1822-02-09: (Boyer Invades the Dominican Republic and Unifies the Entire Island Under Haitian Control, a Twenty-Two-Year Occupation That Would Poison Relatio…

1822-02-09: (Boyer Invades the Dominican Republic and Unifies the Entire Island Under Haitian Control, a Twenty-Two-Year Occupation That Would Poison Relations Between the Two Nations for Centuries): On February 9, 1822, Boyer’s troops captured Santo Domingo, placing the entire island of Hispaniola under Haitian control. The invasion followed the brief independence of the eastern territory declared by José Nuñez de Cáceres in November 1821, who had hoped for annexation by Colombia rather than absorption by Haiti. Boyer’s motivation was strategic: a European-controlled or European-aligned eastern territory posed a permanent invasion threat to the west. During the twenty-two-year Haitian occupation, Boyer abolished slavery in the east, redistributed land, and encouraged the emigration of freed Black Americans to the eastern peninsula of Samaná. But the occupation was deeply resented by the Dominican population, and it poisoned Haitian-Dominican relations in ways that persist to the present day. No Latin American nation sent a diplomatic representative to Haiti until 1865, partly because of regional anger over Boyer’s seizure of Santo Domingo.