The recorded history of the Dominican Republic began in 1492 when Christopher Columbus, working for the Crown of Castile, arrived at a large island in the western Atlantic Ocean, later known as the Ca
Battle of Las Carreras
Battle of Monte Cristi
Wounded American soldier in Santo Domingo, 1965.
Arrival of Christopher Columbus, art by Dominican painter Luis Desangles
Hispaniola
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Hispaniola is an island in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean, located between Cuba and Puerto Rico. It is the most populous island in the West Indies and the second-largest by land area, after Cub
History of the Dominican Republic
…meaning 'mother of all lands.' Columbus claimed the island for Castile, naming it La Isla Española ('the Spanish Island'), which was later Latinized to Hispaniola. Following 25 years of Spanish occupation, the Taíno population in the Spanish-controlled regions of the island drastically decreased due to the Taíno…
View from the ISS, 2011
Fortaleza Ozama
Ile de la Tortue (Tortuga island) made Hispaniola a center of pirate activity in the 17th century.
The Dominican War of Independence (1844–1856) was the first war of liberation of the Dominican Republic. This war consolidated the Dominican national identity, which was forged through its independence proclamations of 1821 and 1844.