The Dominican Republic had been independent of Spain for seventeen years when its dictator, Pedro Santana, engineered Spanish recolonization in 1861. Exiles gathered in neighboring Haiti and launched a "War of Restoration." The day after the capture of the provincial city of Santiago, a provisional government declared independence once again. A two-year war ensued and Spain finally revoked its recolonization in May 1865. (By John Osborne)  

The Dominican Republic had been independent of Spain for 17 years when its dictator, General Pedro Santana, engineered Spanish recolonization in 1861. Exiles gathered in neighboring Haiti and launched an attack on the capital of Santo Domingo.  The revolt grew and a large rebel army captured the provincial city of Santiago. A provisional government was set up under José Salcedo and a long guerilla war opened against royal authorities. (By John Osborne)  

The Dominican Republic had been independent of Spain for 17 years when its dictator, General Pedro Santana, engineered Spanish recolonization in 1861. Exiles gathered in neighboring Haiti and launched an attack on the capital of Santo Domingo.  A provisional government was set up under José Salcedo and a long guerilla war waged against royal authorities. Spain tired of the conlict, revoked its sovereignty, and withdrew in May 1865. (By John Osborne)  

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)  

The Confederacy's most successful commerce raider, the C.S.S. Alabama, had sailed 75,000 miles across the world in the previous months, capturing and burned more than seventy Union merchant ships.  Returning to Europe for repairs at Cherbourg, in France, she encountered the U.S.S. Kearsarge, under Captain John Winslow, and after a heated one hour of battle was sunk. Her captain, Raphael Semmes, escaped when picked up by a British private steam yacht.  (By John Osborne)

Sir Henry Storks, the last British High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, off the western coast of Greece, turned over all offices to the new Greek provincial commissioner.  Nine days later, with the newly-crowned King of the Hellenes in attendance, formal ceremonies cemented the official return of the islands to Greece. (By John Osborne) 

With the seventeen year old Prince William of Denmark, now the newly-crowned King of the Hellenes, in attendance, formal ceremonies cemented the official return of the Ionian Islands on Greece's western coast, including Corfu, from British hands to the new Greek constitutional monarchy. (By John Osborne) 

The Greeks had overthown their Bavarian-born king a year earlier and after a debate among the European Powers and at the request of the Greek Parliament, Prince William of Denmark had agreed to become the new monarch.  As part of the agreement, the treaty formalizing the new Greek monarchy included the return of the Ionian Islands on Greece's western coast, including Corfu, then in British hands, to Greece. (By John Osborne) 

The year before, the Bavarian born king of Greece, Otto I, had been deposed, touching off a six-month international debate over who would follow him.  At the end of March, 1863, the Greek Parliament voted to request that seventeen year old Prince William of Denmark accept the throne.  Prince William acceded to the request and arrived in his new capital on this day. He would rule, for two weeks shy of fifty years, until his death in 1913.  (By John Osborne)