page_title: People of the Dominican Republic
section_title: European colonization
hierarchical_section_title: People of the Dominican Republic / Name / European colonization
caption_attribution_description: English: Oil portrait of Juan Pablo Duarte by dominican artist Abelardo Rodríguez Urdaneta. Español: Retrato en óleo de Juan Pablo Duarte por el pintor dominicano Abelardo Rodríguez Urdaneta.
context_page_description: Dominicans are people who are identified with the Dominican Republic. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Dominicans, several of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Dominicans.
  Dominican was historically the name for the inhabitants of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, the site of the first European settlement in the Western Hemisphere.
  The majority of Dominicans reside in the Dominican Republic, while there is also a large Dominican diaspora, mainly in the United States and Spain. The total population of the Dominican Republic in 2016 was estimated by the National Bureau of Statistics of the Dominican Republic at 10.2 million, with 9.3 million of those being natives of the country, and the rest being of foreign origin.
context_section_description: Christopher Columbus arrived on the island in December 5, 1492, during the first of his four voyages to the Americas. He claimed the land for Spain and named it La Española due to its diverse climate and terrain which reminded him of the Spanish landscape. In 1496 Bartholomew Columbus, Christopher's brother, built the city of Santo Domingo, Western Europe's first permanent settlement in the "New World." The colony thus became the springboard for the further Spanish conquest of America and for decades the headquarters of Spanish colonial power in the hemisphere.
  The southern city of Santo Domingo served as a hub for military expeditions pushing across to the American mainland. In 1501, the colony also began to import African slaves. By the mid-17th century the French sent colonists and privateers to settle the northwestern coast of Hispaniola due to its strategic position in the region. After decades of armed struggles with the French, Spain ceded the western coast of the island to France with the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick, whilst the Central Plateau remained under Spanish domain.
  On April 17, 1655, the English landed on nearby Hispaniola and marched 30 miles overland to Santo Domingo, the main Spanish stronghold on the island. The sweltering heat soon felled many of the northern European invaders. The Spanish defenders, having had time to prepare an ambushed and sprang on them with mounted lancers, sending them careening back. The elite defenders of Santo Domingo were amply rewarded with titles from the Spanish Crown.
  By the middle of the 18th century, the population was bolstered by European emigration from the Canary Islands, resettling the northern part of the colony and planting tobacco in the Cibao Valley, and importation of slaves was renewed. After 1700, with the arrival of new Spanish colonists, the African slave trade resumed. However, as industry moved from sugar to cattle ranching, racial and caste divisions became less important, eventually leading to a blend of cultures—Spanish, African, and indigenous—which would form the basis of national identity for Dominicans. It is estimated that the population of the colony in 1777 was 400,000, of which 100,000 were European, 70,000 African, 100,000 European/indigenous mestizo, 60,000 African/indigenous mestizo, and 70,000 African/European.
caption: Juan Pablo Duarte, founding father of the Dominican Republic, leader of the Trinitarios and propeller of the war for Dominican independence.
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