Treaty of Aranjuez

In the Treaty of Aranjuez in 1777, Spain officially recognized the sovereignty of France in Saint Domingue.

In 1697 the island of Hispaniola was split in two by the Treaty of Ryswick. This treaty was finally ratified by the Treaty of Aranjuez on June 3, 1777, and the Treaty of Basel on July 22, 1795, leaving the western one-third of Hispaniola, Saint-Domingue a French colony and the eastern two-thirds, the current Dominican Republic to Spain.

"Until the official recognition of the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1777, by the Treaty of Aranjuez, the French and the Spanish lived on the brink of war. The French constantly pushed their unofficial borders in their need for land, while the Spanish carried on punitive raids in a futile effort to eradicate the French presence in Hispaniola. Moreover, Hispaniola became a mirror of European politics; when France and Spain were at war in Europe, their colonists also fought in Hispaniola. In 1795, the French obtained the Eastern part, only to lose the whole island years later." (Sagas)

Reference

 * Sagas, Dr. Ernesto. (City University of New York). (1994) An Apparent Contradiction? Popular Perceptions of Haiti and the Foreign Policy of the Dominican Republic. Paper presented at the Conference of the Haitian Studies Association, Boston, MA October 14-15, 1994. Date retrieved: 14 December 2005 13:47 UTC. Online document