Santo Domingo

**Santo Domingo,** the captial of the Dominican Republic and also of Santo Domingo Province, is the oldest city in the New World.

## Santo Domingo

### Region

Santo Domingo Province
Ozama

## About

It was originally founded on the eastern shore of the Ozama, in 1494, by Barthelemy Columbus who first gave it the name of New Isabelle, to consecrate the one given to the city started the previous year on the North coast; but the name of Santo Domingo was substituted, Because of that of the father of Columbus who was called Dominic.

The inhabitants of ancient Isabella did not decide to cross Santo-Domingo until 1496. A hurricane which took place in 1502, and which overthrew almost all the establishments, then built in wood and covered with thatch, added to the devastation caused an innumerable quantity of ants. These events contributed to governor Nicolas Ovando's decision to transfer, in 1504, this city on the western edge of Ozama, where Diego Columbus had already built his house in very thick wall and furnished with artillery to defend against the Indians; the remains of which can be seen. The other hurricanes that ravaged this city took place in 1495, 1508, 1509, 1510, 1526, and 1548.

In 1830, when Spain sent to claim from Haiti the restitution of the Eastern part, its former colony, all the batteries of Santo Domingo were restored. The new town had many expansions; the individuals made constructions there by speculation, this point having attracted a considerable influx of colonists coming from Spain; however, it suffered greatly from the devastation caused by its capture by the English admiral Drake, in 1586, and by the earthquakes of 1684 and 1691.

It has the figure of a trapeze of about 450 toises in the east, along the Ozama, four hundred toises in the south, along the sea, and about 2,660 toises in circumference. All around the city reigns a thick rampart, lined with bastions from distance to distance: the fortification called the FORCE, adjoining the arsenal, which directs its pieces on the sea and the mouth of the Ozama, is the first, established by Ovando. There was a lot of artillery; but the English took most of the cast iron in 1809 to pay for the aid they had given to the inhabitants, due to the expulsion of the French by General don Juan Sanchez: they had demanded church bells, but the inhabitants preferred to give out the cannons. A chain of height extends from Ozama to San Carlos, a suburb in the Northweest and dominates it in the North. There are the forts of Angle, Santa Barba, San Antonio, Saint Francisque, Saint Lazarre and Conception, Pala Hincado, Escarapan, Saint Gilles, San Carlos, San Jose, of San Fernandez, of Sainte Catherine, of Sainte Claire.

The city of Santo Domingo was the seat of the famous university which made it nicknamed the Athens of the New World. It was the seat of the first royal audience established in America, located at a distance of about 114 leagues from Port-au-Prince.

## History

The first two citizens who represented this municipality in the House of Representatives at Port-au-Prince in 1822, were Caminero and Jose Torres. The law of April 19, 1825 brought this commune to the 3rd class. When the post office was established in 1826, two couriers left Santo-Domingo every Tuesday and Saturday, one for the north, passing through Cotuí, La Vega, etc; The other for the south, passing through Baní, Azua, and San Juan. The plain of Santo Domingo starts from the left bank of the Ozama to Cape Engano, offering an area of ​​about 60 leagues (333 km *or 207 mi.*) in length, comprising 700 square leagues (21,500 km2 *or 8,300 square miles*). The Haitian generals Paul Louverture, Borgella and Carrie have commanded the district. Santo Domingo saw the birth of a crowd of distinguished men, the most famous of which are: Don Jose Nunez Caceres, founder of Dominican Independence; doctors Vicente Antonio de Faura, Elias Rodriguez y Munoz, Jimenez, Jose Maria Bobadilla, Manuel Regaldo; Alonzo de Spinoza, Don Antonio Volverde, writers; generals Matias Ramon Melia, Francisco del Rosario Sanchez, Felix Carrie and Turenne Carrie who were ministers of Boisrond Canal and Nissage Saget; and Alcibiade Pomeyrac, nicknamed the *Poet of Jacmel*.

### Timeline

• In **1506,** Queen Anacaona, ruler of the Kingdom of Yaguana (Léogâne) was hanged in Santo Domingo, as well as Cotubanama, ruler of the Kingdom of Higuey.

• In **1533,** the cacique Henri signed peace with Spain.

• On **December 21, 1790,** Vincent Oge and J.B. Chavannes, arrested in Hinche and San Juan with 24 of their comrades in arms, were delivered to Santo Domingo to the Chevalier de Ligneries.

• In **December 1800,** Toussaint Louverture marched from the Cape to Santo Domingo with 10,000 men. On January 21, 1801, the eastern part was handed over to him in the name of France. On the **25th,** he entered Santo Domingo, despite the preparations for resistance by Governor Don Joachim Garcia.

He built beautiful roads, proclaimed the freedom of slaves, taught the inhabitants of this country the cultivation of the land, and inspired them with a taste for luxury. This territory had been ceded to France by Spain in 1795 by the Treaty of Basel.

• In **1802,** Paul Louverture, the governor's brother, gave the place of Santo Domingo to General Kerverseau, upon the arrival of the Leclerc expedition, not without having resisted energetically against the French army and the Spanish revolts.

• On **February 16, 1805,** Dessalines marched on Santo Domingo. or he arrived on March 8; he besieged the place. On **March 28,** he raised the siege of the city, with the arrival of a French squadron bringing 4,000 troops. Two mulattoes from Saint Marc, Faustin Repussard and Savary had powerfully helped General Ferrand to hold out against the invader.

• On **July 11, 1809,** the French were expelled from Santo Domingo. Christophe favored the insurrection.

• On **December 29, 1821** the Haitian standard was flown with transports of joy on the walls of Santo Domingo, for the reunion of the eastern part and the Republic of Haiti. This noble example was soon followed by the cities of Puerto Plata, La Vega, San Juan, Neibe, Azua, Samaná, and all the other points of the Dominican territory.

• Núñez de Cáceres, who had published there on **December 1** a manifesto of independence and a constitutional act, announced that a political organization based on slavery, wrote to President Boyer to present its intentions. The latter, having made him answer that the moment had come when the entire island of Haiti should recognize only a single government. Caceres hastened to destroy his work himself. President Boyer made his entry into Santo Domingo on **February 9, 1822.** A French frigate, the *Duchess of Berry*, had attempted to communicate with Santo Domingo, but having found the Haitian flag flying, she retired to Samaná. In 1844, the Dominicans separated from Haiti and formed an independent state.

## Geography

Santo Domingo is located at 18.4861° N, 69.9312° W. According to the ONE, this municipality has a total land area of 1,296.35 square kilometers (500.52 square miles). It is bordered on the north by the city of Santo Domingo Norte, on the east by the city of Santo Domingo Este, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, on the west by the city of Santo Domingo Oeste and on the northwest by the city of Los Alcarrizos.