Devastations of Osorio

The Devastations of Osorio (in Spanish, las Devastaciones de Osorio) refer to a period in the colonial history of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, modern day Dominican Republic 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 Philip III sent an order to the then-governor of Hispaniola, Antonio de Osorio, to depopulate those parts of the island (by force if necessary) and to relocate the inhabitants to the vicinity of Santo Domingo in the southeast of the island. The Devastations were carried out between 1605 and 1606.^[1][2]

The Spanish crown believed that depopulating the western part of the island would put an end to the smuggling that so severely impacted the royal coffers. Unfortunately, the devastation made possible everything it had sought to prevent: the establishment of individuals from another nation in the western part of the island. The devastations were the event that allowed the French to establish themselves in western Hispaniola. The Spanish tried to expel the French from the western part of the island on several occasions, but were unsuccessful.

Under the leadership of Bertrand d'Ogeron, the bands of French buccaneers and filibusters that had swarmed across the west of the island were transformed into sedentary communities, officially becoming subjects of the French crown in 1660. Shortly afterwards, the French West India Company began purchasing vast numbers of black slaves from central and west Africa, bringing them to the west of the island to work in the planting and cultivation of coffee, cocoa, cotton, indigo and sugarcane plantations. The French were so successful in seizing the western part of the island that they were already planning to take over the entire island and take it from Spain. However, the Spanish managed to prevent this plan thanks to the swift execution of the Santo Domingo Repopulations.

Ultimately, the Spanish concluded that it was already impossible to remove the French and (their formidable mass of African slaves) from the western part of the island. Finally, the Spanish ceded the western part of the island to the French in the Treaty of Rijswijk of 1697. However, this treaty did not establish a border between the two colonies, which led to territorial disputes between the Spanish and French. Finally, to maintain peace, France and Spain decided to establish a definitive border in the Treaty of Aranjuez of 1777.