99:. 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
116:, 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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
158:. In the middle of 1601, 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,
166:, 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
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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.
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The Osorio
Devastations signified the beginning of the strengthening of the Spanish military presence in Hispaniola, since, to put the order into practice, the support of 159 soldiers from the garrison of
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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.
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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
112:, 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
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219:. 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.
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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
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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,
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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
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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
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the power to take whatever action they deemed prudent in order to stop the incursion of foreign contraband as well as contact between
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could harm Spain to the benefit of her enemies. Finally, the combined efforts of Fernando de Valdés and other officials such as
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257:, a Spanish historian at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa has published a monograph dealing with this period, titled
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In 1604, the King of Spain, Philip III, observing the growing lack of Crown control in the north and western parts of the
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50:, to depopulate those parts of the island (by force if necessary) and to relocate the inhabitants to the vicinity of
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as well as that of French forces meant that Hispaniola and Cuba became major recipients of economic resources from
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foreigners and enemies of Spain to settle the abandoned territory, who later formed the French colony of
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abandoned. Within a short time, these herds turned wild. Moreover, the destruction of the mills and
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tried to suppress the royal order, since their own smuggling interests would also be affected.)
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in the southeast of the island. The Devastations were carried out between 1605 and 1606.
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Situation of the Island of Hispaniola During the devastations of Osorio, 1605-1606
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Islanders and Empire: Smuggling and Political Defiance in Hispaniola, 1580–1690
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came not only from the island itself, but also from neighboring
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slaves who, fleeing from their masters, settled in that region.
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232:'s short story "Windward Passage" in the collection
66:, granted Governor Antonio de Osorio and Archbishop
34:) refer to a period in the colonial history of the
46:sent an order to the then-governor of Hispaniola,
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345:17th century in the Colony of Santo Domingo
312: by Rafal Reichert available under the
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228:The Devastations form the backdrop of
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211:, primarily for military purposes.
294:Historia de la RepĂşblica Dominicana
64:Captaincy General of Santo Domingo
36:Captaincy General of Santo Domingo
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340:Forcibly depopulated communities
308: This article incorporates
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279:Academic study by Rafal Reichert
154:A similar situation occurred in
150:Similarity to Florida expedition
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240:The Spanish-Dominican writer
244:published a novel in 1979,
31:las Devastaciones de Osorio
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335:1606 in the Spanish Empire
330:1605 in the Spanish Empire
74:subjects of the Crown and
235:A View from the Mangrove
197:viceroyalty of New Spain
68:AgustĂn Dávila y Padilla
255:Juan José Ponce Vázquez
160:Juan Maldonado Barnuevo
176:Bartolomé de Argüelles
110:Sancho Ochoa de Castro
26:Devastations of Osorio
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355:1606 in North America
350:1605 in North America
180:Juan Menéndez Marques
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242:Carlos Esteban Deive
230:Antonio Benitez-Rojo
114:Francisco Ferrecuelo
360:Philip III of Spain
201:viceroyalty of Peru
172:Alonso de las Alas
164:Fernando de Valdés
40:Dominican Republic
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246:Las devastaciones
193:San Juan Bautista
48:Antonio de Osorio
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168:San AgustĂn
126:Monte Plata
84:Montecristi
324:Categories
266:References
223:In fiction
205:buccaneers
44:Philip III
209:New Spain
134:trapiches
122:Bayaguana
102:audiencia
316:license.
182:and the
76:heretics
72:Catholic
261:(2020).
92:Yaguana
58:History
184:friars
88:Bayajá
310:text
143:Cuba
118:Azua
90:and
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
