HISTORY

In 1492 Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to the New World found what is today known as the Dominican Republic. Upon landing, Columbus decided that the island should be named La Española. Later in 1496 Santo Domingo was founded and became the first European settlement in the New World.

For about 300 years the Dominican Republic was a Spanish colony. During a period of about 30 years the island was transfered to the French, fell under the control of Haitians, was returned to the Spanish, and in 1821 became independent. In 1822 Haitians took over again and retained control until 1844 at which point the Dominican Repbulic officially came into being.

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The country still saw years of turmoils Interestingly, in 1870 the country asked the US to be annexed. The US passed on the "deal" and the country experienced another few decades of unrest culminating with the arrival of US troops in 1916. Troops stayed in the country until the early 1930's.

In 1930 a coup let be Rafael Leonides Trujillo overthrew the government and established a dictatorship that lasted 31 years until his assassination. More turmoil resulted, and Lyndon Johnson once again sent in troops to quell unrest in 1965.

Eventually peace was re-established and Joaquin Balaguer won the presidency in 1966.

Trouble reared its head again in 1978 when Balaguer had the army suspend balloting (Balaguer was trailing in the election). President Carter made a stern warning against election tampering and eventually a different president was elected.

Since that time, presidential elections have allowed the peaceful transfer of power between parties in the country. While the country still experiences many problems, poverty being the main one, politically the country seems to have stabalized.