Juan Sánchez Ramírez

Juan Sánchez Ramírez (1762 – February 11, 1811) was a Dominican general who was the primary leader of the War of Reconquista. He is known for leading the troops in the Battle of Palo Hincado. The decisive Spanish victory resulted in the end of French rule in eastern Hispaniola in 1809, during the Peninsular War. He was the first Spanish-Dominican to serve as governor of Santo Domingo.

In 1795, the island of Santo Domingo ceased to be linked to the Spanish Empire by the Peace Treaty of Basel (Switzerland), which put an end to the War of the Convention (1793–1795), by which it passed under French rule. In 1808, during Peninsular War, the La Reconquista movement was created on the island, led by Criollos like Sánchez Ramírez, with the aim of returning Santo Domingo back to Spanish rule.

Sánchez Ramírez, an agricultural landowner of Criollo origin, had already fought against the French in the War of the Convention, and in 1803 he had emigrated to Puerto Rico, from where he returned in 1807 to foment the insurrection. To do this, he requested the help of the governor of Puerto Rico, Toribio Montes, and of Dominican settlers who had fled to that island, with whose forces he revolted against the French troops of general and governor Jean-Louis Ferrand, whom he defeated on November 7, 1808 in the historical Battle of Palo Hincado. Shortly after, with the help of the English fleet sent by Hugh Lyle Carmichael that came to support him from Jamaica, he managed to take the capital of the island. He was therefore appointed captain general and mayor of the island by the Junta of Seville, thereby reestablishing Spanish sovereignty.

During his government he harshly repressed any independence attempt, acting with total impunity in the face of the indifference of the Spanish metropolis. He maintained this position until his death in 1811, afterwards the colony attained its independence from Spain in 1821.