Colonial Experiences

With Columbus arrival the Caribbean Sea had turned into a Spanish area. The Dominican society had been based on farming, fishing, hunting, and gathering, but people from Spain built hospitals, cathedrals, schools, and monasteries.  The Europeans drew classes and casts and the Catholic Church had a strong influence on the authority (C). The most spread religion is the Catholic Church and the practice is often a mixture of Catholicism and traditions. Also the Catholic Church largely defines holidays (D). Spanish became the official language and some English was spoken in the capital. The slave trade also affected the Dominican culture. The African slaves spread their culture and the black population increased (C). A cruel slave based society and economy came into being. Hispaniola became the springboard for other Caribbean islands and the American main land (A). Gold and silver attracted foreign investors and they forced the natives to be labors in their mines (C). The work circumstances were unacceptable. The labors had to work long hours and the European stole their supplies and abused women (C). A lot of natives died of European diseases or suicide. In 1503 the Spaniards began to import slaves from Africa and in 1520 almost only African slaves worked in the mines (C). The United States placed from 1619 to 1624 thousand of troops in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. They built roads, schools, communication and sanitation facilities. The U.S. government enacted legal reforms that allowed U.S. companies to expand their operations (C). The cultural life changed through introducing baseball and chewing gum to the society. Some Dominican reacted strongly against it. In1930 Trujillo took power himself (B). It was one of the longest, cruelest, and most absolute in the modern time. He restricted the press’s freedom of explanation and had complete control over the military. Trujillo appointed family members to key officers and dominated the church, education and entertainment industry. He killed thousand of Haitian immigrants and most Dominican deeply feared him and his secret police. Trujillo renamed Santa Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo. He had an ability to control national affairs and promote public works. The stability of economy and politic attracted foreign investor and the foreign news called him “Dominican Miracle” while they didn’t mention his abuses and failures. (C)