1929-01-00: (Haiti and the Dominican Republic Sign a Border Treaty, Delineating the Contested Frontier Between the Two Nations for the First Time Since Domin…
1929-01-00: (Haiti and the Dominican Republic Sign a Border Treaty, Delineating the Contested Frontier Between the Two Nations for the First Time Since Dominican Independence Eighty-Five Years Earlier): In January 1929, President Borno met with Dominican president Horacio Vásquez and agreed to a mutually acceptable border between the two nations. The border had been contested since Dominican independence in 1844, a source of tension that had fueled invasions, diplomatic crises, and mutual hostility for eighty-five years. The 1929 agreement delineated the 224-mile boundary, including the natural boundaries formed by the Dajabón River in the north and the Pedernales River in the south. Territorial adjustments during the 1930s expanded Haitian territory in the central area around the town of Hinche. The border treaty was a genuine diplomatic achievement, but it did not address the deeper sources of conflict between the two nations: the cultural divide inherited from colonialism, the economic disparity, and the mutual suspicion that would culminate eight years later in the Dominican Vespers.