Let us first begin by understanding the location of Dominican Republic in relation to Europe and the US. Dominican Republic is a Latin American country located in the island of Hispaniola, the second-largest island in the Caribbean’s Greater Antilles archipelago. Hispaniola lies west of Puerto Rico and east of Cuba and Jamaica. Its western third of the island is Haiti, and the remaining two thirds is Dominican Republic. This makes Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are split into two countries such as Saint-Martin and Saint Maarten as shown on the map.Dominican Republic was the first island discovered by Christopher Columbus in December 1492; it was also the first to own a church and a university. The natives were called
“Tainos” and were killed either by influenza or enslavement by Christopher Columbus’ troops over a period of 50 years. By 1503, the island was ruled by the Spaniards, bringing African slaves to the island. As more resources were found in North America, such as gold, the Spaniards left the island and so the French overtook Hispaniola. Most of the African slaves tried to escape and fled to the left side of the isla
nd in between the mountains, today known as Haiti (Haiti meaning Mountains in African). By 1795, due to the high resources provided by the French on the left side of the island, Haitians were actually getting richer and more powerful. This encouraged the Haitians together with General Toussaint L’Ouverture to invade the whole of Santo Domingo, then called Republique Dominicaine. However, due to the strong rules implied by the Haitians, Dominicans were trying to fight them off in order for the Haitians to go back to Haiti. Finally on February 27, 1844, after many attempts and struggles, Juan Pablo Duarte, Padre de la Patria (Father of the Homeland) declared Dominican Republic Independent. Furthermore, Dominican Republic has not been able to overcome the struggle due to the US invasion in 1916, Trujillo’s Dictatorship for a period of 30 years and President Balaguers manipulated elections up to 1996. Today, since 1996, elections are held every 4 years and it’s a relatively democratic country. Currently Dominican Republic has a Liberal Party (PLD) and its president is Leonel Fernandez. The island is divided into 31 provinces being the capital and biggest city, Santo Domingo. The population is estimated to be of around 9.750.000 people of whom 35% of them are under the age of 15.
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