Figure 1.--This is one of a series of press wire photographs taken in December 1941 on Dominican farming released January 11, 1942. The caption read, "Tilling the soil: Behind his slow but patient ocen a Fominican farming boy with his whip tills the soil on a peanut plantation. A new day is dawning for te Latin American farmer because there will be less sugar, pineapples and other tropical products coming from Pacific countries.

The Dominican Republic was one of the Caribbean countries where the United States intervened in the early-20th century. The U.S. Marines occupied the country (1916-24). When the United States left the Dominican Republiv, Rafael Trujillo was left in charge of the military. The Depression adversely affected the country's ecconmy as aesult in a sharp fall in the sugar price (1929). Trujillo won election as president in a vote with many irregularities. Like many military leaders in Latin America, Trujillo admired Generalissimo Francisco Franco. as well as Hitler and Mussolini. He welcomed, however, Spanish Republican refugees after the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). The Dominican Republic was a rare country to offere a refuge to Jews tageted by Hitler and the NAZIs during the Holocaust. Tragically onlya small number reached the country. President Trujillo offered to admit 0.1 million Jewish refugees (1938). Only 645 actually made it to the country. The Government's relatively open policy toward umigration was linked to its' anti-Haiti policy. The Dominicans pursued a policy of 'blanquismo'--the whitening of the population by promoting European immigration. The Dominican Republic proclaimed neutrality when war broke out in Europe (September 1939). The Pan American Union countries formed a mutual defense pact at a conference of foreign ministers in Havana (July 1940). The formal documnt was tThe Declaration on Reciprocal Assistance and Cooperation for the Defense of the Nations of the Americas. It was part of the Final Act of the Second Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics at Havana, Cuba, July 30, 1940. There were twenty-one signatories The Unites States as part of the Good Neighbor Policy returned control over customs back to Dominican officils (1940). After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, The Dominican Republic declaring war on Japan (December 8, 1941). After Hitler declared war on Germany, the Dominicans declared war on Germany (December 11). The country did not make a military contribution to the War, but Dominican sugar and other agricultural products supported the Allied war effort. American Lend Lease and raw material purchases proved a powerful enducement in obtaing cooperation of the Vaious Latin American republics. German U-boats sank four Dominican-manned ships in the Caribbean. Over a hundred Dominicabs served in the Anerican armed forces. Many were political exiles from the Tujillo regime. German U-boats sank twoFDominican merchant vessels. [Vega] The Dominican Republic after the Allied Torch lamdings in North Africa broke diplomatic relations with Vichy France (November 11, 1942).

Sources

Vega, Bernardo. "112 dominicanos lucharon en la Segunda Guerra Mundial," Hoy Digital (Sepotember 4, 2009).

Created: 7:07 AM 6/6/2010
Last updated: 12:28 AM 3/20/2021