Spanish reconquest of Santo Domingo

War of Reconquest of Santo Domingo
Part of the Napoleonic Wars and Caribbean campaign of 1803–1810

Map of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico
Date7 November 1808 – 9 July 1809
(8 months and 2 days)
Location
Result

Anglo-Dominican-Spanish victory

Territorial
changes
Separation of Santo Domingo from France
Belligerents
Santo Domingo
 United Kingdom
 France
Commanders and leaders
Juan Ramírez
Ciriaco Ramírez
Hugh Carmicheal
Jean-Louis Ferrand  
Joseph-David de Barquier  Surrendered
Strength
2,000
6 frigates
2,600

Spanish reconquest of Santo Domingo (Spanish: Reconquista Española de Santo Domingo) was the war for Spanish reestablishment in Santo Domingo, or better known as the Reconquista, and was fought between November 7, 1808, and July 9, 1809. In 1808, following Napoleon's invasion of Spain, the criollos of Santo Domingo revolted against French rule, which caught the attention of British forces, who were engaging in other campaigns in the Caribbean. The struggle culminated in 1809 with a return to the Spanish colonial rule for a period commonly termed España Boba.

The Treaty of Basel, passed in 1795, involved the transfer to France of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo. But it was not until 1801 that the effective occupation of the territory by the French authorities took place. In the following years, neighboring Haiti achieved its independence from France in 1804, and the former Spanish territory will be the object of its desires. However, peninsular events that transpired in 1808 would shake the Dominican population to rise up in revolution against the French occupation. Conspiracies arose within that same year, some of which had been instigated by the governments of Cuba, Puerto Rico and Haiti. Eventually, under the leadership of Juan Sánchez Ramírez, the Dominicans, with the help of an English fleet from Jamaica, would inflict a crushing defeat on the French forces, once again becoming part of the Spanish monarchy in 1809, ending the French period of Santo Domingo, and officially marking the end of French presence in Hispaniola.

Though not a war of independence, this conflict represented one of the early Dominican struggles against European imperialism. This would serve as a context of the many conflicts that gave rise to the independence of what would later become the Dominican Republic.