Hispaniola was the location of one of the landings that Columbus made on his first voyage in 1492. He named the island La Isla Española, which means, the Spanish island. The name Hispaniola is derived from Española. There were already a predicted half million native Taino Indians on the island when Columbus arrived. As a conquistador, Columbus and his men intended to dominate the Tainos and use them for labor. However, the rigorous labor that was forced upon them in the deadly heat of the Caribbean island coupled with the foreign diseases that the Spanish carried caused a complete genocide of the natives.
The Spanish found success on the island and were envied by their European neighbors as they brought ships full of gold and silver back to Spain. The French sent men to Hispaniola in hopes of tapping into some of the resources that the Spanish had discovered. Conflict between the two groups rose. Pirating of Spanish ships became a common practice for the French. Finally, in 1697, the Spanish gave the western third of the island to the French. This French colony became known as Saint-Domingue and would later be renamed Haiti.
Sugarcane became the main crop in Saint-Domingue. The labor on a sugarcane plantation was very intense. The French had a hard time recruiting settlers to do the work. Therefore, the French began to import people from Africa as slaves. By the year 1790, there were 500,000 slaves in Saint-Domingue. The total number of slaves that were imported to this tiny colony was actually greater than the total number of slaves that were imported to the United States. The high death rate due to the strenuous labor simply motivated the French to import more slaves. By the end of the 18th century, about 10% of the population was white French plantation owners or managers who owned about 90% of the population, composed of black slaves. There was also a growing population of mulattos, the products of the impregnation of slave women by plantation owners or managers.
This incredible advantage of numbers that slaves had over their owners proved to be quite dangerous for the French. Violence began breaking out toward the turn of the 18th century, as escaped slaves would band together, forming their own communities, plotting uprisings, and invading neighboring plantations. The year of 1803 saw a continuous string of massacres between blacks and whites. On January 1, 1804, leaders of the black population made their official declaration of independence from France, becoming the first free black republic in the world and the second colony in the Western Hemisphere to gain its independence, following the United States. Upon gaining independence, the new republic was named Haiti.
One of the country’s leaders did not feel that gaining independence was enough. The black population had been enslaved and treated with cruelty. Seeking vengeance and intending to cause fear in any country contemplating to be the next to colonize Haiti, Jean-Jacques Dessalines led the slaughtering of every remaining white human being in Haiti. There was a complete genocide, including women, children, even infants. Since the Haitian Revolution, the country has not had a stable government by any means. President after president has been overthrown and the country has experienced a steady flow of violence, underdevelopment, and economic devastation.
Although the history ofHaiti is difficult to match by means of violence and governmental chaos, the other half of the island of Hispaniola has not had a much more stable past. The Spanish, sharing the same dilemma that the French had in providing labor for their sugarcane plantations, also imported Africans as slaves. However, they did not import nearly as many slaves, keeping the ratio of slaves to owners much lower, and did not experience the uprising that Haiti did. The Spanish ceded their portion of the island to the French in 1795. Residents of Santo Domingo declared their independence from Spain in 1822 and experienced Haitian occupation until a revolution broke out, granting total independence in 1844. The new republic was named the Dominican Republic.
As overpopulation and starvation increased in Haiti throughout the 19th century and into the 20th century, many Haitians migrated to the Dominican Republic to find agricultural work. Throughout world history, this type of migration has proven to be problematic for the government of the country in which fleeing persons are seeking refuge. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, the Dominican dictator from 1930-1961, had a particularly inhumane way of dealing with the issue. In 1937, Trujillo ordered the massacre of all Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. The total number of Haitians slaughtered is unknown, but the average number that scholars seem to agree on nears 25,000.
Throughout history and still today, the racial compositions of the two republics that share the island of Hispaniola have been quite different. Having murdered all of the white inhabitants that remained from French settlement, the majority of Haitian citizens were black. A minority of the population were mulattos. There was racial tension between the two races in Haiti. The small percentage of mulattos made up the upper class. They were businessmen that spoke French and practiced Catholicism. They viewed their darker counterparts as beasts and worked toward marrying amongst themselves to keep lighter skin in their family. The large percentage of blacks spoke Creole, a language mainly derived from French and African languages, and practiced Voodoo, another mixture of their native heritage and the influences that the French had had on them. The mulattos and their dedication to the French lifestyle they had acquired reminded blacks of the oppression they had been kept under and caused suspicion. Today, the racial composition of Haiti is very similar, with the exception that there is a tiny white population, mainly composed of humanitarian workers.
The majority of the Dominican Republic population, during the mid 19th century, was white and spoke Spanish. There was a significant black population made up of slaves and ex-slaves. Slavery in the Dominican Republic was abolished shortly after it gained independence and blacks in the Dominican Republic did not form the strong mistrust and suspicions toward whites as ex-slaves had in Haiti. The general treatment of slaves in the Dominican Republic was also less cruel than in Haiti, where the small percentage of slave owners used especially strong means of discipline in order to control such a large group. The population continued to evolve racially over the past few centuries. Today, the majority of the population in the Dominican Republic is mulatto.
Two main events in the history of Hispaniola that exemplify the racial problems that are present on the island are the genocide of all whites living in Haiti in 1804 and the mass slaughter of black Haitians in the Dominican Republic in 1937. This is clearly a racially divided island. The cultures of the two nations differ greatly as well. Both countries have cultures rooted in their colonizers and influenced by the cultures of their minority populations. Haitian culture is African based with French influences. Dominican culture seems to be Spanish based with African and Taino native influences.
Although Haitian and Dominican cultures were influenced by these parenting cultures, environmental surroundings and historical events that have taken place have evolved them into independent cultures of their own. The physical differences between the two groups just happen to be a visible way to categorize a broad range of less visible differences. Thus, assumptions are made based on the color of their skin and other physical characteristics. Such a broad range of differences between two groups of people forced onto a small island coupled with overpopulation, violence, and poverty, has created a relationship that is less than ideal.
After a brief lesson in the background that has been laid on the island of Hispaniola, we can much better able to understand the viewpoint that members of each culture may hold. While this understanding doesn’t make excuses for the hatred and discrimination that exists on the island, it gives an idea of where it stems from. With this background knowledge, we will look for opportunities for change.
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