Abstract

In the Dominican Republic, the period of the American occupation of 1916-24 was characterized by the strengthening of the State and by its greater interference in rural society. It is known that from the beginning of the intervention, resistance movements to it occurred and that in the East of the country a peasant based guerrilla movement developed in opposition to the North American forces and the penetration of foreign sugar consortiums. On the other hand, little attention has been paid to the less conspicuous forms of resistance in the East, and it can be thought that in the rest of the country the peasantry maintained a position of absolute calm in the face of the measures of the interventionist regime. However, this impression is only partially true. In effect, a regional study, concentrated in the province of Santiago, shows that the peasantry of Cibao developed forms of opposition to the policies of the military government that, although they did not lead to an armed struggle, contributed to destabilizing the regime.