Dominican Republic History, Geography, Economy and Important Events

The native Taino people inhabited Hisaniola before the arrival of Europeans, it was divided into five chiefs. The Taino people had eventually moved north over several years, and lived around the Caribbean islands. The Taino natives had done quite well for themselves and were on their way to being an organized civilization. Christopher Columbus, on his first voyage in 1492, explored and claimed the island, landing here. The colony of Santo Domingo became the first permanent European settlement in America and the first seat of Spanish colonial rule in the New World. Meanwhile, France captured the western third of Hisaniola, naming its colony Saint-Domingue, which became the independent state of Haiti in 1804. Dominicans declared independence in November 1821 after more than three hundred Spanish regimes. The movement Jose Nunez de Cáceres intended to unify the Dominican nation with the country of Gran Colombia, but the newly independent Dominic was forcibly removed by Haiti in February 1822.

The eastern five-eighth of Hispaniola in the Dominican Republic, the second largest island in the Greater Antilles, is the Atlantic Ocean in the north and the Caribbean Sea in the south. Santo Domingo, the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic, is on the southern coast. There are four important mountain ranges in the Dominican Republic. These include the Cordillera Septentrional, the Samaná Peninsula, the Monte Cristi. The Yaque del Norte is the longest and most important Dominican river.

The Dominican Republic is the largest economy (according to the US Department of State and the World Bank) in the Caribbean and Central American region. It is a high middle-income developing country, with a GDP per capita of US $ 14,770 in terms of PPP. Over the past 25 years, the Dominican Republic has been the fastest growing economy in the US with an average real GDP growth rate of 5.53% between 1992 and 2018.

The population of the Dominican Republic is mostly Spanish-speaking. The local type of Spanish is called Dominican Spanish, which is similar to other Spanish in the Caribbean and has a similarity to Canyon Spanish. Furthermore, it is influenced by African languages ​​and is a term borrowed from Caribbean languages, particularly for the island of Hispaniola. The schools are based on a Spanish educational model; English and French are compulsory foreign languages ​​in both private and public schools, although the quality of foreign language teaching is poor. Some private educational institutions offer tuition in other languages, notably Italian, Japanese and Mandarin.

Colombia [M] , Haiti [LM] , Netherlands [M] , United Kingdom [M] , United States of America [M] , Venezuela [M] ,
Definition of international border: L = Land Border | M = Maritime Border