Welcome to Strictly Facts, a guide to Caribbean history and culture hosted by me, alexandria Miller. Strictly Facts teaches the history, politics and activism of the Caribbean and connects these themes to contemporary music and popular culture. Hello, hello, you are now tuned in to Strictly Facts a guide to Caribbean history and culture with me, your host, alexandria Miller. I want to say big ups to all our listeners. Whether this is your first episode in our journey and love of sharing Caribbean history, or if you are a returning resident, do be sure to subscribe and keep up with us on all our social media handles. For the latest with Strictly Facts, we are a few days late, but, as our Strictly Facts family knows very well, we are no stranger to highlighting important days of remembrance in the Caribbean and our diaspora. On Friday, August 16th, the Dominican Republic observed the nation's public holiday, restoration Day, commemorating the Dominican Restoration War that lasted almost two years, from August 16th 1863 to July 15th 1865. As we've discussed in previous episodes, the nation, like many others, has had a tumultuous history of colonial conquest, stemming primarily from the French and Spanish, as well as from Haiti, in the aftermath of the Republic Decades. Before the War of Restoration, there existed the First Dominican Republic, or, in other words, the first time the nation claimed its independence from Haiti, from February 27, 1844 to March 18, 1861. These 17 years of the First Republic, though, marking the end of Haitian occupation and helping to establish a prominent nationalist culture and leadership, including by figures like military leader and politician Juan Pablo Duarte, were also turbulent in that the new country not only had to establish a stable political system, but that they constantly faced several attacks and annexation attempts by the affirmation powers, haiti, france, spain, as well as Great Britain and the United States. At the end of the First Republic in 1861, santo Domingo was reintegrated or annexed back to Spain, as proposed by the Dominican general at the time, pedro Santos.

This decision by Santos divided the population, with a run group of people, as you're probably guessing, supporting Spanish colonization and the other sect, the Restorers, as they became known, wanting to remain a republic, thus beginning the War of Restoration in 1863. The war officially began with El Grito de Capotillo, or the Cry of Capotillo, a raid led by Dominican leader Santiago Rodriguez, through which the Restorers triumphed in Capotillo, garnered the support of several others, as Dominican troops continued to wage war and defeat the Spanish through several towns across the island, despite Spain sending for support from nearby islands like Cuba and Puerto Rico, they were no match for the Restorers' guerrilla tactics. In addition to the heat and local diseases which the native Spanish troops were ill-prepared for, the Restorers had major wins in Santiago, montecristi and Nieva over the next several years. The war restoration officially came to an end in 1865 after almost 11,000 Spanish lives were lost in battle, compared to roughly 4,000 lives on the side of the Republic. On one hand, the end of the war brought continued political instability as military leaders vied for political leadership. However, spain's defeat in the War of Restoration was a tremendous triumph for both Dominican sovereignty as well as for others in the Spanish Caribbean, helping to motivate nationalist causes in the nearby islands like, as I mentioned, cuba and Puerto Rico.

In the nearby islands, like, as I mentioned, cuba and Puerto Rico, restoration Day, with this year marking the 161st anniversary, celebrates the establishment of Dominican Republic's Second Republic, making it one of the few countries to fight and win its independence more than once. Furthermore, august 16th is such a special day to the nation that it is also heralded as the presidential inauguration day in tribute to the restorers. And so, with that, we wish the Dominican Republic a happy belated Restoration Day. We hope you enjoyed this bite-sized episode, especially as summer winds down. Be sure to send us a message at the link in our show notes to let us know how you celebrated Restoration Day or what other public holidays and important events you'd like us to cover. And, as always, we hope you enjoyed this episode Lickle more. Thanks for tuning in to Strictly Facts. Visit strictlyfactspodcastcom for more information from each episode. Follow us at Strictly Facts Pod on Instagram and Facebook and at Strictly Facts PD on Twitter.