It began with a demoralizing conflict between Spanish royalists and liberals in the Iberian Peninsula, which is known today as the Spanish Civil War, 1820–1823. The 1820s was a time of profound political changes throughout the entire Spanish Atlantic World, which affected directly the lives of petite bourgeoisie like the Duartes. The select and privileged group of individuals he represented were tired of being ignored by the Crown, and some were also concerned with the new liberal turn in Madrid. The most prominent leader of the coup against the colonial government was one of its former supporters, José Núñez de Cáceres. In 1821, when Duarte was eight years-old, the Creole elite of Santo Domingo, proclaimed its independence from Spanish rule, and renamed the former Spanish colony on Hispaniola, Spanish Haiti. The family returned to Santo Domingo in 1809, however, after the success of the War of Reconquista (Santo Domingo) when the eastern side of Hispaniola was, once again, a Spanish colony, albeit, one with little attention from the metropolis, and thus the name "España Boba." They took up residence on the western bank of the Ozama River, in the La Atarazana zone, which today is within the municipal limits of the Dominican Capital, Santo Domingo, where Juan Pablo was born in January 26, 1813. Most scholars assume that the Duartes’ first son, Vicente Celestino, was born here at this time on the eastern side of the Mona Passage.
Puerto Rico was still a Spanish colony, and Mayagüez, being so close to Hispaniola, just across the Mona Passage, had become a refuge for the like of the Duartes and those Spanish colonists who did not accept the new French rule. Although expected and legally proper since 1795, this change of colonial masters prompted many Whites, like the Duartes, to take flight toward neighboring Spanish colonies. Upon arrival in Santo Domingo, Louverture immediately restricted slavery (complete abolition of slavery on the eastern Hispaniola will come in 1822), and in addition began converting the old Spanish colonial institutions into French Revolutionary venues of liberal government. In occupying the Spanish side the legendary Black governor was following the indications accorded by the governments of France and Spain in the Peace of Basel signed in 1795. At the time, France and Saint Domingue were going through exhaustive social movements, namely, the French and the Haitian revolutions ( French Revolution and Haitian Revolution). This transformation of the island’s colonial experience became apparent when Toussaint Louverture, governor of the French colony of Saint Domingue (which occupied the western side) took control of the Spanish side as well. They were evading the imposition of French rule over the eastern side of the island. In 1801, Duarte’s future parents, Juan José Duarte and Manuela Díez Jiménez, emigrated from the Spanish colony on Hispaniola to Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. Without such a vision, too many revolutions shed blood and sacrifice lives without actually achieving their goal of freedom, justice, and equality. The subsequent turbulent history of the Republic, which has seen tyrants and dictators and United States intervention to restore order suggests that there was lack, despite Juan Pablo Duarte's best efforts and heroic struggle, a shared vision of a the new government should be structured.
His failures made him a political martyr in the eyes of subsequent generations. Nevertheless, his democratic ideals, although never fully fleshed-out and somewhat imprecise, have served as guiding principles, albeit mostly in theory, for most Dominican governments.
His vision for the country, formerly Spain's oldest colony, was quickly undermined by the conservative elites, who sought to align the new nation with colonial powers and turn back to traditional regionalism.
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