A new rebellion in the Dominican Republic…

A new rebellion in the Dominican Republic had allowed Ignacio María González to seize power in 1877, only to be deposed by Cesáreo Guillermo in September 1878, who had in in turn been deposed by Gregorio Luperón in December 1879.

Ruling the country from his hometown of Puerto Plata, enjoying an economic boom due to increased tobacco exports to Germany, Luperón enacts a new constitution setting a two-year presidential term limit and providing for direct elections, suspends the semiformal system of bribes, and initiates construction on the nation's first railroad, linking the town of La Vega with the port of Sánchez on Samaná Bay.