Santo Domingo, after seventeen years of independence, reverts to Spanish colonial rule

The Dominican Republican had been independent of Spain for seventeen years when its dictator, General Pedro Santana, suggested recolonization.  The Crimean War in Europe and the looming Civil War in the United States offered opportunity and Spain retook sovereignty, naming Santana as Captain-General.  Exiles gathered in Haiti would later wage a long guerilla war and Spain revoked the recolonization and withdrew in May 1865.  (By John Osborne)