There were several attempts at various times to forcefully unite the two colonies of Hispaniola. The imperial powers of the period, from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, strived to possess or repossess Hispaniola as one nest egg for the crown heads in Europe. At that period in time, Hispaniola was very rich in agricultural products desperately needed in Europe. These included sugarcane, coffee and peppers. Apart from these agricultural products, the gold mines on both sides of Hispaniola were still productive. Added to these sources of wealth was cheap slave labor to work the mines and plantations, at minimal cost to their owners.

Toussaint Louverture’s Invasion of Santo Domingo

The first attempt of takeover of Hispaniola as one single colony was made by Sir Francis Drake in 1586 on behalf of the English monarchy when he captured Santo Domingo. However, this merely provided comical relief, as he and his adventurers were driven off by the Spaniards, after occupying Hispaniola for only one month. Imperial France had always wanted to annex the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo to its own Saint Domingue to form one single prosperous colony. By the Treaty of Bale which was signed by France and Spain on July 22, 1795, Spain ceded its colony in Hispaniola to France. However, France could not take physical possession because it had virtually lost its own colony, Saint Domingue, to the forces of Haitian Revolution under the leadership of Toussaint.

France was then faced with a dilemma because it did not want a united Hispaniola under a black Governor General. Nevertheless, an astute diplomat that he was, Louverture went on to invade Santo Domingo, ostensibly to implement the Treaty of Bale on behalf of the French Government. He now set out to claim France's authority over the entire island of Hispaniola. The invasion was swift and decisive. Though he encountered some military resistance on the way to the capital of Santo Domingo, Toussaint Louverture triumphantly entered Santo Domingo City on January 26, 1801. Toussaint Louverture thus became the Governor General of a united Hispaniola.

However, his reign or rule was short-lived. Napoleon Bonaparte, who was soon to become Louverture’s nemesis, seized power in France. Toussaint then became Napoleon’s most feared General. Having decided to reintroduce slavery in the French colonies, including Saint Domingue, Napoleon dispatched a large expeditionary army under the command of his brother-in-law General Charles Leclerc to re-establish slavery in Hispaniola. Although the military confrontation was indecisive, Louverture was tricked into relinquishing power to Leclerc and allowed to retire to his farm estate. Leclerc soon broke the accord, seized Louverture and had him deported to France where he died soon after.

Dessalines attempted Invasion

In March 1805, Emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines set out with his Haitian army in an attempt to take the city of Santo Domingo by force and thus reunite the two separate entities of Hispaniola, independent Haiti, and colonial Santo Domingo. He had to abandon his dream of reuniting the Island when he was informed that a French naval squadron was approaching Haiti. He hurried back home in order to defend his capital against the impending French invasion. Thus the plan for reintegration of Santo Domingo into Haiti was shelved and put off till a more auspicious time.

Jean-Pierre Boyer’s Invasion of Santo Domingo

What turned out to become the most successful integration of the two politically distinct parts of Hispaniola into one single unit started with the colony of Santo Domingo declaring its independence from Spain on November 30, 1821 with its name changed to Spanish Haiti. Jean-Pierre Boyer who had succeeded Alexandre Petion as president of Haiti, when the later died in 1818, moved to consolidate his hold on the whole Island of Hispaniola. In 1822, Boyer led an invasion of Spanish Haiti, quickly conquering it and thus holding the entire island in the name of Haiti. His was a master stroke. Spanish Haiti (Santo Domingo) was weak militarily and could therefore not offer much military resistance to Boyer’s military might.

There was also the ever present fear that the resurgent French, still smarting from their defeat at the hands of Black Haitians, would return to invade Hispaniola, reclaim their plantations and reintroduce slavery. The French did return later and forced Haitian President Boyer to do their bidding, by signing an outrageous indemnity of one hundred and fifty million franks, as payment for loss of French colonial plantations. This money was to be paid by Haiti within five years. Meanwhile, Boyer moved to consolidate his authority over the whole island of Hispaniola.

He established two parallel administrations, one with the seat of government in Cap Haïtien, and the other in Ciudad Santo Domingo. In order to streamline the administration of the whole island, Boyer embarked on a number of administrative hreforms. He abolished slavery in Santo Domingo and promised land to all libertos. To be able to meet the demand for land by the newly freed slaves, Boyer overhauled the Spanish land tenure laws, and substituted them with the more modern French laws which provided for private ownership of land. The Spanish laws on land tenure made land a communal property. This would have been an obstacle to Boyer’s desire to give land to the newly liberated slaves, the libertos.

Boyer’s administration was patterned after that of his mentor, Alexandre Sabès Pétion. He, like Petion, was generous and egalitarian. However, his land hreforms pitted him against the large plantation owners of Santo Domingo, including the Catholic Church which owned lager parcels of land. His greatest undoing however, was the agreement that he signed with the French government to pay a colossal sum of 150 million franks as reparation to French plantation owners who had fled Haiti during the revolution. The resultant economic and tax burden caused by the reparation on the people forced them to turn against him. He was chased out of his palace and had to run away to escape being lynched by his own people