Samaná Province

**Samaná** is one of the 31 provinces of the Dominican Republic, and is located in the northeast of the country, completely occupying the Samaná Peninsula. Its capital is the city of Santa Bárbara de Samaná, usually called only Samaná.

It was created on **June 4, 1867**, as a Maritime District. The constitution of 1907 - effective in 1908 - made it a province by eliminating the category of Maritime District.

## Place names

The name of Samaná, written centuries ago as *Xamaná*, is the Taíno name of the region.

## History

The territory of the province was visited by Christopher Columbus in January 1493, during his first trip to the Americas. At that time, Samaná was occupied by Ciguayo settlers and the first hostile encounter between Europeans and natives occurred.

During the 16th and 17th centuries (and the beginning of the 18th), Samaná was practically uninhabited; Only a few "cimarrones" (escaped slaves) and some European settlers who tried to colonize the region lived. Among the Europeans, those who most frequented the area were English and, mainly, French. The beaches were used to repair and clean ("careen") the hulls of English and French boats; The boats of buccaneers and filibusters were also careened here. "Carenero" is still a place name in Samaná.

From time to time, but not continuously, the Spanish colonial authorities made expeditions to dislodge the French who were trying to occupy the region. He even managed to maintain two galleys in Cayo Galeras, in front of the current town of Las Galeras.

In 1756, the city of Santa Bárbara de Samaná was founded, with families from the Canary Islands, in a place called Carenero Grande. The town was organized as a Parish of the La Vega Party, within the territorial division that the Spanish Santo Domingo had then.

When the Spanish Santo Domingo passed, through the Treaty of Basel, to French rule, the French governor Ferrand tried to develop the Samaná region, installing French settlers escaping the revolution in Haiti, including the family of Théodore Chassériau. These settlers were dedicated to cutting precious woods for export and growing coffee. The Samaná toponymy still preserves some of the surnames of these families: Tesón ("Tessón"), Anadel ("Arrendel"), Clará ("Clarac"); or from French words, such as Las Terrenas ("La terrienne", the landowner).

With the Reconquest, Samaná became part of the Eastern Party, along with Bayaguana, Monte Plata, Boyá and Sabana de la Mar, with El Seibo as the head of the party. The Haitian occupation (1822-1844) brought a new political division and Samaná remained as a Common of the Department of Cibao .

Haitian President Jean Pierre Boyer built a fort in Los Cacaos, east of Santa Bárbara de Samaná for better control of the Samaná Bay; he also built a small fort at El Limón, on the north coast.

Boyer sent Haitian families to Samaná; these families settled in Tesón. He also sent some 200 former North American slaves to the region; although many returned, some remained, preserving their language and traditions.

During the entire First Republic (1844-1861), Samaná was a Common of the El Seibo Province. With the Annexation to Spain , Samaná was separated from El Seibo and became a Government, similar to the current provinces. The Restoration reestablished the previous territorial division and Samaná was once again common to El Seibo.

The Constitution of 1865 created the Maritime District of Samaná, with a military government, which later became the Province of Samaná by the Constitution of 1907 that stopped recognizing the maritime districts as a territorial category.

The territory of the province has changed a lot during its existence, although the entire peninsula has always belonged to it. When it was created it covered both sides of the Samaná Bay, but then in 1938 Sabana de la Mar became part of the El Seibo province. Then in 1950 it occupied the entire northeast coast, up to Cabrera and Río San Juan .

When the Julia Molina province (current María Trinidad Sánchez) was created in 1958, most of its territory was taken from Samaná. The last reduction was made in 1959 when Trujillo del Yuna (current Agua Santa del Yuna) was segregated to pass it to the municipality of Villa Riva in the Duarte Province.

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