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 country by area after Cuba at 48,671 square kilometers (18,792 sq mi) and the second most populous country 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, 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. Following a brief period of U.S. occupation, the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo ruled 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 the authoritarian rule of Joaquín Balaguer (1966–1978 and 1986–1996). Since 1996, the Dominican Republic has moved towards representative democracy.
Dominican Republic has the largest economy in the Caribbean and the seventh-largest in Latin America. Over the last 25 years, the Dominican Republic 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.
Dominican Republic is the most visited destination in the Caribbean. A geographically diverse nation, the Dominican Republic 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.
A political deadlock in August 1914 was broken after an ultimatum by Wilson telling the Dominicans to choose a president or see the U.S. impose one. A provisional president was chosen, and later the same year relatively free elections put former president (1899–1902) Juan Isidro Jimenes Pereyra back in power. With his former Secretary of War Desiderio Arias maneuvering to depose him and despite a U.S. offer of military aid against Arias, Jimenes resigned on May 7, 1916. Wilson thus ordered the U.S. occupation of the Dominican Republic.
U.S. Marines landed on May 16, 1916, and seized the capital and other ports, while General Arias fell back to his inland Santiago stronghold. Fort San Felipe in Puerto Plata was captured on June 1 after a battle against Dominicans. A significant weaponry disparity led to Arias's defeat as his forces tried to block the Marines' advance on Santiago with trenches and old black-powder rifles. The clashes marked the first time Dominicans had ever encountered a machine gun. A peace delegation from Santiago surrendered the city on July 5, coinciding with General Arias' surrender to the Dominican governor. The military government established by the U.S. under the Navy and Marine Corps on November 29, led by Vice Admiral Harry Shepard Knapp, was widely repudiated by the Dominicans, but organized resistance ceased. Rear Admiral Thomas Snowden relieved Rear Admiral Knapp as military governor of the Dominican Republic on February 25, 1919.
The occupation regime kept most Dominican laws and institutions and largely pacified the general population. The occupying government also revived the Dominican economy, reduced the nation's debt, built a road network that at last interconnected all regions of the country, and created a professional National Guard to replace the warring partisan units. Additionally, with grass-roots support from local communities and assistance from both Dominican and US officials, the Dominican education system expanded significantly during US occupation. Between 1918 and 1920, more than three hundred schools were established nationwide. The system of forced labour used by the Marines in Haiti was largely absent in the Dominican Republic.
The U.S. government's rule ended in October 1922, and elections were held in March 1924. The victor was former president (1902–03) Horacio Vásquez. He was inaugurated on July 13, 1924, and the last U.S. forces left in September. In 1930, General Rafael Trujillo, who was trained by the U.S. Marines during the occupation, seized power following a military revolt against the government of Vásquez.
Trujillo consolidated his power after Hurricane San Zenón devastated Santo Domingo in September 1930, killing 8,000 people. A few of the former caudillos initially opposed the new dictator. General Cipriano Bencosme led an uprising but was defeated and killed in November 1930 during a confrontation with the army near Puerto Plata. General Desiderio Arias was also unsuccessful, dying in combat near Mao in June of the following year.
Trujillo Era (1930–1961)
There was considerable economic growth during Rafael Trujillo's long and iron-fisted regime, although a great deal of the wealth was taken by the dictator and other regime elements. There was progress in healthcare, education, and transportation, with the building of hospitals, clinics, schools, roads, and harbors. Trujillo also carried out an important housing construction program and instituted a pension plan. He finally negotiated an undisputed border with Haiti in 1935, and achieved the end of the 50-year customs agreement in 1941, well before it would have expired in 1956. He made the country debt-free in 1947. This was accompanied most noticeably by absolute repression and the copious use of murder, torture, and terrorist methods against the opposition.
Starting in 1935, several Dominicans were assassinated in New York City after taking part in anti-Trujillo activities. In early October 1937, under Trujillo's orders, Dominican troops killed between 15,000 and 35,000 Haitian men, women, and children in the border region.
During World War II, Trujillo symbolically sided with the Allies. During the Battle of the Caribbean in 1942, German U-boats torpedoed and sank two Dominican-flagged merchant vessels—the San Rafael off the coast of Jamaica and the Presidente Trujillo off Fort-de-France—along with four other Dominican-manned ships in the Caribbean. The country did not contribute militarily, but its sugar and other agricultural products supported the Allied war effort.
Under Trujillo, a weapons factory at San Cristóbal produced rifles, machine guns, and ammunition. Trujillo also formed a right-wing Foreign Legion of 3,000 mercenaries to attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba. Major William Morgan, acting as a double agent for Castro, pretended to lead the operation for Trujillo but secretly informed Castro of the plot. On August 13, 1959, a C-47 transport flying from the Dominican Republic carrying military advisors and supplies landed at Trinidad airport, where Castro seized the aircraft and its ten occupants; an exchange of gunfire left two of the advisors and three Cuban forces dead, and around 4,000 suspects were arrested throughout Cuba. Earlier in June, Cuban soldiers and Cuban-trained Dominican guerrillas attempted an unsuccessful invasion of the Dominican Republic.
In 1956, Trujillo's agents kidnapped Columbia University lecturer Jesús Galíndez in New York and had him flown to the Dominican Republic, where he was apparently murdered. The case drew attention in the United States and contributed to growing criticism of the regime.
On November 25, 1960, Trujillo's henchmen killed three of the four Mirabal sisters, nicknamed Las Mariposas (The Butterflies). Along with their husbands, the sisters were conspiring to overthrow Trujillo in a violent revolt. The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is observed on the anniversary of their deaths.
For a long time, the U.S. and the Dominican elite supported the Trujillo government. This support persisted despite the assassinations of political opposition, the massacre of Haitians, and Trujillo's plots against other countries. The U.S. finally broke with Trujillo in 1960, after Trujillo's intelligence chief Johnny Abbes orchestrated an attempt to assassinate the Venezuelan president Rómulo Betancourt with a car bomb. During Betancourt's earlier exile in Cuba, Trujillo's agents attempted to inject poison into him on a Havana street in broad daylight.
After its representatives confirmed Trujillo's complicity in the nearly successful assassination attempt, the Organization of American States (OAS), for the first time in its history, decreed sanctions against a member state. The OAS voted unanimously to condemn the Dominican Republic for its aggression and imposed an arms embargo. The United States severed diplomatic relations with the Dominican Republic on August 26, 1960, and in January 1961 suspended the export of trucks, parts, crude oil, gasoline and other petroleum products. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower also took advantage of OAS sanctions to drastically cut purchases of Dominican sugar, the country's major export. This action ultimately cost the Dominican Republic almost $22,000,000 in lost revenues at a time when its economy was in a rapid decline. Trujillo had become expendable, and dissidents inside the Dominican Republic argued that assassination was the only certain way to remove him.
On May 30, 1961, Trujillo was shot and killed by Dominican dissidents during a car chase.
On May 31, 1961, the following day, Venezuela arrested several individuals plotting to overthrow the government, armed with weapons traced to the Dominican Republic.
Post-Trujillo (1961–1996)
After the assassination, Ramfis Trujillo, the dictator's son, remained in de facto control of the government for the next 6 months, as commander of the armed forces. Trujillo's brothers, Hector Bienvenido and Jose Arismendi Trujillo, returned to the country and plotted against President Balaguer. On November 18, 1961, as a planned coup became more evident, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk issued a warning that the US would not "remain idle" if the Trujillos attempted to "reassert dictatorial domination". Following this warning, and the arrival of a 14-vessel U.S. naval task force within sight of Santo Domingo, Ramfis and his uncles fled the country on November 19. The OAS lifted its sanctions on January 4, 1962.
In February 1963, a democratically elected government under leftist Juan Bosch took office but it was overthrown by a military coup on 25 September. On April 24, 1965, a second military coup ousted the military-installed president Donald Reid Cabral. Despite tank assaults, strafing, aerial bombardment, and rocket attacks by junta forces, pro-Bosch Constitutionalists maintained control of most of the capital, where electricity, water, and food supplies collapsed amid the fighting. By April 26, around 5,000 armed civilians had joined the 1,500 rebel military regulars. The total strength of the junta was eight F-51 fighters, eight Vampire jets, a company of 23 tanks, and two infantry battalions totaling 1,700 troops.
On April 28, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson deployed Marines from Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to Santo Domingo to protect American citizens and support the military junta that had ousted Bosch in the 1963 coup, with U.S. forces subsequently expanded to 24,000 troops. On April 30, elements of the 82nd Airborne Division, commanded by Robert H. York, landed from C‑124 and C‑130 transports at San Isidro airfield and crossed the Duarte Bridge under the cover of Marine Corps F-4 Phantom jets to link up with junta troops, who were to secure a corridor for the Marines guarding the U.S. Embassy. However, the junta troops withdrew to San Isidro airfield instead. On May 2, U.S. forces were authorized to link up, and the outgunned Constitutionalists retreated to the southeastern part of the city. A ceasefire was declared on May 5. The following day, U.S. diplomats persuaded the OAS to establish an Inter-American Peace Force to support American troops. The following countries volunteered: Brazil (1,250 soldiers), Costa Rica (25 police), Honduras (250 soldiers), Nicaragua (164 soldiers), and Paraguay (286 soldiers).
U.S. and OAS peacekeeping troops remained in the country for over a year and left after supervising elections in 1966 won by Joaquín Balaguer, who had been Trujillo's last puppet-president. Balaguer remained in power as president for 12 years. His tenure was a period of repression of human rights and civil liberties. His rule was criticized for a growing disparity between rich and poor. It was, however, praised for an ambitious infrastructure program, which included construction of large housing projects, sports complexes, theaters, museums, aqueducts, roads, highways, and the massive Columbus Lighthouse, completed in 1992 during a later tenure.
In 1978, Balaguer was succeeded to the presidency by opposition candidate Antonio Guzmán Fernández, of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD). Hurricane David hit the Dominican Republic in August 1979, which left upwards of 2,000 people dead and 200,000 homeless. The hurricane caused over $1 billion in damage. Another PRD win in 1982 followed, under Salvador Jorge Blanco. Balaguer regained the presidency in 1986 and was re-elected in 1990 and 1994, in the latter defeating PRD candidate José Francisco Peña Gómez, a former mayor of Santo Domingo. The 1994 elections were flawed, bringing international pressure, to which Balaguer responded by scheduling another presidential contest in 1996. Balaguer was not a candidate. The PSRC candidate was his Vice President Jacinto Peynado Garrigosa.
1996–present
In 1996, with the support of Joaquín Balaguer and the Social Christian Reform Party in a coalition called the Patriotic Front, Leonel Fernández achieved the first-ever win for the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), which Bosch had founded in 1973 after leaving the PRD. Fernández oversaw a fast-growing economy: growth averaged 7.7% per year, unemployment fell, and exchange and inflation rates were stable.
In 2000, the PRD's Hipólito Mejía won the election. This was a time of economic troubles. Under Mejía, the Dominican Republic participated in the US-led coalition, as part of the Multinational Plus Ultra Brigade, during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, suffering no casualties. In 2008, Fernández was elected for a third term. Fernández and the PLD are credited with initiatives that moved the country forward technologically. His administrations were accused of corruption.
Danilo Medina of the PLD was elected president in 2012 and re-elected in 2016. A significant increase in crime, government corruption and a weak justice system threatened to overshadow their administrative period. He was succeeded by the opposition candidate Luis Abinader in the 2020 election (weeks after protests erupted in the country against Medina's government), marking the end to 16 years in power of the centre-left Dominican Liberation Party (PLD). In May 2024, President Luis Abinader won a second term in the elections. His tough policies towards migration from neighbouring Haiti was popular among voters.