“When two people inhabit the same island, their destinies in terms of foreign initiatives are necessarily interdependent. The survival of one is intricately linked to the survival of the other; each is duty-bound to guarantee security of the other.”
-President Fabre Geffrard-
The above words of President Geffrard on the War of Restoration are an interesting aspect of positive or at least mutually beneficial relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haiti’s role in aiding Dominican nationalists defeat the Spanish including sending aid, funds, using Haitian solders and officials, and last but certainly not least, an acknowledgement of how each one is, to a certain degree, intricately linked to the other. While fear of Haitian ‘imperial’ aggression may have partly motivated voluntary recolonization led by the Dominican elite, clearly Haitian leaders such as Geffrard established a precedent for amicable relations and recognition of Dominican independence.
The above words of President Geffrard on the War of Restoration are an interesting aspect of positive or at least mutually beneficial relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haiti’s role in aiding Dominican nationalists defeat the Spanish including sending aid, funds, using Haitian solders and officials, and last but certainly not least, an acknowledgement of how each one is, to a certain degree, intricately linked to the other. While fear of Haitian ‘imperial’ aggression may have partly motivated voluntary recolonization led by the Dominican elite, clearly Haitian leaders such as Geffrard established a precedent for amicable relations and recognition of Dominican independence.
Eugenio Matibag’s Haitian-Dominican Counterpoint: Nation, State, and Race in Hispaniola is an excellent overview of this period in Haitian-Dominican relations, and source of the above quote.
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