The only town founded during the colony was Bánica, in the eastern end of a region of many savannas that was called "Oncéano" by the Spanish; most of Oncéano is now part of the Centre Department of Haiti. Both Comendador and Hondo Valle were military posts on the border after the Dominican independence. The rest of the present province had very few people until the end of the Restoration War in 1865 when families from other parts of the country came to live here.