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Show know YOUR ' vii NEIGHBOR PENTENARY OF INDEPEND-ENCE INDEPEND-ENCE OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC independence is a word that means much to the Dominican people for, in addition to being the first permanent European settle-nt settle-nt in the New World, Santo nnmUo, "the land that Colum-buS Colum-buS oved most . . . was one of She countries in this hemisphere to have experienced the greatest difficulty in achiving its indepen-Lce indepen-Lce and throwing over the yoke nf the oppressor. Twice after attaining at-taining its freedom it fell again X foreign rule. On Feb. 27 of this year, while the small republic celebrates the centennial of, the proclamation of its well-earned independence, representatives of all the American republics will assemble in Ciudad Trujillo to pay tribute to the red, white and blue flag of Juan Pablo Duarte, national nation-al hero of the Dominican Republic. Entirely controlled by spain until un-til the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 when what is now Haiti was ceded to France, the island of Hispaniola was at that time divided into two portions, the Dominican one remaining re-maining under Spanish rule and . i.m Santo Dominero. Demg - In spite of a decrease of population popula-tion due to the emigration of the first settlers to the mainland, the eighteenth century was to the island is-land an era of prosperity and of wealth. In Santa Domingo there were a great number of small sugar sug-ar and coffee plantations on which slaves were relatively well treated and content and, while life was still backward and primitive, it rolled on quietly in a tropical colonial co-lonial atmosphere. At the end of the century, however, the entire island came under French domination domi-nation when Santo Domingo was ceded by Spain to revolutionary France in 1795. It thus bacame a unit of the French colony, never losing, however, ' its cultural and traditional ties with Spain. Haiti soon assumed a preponderant prepond-erant position on the island and tended to overshadow Santo Domingo. Do-mingo. When Toussaint L'Ouver-ture L'Ouver-ture mutinied and freed the slaves in 1801, he marched straight on to Santo Domingo City and took it, thus uniting the island completely under a rule entirely independent from any European power. The selves independent and set up a government under Jose Nunez de Caceres. Their wish was to have "Spanish Haiti" become part of the newly liberated Greater Colombia Co-lombia but before they could ask' Bolivar for help, the Haitians, led by President Boyer, had, on Feb. 9, 1882, invaed their territory, The island was again united under one flag but Santo Domingo was, once more, dominated by outsiders. For 22 long years the country was to remain under Haitian rule. Air though the new rulers abolished slavery, their regime was a dictatorial dicta-torial one. Many of the white Creole Cre-ole families established in Santo Domingo emigrated to Cuba, Louisiana Lou-isiana and Puerto Rico, and the agricultural, commercial and intellectual intel-lectual activities of the country declined to the point that "it slept of a sleep that was almost that of death." The disorders which followed the overthrow of Boyer in 1843 seemed a particularly opportune moment for the Dominican patriots patri-ots to come into action. They had organized themselvs in a number of secret societies of which one of the most important was "La Trin-itaria," Trin-itaria," started ,in 1838 by Juan Pablo Duarte, a young Dominican who had been educated abroad and had only just returned to his country. It was he and the patriotic patri-otic spirit he diffused that were largely responsible for seizing the forts of Santo Domingo City, on Feb. 27, 1884, and the final proclamation procla-mation of the independence of the Dominican Republic which this month proudly celebrates a hundred hun-dred years of freedom. next year tJNapoieon's expeditionary expedition-ary force landed on both ends of the island and maintained itself in Santo Domingo from where, with the aid of the French fleet, it repulsed an invasion by the Haitians Hai-tians Dessalines and Christophe in 1805. While Haiti gained its independence, in-dependence, the eastern end of the island remained a French possession. posses-sion. Following the example of Spain's uprising against Napoleon the Dominican Creoles under the leadership of Juan Sanchez Ramirez, Ram-irez, shook off the French yoke (1808-9) and with the aid of the British fleet re-established .the domination of Spain to which in the past the colony had been so closely bound. Thus, by a strange accident of fate, while the other Spanish colonies of America were seeking their independence from the mother country, Santo Domingo, Domin-go, in freeing itself from France, sought refuge under Spanish rule. Shortly afterward, however, realizing re-alizing that their loyalty had been ill-rewarded by the mother country's coun-try's "illiberal policy," on Nov. 30, 1821, the Dominicans abolished Spanish authority, declared them- |