The Dominican Republic is an island country on the eastern part of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and a land border with Haiti to the west, occupying the eastern five-eighths of Hispaniola which, along with Saint Martin, is one of only two islands in the Caribbean shared by two sovereign states. In the Antilles, the country is the second-largest by area after Cuba at 48,671 square kilometers (18,792 sq mi) and the second most populous after Haiti with approximately 11.4 million people in 2024, of whom 3.6 million reside in the metropolitan area of Santo Domingo, the capital city.
Indigenous peoples had inhabited Hispaniola prior to European contact, including the Taíno, who divided it into five chiefdoms. Christopher Columbus claimed the island for Castile, landing there on his first voyage in 1492. The colony of Santo Domingo became the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas. In 1697, Spain recognized French dominion over the western third of the island, which became the independent First Empire of Haiti in 1804. A group of Dominicans deposed the Spanish governor and declared independence from Spain in November 1821, but were annexed by Haiti in February 1822. Independence came 22 years later in 1844, after victory in the Dominican War of Independence. The next 72 years saw several civil wars, corrupt dictatorships, failed invasions by Haiti, and a brief return to Spanish colonial status, before permanently ousting the Spanish during the Dominican Restoration War of 1863–1865. The United States occupied the Dominican Republic from 1916 to 1924, followed by the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, ruling from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. Juan Bosch was elected president in 1962 but was deposed in a military coup in 1963. The Dominican Civil War of 1965 preceded a second American occupation and the authoritarian rule of Joaquín Balaguer (1966–1978 and 1986–1996). Since 1996, the Dominican Republic has moved towards representative democracy.
The Dominican Republic has the largest economy in the Caribbean and the seventh-largest in Latin America. The country has had the fastest-growing economy in the Western Hemisphere – with an average real GDP growth rate of 5.3% between 1992 and 2018. GDP growth in 2014 and 2015 reached 7.3 and 7.0%, respectively, the highest in the Western Hemisphere. Recent growth has been driven by construction, manufacturing, tourism, and mining. The country is the site of the world's third largest gold mine in terms of production, the Pueblo Viejo mine. The gold production of the country was 31 metric tonnes in 2015.
The Dominican Republic is the most visited destination in the Caribbean. A geographically diverse nation, the country is home to both the Caribbean's tallest mountain peak, Pico Duarte, and the Caribbean's largest lake and lowest point, Lake Enriquillo. The island has an average temperature of 26 °C (78.8 °F) and great climatic and biological diversity. The country is also the site of the first cathedral, palace, monastery, and fortress built in the Americas, located in Santo Domingo's Colonial Zone, a World Heritage Site.
Etymology
The name Dominican originates from Saint Dominic, the patron saint of astronomers, and founder of the Dominican Order. The Dominican Order established what is now known as the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, the first university in the New World.
For most of its history, up until independence, the colony was known simply as Santo Domingo and continued to be commonly known as such in English until the early 20th century. The residents were called "Dominicans" (Dominicanos), the adjectival form of "Domingo", and as such, the revolutionaries named their newly independent country the "Dominican Republic" (la República Dominicana).
In the national anthem of the Dominican Republic (himno nacional de la República Dominicana), the poetic term "Quisqueyans" (Quisqueyanos) is used instead of "Dominicans". The word "Quisqueya" derives from the Ciguayo language, and means "mother of the lands". It is often used in songs as another name for the country. The name of the country in English is often shortened to "the D.R." (la R.D.), but this is rare in Spanish.
History
Pre-Columbian era
The islands of the Caribbean were first settled around 6,000 years ago by hunter-gatherer peoples originating from Central America or northern South America. The Arawakan-speaking ancestors of the Taíno moved into the Caribbean from South America during the 1st millennium BCE, reaching Hispaniola by around 600 CE. These Arawakan peoples engaged in farming, fishing, hunting and gathering, and the widespread production of ceramic goods.
The estimates of Hispaniola's population in 1492 vary widely, ranging from tens of thousands to 2 million.
By 1492, the island was divided into five Taíno chiefdoms. The Taíno name for the entire island was either Ayiti or Quisqueya.
European colonization
Christopher Columbus arrived on the island on December 5, 1492, during the first of his four voyages to the Americas. He claimed the land for the Crown of Castile and named it La Española, due to its diverse climate and terrain, which reminded him of the Spanish landscape. In 1496, Bartholomew Columbus, Christopher's brother, built the city of Santo Domingo, Western Europe's first permanent settlement in the "New World". The Spaniards created a plantation economy.
Initially, after friendly relationships, the Taínos resisted the conquest, led by female Chief Anacaona of Xaragua and her ex-husband Chief Caonabo of Maguana, as well as Chiefs Guacanagaríx, Guamá, Hatuey, and Enriquillo. The latter's successes gained his people an autonomous enclave on the island. Within a few years after 1492, the population of Taínos had declined drastically due to smallpox, measles, and other diseases that arrived with the Europeans. African slaves were imported to replace the dwindling Taínos.
The last record of pure Taínos in the country was from 1864. Still, Taíno biological heritage survived due to intermixing. Census records from 1514 reveal that 40% of Spanish men in Santo Domingo were married to Taíno women, and some present-day Dominicans have Taíno ancestry.
By the time of the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, which ceded the western one-third of the island to France, the population of Santo Domingo consisted of a few thousand whites, approximately 30,000 black slaves, and a few Taínos. By 1789, the population had grown to 125,000, but Santo Domingo remained one of Spain's less wealthy and strategically important colonies in the New World. The population composition of Santo Domingo sharply contrasted with that of the neighboring French colony of Saint-Domingue—the wealthiest colony in the Caribbean and whose population of half a million was 90% enslaved and four times as numerous as Santo Domingo.
In 1795, Spain ceded Santo Domingo to France by the Treaty of Basel as a result of its defeat in the War of the Pyrenees. Saint-Domingue achieved independence as Haiti from France on January 1, 1804. In 1809, with the outbreak of the Peninsular War, the French were expelled from the island and Santo Domingo returned to Spanish rule.
Ephemeral independence and Haitian occupation (1821–1844)
After a dozen years of discontent and failed independence plots by various opposing groups, Santo Domingo's former Lieutenant-Governor (top administrator), José Núñez de Cáceres, declared the colony's independence from the Spanish crown as Spanish Haiti on November 30, 1821. This period is also known as the Ephemeral independence.
The newly independent republic ended two months later, when it was occupied and annexed by Haiti, then under the leadership of Jean-Pierre Boyer. For twenty-two years, Haiti controlled Santo Domingo, which it called Partie de l'Est, treating it as a colonial territory. The unpaid Haitian army sustained itself by taking resources from the Dominican people and land without compensation, and the highest administrative positions were reserved for Haitian mulattoes.
First Republic (1844–1861)
In 1838, Juan Pablo Duarte founded a secret society called La Trinitaria, which sought the complete independence of Santo Domingo without any foreign intervention. Also Francisco del Rosario Sánchez and Ramon Matias Mella, despite not being among the founding members of La Trinitaria, were decisive in the fight for independence. Duarte, Mella, and Sánchez are considered the Founding Fathers of the Dominican Republic.
On February 27, 1844, the members of La Trinitaria declared independence from Haiti. They were backed by Pedro Santana, a wealthy cattle rancher, who became general of the army of the nascent republic. The decades that followed were filled with tyranny, factionalism, economic difficulties, rapid changes of government, and exile for political opponents. Archrivals Santana and Buenaventura Báez held power most of the time, both ruling arbitrarily. They promoted competing plans to annex the new nation to a major power. The Dominican Republic's first constitution was adopted on November 6, 1844, and its population in 1845 was approximately 230,000 people (100,000 whites; 40,000 blacks; and 90,000 mulattoes).
In March 1844, Haiti invaded but the Dominicans put up stiff opposition and inflicted heavy casualties on the Haitians. By April 15, Dominican forces had defeated the Haitian forces on both land and sea. In early July 1844, Duarte was urged by his followers to take the title of President of the Republic. Duarte agreed, but only if free elections were arranged. However, Santana's forces took Santo Domingo on July 12, and they declared Santana ruler of the Dominican Republic. Santana then put Mella, Duarte, and Sánchez in jail. On February 27, 1845, Santana executed María Trinidad Sánchez, heroine of La Trinitaria, and others for conspiracy.
After defeating a Haitian invasion in April 1849 at the Battle of Las Carreras, Santana marched on Santo Domingo and deposed President Manuel Jimenes in a coup d'état. At his behest, Congress elected Buenaventura Báez as president, but Báez was unwilling to serve as Santana's puppet. In November–December 1849, Dominican seamen raided the Haitian coasts, plundered seaside villages, as far as Dame-Marie on the Tiburon Peninsula, and butchered crews of captured enemy ships. A fourth and final invasion by Haiti in November 1855 was defeated by Dominican forces by January 27, 1856, resulting in thousands of Haitian casualties. Santana and Báez competed for political dominance, with Báez prevailing in 1857 and expelling Santana, and Santana returning to power in 1859 and expelling Báez.
Restoration Republic (1865–1899)
In 1861, after imprisoning, exiling, and executing many of his opponents and due to political and economic reasons, Santana asked Queen Isabella II of Spain to retake control of the Dominican Republic. Spain, which had not come to terms with the loss of its mainland American colonies 40 years earlier, annexed the country. The island was occupied by 30,000 Spanish troops bolstered by battalions of Cuban and Puerto Rican volunteers and 12,000 Dominicans who aligned themselves with the Spanish forces. The Haitian rebel Sylvain Salnave, fearful of the reestablishment of Spain as colonial power, gave refuge and logistics to revolutionaries seeking to reestablish the independent nation. The ensuing civil war, known as the War of Restoration, killed more than 50,000.
The war began on August 16, 1863. After nearly two years of fighting, Spain abandoned the island in July 1865. Political strife again prevailed in the following years; warlords ruled, military revolts were extremely common, and the nation amassed debt. It was now Báez's turn to act on his plan of annexing the country to the United States, where two successive presidents were supportive. U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant desired a naval base at Samaná and also a place for resettling newly freed African Americans. The treaty was defeated in the United States Senate in 1870. Báez was toppled in 1874, returned, and was toppled for good in 1878.
Relative peace came to the country in the 1880s, which saw the coming to power of General Ulises Heureaux. "Lilís", as the new president was nicknamed, put the nation deep into debt while using much of the proceeds for his personal use and to maintain his police state. In 1899, he was assassinated. However, the relative calm over which he presided allowed improvement in the Dominican economy. The sugar industry was modernized, and the country attracted foreign workers and immigrants. Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians from the Ottoman Empire began to arrive in the country during the latter part of the 19th century. They were referred to locally as "Turks" because they were Ottoman subjects and carried Ottoman passports. During the U.S. occupation of 1916–24, Dominican peasants would not only kill U.S. Marines, but would also attack and kill Arab vendors traveling through the countryside.
20th century (1900–1930)
From 1902 on, short-lived governments were again the norm, with their power usurped by caudillos in parts of the country. Furthermore, the national government was bankrupt and, unable to pay its debts to European creditors, faced the threat of military intervention by France, Germany, and Italy. Dominican debt had grown to $32 million, an amount that could not be serviced by national revenues. United States President Theodore Roosevelt sought to prevent European intervention, largely to protect the routes to the future Panama Canal. He made a small military intervention to ward off European powers, to proclaim his famous Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, and also to obtain his 1905 Dominican agreement for U.S. administration of Dominican customs, which was the chief source of income for the Dominican government. A 1906 agreement provided for the arrangement to last 50 years. The United States agreed to use part of the customs proceeds to reduce the immense foreign debt of the Dominican Republic and assumed responsibility for said debt.
After six years in power, President Ramón Cáceres (who had himself assassinated Heureaux) was assassinated in 1911. The result was several years of great political instability and civil war. U.S. mediation by the William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson administrations achieved only a short respite each time. General José Bordas Valdez became president on April 14, 1913. A revolt began immediately but subsided after he promised free elections. When his term expired on April 13, 1914, a new revolution broke out and spread nationwide. Positioned above the port town of Puerto Plata with about 600 troops brought by two cruisers, Bordas faced well-entrenched insurgents, leading to considerable fighting and casualties on both sides. The USS Machias prevented the Dominican cruisers from bombarding the town and later fired near the railroad station, after which conventional fighting ceased.