{"id":1163,"date":"2007-02-02T17:29:49","date_gmt":"2007-02-02T13:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dominicana-online.org\/?p=1163"},"modified":"2018-04-10T02:37:11","modified_gmt":"2018-04-10T02:37:11","slug":"historia","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/historia\/","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 500 years ago, Christopher Columbus arrived to an island that he thought to be part of India.\u00a0 It was populated by the\u00a0Tainos, one of the most peaceful people of the newly discovered continent,\u00a0who lived\u00a0on hunting, fishing and agriculture.\u00a0 Columbus arrived to La\u00a0Isabela,\u00a0a bay located to the north of the island, on December 5, 1492 and took possession of the territory in the name of the Catholic kings.\u00a0 He\u00a0baptized\u00a0the island with the name La Espa\u00f1ola, or in English, Hispaniola.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Upon beginning the\u00a0conquista<\/i>, or conquest, of the continental lands, rich in gold, silver and precious stones, the Spanish crown\u2019s interest shifted; Santo Domingo lost importance to the viceroys of Mexico and Peru.\u00a0 The colony was abandoned.\u00a0 During this period, pirate and corsair invasions were constant, as the marauders cleaved the waters of the Caribbean to engage in trade with the inhabitants of the Spanish colony, moving the Crown to abandon the western part of the island in the so-called \u201cOsorio evictions\u201d (1605-1606).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Under French\u00a0<\/b>Rule<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Around the end of the 17th century, buccaneers and filibusters, predominantly\u00a0French,\u00a0took possession of the western part of the island, which then became the Saint\u00a0Domingue\u00a0colony.\u00a0 In 1795, due the war between Spain and France, the former ceded the eastern part of Hispaniola to the latter, placing the entire territory under French control.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Under Spanish R<\/b>ule<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

After enduring the control of the French and of the freed slaves of Saint\u00a0Domingue, the colony returned to Spain\u2019s hands, until a handful of men with a national conscience established what came to be known as the Ephemeral Independence.\u00a0 After one month, in January 1822, using to their advantage the military and economic weakness of the eastern section of the island, the Haitians occupied the territory and took power for 22 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Independence and F<\/b>oundation of the Dominican Republic<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

In 1844, the citizens won their independence and the Dominican Republic is founded.\u00a0 In its initial stages, the Republic dedicated itself to defending against Haitian attacks, even while experiencing internal struggles over political organization.\u00a0 On March 18, 1861, the annexation of the country to Spain was announced in the cathedral of Santo Domingo.\u00a0 From the beginning, the Dominican people demonstrated their deep discontent\u00a0with the annexation and after four years of intense struggle against Spanish forces, Dominicans obtained the restoration of the Republic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Restoration War and the E<\/b>conomic\u00a0<\/b>C<\/b>haos<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

The War of Restoration and its guerrilla war technique left the country fragmented among innumerable local\u00a0chiefs\u00a0that began to argue over power.\u00a0 The utter\u00a0political confusion brought\u00a0economic chaos that resulted in multiple small loans from the United States and Europe.\u00a0 Consequently, in 1907, the\u00a0Dominican government turned over the administration and control of its customs to the government of the United States; and in 1916, the first U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic occurred.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0<\/b>Dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo in 1930<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

The second half of the 1920s signals the beginning of Dominican modernity, with a flourishing of trade and agricultural, incipient industrial activity and important\u00a0terrestrial means of\u00a0communication.\u00a0 But this boom did\u00a0not abolish\u00a0<\/i>caudillismo<\/i>, or\u00a0autocracy, which gave birth to unstable governments and then to the creation of the iron dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo in 1930.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Second\u00a0<\/b>U<\/b>nited States<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>Invasion<\/b><\/h2>\n

Thirty years of tyranny ended in 1961 with the execution of the dictator.\u00a0 In the midst of great political upheaval, a provisional government organized the first free elections, which in 1962,\u00a0brought to power Professor Juan Bosch.\u00a0 The overthrow of the eminent writer, seven months later, dissolved into a bloody civil war that culminated with the second U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic (1965).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dominican D<\/b>emocracy<\/b><\/h2>\n

In 1966, elections were held and\u00a0Joaqu\u00edn\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0began 12 years of government characterized by political repression.\u00a0\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0overwhelmingly lost the 1978 elections and in spite of attempts to cover up his defeat, he had to allow the winner, the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD), to assume power.\u00a0 Dominican democracy began\u00a0thus the path towards its consolidation.\u00a0 PRD won again in 1982, but four years later,\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0regains power with the majority vote.\u00a0 During this time, a significant\u00a0monetary expansion\u00a0produced high rates of economic growth and increase of the domestic market\u00a0market.\u00a0\u00a0Shortcomings in public investment later provoked high inflation with political repercussions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Balaguer\u00a0secured his reelection in 1990 and applied an economic reform package that staved off the crisis.\u00a0 Four years later, a new election concluded with a questionable\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0victory.\u00a0 The PRD and its presidential candidate, Jos\u00e9 Francisco Pe\u00f1a G\u00f3mez, alleged that they were victims of electoral fraud.\u00a0 The\u00a0Balaguer\u00a0government was\u00a0forced\u00a0to\u00a0settle\u00a0and its new period of government was reduced to two years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1996, new national elections were held and Dr.\u00a0Leonel\u00a0Fern\u00e1ndez, the\u00a0Partido\u00a0de la\u00a0Liberaci\u00f3n\u00a0Dominicana\u00a0(PLD) candidate, came to power.\u00a0 After four years of government, in which economic growth continued at the levels of the early nineties, PLD lost their position in power and made way for the PRD and its candidate,\u00a0Hip\u00f3lito\u00a0Mej\u00eda.\u00a0 An economic policy influenced by external factors\u00a0led\u00a0the country into total chaos, with history-making\u00a0currency\u00a0devaluations that caused the\u00a0impoverishment\u00a0of wide sectors of the country.\u00a0 In the midst of the confusion caused by this economic crisis, the\u00a0citizens\u00a0went to the polls in 2004 securing an\u00a0overwhelming victory to the PLD and its candidate, Dr.\u00a0Leonel\u00a0Fern\u00e1ndez, who took power for the second time, with 57% of the vote.<\/p>\n

President\u00a0Leonel\u00a0Fern\u00e1ndez\u00a0remained in power for two consecutive periods until 2012, when\u00a0Dr.\u00a0Danilo\u00a0Medina, PLD presidential candidate, won the party’s primary elections and, later, the presidential elections in the country. Medina won the presidential election\u00a0again\u00a0in 2016.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2011, the PRD has been through an intense period of power struggles and internal division, expulsions and transformation. In mid-2014, the PRD was divided into two political parties, one under the same name (PRD), led by Miguel Vargas Maldonado, and another, the Partido Revolucionario Moderno (PRM), led by Luis\u00a0Abinader\u00a0and\u00a0Hip\u00f3lito\u00a0Mej\u00eda.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 500 years ago, Christopher Columbus arrived to an island that he thought to be part of India.\u00a0 It was populated by the\u00a0Tainos, one of the most peaceful people of the newly discovered continent,\u00a0who lived\u00a0on hunting, fishing and agriculture.\u00a0 Columbus arrived to La\u00a0Isabela,\u00a0a bay located to the north of the island, on December 5, … Continue reading “History”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"page-historia.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1163","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1163"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1163"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9984,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1163\/revisions\/9984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}