Editing Hispaniola (section)

===18th century to 19th century: Independence===
[[File:Revolucion Haitiana.png|thumb|The [[Haitian Revolution]] (1791–1804) is highlighted as Haiti's most fierce struggle for independence. To this day, it remains one of the most significant independence movements formed via slave revolt in history. ]]
European colonists often died young due to tropical fevers, as well as from violent slave resistance in the late 18th century. In 1791, during the [[French Revolution]], a major slave revolt broke out on Saint-Domingue. When the [[First French Republic|French Republic]] abolished slavery in the colonies on February 4, 1794, it was a European first.<ref>Popkin, Jeremy D. (2008) ''Facing Racial Revolution: Eyewitness Accounts of the Haitian Insurrection''. pp. 184–213. {{ISBN|0226675831}}</ref> The ex-slave army joined forces with France in its war against its European neighbors. In the second 1795 [[Peace of Basel|Treaty of Basel]] (July 22), Spain ceded the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, later to become the Dominican Republic. French settlers had begun to colonize some areas in the Spanish side of the territory.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

Under [[Napoleon]], France [[Law of 20 May 1802|reimposed slavery]] in most of its Caribbean islands in 1802 and sent an army to bring the island into full control. However, thousands of the French troops succumbed to [[yellow fever]] during the summer months, and more than half of the French army died because of disease.<ref name="Bollet_2004">{{cite book | last= Bollet | first= A.J. | title= Plagues and Poxes: The Impact of Human History on Epidemic Disease | pages= [https://archive.org/details/plaguespoxesimpa00boll/page/48 48–49] | publisher= Demos Medical Publishing | year= 2004 | isbn= 1-888799-79-X | url-access= registration | url= https://archive.org/details/plaguespoxesimpa00boll/page/48}}</ref> After an extremely brutal war with atrocities committed on both sides, the French removed the surviving 7,000 troops in late 1803, and the surviving leaders of the [[Haitian Revolution]] declared western Hispaniola the new nation of independent [[Haiti]] in early 1804. France continued to rule Spanish Santo Domingo. In 1805, after renewed hostilities with the ruling French government in Santo Domingo, Haitian troops of General [[Jean-Jacques Dessalines|Jean Jacques Dessalines]] tried to conquer all of Hispaniola. He launched an [[Siege of Santo Domingo (1805)|invasion of Santo Domingo]] and sacked the towns of Santiago de los Caballeros and Moca, killing most of their residents, but news of a French fleet sailing towards Haiti forced the invading army to withdraw from the east, leaving it in French hands.
[[File:Mapa de la colonia de santo domingo durante la ocupación francesa.png|thumb|The [[Spanish reconquest of Santo Domingo]] (1808–1809) led to the end of French colonialism in Santo Domingo, and subsequently, marked the end of French presence in Hispaniola.  ]]
[[File:Dominican Republic War of Independence.jpg|thumb|The [[Dominican War of Independence]] (1844–1856) was the first war of liberation of the Dominican Republic. This war consolidated the Dominican national identity, which was forged through its independence proclamations of 1821 and 1844.]]
[[File:Fortaleza San Luis - Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Dominican Restoration War]] (1863–1865) is remembered as the Dominican Republic's second struggle for independence from Spain, as well as the closure of the fight against European imperialism on the island.]]
In 1808, a [[Spanish reconquest of Santo Domingo|second revolution]] against France broke out on the island. Following Napoleon's invasion of Spain, the [[Criollo people|criollos]] of Santo Domingo revolted against the French regime. With the aid of [[Great Britain]], the French was defeated, and Santo Domingo was returned to Spanish control. France would never regain control of the island, and after some 12 years of Spanish dominion, the leaders in Santo Domingo revolted again, and eastern Hispaniola was declared independent as the [[Republic of Spanish Haiti]] in 1821. Fearing the influence of a society of slaves that had successfully revolted against their owners, the United States and European powers refused to recognize Haiti, the second republic in the [[Western Hemisphere]]. France demanded a high payment for compensation to slaveholders who lost their property, and Haiti was saddled with unmanageable debt for decades.<ref name="natural">Diamond, Jared M. and Robinson, James A. (2011) ''Natural Experiments of History''. pp. 126–128. {{ISBN|9780674060197}}</ref> By this point, [[Haitian occupation of Santo Domingo|the entire island was united under Haitian control]]. However, suppression of the Dominican culture and the imposition of heavy taxation would lead to the [[Dominican War of Independence]] and the establishment of the [[Dominican Republic]] in 1844. (This is one of the reasons for the tensions between the two countries today). Years of war, political chaos and economic crisis came to an end with a [[Annexation of the Dominican Republic to Spain|reintegration of the Dominican Republic to Spanish rule in 1861]], at the request of discouraged Dominican political leaders who had hoped that the Spanish would restore order to the country. However, just as in the España Boba period, taxations, corruption, and second class treatment of the Dominicans caused support for the regime to wane, and new independence movements had sparked throughout the country. In August 1863, the [[Dominican Restoration War]] erupted on the island, and after suffering heavy defeats, the Spanish Crown capitulated. A royal decree, [[The Treaty of El Carmelo]], recognized the independence of the Dominican Republic, and the Spanish were expelled for good in 1865. Renewed annexation projects, this time to the United States, was defeated in Congress, and the masterminds [[Six Years' War|were ousted in an uprising in 1874]]. Both states have remained independent states since then.