ABSTRACT
Chaos and resentment seemed to define not merely the newly independent Haitian nation, but the entire island as well. Almost immediately following independence, the island found itself embroiled in a state of utter turmoil, both internally and externally. Tranquility and stability were still a considerable distance away. On both sides of the Río Artibonito, separating the two sister republics, absolutely chaotic conditions prevailed. Chaotic readily described government operations, national economic policies, and efforts to ward off external threats. What seemed to mark the independent western zone as well as the still colonized eastern portion of Hispaniola was an even greater threat: a sociopolitical ideology pointing toward a new militarism in the region. Such militarism made possible the inevitable surfacing of brutally strong, dominant, and often oppressive caudillos 1 (rural chieftains), who were determined to gain total control of a particular zone. Also, after the war of liberation, a contingent of embittered, stubborn French troops disobeyed the orders of their commanders to leave the island and return to Paris. Instead, the roguish band marched arrogantly into the Spanish-held territory in the East and established a government there. Authorities back in Paris openly supported the action and even officially appointed General Louis Ferrand to serve as territorial governor (1804) there. Ferrand occupied the colony until 1808, when the unrelenting efforts of an outraged Dominican citizenry dislodged the French invaders. During the occupation, however, Ferrand systematically transformed Dominican society, forcibly restoring law and order, reactivating the national economy, resisting another invasion attempt from neighboring Haiti, and—most dramatically of all—reinstituting the slave system.
