Dominican Republic sought assistance from any of the four major powers at the time--Spain, France, Britain, and the United States. As early as 1849, one Dominican president requested that the United States annex the Dominican Republic, But only Spain was willing to commit troops and economic assistance to protect the Caribbean island. In its role as the protectorate, Spain formally assumed control of the Dominican Republic in 1861, resulting once again in turning the Dominican Republic into a dependent, colonized nation (Carr, 1982, p. 260).
Spanish conquest in the Dominican Republic was short-lived, however. The remaining global powers felt much too much was at stake to lose influence in this region of critical naval importance. France invested heavily to dominate the political and economic life of Haiti and found Spanish domination of the island neighbor to be a major inconvenience. The United States, on the other hand, had recently awakened to the concept of "manifest destiny" and began expanding its influence throughout the Caribbean, beginning with Cuba but fully intending to envelope other island nations as well. And Britain--the greatest naval power in the world at
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