The Dominican Republic covers the eastern five-eighths of Hispaniola, an island in the Greater Antilles that it shares with Haiti. The Atlantic Ocean lies to the north and the Caribbean Sea to the south, and Puerto Rico is across the Mona Passage to the east. It is the second largest country in the Caribbean after Cuba, and its landscape changes fast: pine-covered mountains in the centre, the fertile Cibao valley in the north, dry cactus country in the southwest, and long white beaches in the east.
The Taíno lived on the island, which they called Ayiti or Quisqueya, when Christopher Columbus arrived in December 1492. Santo Domingo, founded in the 1490s, became the first seat of Spanish rule in the Americas and is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement there. After Spanish rule, a short-lived independence and 22 years of Haitian rule, the Dominican Republic declared independence on 27 February 1844. Its later history includes a return to Spanish rule, a war to restore independence, an American occupation and the long dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, which ended in 1961.
Memories fade faster than photos. Ask these over a meal or a phone call, and write the answers down.
The island was home to the Taíno when Columbus arrived in 1492, and Santo Domingo soon became the first capital of Spain's empire in the Americas. Over the next centuries the eastern part of Hispaniola passed between Spain, France and Haiti before declaring independence in 1844. The young country was annexed by Spain again, fought a war to restore its independence, was occupied by the United States from 1916 to 1924, and lived through the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo from 1930 to 1961. After a civil war in 1965, elections gradually became freer, and international observers have judged the elections held since 1996 to be generally free and fair.
On 5 December 1492, on his first voyage, Christopher Columbus reached the island the Taíno called Ayiti or Quisqueya, landing first on its northwestern coast in what is now Haiti. He claimed it for the Crown of Castile and named it La Española. At the time the island was divided into five Taíno chiefdoms. Within a few decades most of the Taíno had died from war, forced labour and diseases brought from Europe.
The English privateer Sir Francis Drake captured Santo Domingo in 1586 and held it for ransom. His raid marked the start of a long decline in Spanish power on the island. In the early 1600s Spain emptied much of the north and west of the island to stop smuggling, and French settlers moved into the west.
On 30 November 1821 José Núñez de Cáceres, a former top official of the colony, declared Santo Domingo independent from Spain as Spanish Haiti. The new state lasted only about two months. It is remembered as the Ephemeral Independence.
In 1838 Juan Pablo Duarte founded La Trinitaria, a secret society that worked for complete independence. Duarte, Francisco del Rosario Sánchez and Matías Ramón Mella are honoured as the three Founding Fathers, and Duarte as the Father of the Nation. His birthday, 26 January, is a public holiday.
On 16 August 1863 Dominican rebels began the War of Restoration against Spanish rule. After nearly two years of guerrilla fighting, Spain withdrew its troops in July 1865 and independence was restored. 16 August is now celebrated as Restoration Day.
In 1930 Rafael Trujillo, head of the army trained during the occupation, took power. He ruled as a dictator for 31 years, renamed the capital Ciudad Trujillo in 1936 and crushed all opposition with prison, torture and murder. In October 1937 his troops killed thousands of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent living in the border region, in what is known as the Parsley massacre; estimates of the dead range from about 14,000 to 40,000.
On 30 May 1961 Trujillo was shot dead by Dominican opponents in a car ambush near the capital. His family left the country later that year, and Santo Domingo got its old name back.
On 30 November 2016 UNESCO added the music and dance of Dominican merengue to its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Bachata, the guitar music born in the countryside and poor city neighbourhoods, followed in December 2019.
Cook one of the recipes, print the large-print pack about the Dominican Republic, and finish with the big-screen quiz or the words crossword. Grandchildren can colour the flag.
