 HISTORY |
 The Taino Arawak, Spanish Rule, Independence and Government in the 20th Century |
The Ruins of Saint Francis
A tribe known as the Taino Arawak migrated to Hispaniola probably from South America long before Christopher Columbus landed there. Columbus claimed the island for Spain on Dec 6, 1492. At the end of what had been his first voyage to the New World, his flagship Santa Maria, sailed around the northern coast, and its timbers were used to construct Fort Navidad. Columbus left 1,300 men to hold the fort while he sailed on. These men quarreled with the Arawak and were killed by them.
News of gold in what is now the Dominican Republic drew thousands of Spanish colonists to Hispaniola. They defeated and enslaved the Arawak. The colonists founded several towns, including La Nueva Isabela (later renamed Santo Domingo) in 1496.
By the mid-1500's, almost all the Arawak had died from maltreatment and disease, and the gold had become hard to find. Most of the Spanish inhabitants moved on to search gold in Cuba, Mexico and Peru. Hispaniola was left with only about 2,000 Spanish inhabitants. In 1606, the Spanish government ordered all its colonists to move close to Santo Domingo in order to strengthen the town and provide a trading base for Spanish merchants. British, Dutch, and French pirates invaded and occupied parts of the western neuritis, while Dutch, and French pirates invaded and occupied parts of the western end of the island, and the Spaniards were unable to dislodge them. By the Treaty of Ryswick (1697), Spain formally ceded the westernmost third of Hispaniola to France.
During the 1700's the new French colony of Saint Domingue prospered, as French landowners introduced a plantation system worked by imported African slave labor. Meanwhile, the rest of Hispaniola suffered from poverty and neglect by Spain. After a slave uprising, Saint Domingue threw off French rule and became the independent republic of Haiti in 1804. In 1824, the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola won its independence from Spain and became the Dominican Republic. Within a year, Haiti overran the Dominican Republic and took control of it.
| Juan Pablo Duarte |
In July 1838, Juan Pablo Duarte y Diez, the 'Father of the Dominican independence', founded a secret resistance movement called La Trinitaria (The Trinity). With Francisco del Rosario Sanchez and Ramon Matias Mella, Duarte led a successful revolt against the Haitians in 1844. The Dominican Republic was born on February 27, 1844. Its Independence was declared at Puerta del Conde (Entry gate to 'El Conde' Street), where the three colored flag was first raised. The republic had won its independence, but civil unrest, unstable and undemocratic government, and the ever-present threat from Haiti hampered its early development.
| From 1861 to 1865, Spain governed the country at the request of the Dominican Republic to protect it from the Haitians. In 1870, the republic tried but failed to obtain the protection of the United States. From 1882 to 1899, the dictator Ulises Heureaux governed the country. He built roads and took the first real steps in modernizing the Dominican Republic. He was assassinated in 1899.
The United States took over the collection of customs duties in the Dominican Republic from 1905 to 1941 and used the money to pay the republic's debts. From 1916 to 1924, U. S. Marines occupied the Dominican Republic to keep peace between rival political groups.
In 1930, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina seized power in a military coup. He ruled the country harshly for 31 years. The republic prospered economically and Trujillo carried out some beneficial projects, such as the rebuilding of Santo Domingo after a hurricane named San Zenon hit the Island in 1930.
In 1960, President Romulo Betancourt of Venezuela was target of an unsuccessful assassination attempt. Evidence suggested that Trujillo was involved in the crime. The Organization American States (OAS) imposed an economic embargo upon the Dominican Republic that lasted for two years.
Conspirators murdered Trujillo on May 30th of 1961, as he was going to his birth town called San Cristobal. After a period of political turmoil, Juan Bosh and his Revolutionary Dominican Party called PRD at that time, promising social reforms, won the country's first democratic presidential election in December 1962. After seven months, a military coup overthrew Bosch's government.
In 1965, an uprising against the conservative government took place, and rebels captured Santo Domingo. Fearing a communist takeover in the Dominican Republic, the United States again sent in occupying troops to control the situation. In June 1966, voters elected Joaquin Balaguer of the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC) as president. Balaguer, who had held office under Trujillo, was regarded as a conservative but he brought the country a much needed stable government. Balaguer retained power until 1978, when he was defeated by Antonio Guzman of the (PRD) Revolutionary Dominican Party. In 1979, Hurricane David ravaged the Dominican Republic and badly damaged the economy. In 1982, the PRD's Salvador Jorge Blanco won the presidency. Before Jorge Blanco took office, his predecessor Guzman committed suicide.
Jorge Blanco set up and Adjustment Program to try to halt the deterioration of the economy. But these measures led to soaring food prices, and there were riots in 1984. Jorge Blanco lost the 1986 election to Balaguer.
Balaguer sought to improve the economy through public works programs. Although he achieved short-term gains, he failed to tackle the underlying problems of high inflation and inadequate services. Nevertheless, he won the presidential elections of 1990 and 1994.
Thereafter the PLD Liberation Dominican Party (known before as PRD when Juan Bosh was elected back in 1962) won the elections for the first time and Leonel Fernandez Reyna became the new President. In May 2,000 new elections were held and voters chose as their President Honorable Hipolito Mejia from the PRD party.
Interview with
S.E Hipolito Mejia,
President of the Dominican Republic
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