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 Dominican Republic| Facts & Figures |
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| President: Leonel Fernández (2004) Land area: 18,680 sq mi (48,381 sq km);
total area: 18,815 sq mi (48,730 sq km) Population (2009 est.): 9,650,054
(growth rate: 1.4%); birth rate: 22.3/1000; infant mortality rate:
25.9/1000; life expectancy: 73.7; density per sq km: 196
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Santo Domingo, 2,851,300 (metro. area),
2,252,400 (city proper) Other large city: Santiago de los
Caballeros, 501,800 Monetary unit: Dominican Peso More Facts & Figures |
GeographyThe Dominican Republic in the West Indies
occupies the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, which it
shares with Haiti. Its area equals that of Vermont and New Hampshire
combined. Duarte Peak, at 10,417 ft (3,175 m), is the highest point in the
West Indies.
GovernmentRepresentative democracy.
HistoryThe Dominican Republic was explored by Columbus
on his first voyage in 1492. He named it La Española, and his son, Diego,
was its first viceroy. The capital, Santo Domingo, founded in 1496, is the
oldest European settlement in the Western Hemisphere.
Spain ceded the colony to France in 1795, and
Haitian blacks under Toussaint L'Ouverture conquered it in 1801. In 1808,
the people revolted and captured Santo Domingo the next year, setting up
the first republic. Spain regained title to the colony in 1814. In 1821
Spanish rule was overthrown, but in 1822 the colony was reconquered by the
Haitians. In 1844, the Haitians were thrown out and the Dominican Republic
was established, headed by Pedro Santana. Uprisings and Haitian attacks
led Santana to make the country a province of Spain from 1861 to 1865.
President Buenaventura Báez, faced with an
economy in shambles, attempted to have the country annexed to the U.S. in
1870, but the U.S. Senate refused to ratify a treaty of annexation.
Disorder continued until the dictatorship of Ulíses Heureaux; in 1916,
when chaos broke out again, the U.S. sent in a contingent of marines, who
remained until 1924.
A sergeant in the Dominican army trained by the
marines, Rafaél Leonides Trujillo Molina, overthrew Horacio Vásquez in
1930 and established a dictatorship that lasted until his assassination in
1961, 31 years later. In 1962, Juan Bosch of the leftist Dominican
Revolutionary Party, became the first democratically elected president in
four decades.
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