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Dominican Republic
The island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean is discovered by Christopher Columbus on 6 December 1492. It becomes the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas.
By the end of the 16th Century most of the island's original native Indian population is dead. Spanish settlement is thin, with French pirates controlling much of the island. When the pirates found Port-de-Paix in the northwest in 1664 the French West India Company takes possession.
The western third of the island is formally ceded to France by Spain in 1697 and is renamed Saint-Domingue. The eastern two-thirds retain the name originally given by the Spanish to the entire island: Santo Domingo.
Both parts of the island rely heavily on African slave labourers but while slaves in Santo Domingo come to constitute about 50% of the population by the end of the 18th Century, in Saint-Domingue the figure rises to about 90%.
The French Government abolishes slavery in 1794. Two year later a former slave is named governor general of Saint-Domingue by the French Republic. The following year (1798) Spain surrenders the entire island to his rule.
Following years of agitation by the black population the French administration is forced from the island at the end of 1803.
The entire island is declared independent on 1 January 1804 under its original Indian name of Haiti. It is only the second country in the Americas, after the United States, to win freedom from colonial rule. It also becomes the world's first black republic.
Spanish rule is restored in the eastern two-thirds of the island in 1809, lasting until 1822 when Haiti again takes control. However, the easterners increasingly come to resent the Haitian occupation, launching a successful uprising in February 1844 that establishes the Dominican Republic (República Dominicana).
Despite initial optimism a tradition of dictatorial "strong-man" (or "caudillo") rule comes to be entrenched in the Republic, reaching its zenith 100 years later during the rule of Rafael Trujillo.
Tensions between the Dominican Republic and Haiti will also persist, assuming a growing racial component as the fairer-skinned Dominicans come to feel threatened by and at the same time superior to their darker-skinned neighbours.
The Dominican Republic again comes under the control of Spain in March 1861 in an annexation deal organised by the then Dominican president. However, the move is unpopular with Dominicans and a 'War of Restoration' breaks out in September 1863. On 3 March 1865 the Queen of Spain approves a decree repealing the annexation.
There follows a period of intrigues and plots that lasts until 1886 when General Ulises Heureaux establishes a dictatorship. After Heureaux is assassinated on 26 July 1899 the political instability returns. At the same time the US begins to take a greater role in Dominican affairs, culminating in a US occupation that begins in May 1916 and continues to July 1924, when Horacio Vásquez Lajara is inaugurated as president and control of the country returns to the Dominican parliament.
A feature of the US occupation is the growing use of Haitian labourers in Dominican sugar plantations owned by US sugar companies.
More background at the Library of Congress Country Studies Series
Page created on 11 August 2006.