Content deleted Content added
Line 81:
Obsessed with adulation, Trujillo promoted a cult of personality that elevated him to demigod status. When a hurricane destroyed much of [[Santo Domingo]] in 1935, he rebuilt and modernized the city, renaming it Ciudad Trujillo; he also renamed the countries highest mountain, [[Pico Duarte]], as Pico Trujillo. The system of associating Trujillo with the countries material progress was institutionalized by a law requiring all public works projects to bear the inscription 'Era of Trujillo, Benefactor of the Fatherland,' in January 1939.<ref>Eric Paul Roorda, The Dictator Next Door: The Good Neighboor Policy and the Truillo Regime in the Dominican Republic, 1930-1945 Pg. 98</ref>
As sugar estates turned to Haiti for seasonal migrant labor, the Haitian population of the Dominican Republic grew rapidly. The census of 1920, conducted by the military government, gave a total of 28,258 Haitians, by 1935 there were 52,657.<ref>''Needed but unwanted: Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Dominican Republic, Pg. 24''</ref> In 1937, Trujillo ordered the massacre of 20,000-25,000 Haitians, citing Haiti's support for Dominican exiles plotting to overthrow his regime. <ref>Jan Kippers Black, ''Politics and development in an unsovereign state'' Pg. 27</ref> This was the result of a new policy which Trujillo called the 'Dominicasation of the frontier.' Place names along the border were changed from [[Haitian Kreyol| Kreyol]] and French to Spanish, the practice of [[Vodou]] was outlawed, quotas were imposed on the percentage of foreign workers companies could hire, and a law was passed preventing Haitian workers from remaining after the sugar harvest.
Althrough [[Trujillo]] sought to emulate [[Generalissimo]] [[Francisco Franco]], he welcomed [[Spanish Second Republic|Republican]] refugees following the [[Spanish Civil War]]. During the European [[the Holocaust|Holocaust]] in the [[World War II|Second World War]], the Dominican Republic took in many Jews fleeing Hitler who had been refused entry by other countries. These decision arose from a policy of ''blanquismo,'' closely connected with anti-Haitian xenophobia, which sought to whiten the Dominican population by promoting immigration from [[Europe]]. As part of the [[Good Neighbor Policy]], in 1940, the [[U.S. State Department|State Department]] signed a treaty with Trujillo relinquishing control over the nations customs. When the Japanese attacked [[Pearl Harbor]] Trujillo followed the U.S. in declaring war on the [[Axis powers]], even though he had openly professed admiration for [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] and [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]]. During the [[Cold War]], he maintained close ties to the U.S. by declaring himself the preeminent anti-communist in the Western Hemisphere, providing sanctuary for [[Fulgencio Batista]] after the [[Cuban revolution]].
| |||