Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a country located on the Hispaniola island of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean. It occupies five-eighths of the eastern part of the island, which it shares with Haiti, making Hispaniola one of the two Caribbean islands, along with Saint Martin, which are shared by two sovereign states. The Dominican Republic is the second-largest country in the Antilles by area (after Cuba), with an area of ​​48,671 square kilometers (18,792 sq mi), and the third-largest country with a population of approximately 10.8 million (2020 estimate), of which approximately 3.3 million people. millions live in the metropolitan city of Santo Domingo. The official language of the country is Spanish.

The indigenous people of Taino inhabited Hispaniola before the arrival of the Europeans, dividing it into five chiefdoms. They built a developed farming and hunting society and were in the process of becoming an organized civilization. They also secretly inhabited Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. The Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus explored the island and declared it Castile, landing there on his maiden voyage in 1492. The Colony of Santo Domingo became the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas and the first seat of Spanish colonial rule in New Zealand. Peace. In 1697, Spain recognized French rule over the western third of the island, which became the independent state of Haiti in 1804.

After more than three hundred years of Spanish rule, the Dominican people declared independence in November 1821. The leader of the independence movement, José Nunez de Caceres, intended to unite the Dominican nation with the country of Gran Colombia, but the newly independent Dominicans were forcibly annexed by Haiti in February 1822. Independence came 22 years later, in 1844, after the victory in the Dominican War of Independence. Over the next 72 years, the Dominican Republic mainly experienced civil wars (financed with loans from European traders), several failed incursions by its neighbor Haiti, and a brief return to Spanish colonial status before finally ousting the Spanish during the Dominican War for recovery. 1863-1865 Two presidents were assassinated (Ulises Euro in 1899 and Ramon Caceres in 1911).

The USA occupied the Dominican Republic (1916-1924) due to threats of default on foreign debts; This was followed by a calm and prosperous six-year reign of Horacio Vasquez. From 1930, the dictatorship of Raphael Leonidas Trujillo ruled until his assassination in 1961. The civil war in 1965, the last in the country, ended with the military occupation of the United States, followed by the authoritarian rule of Joaquin Balaguer (1966-1978 and 1986-1996). ... Since 1978, the Dominican Republic has been moving towards a representative democracy. Most of the time since 1996, it has been led by Leonel Fernandez. Danilo Medina succeeded Fernandez in 2012, gaining 51% of the popular vote over his opponent, ex-President Ippolito Mejia. He was later replaced by Luis Abinader in the 2020 presidential election.