During the wars with Haiti (1844–56), the government of this country developed a black centrism, a centrism that Dominicans strongly refused in favor of their Hispanic heritage. Historically, Haiti was more densely populated than the Dominican Republic. Due to the lack of free lands in Haiti, as land was held by a small group of landlords, Haitian peasants began to settle in the borderland region, within the Dominican Republic. Through the years, especially after 1899, the Haitian government claimed the territory populated by Haitians, and under a treaty in 1929 several towns and cities in Central Hispaniola officially became Haitian, comprising 4,572 km2. A Dominican census in 1935 revealed that 3.6% of the population was Haitian. In 1936, the Haitian government claimed more territory and the Dominican Republic ceded another 1,628 km2 to Haiti; the next year, the Dominican dictatorship ordered the "Dominicanization of the border" () and conducted the Parsley Massacre.