Dominican Republic

The **Dominican Republic** (Spanish: *República Dominicana*) is a Latin American country on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola; the other country on the island is Haiti. Its capital, and largest city, is Santo Domingo. The national language is Spanish.

The country was part of the Spanish empire until the late 18th century. In the 19th century France, Spain and Haiti controlled it at various times, and later it was independent. It was occupied by the United States from 1916 to 1924. The Dominican Republic is a presidential democratic republic. The country has a tropical climate but modified by elevation and the *trade winds* (winds that come from the northeast, from the Atlantic Ocean).

The Spanish brought African slaves to the country.

Dominican Republic is one of the biggest producers of cacao.

## History 
The island of Hispaniola was discovered by Christopher Columbus on December 5th,  1492, but the first time that he saw part of the present Dominican Republic was on January 4th, 1493 when he saw a headland that he named *Monte Cristi* ("Mountain of Christ"). That mountain is called now *El Morro* and is near the city of Monte Cristi.

From Monte Cristi, Columbus went east along the north coast of the island and on 6 January, after visiting the Samaná Bay, he went back to Spain. In his second trip to America, he founded the first European city in the continent, *La Isabela*, near the present city of Puerto Plata.

Later, Bartholomew Columbus founded the city of Santo Domingo, the oldest permanent European city in the Americas. From here, many Spaniards went to conquer other islands (Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico). Because Cuba was closer to the continent, many people moved there from Hispaniola, and then to the continent. Because of that, the population of the island grew very slowly. By the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, Spain gave the western third of the island to France and kept the eastern part, and so the island had two different colonies: the French *Saint-Domingue* and the Spanish *Santo Domingo*. In 1795, France got the whole island but they could only control the eastern part because Haiti became independent very soon. In 1809, the French government gave back the old colony of "Santo Domingo" to Spain.

On 1 December 1821, the Spanish lieutenant governor José Núñez de Cáceres declared the independence from Spain. The new country had the name *Estado Independiente del Haití Español* ("Independent State of Spanish Haiti"). But on 9 February 1822, the Haitian army occupied the country and stayed for 22 years. Juan Pablo Duarte founded a secret society, *La Trinitaria*, to fight for the Dominican independence. The Haitian occupation ended on 27 February 1844, when the inhabitants of the eastern part of the Hispaniola made a new country named *República Dominicana* ("Dominican Republic"). From 1861 to 1865, the country was again a Spanish colony. On 16 August 1863 began the *Restoration War* when the Dominicans fought to be free again. That war ended in 1865 when the Spanish left and the Dominican Republic was again an independent country.

The country was occupied by the United States from 1916 to 1924. In 1930, Rafael Trujillo became the president of the country through a coup d'état. Trujillo was a cruel dictator, killing thousands of people, among them many Haitians. Trujillo was killed in 1961. After the death of Trujillo, Juan Bosch was elected in 1962 and became, in 1963, the first elected president since 1930. But Bosch was in power for only seven months. In 1965, there was a civil war between those that wanted Bosch back on power and those that were opposed to him. Then the country was invaded again by the United States.

Since the end of the civil war, the presidents of the Dominican Republic have been:

* Joaquín Balaguer (1966-1978)
* Antonio Guzmán (1978-1982)
* Salvador Jorge Blanco (1982-1986)
* Joaquín Balaguer (1986-1996)
* Leonel Fernández (1996-2000)
* Hipólito Mejía (2000-2004)
* Leonel Fernández (2004-2012)
* Danilo Medina (2012-2020)
* Luis Abinader (2020-)

## Government 
The Dominican Republic is a presidential democratic republic. The government is divided in three branches: the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary. The Executive branch is made up of the President, the Vice President and the Ministers who are called *Secretaries of State*. The President is chief of state and head of government and is elected every 4 years. He nominates the cabinet. The current president is Luis Abinader.

The Legislative branch makes the laws and is made up of the Congress, which is in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. The Congress is divided into two groups: the Senate, with 32 members (one for every province and one for the National District), and the Chamber of Deputies with 178 members.

The Judicial branch is made up of the courts of the country, including the Supreme Court of Justice.

## Politics 
The Dominican Republic is a constitutional democracy ruled by a president. The president is elected every 4 years. The current president is Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona, of the PRM.

There are 3 important political parties in the Dominican Republic:
* **PRD**: the Dominican Revolutionary Party (Spanish: *Partido Revolucionario Dominicano*). The PRD is a somewhat socialist party. The party was founded in 1939 in Havana, Cuba. It was then established in the Dominican Republic in 1961.
* **PRSC**: the Social Christian Reformist Party (Spanish: *Partido Reformista Social Cristiano*). It is a conservative party founded in 1964 by Joaquín Balager, who was President of the Republic from 1966 to 1978 and 1986-96.
* **PLD**: the Dominican Liberation Party (Spanish: *Partido de la Liberación Dominicana*) was somewhat socialist when it was founded in 1973; currently it's a liberal party.

## The land 
There are several mountain chains in the Dominican Republic. The four main chains, from North to South, are:

# *Cordillera Septentrional* (in English, "Northern mountain range"), close to the Atlantic Ocean.
# *Cordillera Central* (in English, "Central mountain range") that continues into northern Haiti where it is called *Massif du Nord*. The highest mountains of the West Indies are in this chain; *Pico Duarte*, with 3,087 m, is the highest. The main rivers of the Hispaniola have their sources in this mountain range.
# *Sierra de Neiba*.
# *Sierra de Bahoruco*, known in Haití as *Massif de la Selle*.

Between those mountains, there are several important valleys, such as:
* The Cibao Valley (Dominican Republic) is the largest and most important valley of the country. This long valley stretches from North Haiti to Samaná Bay, south of the Cordillera Septentrional.
* The San Juan Valley and Plain of Azua are big valleys south of the Cordillera Central.
* The *Hoya de Enriquillo* or Neiba Valley is a very arid valley south of Sierra de Neiba.
* *Llano Costero del Caribe* (in English, "Caribbean Coastal Plain") is in the southeast of the country. It is a large prairie east of Santo Domingo. There are very important sugar cane plantations in this plain.

There are other smaller valleys in the mountains: Constanza, Jarabacoa, Bonao, Villa Altagracia.

The four most important rivers of the Dominican Republic are Yaque del Norte, Yuna, Yaque del Sur and Ozama. There are many lakes; the largest is the *Lake Enriquillo*, in the *Hoya de Enriquillo*.

The country has a tropical climate but modified by elevation and the *trade winds* (winds that come from the northeast, from the Atlantic Ocean). At sea level, the average temperature is 25&nbsp;°C, with small changes from one season to another. In the highest mountains, the temperature in winter can be as low as 0&nbsp;°C.

There are two wet seasons: April-June and September-November. The most dry period is from December to March. Rainfall varies greatly; eastern regions, like the Samaná Peninsula, get an average of over 2,000&nbsp;mm in a year, but less than 500&nbsp;mm fall in the southwest (Hoya de Enriquillo).

The two largest cities are Santo Domingo (the capital city) with 1,817,754 inhabitants, and Santiago, in the Cibao Valley and with 908,250 inhabitants. In the Chinese Dominican community (composed around 60 000 people) elder generations keep talking in Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese Chinese.

### Religions 
The official religion is Roman Catholicism but there is freedom of religion. Protestant groups are important, representing about 15% of the total population. Each year major festivities called *fiestas patronales* are held. They are Catholic festivities in honor of the Patron saints of the towns and villages; it is a Spanish tradition to associate every town with a Catholic saint. The festivities includes church services, street parades, fire works, dance contests and other activities. Dominican Voodoo or Santeria is also practiced in large numbers as well as Dominican Palo, Dominican Kongo religion, and others.

African culture has the strongest influence in Dominican culture, especially in language, religion, food, and music.

## National holidays 
*Notes*:
* *The non-working holidays are not moved to another day.*
* *If a movable holiday falls on Saturday, Sunday or Monday then it is not moved to another day. If it falls on Tuesday or Wednesday, the holiday is moved to the previous Monday. If it falls on Thursday or Friday, the holiday is moved to the next Monday.*

## Related pages
*Dominican Republic at the Olympics
*Dominican Republic national football team
*List of rivers of the Dominican Republic

## References 
## Other websites
* 
*