History of the Dominican Republic
Encyclopedia : H : HI : HIS : History of the Dominican Republic
Early History to 1599
The island of Hispaniola, of which the Dominican Republic forms the eastern two-thirds and Haiti the remainder, was originally occupied by Taínos, an Arawak-speaking people who called the island Quisqueya (or Kiskeya). The island was divided by a system of five major Cacicazgos (chiefdoms) - Marien, Maguana, Higuey, Magua and Xaragua (Also written as Jaragua). These chiefdoms were further subdivided into subchiefdoms. The Cacicazgos were supported by a tributary arrangement, consisting of food provided by the Taino. Among the remaining cultural inheritances from the Taino-era are cave paintings scattered throughout the country and words from the Arawak language, including "hurricane" (hurrakan) and "tobacco" (tabakko).The arrival of the Guamikena (the covered ones)
On December 5, 1492, the Europeans arrived. Believing that these horizon were in someway supernatural, the Taínos welcomed the Europeans with all the honors available to them. This was a totally different society from the one the Europeans came from. One of the things that piqued the curiosity was the amount of clothing worn by the Europeans. Therefore they came to call them "guamikena" (the covered ones). Guacanagarix, the chief who hosted Christopher Columbus and his men, treated them kindly and provided him with everything they desired. Yet the Taínos' allegedly "egalitarian" system clashed with the Europeans' feudalist system, with more rigid class structures. This led the Europeans to believe the Taínos to be either weak or misleading, and they began to treat the tribes with more violence. Columbus tried to temper this when he and his men departed from Quisqueya and they left on a good note. Columbus had cemented a firm alliance with Guacanagarix, who was a powerful chief on the island. After the shipwrecking of the Santa Maria, he decided to establish a small fort with a garrison of men that could help him lay claim to this possession. The fort was called La Navidad, since the events of the shipwrecking and the founding of the fort occurred on Christmas day. The garrison, in spite of all the wealth and beauty on the island, was wracked by divisions within and the men took sides, that evolved into conflict amongst these first Europeans. The more rapacious ones began to terrorize the Taíno, Ciguayo and Macorix tribesmen up to the point of trying to take their women.Viewed as weak by the Spaniards and even some of his own people, Guacanagarix tried to come to an accommodation with the Spaniards, who saw his appeasement as the actions of someone who submitted. They treated him with contempt and even took some of his wives too. The powerful cacique of the maguana, Caonabo, could brook no further affronts and attacked the Europeans, destroying La Navidad. Guacanagarix was dismayed by this turn of events but did not try too hard to aid these guamikena, probably hoping that the troublesome outsiders would never return. However, they did return.
In 1493, Christopher Columbus came back to the island on his second voyage and founded the first Spanish colony in the New World, the city of Isabella. An estimated 400,000 Tainos living on the island were soon enslaved to work in gold mines. As a consequence of oppression, forced labor, hunger, disease, and mass killings, it is estimated that by 1508 that number had been reduced to around 60,000. By 1535, only a few dozen were still alive.Jonathan Hartlyn, The Struggle for Democratic Politics in the Dominican Republic, p.24, The University of North Carolina Press, 1998
During this period, the Spanish leadership changed hands several times. When Columbus departed on another exploration, Francisco de Bobadilla became governor. Settlers' charges against Columbus of mismanagement added to the tumultuous political situation. In 1502, Nicolás de Ovando replaced de Bobadilla as governor, with an ambitious plan to expand Spanish influence in the region. It was he who dealt most brutally with the Taínos.
Although Caonabo had previously been captured, his queen, Anacoana, had carried on his rule. Because of her highly respected position among the Taíno chiefs, de Ovando requested that she welcome him as the new governor by hosting a feast. She agreed, and invited eighty other chieftans to the celebration. Instead of attending, de Ovando ordered his soldiers to burn down her palace with everyone inside. Most of them perished. Although a few managed to escape, they were captured and tortured. Anacoana was given a mock trial, then hung. De Ovando's ploy to eliminate Taíno chiefs was so successful, he used similar methods on the other side of the island. Stripping the Taínos of their leaders made rebellion far more difficult.
One rebel, however, successfully fought back. Enriquillo, leading a group of those who had fled to the mountains, attacked the Spanish repeatedly for fourteen years. Finally, the Spanish offered him a peace treaty. In addition, they gave Enriquillo and his followers their own city in 1534. The city did not last long, however; several years after its establishment, a slave rebellion burned it to the ground, killing anyone who stayed behind.
African Enslavement
In 1501, the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isebella, first granted permission to the colonists of the Caribbean to import African slaves, which began arriving to the island in 1503. These African importees arrived with a rich and ancient culture that has had considerable influence on the racial, political and cultural character of the modern Dominican Republic. In 1510, the first sizable shipment, consisting of 250 Black Ladinos, arrived in Hispaniola from Spain. Eight years later African-born slaves arrived in the West Indies.The first major slave revolt in the Americas occurred in Santo Domingo during 1522, when enslaved Muslims of the Wolof nation led an uprising in the sugar plantation of admiral Don Diego Colon, son of Christopher Columbus. Many of these insurgents managed to escape to the mountains where they formed independent maroon communities.
1600-1929
In the next century, livestock, and increasingly, contraband trade became major sources of livelihood for the island dwellers. Spain, unhappy that Santo Domingo was facilitating trade between its other colonies and other European powers, attacked vast parts of the colony's northern and western regions in the early 17th century.Knight, Franklin, The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism, 3rd ed. p.54 New York, Oxford University Press 1990 This helped pave the way for French settlers to occupy the depopulated western end of the island, which Spain ceded to France in 1697, and which, in 1804, became the Republic of Haiti. The French held on in the eastern part of the island, until defeated by the Spanish inhabitants at the Battle of Palo Hincado on November 7, 1808 and the final capitulation of the besieged Santo Domingo on July 9, 1809, with help from the Royal Navy. The Spanish authorities showed little interest in their restored colony, and the following period is recalled as La España Boba – 'The Era of Foolish Spain'. The great ranching families such as the Santana's came to be the leaders in the south east, the law of the "machete" ruled for a time. In 1821, the Spanish settlers declared an independent state, but Haitian forces occupied the whole island just nine weeks later and held it for 22 years.
Haitian Occupation
The twenty-two-year Haitian occupation that followed is recalled by Dominicans as a period of brutal military rule, though the reality is more complex. It led to large-scale land expropriations and failed efforts to force production of export crops, impose military services, restrict the use of the Spanish language, and eliminate traditional customs such as cockfighting. It reinforced Dominican's perceptions of themselves as different from Haitians in "language, race, religion and domestic customs."Moya Pons, Frank Between Slavery and Free Labor: The Spanish-speaking Caribbean in the 19th Century. Baltimore; John Hopkins University Press 1985 Yet, this was also a period that definitively ended slavery as an institution in the eastern part of the island.Independence from Haiti
On February 27, 1844, independence was declared from the Haitians. This was the culmination of a movement led by Juan Pablo Duarte, then in exile, the hero of Dominican independence. The military forces that drove the occupiers out were led by Pedro Santana.The Dominican Republic's first constitution was adopted on November 6, 1844. It adopted a presidential form of government with many liberal tendencies, but it was marred by Article 210, imposed by Pedro Santana on the constitutional assembly by force, which gave him the privileges of a dictatorship until the war of independence was over. These privileges not only served him to win the war, but also allowed him to persecute, execute and drive into exile his political opponents, among which Duarte was the most important.
In 1861, during one of his presidencies, Santana restored the Dominican Republic to Spain. This move was widely rejected and on August 16, 1863, a national war of "restoration" began. In 1865, independence from Spain was restored after four years of colonial reannexation. Economic difficulties, the threat of European intervention, and ongoing internal disorders led to a U.S. occupation in 1916 and the establishment of a military government in the Dominican Republic. The occupation ended in 1924, with a democratically elected Dominican government under president Horacio Vasquez (1924 - 1930).
1930 to 1980
In 1930, Rafael Trujillo, a prominent army commander, ousted president Horacio Vasquez and established absolute political control. Trujillo promoted economic development--from which mainly he and his supporters benefitted--and severe repression of domestic human rights.Johathan Hartlyn. The Trujillo Regime in the Dominican Republic. In Sultanistic Regimes, Johns Hopkins University Press Mismanagement and corruption resulted in major economic problems. During the European Holocaust in the Second World War, the Dominican Republic took in many Jews fleeing Hitler who had been refused entry by other countries. In August 1960, the Organization of American States (OAS) imposed diplomatic sanctions against the Dominican Republic as a result of Trujillo's complicity in an attempt to assassinate President Rómulo Betancourt of Venezuela. These sanctions remained in force after Trujillo's assassination in May 1961. In November 1961, the Trujillo family was forced into exile, fleeing to France.In January 1962, a council of state with legislative and executive powers was formed; it included moderate members of the opposition. OAS sanctions were lifted January 4, and, after the resignation of President Joaquín Balaguer on January 16, the council under President Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly headed the Dominican government. In 1963, Juan Bosch of the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (Dominican Revolutionary Party, or PRD) was inaugurated President, only to be overthrown by a right-wing military coup in September 1963.Ernesto Sagas & Sintia Molina, Dominican Migration: Transnational Perpectives, University Press Florida 2004
After Bosch's overthrow a supposedly civilian triumvirate established a de facto dictatorship until April 24 1965, when another military coup led to violence between military elements favoring the return to government by Bosch and those who proposed a military junta committed to early general elections. On April 28, after being requested by the anti-Bosch army elements, U.S. military forces landed, officially to protect U.S. citizens and to evacuate U.S. and other foreign nationals in what was known as Operation Power Pack. Additional U.S. forces subsequently imposed political stability on the country.
In June 1966, President Balaguer, leader of the Reformist Party (now called the Social Christian Reformist Party--PRSC), was elected and then re-elected to office in May 1970 and May 1974, both times after the major opposition parties withdrew late in the campaign because of the high degree of violence by pro-government groups. Balaguer led the Domincan Republic through a thorough economic restructuring, based on opening the country to foreign investment while protecting state-owned industries and certain private interests. This distorted, dependent development model produced uneven results. For most of Balaguer's nine years in office the country experienced high growth rates (e.g., an average GDP growth rate of 9.4 percent between 1970 - 1975), to the extent that people talked about the "Dominican miracle." Foreign--mostly U.S.--investment, as well as foreign aid, flowed into the country and sugar (then the country's main export product) also enjoyed good prices in the international market. However, this excellent macroeconomic performance was not accompanied by an equitable distribution of wealth. While a group of new millionaires flourished during Balaguer's administrations, the poor simply became poorer. Morever, the poor were commonly the target of state repression, and their socioeconomic claims were labeled "communist" and dealt with appropriately by the state security apparatus.Roberto Cassa, Los doce años: Contrarevolución y desarrollismo, 2nd ed. Santo Domingo: Editora Buho 1991
In the May 1978 election, Balaguer was defeated in his bid for a fourth successive term by Antonio Guzmán Fernández of the PRD. Guzmán's inauguration on August 16 marked the country's first peaceful transfer of power from one freely elected president to another.
1980 - Present
The PRD's presidential candidate, Salvador Jorge Blanco, won the 1982 elections, and the PRD gained a majority in both houses of Congress. In an attempt to cure the ailing economy, the Jorge administration began to implement economic adjustment and recovery policies, including an austerity program in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In April 1984, rising prices of basic foodstuffs and uncertainty about austerity measures led to riots in which an estimated one hundred people were killed by the government's troops.Balaguer was returned to the presidency with electoral victories in 1986 and 1990. Upon taking office in 1986, Balaguer tried to reactivate the economy through a public works construction program. Nonetheless, by 1988, the country slid into a 2-year economic depression, characterized by high inflation (59.5 percent in 1989) and currency devaluation.International Monetary Fund. Dominican Republic: Selected Issues, IMF Staff report No. 99/117, Washington DC 1999 Economic difficulties, coupled with problems in the delivery of basic services--including electricity, water, and transportation--generated popular discontent that resulted in frequent protests, occasionally violent, including a paralyzing nationwide strike in June 1989.
In 1990, Balaguer instituted a second set of economic reforms. After concluding an IMF agreement, balancing the budget, and curtailing inflation, the Dominican Republic is experiencing a period of economic growth marked by moderate inflation, a balance in external accounts, and a steadily increasing GDP.
The voting process in 1986 and 1990 was generally seen as fair, but allegations of electoral board fraud tainted both victories. The elections of 1994 were again marred by charges of fraud, this time amid documented charges from the Partido de la Liberacion Dominicana (Dominican Liberation Party, or PLD) that as many as 200,000 of its sympathizers had been disfranchised and prevented from voting. Following a compromise calling for constitutional and electoral reform, President Balaguer assumed office for an abbreviated term. With Balaguer prevented from running, the June 1996 presidential election was won by Leonel Fernández Reyna of the PLD. In May 2000 the PRD's Hipólito Mejía was elected to a 4-year term as president. His presidency saw major inflation and instability of the peso. During his time as president, the relatively stable unit of currency fell from ~ 16 DOP (Dominican Pesos) to 1 USD (United States Dollar) to ~ 60 DOP to 1 USD, and was in the 50s to a dollar when he left office. In May 2004, Leonel Fernández Reyna was again elected to a 4-year term as president and inaugurated on August 16, 2004. Reyna's administration has since then managed to deflate the peso and has increased its stability since the administration of Mejía. The peso is currently at the exchange rate of ~31 DOP to 1 USD.
The Dominican Republic was involved in the US led coalition in Iraq, but in 2004, the nation pulled its troops out of Iraq.
See Also
Notes
Prose contains specific citations in source text which may be viewed in edit mode.
References
[link] Dominican Republic Guide - History
[link] Dr. Lynne Guitar, Documenting the Myth of Taíno Extinction
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