You took a country that has been mostly black ruled for almost 200 years, and tried to make it a story about white men. And then accused me of ethnocentrism. Show some respect to the people of DR. It’s their story, not mine.
Your uncles probably were freed during the brief period of restored Spanish rule between 1861 and 1865. Spain tried to retake some colonies it had lost during the post-Napoleonic era. It didn’t work out too well for them.
Haiti invaded DR just after the Haitian war of liberation, which was an ugly four way fight between slaves, France, Spain, and England. Haiti‘s military occupied DR for decades, which may be part of where the animosity comes from.