.

[17] Utrera criticized the proceed from the governor of Puerto Rico, Toribio Montes, because "he undertook the undertaking without having foreseen the unity of action of well-known individuals familiar with the country, placing his trust in men absolutely unknown as Dominican patriots, such as Huber, who had never been in Santo Domingo, Salvador Félix, a resident without social quality, and Ciriaco Ramírez, a newcomer in the South dedicated to working in his farms.

"[31] The subsequent events were of great drama and complexity: the years of lack of definition, with a France that did not immediately occupy its newly obtained colony, the unilateral action of Toussaint Louverture in 1801, Leclerc's expedition in 1802 and the consequent second phase of the French Government.

When referring to Juan Sánchez Ramírez, José Gabriel García described him as an "honored natural owner of Cotuí, who, having emigrated in 1803, he had to return after four years, to recover from the losses he had experienced during his trip, working a wood cut that he had in Macao.

[39] As already noted, the governor of Puerto Rico had taken diligent activism, and sent to Santo Domingo, through Captain Bracetti, a proclamation addressed to its inhabitants in which he made a call to fight: "Arm yourselves against our oppressors, join us, destroy for yourselves.

Perhaps understanding the social context and issues such as status, ranks and the rigid Spanish social ladder, he humbly stated: I know well that the military can never like to submit, even mediating an agreement, to no countryman: I am not one of the men proud to command, I only look to get the thing done, I appear as interested in the good to, according to local knowledge, be useful in whatever I can, and I will conform in everything to orders of our Government, and the one who prefers will never make an impression on me to whoever is deemed most useful and obey himIt is notable that by the time Sánchez Ramírez managed to send the communication, there were only a few days left before the arrival of the envoys of Montes, Huber and Félix to the island.

But starting on October 26, the correlation of forces began to shift from the South to the East, where it began the offensive led by Sánchez Ramírez and a group of twenty-one men who entered El Seibo: I entered on the morning of the twenty-sixth, carrying the Spanish pavilion and shouted with the troop of patriots who followed me: Long live our King Ferdinand the 7th, whose consoling voice captured the hearts of that people; We went to the parish church, where the priest Morillas received me, he sang the tedeum, and from that moment the neighborhood recognized me and received me as leader of the Spanish patriots.The next step was the arrest of the French representative, Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Peralta, carried out by Manuel Carvajal, an event that generated a confrontation between French and Creoles in Higüey.

In El Seibo, Sánchez Ramírez gathered people from Neiba, Azua, San Juan and Las Matas, managing to bring together, according to José Gabriel García, six companies under the command by Vicente Mercedes.

For Utrera, the reason for the triumph was not to be found in Sánchez Ramírez's capacity as a military strategist, nor in the weapons at the disposal of the Spanish, but rather in a fortuitous event: the rain the night before that had wet the gunpowder and rendered the rifles useless.

Sánchez Ramírez explained: "having previously observed the advantages offered by situation of Palo Hincado, distant about half a league to the west of El Seibo, I immediately withdrew all my people to this place.

They charged, but it was on our infantry, which then attacked from behind, from the flanks and also receiving fire from the front, found itself surrounded on all four sides, without being able to make the slightest maneuver to escape such betrayal.It seems to be a consensus that the Battle of Palo Hincado was quickly decided in favor of the Creole forces.

For any of the reasons argued—strategic location, number of Creole troops, carelessness on the part of the opposing party, climatological effects—the reality was that the defeat of the French forces quickly became evident: Between seven and eight minutes we already had the field of battle full of French corpses, with no other loss on our part than that of seven men, including the two captains D. Vicente Mercedes and D. Antonio de Sosa, who commanded on the right and left the cavalry and one named Juan de la Cruz.The measure of Palo Hincado's triumph may be the fact that only 18 Frenchmen were able to return to Santo Domingo, among them was J.B Lemonnier-Delafosse, a survivor and one of the essential narrators of this conflict.

Sánchez Ramírez speculated on the reasons that led the French general to make such a dramatic decision: Since the retreat was at least twenty leagues to reach the capital, and he reconsidered that at such a long distance he could not fail to fall into our hands, or else, ashamed of considering himself defeated and destroyed he entire troop that he had brought to tie us up and lead us like beasts, as he had said to disseminate with arrogance, he took his own life itstead, after having run like a league.The soldiers who accompanied him barely covered his body with branches of trees and resumed their accelerated march towards Santo Domingo upon hearing the approach of the Spanish.

[63] Lemonnier-Delafosse cataloged Santana's act as cruelty and barbarism: "those monsters separated, they took his graceful head off the trunk to take her to the island of Puerto Rico where they displayed it on the tip of a pike in the city's public square.

Two days after Palo Hincado he issued a decree in which he declared a state of siege and referred to the death of his predecessor in the following terms: "The general in chief has died; he perished as a victim of his blind trust.

[72] Juan Sánchez Ramírez arranged the organization of his troops in the siege as follows: A division under the command of Manuel Carvajal on the opposite bank of the Ozama River, with Miguel Febles as second; Pedro Vásquez at the western end of the plaza, which embraced the two roads that go north to Santiago and the one that goes south to Azua, leaving Emeterio Vilaseca in second place; All the outposts were placed within half a cannon shot of the plaza having the corresponding parapets raised; The castle of San Gerónimo was occupied by 350 men under the command of Captain José Álvarez.

On December 12, 1808, met in the vicinity of Santo Domingo, in the place called Bondillo, eighteen people who, in addition to Sánchez Ramírez, proclaimed themselves representatives of the different jurisdictions of the Eastern Part of the island, under the name of deputies.

In the letter from the newly appointed interim political and military governor of Santo Domingo, he made sure to make clear his subordination to Montes by treating him as "venerated sir" and finish his message with "I always remain at your orders, as I have previously meant, eager for the occasions in which to express my submission."

British Major General Hugh Lyle Carmichael departed Jamaica with the 2nd West Indian, 54th, 55th, and Royal Irish regiments to aid Britain's new found Spanish allies in reducing the isolated French garrison besieged in south-eastern Hispaniola.

[84] This turned out to be a secondary problem for Sánchez Ramírez, who needed to seek support and reaffirm his authority as the legitimate ruler of Santo Domingo, so he proceeded early to contact the two Haitian governments existing at that time.

Sánchez Ramírez maintained excellent relations with the Haiti and these lasted throughout the period of Spain Boba, but it was notorious that over time it took sides in favor of Christophe, with whom he developed an alliance.141 On 6 July the capitulation was finalized, de Barquier pointedly surrendering to the British rather than to the Spaniards.