![The Devastations of Osorio](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/The_Devastations_of_Osorio.svg)
The Devastations of Osorio (in Spanish, ''las Devastaciones de Osorio'') refer to a period in the colonial history of the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
island of
Hispaniola
Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...
in the early 17th century. In order to eliminate the contraband trade in the north and the northwest parts of the island, the Spanish monarch
Felipe III sent an order to the then-governor of Hispaniola,
Antonio de Osorio, to depopulate those parts of the island (by force if necessary) and to relocate the inhabitants to the vicinity of
Santo Domingo
, total_type = Total
, population_density_km2 = auto
, timezone = AST (UTC −4)
, area_code_type = Area codes
, area_code = 809, 829, 849
, postal_code_type = Postal codes
, postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional)
, websi ...
in the southeast of the island. The Devastations were carried out between 1605 and 1606.
Frank Moya Pons
Dr. Rafael Francisco “Frank” Moya Pons is one of the leading contemporary historians of the Dominican Republic. He has published many important books in the history and cultural heritage of the country. One of his best-known works is ''M ...
, ''Historia de la República Dominicana''
History
In 1604, the King of Spain, Philip III, observing the growing lack of Crown control in the north and western parts of Hispaniola, granted Governor Antonio de Osorio and Archbishop
Agustín Dávila y Padilla the power to take whatever action they deemed prudent in order to stop the incursion of foreign contraband as well as contact between
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
subjects of the Crown and
heretics
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
. The origin of the problem was that the residents of
Puerto Plata,
Montecristi,
Bayajá and
Yaguana traded their products (especially cured meat and hides) with the French, the English and the Dutch, and received contraband goods in return. This traffic had been carrying on from the middle of the 16th century and kept growing year by year. The king's order forced the officials to carry out the depopulation of the regions in which smuggling was rampant, so that the Crown’s subjects could be moved to a location closer to the capital of the island,
Santo Domingo
, total_type = Total
, population_density_km2 = auto
, timezone = AST (UTC −4)
, area_code_type = Area codes
, area_code = 809, 829, 849
, postal_code_type = Postal codes
, postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional)
, websi ...
. When the people of the northwest first heard about this order, the town councils began to raise petitions in which they requested the abolition of the measure. However, Governor Osorio, who upon the death of the archbishop Dávila y Padilla had to face the situation alone, decided to comply with the letter of the royal ordinance. In mid-February 1605, royal representatives left for the northern part of Hispaniola to proclaim that the people of the area would be forgiven crimes committed against the Spanish Crown resulting from the practice of trafficking with foreigners and heretics, but only under one condition: that they would collect all their personal belongings, slaves, cattle and other property, and move to the southeast, to locations pre-determined by the royal authorities of Santo Domingo. (Some officials of the Spanish ''
audiencia'' tried to suppress the royal order, since their own smuggling interests would also be affected.)
The population of the north resisted and Osorio had to ask for reinforcements to comply with the royal order. The help came from the governor of
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
,
Sancho Ochoa de Castro, who in September of that same year 1605 sent an infantry company to Santo Domingo to help out the forces of Hispaniola. The contingent, composed of 159 soldiers under the command of Captain
Francisco Ferrecuelo, went to the north of the island, where the orders of Osorio were forcibly imposed, and the residents of the region obliged to abandon their farms and homesteads. In order to achieve their objective, the soldiers destroyed sugar plantations, burned huts, ranches, haciendas and churches, and dismantled everything that the villagers needed to live in those places. The main depopulated areas were Puerto Plata, Montecristi, Bayajá and Yaguana. At the end of January 1606, Antonio de Osorio wrote to the king, communicating that the devastation had ended and that he only needed to go through the herds of cattle of the north, and those of Santiago, San Juan and Azua. The process was however delayed until the middle of the year. Eventually, the governor established a border that stretched from
Azua in the south all the way to the north coast, and prohibited the Hispanic inhabitants from crossing it. The inhabitants of Bayajá and Yaguana were concentrated in a new town that received the name of
Bayaguana
Bayaguana is a municipality (''municipio'') of the Monte Plata province in the Dominican Republic.
As of the Dominican Republic's 2002 census, the municipality had a total population of 34,786 inhabitants, of which 19,001 resided in urban areas a ...
, and the inhabitants of Montecristi and Puerto Plata were relocated to
Monte Plata
Monte Plata is a town and municipality (''municipio'') and the capital of the Monte Plata province in the Dominican Republic. It includes the municipal districts (''distritos municipal'') of Boyá, Chirino, and Don Juan
Don Juan (), also ...
.
In any event, the governor's operation failed to stop smuggling in the region. The destruction of about 120 herds of cattle, which totaled more than 100,000 cattle, cows, pigs and horses, proved to be disastrous, since only 15% of the cattle could be moved to new locations, while the rest were abandoned. Within a short time, these herds turned wild. Moreover, the destruction of the mills and
trapiches accelerated the decline of the sugar industry which, added to the loss of livestock and plantations of cane and ginger, increased poverty on the island and removed Santo Domingo to the margins of colonial trade. The depopulation of the northwestern part of Hispaniola was taken advantage of by black slaves who, fleeing from their masters, settled in that region.
Runaway slaves
In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th century to describe people who fled slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Such people are also called free ...
came not only from the island itself, but also from neighboring
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
and Puerto Rico. Likewise, the evacuation of half of Hispaniola did not cause this territory to be forgotten, as the Crown had wished, but rather it fell upon the mercy of foreigners who benefitted greatly from the cattle and other fruits of the land left behind by the Spaniards. Finally, the misery that was generated after the Osorio Devastations also affected the tax revenues of the colony, to the point that these were no longer enough to cover bureaucratic expenses nor the maintenance of the armed forces in Santo Domingo.
Similarity to Florida expedition
It is interesting to note that a similar situation occurred in
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
. In the middle of 1601, King Philip III, observing the difficulties in maintaining the sparse population of Spanish settlers in the face of continued attacks by the native Indians (and also noticing the limited amount of agricultural and livestock production), ordered the governor of Havana,
Juan Maldonado Barnuevo, to send an expedition northwards. The expedition, composed of soldiers and friars under the command of Captain Don
Fernando de Valdés, was to perform an inspection and determine the cost to the Crown of maintaining the province. Although the expedition found places in Florida that could have been better utilized for colonial establishments, the Captain warned that the abandonment of
San Agustín could harm Spain to the benefit of her enemies. Finally, the combined efforts of Fernando de Valdés and other officials such as
Alonso de las Alas,
Bartolomé de Argüelles,
Juan Menéndez Marques and the
friars
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the o ...
who accompanied the expedition (who believed that the Indians of Florida provided bountiful opportunities for conversion to Christianity) proved to be successful in averting the abandonment of Florida.
The Osorio Devastations signified the beginning of the strengthening of the Hispanic military presence in Hispaniola, since, to put the order into practice, the support of 159 soldiers from the garrison of
San Juan was requested from Puerto Rico. The terrible economic impact of the royal order eventually caused a change in the financing of Hispaniola, transferring it from the
viceroyalty of New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Amer ...
to that of
viceroyalty of Peru
The Viceroyalty of Peru ( es, Virreinato del Perú, links=no) was a Spanish imperial provincial administrative district, created in 1542, that originally contained modern-day Peru and most of the Spanish Empire in South America, governed from ...
. However, from the 1680s onwards, the growing threat of
buccaneers
Buccaneers were a kind of privateers or free sailors particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from the Restoration in 1660 until about 1688 ...
as well as that of French forces meant that Hispaniola and Cuba became major recipients of economic resources from
New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...
, primarily for military purposes.
Historians conclude that the Devastations of Osorio constituted an error that brought no benefits to the colonists nor to the Spanish Crown. Instead, it left the economy of the island in a state of crisis and stagnation that lasted several decades. In addition, it presented an opportunity for foreigners and enemies of Spain to settle the abandoned territory, who later formed the French colony of
Saint Domingue
Saint-Domingue () was a French colonization of the Americas, French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the islan ...
. From the 18th century, thanks to its productive sugar and coffee plantations, it became one of the strongest economies of the Caribbean and the principal colony of France.
In fiction
* The Devastations form the backdrop of
Antonio Benitez-Rojo
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...
's short story "Windward Passage" in the collection ''
A View from the Mangrove''
* The Spanish-Dominican writer
Carlos Esteban Deive published a novel in 1979, ''Las devastaciones'', which won the
Premio Siboney
*
Juan José Ponce Vázquez, a Spanish historian at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa has published a monograph dealing with this period, titled ''Islanders and Empire: Smuggling and Political Defiance in Hispaniola, 1580–1690'' (2020).
References
{{reflist
Forcibly depopulated communities
History of Hispaniola
History of the Dominican Republic
History of the Colony of Santo Domingo
16th century in the Dominican Republic
History of Haiti