Dominican Republic

History

Main article: History of the Dominican Republic

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The country has had a history of changing ownership, with occasional attempts at independence and self-rule. First a Spanish colony and then a French colony, it was subsequently ruled by Haiti and then Spain again, and later the United States twice ruled Dominican territory.

Related Topics:
Spanish colony - French colony - United States

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In the beginning the island was primarily inhabited by the Taino, a branch of the Arawaks. Taino means "the good" in that native language. A system of Cacicazgos (chiefdoms) was in place, and Marien, Maguana, Higuey, Magua and Jaragua were their names. These chiefdoms were then subdivided into subchiefdoms. The Cacicagzos were based on a system of tribute, consisting of the food grown by the Taino.

Related Topics:
Taino - Arawaks - Tribute

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The arrival of the Guamikena (the covered ones)

On December 5, 1492, the Europeans arrived. Believing that these beings from over the horizon were in someway supernatural, the Taínos feted the Europeans with all the honors available to them. This was a totally different society from the one the Europeans came from. One of the things that piqued the curiosity was the amount of clothing worn by the Europeans. Therefore they came to call them "guamikena". Guacanagarix, the chief who hosted Christopher Columbus and his men, treated them kindly and provided him with everything they desired. Yet the tainos allegedly "egalitarian" system clashed with the Europeans market based capitalist system, the Europeans could not simply believe that the Tainos could just simply be so generous. This caused the Europeans to believe that the Tainos were weak, and they began to just take from the tribes. Columbus tried to temper, when he and his men departed from Quisqueya, they left on a good note. Columbus had cemented a firm alliance with Guacanagarix, a powerful chief on the island, and after the shipwrecking of the Santa Maria. He decided to establish a small fort with a garrison of men that could help him lay claim to this posession. The fort was called La Navidad, since the events of the shipwrecking and the founding of the fort occurred on christmas day. The garrison in spite of all the wealth and beauty on the island, was wracked by divisions within and the men took sides, that evolved into conflict amongst these first europeans. The more rapacious one's began to terrorize the taino, ciguayo and macorix tribesmen up to the point of trying to take their women.

Related Topics:
1492 - Christopher Columbus

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Viewed as weak by the spaniards and even some of his own people, Guacanagarix tried to come to an accomadation with the spaniards, who saw his appeasment as the actions of someone who submitted, they treated him with contempt and even took some of his wives too. The powerful cacique of the maguana, Caonabo could brooke no further afronts, attacked the europeans and destroyed la Navidad. Guacanagarix, dismayed as he was by this turn of events did not try too hard to aid these guamikena, probably hoped that the troublesome outsiders would never return, but return they did.

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The twentieth century

The twentieth century was marked by repeated U.S. intervention in local affairs. The reason for this is the island of Quisqueya's strategic location in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. During the World Wars the Axis powers used the islands of the Caribbean as stop-off points for German U-boats from which to plan possible attacks against the North American continent. During the Cold War, Soviet and capitalist ideologies clashed openly on the island. Apart from tentative U.S. support for the Trujillo dictatorship (1930-1961) (though this faded during his final years), the most infamous example of this is the 1965 invasion by American troops in the midst of a Dominican civil war, an uprising that was sparked by an attempt to restore the republic's first democratically-elected president of the 20th century, Juan Bosch, who had been overthrown by a right-wing coup in 1963. Following this civil war, and America's deployment of troops, Joaquín Balaguer (1966-1978) was democractically elected, winning by 57%. Juan Bosch's constitutional government never returned to power. The Johnson administration justified the 1965 intervention by stating that it suspected many of Bosch's supporters were pro-Cuban Communists.

Related Topics:
Axis powers - U-boats - Cold War - Soviet - Trujillo - 1965 - Juan Bosch - Right-wing - Coup - Joaquín Balaguer - Johnson administration - Cuban - Communists

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