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History • In the 15th century the island was first occupied by the Taino people. These people created five kingdoms to which they hunted small game, went fishing, and cultivated different crops such as, cassava, corn, squash, beans, sweet potatoes, peppers, peanuts, and yams. • Colonizers later came to the island in 1495 and abused the Taino people. It is estimated that the population reduced from 60,000 in 1507 to 600 in 1531. • Santo Domingo's importance for the Spanish Crown diminished in the early 16th century due to the discovery of gold and silver in Mexico and Peru, and the Caribbean colony's population dwindled. The economy remained basically stagnant for the next 250 years, approximately.
History • In the mid-1600s, French buccaneers settled in the western end of the island, and soon France moved to colonize the area. Spain ceded the territory to France in 1697, after three decades of intermittent warfare. The French colony of Saint-Domingue soon became the most productive agricultural economy in the Western Hemisphere. • Trade restrictions were gradually restricted in the 18th century leading to an increase in the population from approximately 6,000 in 1737 to around 125,000 in 1790. • In 1804, after a long, brutal revolution led by the former black slave Toussaint L'Ouverture and later by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the colony of Saint-Domingue became the Republic of Haiti. • In 1844, forces led by Juan Pablo Duarte, the hero of Dominican independence, drove the Haitians out and established the Dominican Republic as an independent state.
Government Functions • The Dominican Republic is a representative democracy with government authority divided among independent executive, legislative and judicial branches. • The presidency system in the Dominican Republic is very much the same as The United States. A president is elected and given only a few duties and they can only hold office for four years at a time. The only differences are that the president of the Dominican Republic can not be re-elected and in an election they must win by 50 percent plus one vote. • The Dominican Republic has a multi-party political system with national elections every four years. Voter turnout is generally very high, as exemplified by the fact that in the two rounds of presidential elections in 1996, nearly 80 percent of eligible Dominicans went to the polls.
Foreign Relations • The Dominican Republic belongs to the United Nations and many of its specialized and related agencies, including the World Bank, the International Labor Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the International Civil Aviation Organization. • The Dominican Republic has a close relationship with the United States and with the other states of the Inter-American system. It has accredited diplomatic missions in most Western Hemisphere countries and in principal European capitals. The Dominican Republic and Cuba recently established consular relations, and there is contact in fields such as commerce, culture and sports. Dominican relations with its closest neighbor, the Republic of Haiti, have never been extensive. The expulsion of 20,000 illegal Haitian immigrants in early 1997 resulted in tension between the two countries. The tension was relieved with an agreement that international observers would monitor the process.
Environmental Overview Key current environmental issues in the Dominican Republic include the following: • Water Shortages • soil erosion, as a result of slash and burn agricultural practices • deforestation, as a result of timber exploitation for energy resources (fuel) • damage to coral reefs and mangroves, as a result of human activities
People • About half of Dominicans live in rural areas, and many of them are small landholders. However, rural citizens have migrated in large numbers to major cities such as Santo Domingo and Santiago de los Caballeros in the past decades; urban areas continue to grow rapidly. • Most of the population of the Dominican Republic is of mixed African and European ancestry. There are significant distinct populations of people of African and European extraction, as well. Haitians form the largest foreign minority group. • The state religion of the Dominican Republic is Roman Catholicism, but there is no religious restriction. • The official language is Spanish.
Quality of Life • The Dominican Republic's infant mortality rate is 34.19 deaths per 1,000 births, according to a recent estimate. The life expectancy at birth for the total population was estimated in the last year to be 67.96 years - 66.41 years for males and 69.58 years for females. The literacy rate of citizens over the age of 15 was estimated in the last year to be 84.7 percent, disaggregated to 84.6 percent of males and 84.8 percent of females.
Tips when traveling.. When traveling to the Dominican Republic there are a few facts to know to avoid getting sick… • Don't eat food purchased from street vendors. • Don't drink beverages with ice. • Don't handle animals (especially monkeys, dogs, and cats), to avoid bites and serious diseases (including rabies and plague). •Don't swim in fresh water. Salt water is usually safer.
To Stay Healthy, Do… • Drink only bottled or boiled water, or carbonated (bubbly) drinks in cans or bottles. Avoid tap water, fountain drinks, and ice cubes. If this is not possible, make water safer by BOTH filtering through an "absolute 1-micron or less" filter AND adding iodine tablets to the filtered water. "Absolute 1-micron filters" are found in camping/outdoor supply stores. • If you visit an area where there is risk for malaria, take your malaria prevention medication before, during, and after travel, as directed. (See your doctor for a prescription.) • Protect yourself from insects by remaining in well-screened areas, using repellents (applied sparingly at >4-hour intervals) and permethrin-impregnated mosquito nets, and wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants from dusk through dawn. • To prevent fungal and parasitic infections, keep feet clean and dry, and do not go barefoot.
