Dominican Republic History
Did you know Dominican Republic history shares a rich, colorful connection with the United States? A Spanaird first laid sight on the island in 1492, sound familiar? That's right, hristopher Columbus first sighted the island in 1492 near the end of his Indies voyage. The Island was inhabited by the friendly Taino Indians. The Spaniards were given a warm welcome and soon discovered that the natives adorned themselves in gold. Obviously this was of great interest to Spain and on subsequent trips they established present day Santo Domingo. The discovery of Native gold forever changed the Dominican Republic history. The Spaniards, lured by tales of Gold, began to show up in numbers. The Taino Indians paid the price for their initial trusting nature. They soon found their people being used as slaves and their women abused. The fertile land was next to be exploited by the newcomers. The Natives reached their limits and revolted only to be totally defeated in 1495. History shows that Christopher Columbus ruled as the governor until around 1499 and initially tried to ease the Indians suffering. This did not set well the new settlers and Columbus
was forced to concede on many issues. Columbus found that the skills required to govern a colony was much different then that of a Spanish Galleon. In 1499 the new land owners
and Francisco de Bobadilla sent Columbus back to Spain in chains.
Christohper Columbus was eventually released by Queen Isabella and his son, Diego Columbus, was appointed governor of Santo Domingo. His ambition for wealth and power was soon evident and a tribunal of three was formed to keep him in check. Over the next 10 to 15 years they soon had jurisdiction over the Caribbean and the east coast of present day Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela. This is important because as gold was discovered in this area many settlers moved to these new areas. Over the next 200 years many wars were fought over this island and included Sir Francis Drake capturing Santo Domingo and held it for ransom which was paid by Spain. In the mid 1650"s Oliver Cromwell sent Sir William Penn and his English fleet to take Santo Domingo. After a fierce battle the cause was given up and he moved on eventually controlling Jamaica. (If you read more about Dominican Republic history, you will find that many of the explorers of this era are the same individuals that populate the United States history books). Spain, weakened by war in Europe could not hold off the advances of the French on the Western side of the island and eventually lost 1/3 of the land. This Western one third of the island is now present day Haiti and the island of Hispaniola is occupied by both Dominican Republic and Haiti. In 1870 a push to annex Dominican Republic by President Buenaventura Baez was stopped when the U.S. Senate refused to ratify the treaty. In 1962, Juan Bosch became the first democratically elected president in over 4 decades. The Dominican Republic has overcome many obstacles and in the couple of years has seen significant economic growth.
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Dominican Republic history has a storyline similar to the U.S when it come to the original inhabitants. The plight of the indians was such that they went from an estimated 1 million in 1492 down to roughly 500 by the late 1540's. This decline was due to disease, starvation and just plain exhaustion. This created a real need for labor to work in the sugar cane fields. It was this need for labor that
started the importing of African slaves in 1503.
