Dominican Republic — map and facts

About Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles, sharing the island with Haiti to the west. With a population of approximately 11 million, it is the most populous country in the Caribbean. The capital and largest city is Santo Domingo, founded in 1496 and regarded as the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas. The country is a presidential republic. Tourism is the dominant industry, with major resort areas at Punta Cana, Puerto Plata, and Samaná. The economy also draws on agriculture — particularly sugar, coffee, cocoa, and tobacco — as well as manufacturing in free-trade zones and remittances from the large Dominican diaspora in the United States. Spanish is the official language. The Dominican Republic has one of the fastest-growing economies in Latin America, though significant inequality persists. Baseball is the national sport and the country has produced many Major League Baseball players.

Geography and Landscape

The Dominican Republic features a varied landscape of mountain ranges, fertile valleys, and a long coastline along both the Caribbean Sea to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the north. The Cordillera Central is the dominant mountain range, home to Pico Duarte at 3,098 metres — the highest peak in the entire Caribbean. Other major ranges include the Cordillera Septentrional and the Sierra de Neiba. The Cibao Valley in the north is the country's most productive agricultural region. Lake Enriquillo, in the southwest near the Haitian border, is a hypersaline lake below sea level and the largest lake in the Caribbean. The Yaque del Norte and Yaque del Sur are the country's principal rivers. The coastline stretches for over 1,600 kilometres. The climate is tropical, moderated by elevation in the highlands; the eastern peninsula around Punta Cana receives less rainfall and supports drier vegetation compared to the wetter northern coast.

History

Hispaniola was home to the Taíno people when Columbus arrived on 5 December 1492, naming it La Española. Santo Domingo became the seat of Spanish colonial power in the Americas, hosting the first cathedral, university, and audiencia in the New World. The western portion of the island became the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1697. In 1804 Haiti declared independence following a slave rebellion. The eastern part declared independence from Spain in 1821, only to be absorbed by Haiti from 1822 to 1844. The Dominican Republic declared independence on 27 February 1844 under Juan Pablo Duarte, the national founding father. The nineteenth century was marked by political instability and a voluntary annexation to Spain from 1861 to 1865. US forces occupied the country from 1916 to 1924. The dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo (1930–1961) defined much of the twentieth century. Democratic rule has largely prevailed since the 1970s, though with recurring tensions and episodes of instability.