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PERIL FROM ABROAD.
Apart from the spoliation of Mexico by the United States, the independence of the Hispanic nations had not been menaced for more than thirty years.

Now comes a period in which the plight of their big northern neighbor, rent in twain by civil war and powerless to enforce the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine, caused two of the countries to become subject a while to European control.

One of these was the Dominican Republic.
In 1844 the Spanish-speaking population of the eastern part of the island of Santo Domingo, writhing under the despotic yoke of Haiti, had seized a favorable occasion to regain their freedom.

But the magic word "independence" could not give stability to the new state any more than it had done in the case of its western foes.