Caribbean · DOM
Dominican Republic
The story · 11 chapters
How it was drawn
The eastern two thirds of Hispaniola: Spain's first American colony, split from French Haiti, ruled by Haiti, and independent since 1844.
Play the story Take the first lessonThrough the ages
Rivals in history
The kingdoms, empires and states Dominican Republic fought or stood against, from the first to today.
- Crown of Castile1493 to 1504
The Taino fought the first Spanish colonists. Caonabo destroyed the fort of La Navidad in 1493, a Taino army was beaten at the Vega Real in 1495, and the governor Nicolas de Ovando had Anacaona hanged in 1503.
- Spanish Empire1519 to 1533
The cacique Enriquillo led a Taino and African revolt from the Bahoruco mountains for fourteen years. Spain could not defeat him and finally signed a peace with him in 1533.
- Kingdom of England1586 to 1655
Francis Drake held Santo Domingo for a month in 1586 and left after collecting a ransom. In 1655 an English army under Penn and Venables landed to take the city but was beaten back, and seized Jamaica instead.
- Kingdom of France1630 to 1777
French buccaneers settled Tortuga and the west of Hispaniola from the 1630s. Spain fought them for decades before recognising French Saint Domingue in 1697, and the Treaty of Aranjuez fixed a border between the two colonies in 1777.
- Haiti1801 to 1856
Toussaint Louverture occupied Santo Domingo in 1801, and Dessalines besieged it in 1805. Haiti ruled the whole island from 1822 to 1844, then fought the new Dominican Republic until its last invasion was defeated in 1856.
- Spanish Empire1861 to 1865
Spain returned at the invitation of President Pedro Santana in 1861. Dominicans rose in the War of Restoration in 1863, and Spain withdrew in 1865.
- United States1916 to 1966
American marines occupied the country from 1916 to 1924 and trained the army that brought Trujillo to power. In 1965 the United States intervened again, landing over twenty thousand troops during the civil war.
The 1937 Parsley Massacre of Haitians along the border scarred relations for generations. Migration, deportations and shared rivers still cause friction, and in 2023 a Haitian canal on the Massacre River led the Dominican Republic to close the border for weeks.
Today
Dominican Republic now
The Taino -- indigenous inhabitants of Hispaniola prior to the arrival of Europeans -- divided the island now known as the Dominican Republic and Haiti into five chiefdoms and territories. Christopher COLUMBUS explored and claimed the island on his first voyage in 1492; it became a springboard for Spanish conquest of the Caribbean and the American mainland. In 1697, Spain recognized French dominion over the western third of the island, which in 1804 became Haiti.
- Capital
- Santo Domingo
- Government
- presidential republic
- Head of government
- Luis Abinader
- Languages
- Spanish
- Area
- 146,839 km²
Through time
Then and now
- Population11.3 million2023 · 2.4 million in 1950
- Life expectancy73.7 years2023 · 44.1 years in 1950
- GDP per person$17,7132022 · $1,637 in 1950
- Living in cities73%2025 · 24% in 1950
- Literacy94%2024 · 43% in 1950
- Political regimeElectoral democracy2025 · Closed autocracy in 1950
- Military alliancesRio Pact2024 · Rio Pact in 1950
- Military spending0.8% of GDP2025
- War deathsNone2025
Population: HYDE 3.3, Gapminder and UN WPP. GDP per capita: Maddison Project Database 2023. Urban share: UN WPP. Life expectancy: Riley, HMD, UN WPP. Literacy: OWID historical estimates, World Bank, UNESCO. Military spending: SIPRI. War deaths: UCDP. Political regime: V-Dem, Regimes of the World. All via Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). Alliances and organization memberships: compiled by Atlas. Satellites in orbit: CelesTrak SATCAT. Modern borders, backcast.
Relations
Close partners and tensions
Close partners
- United States
- Canada
Summarised from World Bank and Wikipedia data, updated 23 October 2026.