<P> In order to raise funds for the huge indemnity of 150 million francs that Haiti agreed to pay the former French colonists, and which was subsequently lowered to 60 million francs, Haiti imposed heavy taxes on the Dominicans . Since Haiti was unable to adequately provision its army, the occupying forces largely survived by commandeering or confiscating food and supplies at gunpoint . Attempts to redistribute land conflicted with the system of communal land tenure (terrenos comuneros), which had arisen with the ranching economy, and newly emancipated slaves resented being forced to grow cash crops under Boyer's Code Rural . In rural areas, the Haitian administration was usually too inefficient to enforce its own laws . It was in the city of Santo Domingo that the effects of the occupation were most acutely felt, and it was there that the movement for independence originated . </P> <P> Haiti's constitution also forbade white elites from owning land, and the major landowning families were forcibly deprived of their properties . Most emigrated to Cuba, Puerto Rico (these two being Spanish possessions at the time) or Gran Colombia, usually with the encouragement of Haitian officials, who acquired their lands . The Haitians, who associated the Roman Catholic Church with the French slave - masters who had exploited them before independence, confiscated all church property, deported all foreign clergy, and severed the ties of the remaining clergy to the Vatican . Santo Domingo's university, lacking both students and teachers had to close down, and thus the country suffered from a massive case of human capital flight . </P> <P> Although the occupation effectively eliminated colonial slavery and instated a constitution modeled after the United States Constitution throughout the island, several resolutions and written dispositions were expressly aimed at converting average Dominicans into second - class citizens: restrictions of movement, prohibition to run for public office, night curfews, inability to travel in groups, banning of civilian organizations, and the indefinite closure of the state university (on the alleged grounds of its being a subversive organization) all led to the creation of movements advocating a forceful separation from Haiti with no compromises . </P> <P> In 1838 Juan Pablo Duarte, an educated Dominican nationalist, founded a resistance movement called La Trinitaria . They initially worked with a liberal Haitian party that overthrew President Jean - Pierre Boyer . However, the Trinitarios' work in the overthrow gained the attention of Boyer's replacement, Charles Rivière - Hérard . Rivière - Hérard imprisoned some Trinitarios and forced Duarte to leave the island . The rebels decided to take action anyway with the new leadership of Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, Ramón Matías Mella, and Pedro Santana, a wealthy cattle - rancher from El Seibo who commanded a private army who worked on his estates . </P>

Why are haiti and dominican republic separate countries