Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Haiti: Historical Setting
Several years before the Indians were decimated, Santo
Domingo had lost its position as the preeminent Spanish colony
in the New World. Its lack of mineral riches caused it to be
neglected by the mother country, especially after the conquest
of New Spain (Mexico). In 1535 Santo Domingo was incorporated
into the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which included Mexico
and the Central American isthmus; its status dwindled
further after the conquest of the rich kingdom of the Incas in
Peru. Agriculture became the mainstay of the island's economy,
although the colony did not reach the high level of productivity
that was subsequently to characterize it under French
rule.
Although Hispaniola never realized its economic potential
under Spanish rule, it remained strategically important as a
gateway to the Caribbean. The Caribbean provided the opportunity
for pirates from England, France, and the Netherlands
to impede Spanish shipping, waylay galleons filled with gold,
and establish a foothold in the hemisphere, which had been
divided by papal decree between Spain and Portugal. This
competition for spoils occurred throughout the Caribbean, but
nowhere as intensively as on Hispaniola.
England's Sir Francis Drake led one of the most famous forays
against the port of Santo Domingo in 1586, just two years
before he played a key role in the English navy's defeat of the
Spanish Armada. Drake failed to secure the island, but his raid,
followed by the arrival of corsairs and freebooters who established
scattered settlements, was part of a pattern of encroachment
that gradually diluted Spanish dominance.
Beginning in the 1620s, Frenchmen, reportedly expelled by
the Spanish from Saint Christopher (Saint Kitts), began to use
Tortuga Island (lie de la Tortue), located off the northwest
coast of Hispaniola, as a base to attack English and Spanish
shipping. They came to be called buccaneers, a term derived
from the Indian word, boucan, meaning spit, on which they
cooked their meat. Skirmishes with Spanish and English forces
were common. As the maintenance of the empire drained the
energies of a declining Spain, the buccaneers' intervention
became more effective on behalf of France. The first permanent
settlement on Tortuga was established in 1659 under the
commission of King Louis XIV of France. The subsequent
establishment of the French West India Company to direct the
expected commerce between the colony on Tortuga and
France underscored the seriousness of the enterprise.
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