History of the Dominican Republic

The history of the Dominican Republic begins a little more than 500 years ago, when Christopher Columbus arrived to an island that he thought to be part of India.  It was populated by the Tainos, one of the most peaceful people of the newly discovered continent, subsisting on hunting, fishing and agriculture.  Columbus arrived to La Isabela, a bay located to the north of the island, on December 5, 1492 and took possession of the territory in the name of the Catholic kings.  He dubbed the island with the name La Española, or in English, Hispaniola.

Upon beginning the conquista, or conquest, of the continental lands, rich in gold, silver and precious stones, the Spanish crown’s interest shifted; Santo Domingo lost importance to the viceroys of Mexico and Peru.  The colony

Dominican Republic Conquest and Colonization

The first Spanish settlement in the new world.

Because the Santa María had run aground on the coasts of Haiti, it was impossible for the entire crew to return to Spain with the ship that remained, as La Pinta and its captain, Martín Alonso Pinzón, had separated from the group a month earlier to search for the island the natives called Babeque.  The admiral decided to leave a small group of men in a military fort constructed with the remains of the destroyed ship.  This installation was located in what is today known as Punta Picolet in the far northeast of the island.  It was named “La Navidad” or “Christmas”, after the day on which the shipwreck occurred, December 25.  Diego de Arana, Pedro Gutiérrez and Rodrigo Escobedo stayed on in command of the fort and its 39 men.  The Europeans also had the support of Chief Guacanagarix, who had been very friendly toward the foreigners since their disembarkation.

First sign of resistance. Bordering the island to the east after

Dominican Independence from Haiti

La Trinitaria. On July 16, 1838, the secret society La Trinitaria was founded with the goal of disseminating independence ideas and effectively attaining the country’s independence.  The young Juan Pablo Duarte, son of traders and part of the small middle class of the city of Santo Domingo, was the leader of this liberal association, which embodied the highest ideals of the Dominican Republic.

The Oath

The oath written by Juan Pablo Duarte, which sealed the foundation of La Trinitaria, expressed the following:
“In the name of the Holy, August and Indivisible Trinity of Omnipotent God: I swear and promise, by my honor and my conscience, in the hands of our President, Juan Pablo Duarte, to cooperate with my person, life and goods in the definitive separation from the Haitian government and to plant a

Annexation and Restoration

Crisis situation. The first period of the Republic, dedicated to defending against Haitian attacks and struggles for internal political organization, was marked by a permanent economic crisis.  Productive activities were subjected to the needs of defense; exportation and importation levels decreased significantly and in some moments, were paralyzed.  To defray military and government costs, the authorities resorted to the small businesses of foreign and local traders and to the issuance of paper money without backing.  The losses caused by these issuances, especially for the productive and commercial sectors developed around Cibao tobacco, paved the way for a civil war in 1857 that eventually resulted in two simultaneous governments (one in Santo Domingo and another in Cibao, which would further impoverish the country.

Annexation to Spain. In 1858, a possibility loomed on the Dominican horizon that the United States would take advantage of the political

United States Precense in the Dominican Republic

Local caciquismo. The War of Restoration and its guerrilla war tactics left the country fragmented, with any number of local “bosses” that began to dispute power.  The political instability was such that, in the period from August 1865 to September 1880, for 15 years, there were more than 50 uprisings and 19 different governments, lasting from 5 years and eight months for the government of Buenaventura Báez (May 1868 to January 1874) to less than a month for Marcos A. Cabral (December 1876).

The conservative and liberal factions, whose geographical centers were located in the south and east for the former and in Cibao and Santo Domingo for the latter, faced the loggers and cattle ranchers, who continued to seek support from foreign influences, along with the tobacco farmers and

The Beginning of modernization

Historians and witnesses of the second half of the 1920s categorize it as the definitive beginning of Dominican modernity, with its flowering of trade and agriculture, incipient industrial activity and significant routes for land transportation. The city of Santo Domingo experienced a vast transformation thanks to its new commercial buildings of reinforced concrete on its central streets, to the residences constructed in the surroundings of the city (today Gazue) and to the rapid population of the Villa Francisca neighborhood.

The Americanization of the Dominican economic elites, the growth of the large sugar plantations and the eight years of occupation, which served at the seed of modernity, had to leave their mark:

• More than half of Dominican imports came to be from the United States.
• The popularity of baseball, which replaced cockfighting as the national sport.

North American intervention

Political Succession of Lilís (Ulises Heureaux). Among the figures that participated in the overthrow of President Heureaux, putting an end to his 15 years in power, were Juan Isidro Jimenes and Horacio Vásquez.  The first had organized an anti-Heureaux expedition in a steamed named Fanita just before the assassination of the dictator.  The second participated, together with Ramón Cáceres and Jacobino de Lara, in the actual execution.

Both men were among the principal leaders antagonistic to the presidency in a period characterized by political upheaval and foreign pressure that would end in the U.S. invasion and occupation in 1916.  Their opposing factions were named the Jimenistas or bolos and the Horacistas or coludos.  The Jimenistas were composed of former Heureaux supporters, while the

First U.S. invasion

The events that gave the final push to the 1916 U.S. intervention were:

• The impasse between the Juan Isidro Jimenes government and the United States, as it did not accept some of the measures that the United States wanted to impose (among them, express approval of the U.S. administrator).
• Uprising of the Horacista generals in the north.
• U.S. military occupation of Haiti in 1915.
• Increase in the Desiderio Arias’s power, who, as secretary of War and Navy, rebelled against Jimenes in April 1916.

In May 1916, the U.S. Marine disembarkment began. On May 16, they took Santo Domingo, and by the end of July, the principal military posts in the country were in their hands. On November 29, 1916, Captain H.S. Knapp published the official proclamation of the occupation.

U.S. military government measures in the Dominican Republic

Military and police control

In order to replace the old armed forces in the Navy and the Republican Guard of the period of Ramón Cáceres, in 1917, the invaders created the National Guard, an organization of repression whose end was to efficiently

Rafael Leonidas Trujillo ( El JEFE )

He had joined the National Guard during the years of occupation, where he trained with the Americans and made a career. He took advantage of his promotions and accumulated wealth and power with the pretext of serving Horacio Vasquez. In 1929, an administrative-financial audit conducted by Americans, who had been hired by the President of the Republic, revealed the ways in which Trujillo, using his position as Chief of the Army, was embezzling financial resources. Vazquez ignored the recommendations he received from the auditors and left Trujillo in the same position.

After Trujillo and his ally, Estrella Ureña, led a successful coup d’etat on February 23, 1930, they proceeded to organize the elections of May 16. One of the candidacies was that of Trujillo for President and Estrella Ureña for Vice-president. They were supported by a large part of the country’s nationalist, liberal and republican elite. The other candidacy was that of Federico Velazquez and Angel Morales for President and Vice-president respectively.

The electoral campaign was conducted under the terror produced by

After Trujillo’s death and Civil War 1965

After Trujillo’s death, the Dominican Republic became a boiling pot of political groups and interests that made a space for themselves on the national scene. Some of the more visible groups were the Unión Cívica Nacional (UCN), headed by Doctor Viriato Fiallo; the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD), created and directed by Professor Juan Bosch together with other political exiles; the Vanguardia Revolucionaria Dominicana (VRD), led by one of the participants of the Luperón expedition, Horacio Julio Ornes; and the Movimiento Revolucionario 14 de Junio (MR-14J), a leftist organization directed by Manuel Tavares Justo.

Three significant tendencies tinged the actions of the different political