Bienvenidos a República Dominicana

Inner Senshi Admin Media Director

Hola and welcome to Dominican Republic, the land of eternal summer, we would like to give you a little tour of our country, but first, let me talk to you about my country.

República Dominicana
Province: 32
Main city: Santo Domingo de Guzman
Ethnic: Mixed (mestizo)
Official language: Spanish
Government: Unitary presidential republic
Independence day: February 27th, 1844
currency: Peso
time zone: Atlantic (UTC-4)
calling code: +1-809 ~ +1-829 ~ +1-849

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Is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles (Antillas Mayores) archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western three-eighths of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, so yeah, we share our island. Both by area and population, the Dominican Republic is the second largest Caribbean nation with 48,445 square kilometers (18,705 sq mi) and an estimated 10 million people, one million of which live in the capital city, Santo Domingo.

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It was more than 500 years ago that the Dominican Republic began to write its history. The peaceful Taino Indians, who spent their days hunting, fishing and farming, first inhabited the island.

The Taíno people called the island Quisqueya. At the time of Columbus (Colon) arrival in 1492, the island's territory consisted of five chiefdoms: Marién, Maguá, Maguana, Jaragua, and Higüey. These were ruled respectively by caciques Guacanagarix, Guarionex, Caonabo, Bohechío, and Cayacoa.
Taínos gave the world sweet potatoes, peanuts, guava, pineapple and tobacco – even the word ‘tobacco’ is Taíno in origin. Taino people lived a normal life, and kind of happy and peaceful until…

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On December 5, 1492, Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) arrived on the island. He named it Hispaniola, setting into motion the meeting of two cultures. Columbus and his three ships, La Niña, La Pinta, and La Santa Maria landed on an island called Quisqueya. This event, and the ensuing encounter with the island’s indigenous population, was to set off a chain of events that would affect world history for the next 500 years.

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By 1512, 20 years after the Spanish had landed on Hispaniola, the Taino population had shrunk to an estimated 60,000 natives. By 1517 the native population was down to 11,000 and by 1518, after a measles outbreak, the native population was down to 8,000. The final straw would come in 1542, 30 years after the first contact; the population was reduced to under 5,000 native inhabitants, a decline of almost 98% of the indigenous population.

This is why our ethnicy is a mixture of spanish, taino and african.

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Though Hispaniola had been neglected by Spain, and become a shadow of its successful past, Haiti blossomed in the 18th century, and this affected the eastern side of Hispaniola directly. Slavery was eventually abolished in 1793, and a growing collective of white, black and mulatto soldiers led by a former slave, Toussaint Louverture, was to define the course of history for all of Hispaniola.

The Treaty of Basil was signed in July 1795, and the British began to occupy Spanish territories, forcing a massive exodus of well-to-do citizens from Santo Domingo, but the British were eventually expelled from Hispaniola in April 1798, with the help of Toussaint Louverture.

In 1800 the Haitian revolutionary Louverture used his forces against the Spanish, and in January 1801 he unified all of Hispaniola as one island. In January 1802 the French invaded Hispaniola, looking to quell the violence and return the colony to its status as an economic goldmine. Louverture, however, was taken prisoner by the French in 1802. Regardless of this, on January 1, 1804 Haiti, under the leadership of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, declared its independence, and in the following year invaded the Spanish side of Hispaniola.

In 1821 the once vibrant and economic powerhouse known as the Colony of Santo Domingo began its fight for what is known as the Ephemeral Independence, but this was not to last. In 1822 the newly independent Haitians were fearful that the French would use the eastern portion of the island to mount an attack on Haiti and re-establish slavery. Under the leadership of Jean Pierre Boyer, the Haitians invaded the eastern side of Hispaniola, outlawed slavery, and once again unified the island until the fight for independence in 1844.

But Dominicans never accepted Haitian rule and on February 27, 1844, Juan Pablo Duarte (we have 3 father of the country, but Duarte was their leader, the other ones are Ramon Matias Mella and Francisco del Rosario Sanchez) – considered the father of the country – led a bloodless coup and reclaimed Dominican autonomy. Fearing an invasion and still feeling threatened by Haiti in 1861, the Dominican Republic once again submitted to Spanish rule. But ordinary Dominicans did not support the move and, after four years of armed resistance, succeeded in expelling Spanish troops in what is known as the Guerra de la Restauracion (War of Restoration).

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Despite the cry for independence, on March 18, 1861 the republic was once again annexed by Spain until after the Restoration War. The resulting political unrest culminated in economic chaos. The Dominican government then received loans with the United States and Europe and gave control of its customs to the US in 1907. Nine years later, the first North American invasion of the country took place.

Various unstable governments followed until the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo was established in 1930. He remained in power for 30 years until he was executed in 1961. This allowed a provisional government to organize the first free elections in 1962. In this election, prominent writer Juan Bosh was elected to the presidency. He was overthrown seven months later, resulting in a civil war led by Francisco Alberto Caamaño. This would lead to the second North American invasion in 1965.

on April 28, 1965, the United States sent 42,420 soldiers to invade the Dominican Republic, and an interim government was imposed. Elections were held on July 1, 1966, and former Trujillo ally Joaquin Balaguer won the election over Juan Bosch because of widespread fear that the Dominican people would revolt again if Bosch was reelected. Balaguer went on to win elections in 1970 and 1974. This period of uninterrupted rule from 1966-1978 is known as Los 12 Años de Balaguer (Balaguer’s Twelve Years), which were characterized by widespread repression.

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After Balaguer's reign was over, Doctor Leonel Fernández of the Party for Dominican Liberation (PLD) became president in 1996. In 2000, the PRD candidate Hipólito Mejía became president, followed by the PLD candidate Leonel Fernández in 2004. He was reelected again in 2008 up tp 2012

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Our current president is Danilo Mejia who is part of PLD, he has done good things for out country, and many things he was a good choise.

Is a little long but i covered most of the important part of my country history~

Feel free to ask questions!! Bienvenidos a República Dominicana RD14_zpsc9c0d8e9

Bienvenidos a República Dominicana RD14_zpsc9c0d8e9

Senior Member Small Lady Emeritus

Oh that was really interesting to read. Much of that history isn't covered much in history classes here. It was really interesting. I had completely forgotten that the Dominican Republic was where tobacco came from. Very Happy

Inner Senshi Admin Media Director

I guess in history class they give you an overall of our history, but there is more to know ^^

YES! we are the land of tobacco =D

Lotus Crystal

Daem. I'll be honest; I don't think we went over this in school u.u so I'm glad you're here to share ^^

Pyramidal Crystal

I'm learning more information I never known before, esp. when it came to the Dominican Republic. I read more online about the DR, since I'm interested in geography of other nations. The country's favorite sport is baseball and the DR is known for producing baseball stars like Sammy Sosa and Moises Alou.

Inner Senshi Admin Media Director

Indeed! we have very good baseball players, people here call baseball "Pelota" that lliterally means "Ball" and on baseball season this countru turns crazy! xD you don't want to see how people here celebrates when their team wins

Lotus Crystal

Wow, the Dominican is really popular for holiday makers here but it's so interesting to read about the actual history of the country and not just the tourism side. ^^

Also, do you call your country RD like I call mine UK?