

At the time of Christopher Columbus’s first landing on Hispaniola in 1492, the Carib people, for whom the Caribbean Sea is named, were preying on the Taino (an Arawak people), who had previously settled there. The two peoples had village-centred societies based on farming, fishing, and hunting and gathering, but they were less advanced than the large pre-Columbian civilizations of Mexico, Central America, and Peru.

Columbus established a small colony on the north coast, but Indians slaughtered the first settlers. He returned and established a second colony, but reports of abundant gold farther south quickly led the Spaniards to abandon the northern outpost and found (1496) the city of Santo Domingo on the Caribbean coast.

The colonial era

Hispaniola was the first area in the New World to receive the full imprint of Spanish colonial policy. The oldest cathedral, monastery, and hospital in the Americas were established on the island, and the first university was chartered in Santo Domingo in 1538. The earliest experiments in Spanish imperial rule were conducted there as well. Class and caste lines were rigidly drawn, and the Roman Catholic Church served as the strong right arm of temporal authority. A cruel, exploitative slave-based society and economy came into being.

During the first half century of Spanish rule, Hispaniola flourished: its rich mines and lush lands yielded abundant wealth, and it served as the administrative centre for Spain’s burgeoning American empire. However, European diseases and brutal treatment decimated the Indian population, and the Spanish crown soon turned to more lucrative conquests in Mexico and Peru, where gold and silver were more easily available. The more ambitious Spaniards emigrated.

For the better part of the next three centuries, Hispaniola remained a neglected, poverty-ridden backwater of the Spanish empire. Successive raids by British, Dutch, and French marauders and buccaneers further devastated the island. Eventually, the Spanish crown recognized France’s claims to the western third of Hispaniola, a region that was renamed Saint-Domingue (later Haiti); a prosperous sugar-producing colony based on black slavery grew up there. The Spanish colony also experienced a modest economic boom in the 18th century as a by-product of Saint-Domingue’s prosperity, but its population reached only about 100,000—about one-fifth that of the French colony.

Power struggles and nationalism

In 1795 Spain ceded the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola to France as a result of its defeat in the wars that had been raging in Europe. Under French control the economy and vitality of the colony declined further. Meanwhile, a slave uprising had begun in Saint-Domingue, inflamed by the desire of mulatto freedmen for political rights, the inhuman conditions under which black slaves were forced to labour, and the revolutionary currents then sweeping France. Led by Toussaint-Louverture, the Haitians not only succeeded in throwing off French rule but soon overran parts of the previously Spanish eastern end of the island as well, instilling terror in the white ruling class. For a time French, British, and various Haitian armies all vied for control of Hispaniola. The Haitians evicted the main French army from the western part of the island, but Dominican colonists and British forces, in turn, drove the Haitians from the eastern part. In 1809 the colony was reunited with Spain. But in 1821 a group of Dominicans deposed the Spanish governor and declared independence, following the lead of the countries on the mainland. They named the fledgling nation the Independent State of Spanish Haiti.

Haitian occupation

Within weeks Haitian troops under Jean-Pierre Boyer (president of Haiti, 1818–43) again overran the eastern part of the island, initiating a 22-year occupation (1822–42). Haitians monopolized government power, severed the church’s ties with Rome, forced out the traditional ruling class, and all but obliterated the western European and Hispanic traditions. In addition, Haitian troops arbitrarily confiscated foodstuffs and other supplies, and ethnic tensions caused further resentment. Dominican historians have portrayed the period as cruel and barbarous, but Boyer also freed the slaves, and his administration was generally efficient.

In the 1830s Juan Pablo Duarte—known as the father of Dominican independence—organized a secret society to fight the Haitians. The rebellion gained strength after a devastating earthquake in 1842, as well as the outbreak of civil war in Haiti itself, and in 1844 independence was finally achieved. However, Duarte and other idealistic freedom fighters were soon forced into exile.


From 1844 until 1899 several caudillos (military strongmen) dominated the Dominican Republic, most notably Pedro Santana and Buenaventura Báez, two dictatorial presidents who prevented the growth of democracy and sold out the country to foreign and commercial interests. Santana’s maladministration and heavy military spending (to ward off Haitian attacks) bankrupted the nation, and in 1861 he invited Spain to reclaim its former colony and arranged to have himself named governor-general. Santana was thoroughly discredited as a traitor, and Spain withdrew its troops after a brief occupation (1861–65) and a series of battles against patriotic forces. Báez then approached the United States with a protectorate plan. Pres. Ulysses S. Grant favoured annexation, but the U.S. Senate failed to ratify the treaty by one vote.

The instability continued during the 1870s. Ulises Espaillat, an idealistic reformer, was elected president and then overthrown in 1876, marking the country’s first (though short-lived) democratic government. Báez returned to the presidency for a fifth time (1876–78) but was also forced out. A period of civil unrest with a succession of presidents ensued, out of which emerged Ulises Heureaux, who dominated the country from 1882 to 1899. Heureaux presided over a time of unprecedented stability and national growth. His regime built new roads, dug irrigation canals, increased agricultural production, and brought in a great amount of foreign investment, particularly major sugarcane producers from Cuba; like his predecessors, however, he ruled with a dictatorial hand. He created a fearsome secret police force, restricted the press, and committed blatant electoral fraud.

Heureaux was assassinated in 1899 by Ramón Cáceres, a rival politician, and the country returned to the chaotic politics of the past. New leaders took over and were in turn forced out, including Juan Isidro Jiménez and Horacio Vásquez—two bitter rivals—and Cáceres himself. Even the accession of the archbishop Adolfo Nouel to the presidency in 1912 failed to stem the disorder, and within four months he too was forced to resign.

Intervention by the United States

Meanwhile, the United States had expanded its commercial interests in the Dominican Republic (and the entire Caribbean region), and it had replaced Europe as the republic’s major trading partner. However, U.S. and European investors became alarmed by the republic’s deteriorating financial situation. In 1905 the United States began to administer the Dominican Republic’s customs agency, using it in part to pay off the republic’s European creditors, who had threatened to collect on their debts. The United States assumed complete control of the nation’s government in 1916 after its fragile political structure collapsed again.

During the occupation (1916–24) the United States placed thousands of troops in the Dominican Republic as well as in neighbouring Haiti, which it administered from 1915 to 1934. The U.S. Marine Corps built roads, schools, communications and sanitation facilities, and other projects, and the occupation government enacted legal reforms that allowed U.S.-owned sugarcane companies to expand their operations. In addition, the marines transformed the nation’s cultural life by introducing chewing gum and baseball, a sport that has since become a Dominican passion. Some Dominicans reacted strongly against the occupation forces, which had assumed arbitrary control and frequently abused their authority. As they prepared to depart the island, the marines created a modern, unified military constabulary that became the instrument by which future Dominican authoritarians would seize power.

Civil unrest, dictatorship, and democracy

In 1924 Horacio Vásquez won a U.S.-supervised presidential election, but he proved to be an incompetent and corrupt leader, and pressure built up for his ouster. A revolution was launched in 1930, triggered in part by the initial economic shock of the Great Depression. The armed forces, under the firm control of its leader, Rafael Trujillo, stood by, rather than defending the government, and let the revolution succeed. Trujillo then took power himself.

The Trujillo regime

The dictatorship of Trujillo (1930–61) was one of the longest, cruelest, and most absolute in modern times. Trujillo maintained complete control of the military, appointed family members to key offices, strictly enforced censorship and conformity laws, and ordered the murder of political opponents and the massacre of thousands of Haitian immigrants. Trujillo also dominated the church hierarchy, educational system, entertainment industry, and virtually every other element of Dominican society. He had Santo Domingo renamed Ciudad Trujillo, and he amassed a vast fortune for himself by taking ownership of virtually everything he touched—land, airlines, trading monopolies, manufacturers, and most sugarcane producers—in all as much as three-fifths of the nation’s gross domestic product and workforce.

Most Dominicans deeply feared Trujillo and his secret police force, although they admired his bold personality—which they regarded as fundamentally Dominican—and his ability to control national affairs and promote public works projects. The country’s political and economic stability attracted foreign investors and grants from the U.S. government, and the foreign news media extolled Trujillo’s so-called “Dominican miracle” while downplaying his abuses and his failure to improve the lots of most impoverished Dominicans.

Domestic opposition grew in the late 1950s as the secret police jailed and tortured even larger numbers of dissenters. Meanwhile, Trujillo became increasingly paranoid, particularly after discovering that the Cuban and Venezuelan governments had supported plots against him. Trujillo developed particularly strong rancor for Rómulo Betancourt, the Venezuelan president, whom Dominican agents attempted to assassinate in June 1960. This action was quickly condemned by the Organization of American States, which imposed economic sanctions; the United States also withdrew support. In May 1961 the dictator was assassinated on a rural highway. Trujillo’s heirs and followers attempted to remain in power, but they were also driven out, and the country embarked on a more democratic course.

Bosch, Balaguer, and their successors

In 1963 Juan Bosch and his moderately reformist Dominican Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Dominicano; PRD) took power; he was the first directly elected democratic and progressive president in the country’s history. However, Bosch earned the enmity of the country’s oligarchy and key U.S. officials, and after seven hectic months he was overthrown. In 1965 a democratic revolution was sparked to oppose the country’s return to oligarchical rule, but the United States, fearing the installation of a communist regime (as had happened in Cuba the previous decade), again occupied the country in 1965–66 and snuffed out the revolt.

The winner of the U.S.-organized 1966 elections was Joaquín Balaguer, a former Trujillo puppet who presented himself as a moderate conservative and a symbol of orderly change. Balaguer became one of the main national figures for the next three decades, in the face of political challenges from Bosch and other progressive politicians. Balaguer’s conservative rule, and his reelections in 1970 and 1974, reflected the power of the business, commercial, and industrial oligarchy, as well as of the military. Balaguer’s government made strong economic gains and instituted some social reforms, but large segments of the population still remained dissatisfied. As alternatives to conservative rule, many political activists supported the PRD or Bosch’s newly founded Dominican Liberation Party (Partido de la Liberación Dominicana; PLD).

In 1978 Balaguer was defeated by Antonio Guzmán Fernández of the PRD. Guzmán moved cautiously to implement reforms, but oligarchic elements remained powerful and the economy fragile. A hurricane devastated the country in 1979, and the faltering economy produced inflation, strikes, and depressed conditions. Guzmán was succeeded by another PRD candidate, Salvador Jorge Blanco, who served as president in 1982–86. Thus, the country completed eight years of truly democratic government, the longest in its history to that point. But Jorge Blanco was faced with falling sugar prices on world markets, widespread corruption in the government bureaucracy, and an economic recession. In an attempt to stabilize the economy, he initiated an unpopular austerity program that produced strikes and food riots. As a result, the aging (and by then blind) Balaguer was elected president again in 1986. In the 1990 election he narrowly defeated Bosch despite the nation’s continuing economic difficulties and fears that Balaguer’s advanced age and declining health would invite instability. The opposition claimed fraud in 1990 as well as in 1994, when Balaguer again won narrowly. In the face of massive public demonstrations, Balaguer agreed to step down after serving only two years of his term. During his three decades of rule, he had provided the country with stability and economic growth but at the cost of social injustices and human rights abuses.

The 1996 presidential election was won by Leonel Fernández Reyna of the PLD. Fernández, who hoped to mark the end of caudillo rule, proved an able but occasionally mercurial leader who oversaw unprecedented rates of economic growth. Hipólito Mejía, a former agrarian engineer, was elected president in 2000 as the PRD candidate.

Under Mejía, the Dominican Republic entered into the Central America–Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA–DR) with the United States and several Central American countries. Mejía also sent Dominican troops to fight in the Iraq War. The end of Mejía’s term was plagued by a declining economy and chronic power shortages. Mejía ran for a second term (after the constitution was altered to allow an incumbent to serve consecutive terms) but lost to Fernández, who took office in 2004 and who was reelected to a third term in 2008.

Shocks from the Haiti earthquake of January 2010 were felt in the Dominican Republic, although it suffered far less damage than its devastated neighbour. Later that month the Dominican Republic promulgated a new constitution that, among other measures, prohibited the president from serving two consecutive terms, banned abortion, and stipulated that children born in the Dominican Republic to illegal immigrants were not Dominican citizens.

In the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, Fernández was pressured by supporters to attempt to engineer a change to the constitution that would permit him to run for a consecutive term. He chose not to take that tack but instead threw his support to PDL colleague Danilo Medina. In capturing more than 50 percent of the vote (51 percent) in the first-round balloting in May, Medina avoided a runoff against the PRD candidate, former president Mejía, and took over the executive office in August. Medina had given a “no corruption” pledge and promised to take on the chronically deficient electricity system and to improve education. He stood to benefit from a 2012 legislative election in which his party won majority control of both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.