Initial Conquest

Christopher Columbus found and claimed Hispaniola, which is now the Dominican Republic and Haiti in 1492. Four years later his brother Bartholomew Columbus found Santa Domingo the oldest city in the new world (A). The Spain Empire singed in1697 the Treaty of Ryswick ceding the western third of Hispaniola to France (A) and in 1795 Spain conceded under the treaty of Basel the other two thirds to France(B). The Dominican ex-slave Francois-Domind conquered Santa Domingo in 1801, but in 1802 Napoleon sent troops to send him to France and he died in prison (A). France fought against the Hispaniola, when Spain regained Santa Domingo. The Dominican fought against Spain and declared the independence in 1821, but in 1822 the Haitian conquered the entire island. Pedro Santana a Spanish general annexed the Dominican Republic to Spain (A) to protect the Dominican from the Haitian. On February 27, 1884 Juan Pablo Duarte led a revolution that ended successfully. However in 1586 the English admiral Sir Francis Drake captured Santo Domingo again(A). On the turn of the 19^th century the United States replaced Europe as a trading partner. The United States began in 1905 to administrate the Dominican Republic customs agency, because of the bad financial situation and in1916 the United States took complete control over the nation’s government (C). Horacio Vasquez who was an incompetent and corrupt leader won the U.S. president election (C), but in1930 a revolution under the leader Rafael Trujillo launched caused bay the economy shock of the great Depression (C). Instead of defending the government Trujillo took power himself. Trujillo ruled the next 31 years. His dictatorship was one of the cruelest, longest and most absolute in the modern times. In May 1961 he was overthrown. Juan Bosch was the first democratic president in the Dominican history.