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
Date 7 November 1808 – 9 July 1809 (8 months and 2 days) Location Captaincy General of Santo Domingo (present-day Dominican Republic) Result Anglo-Dominican-Spanish victory Reestablishment of Spanish rule in Santo Domingo Withdrawal of French forces Spanish authority recognized through the Constitution of Cádiz of 1812. France cedes territory to Spain through the Treaty of Paris (1814) Santo Domingo de jure returned to Spain in the Treaty of Paris (1815) 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
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.