02/27/2024
Happy Independence Day to the Dominican Republic 🇩🇴
“The island of Hispaniola became two countries: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The west side colonized by the french and the eastern side by the Spanish. In 1791 an anti-slavery and anti-colonial movement declared victory in 1804, and self-liberated from the French creating the nation of Haiti.
In 1822, the Haitians invaded the eastern portion of the island which at this time was forgotten and abandoned by the Spanish. The mestizo spanish-speaking population of the eastern side managed to form an independence movement to free the region from Haitian occupation and in 1844, independence was declared creating the Dominican Republic.
However, in 1863, Spain wanted to colonize their abandoned eastern territory once again, which was already the Dominican Republic. But the Spanish were too late in the game and lost the attempt. On Aug. 16, 1865, Dominican Republic declared independence again in what became known as the “Second Republic.”
A period of government instability continued for decades and in 1916 the Dominican Republic lost its sovereignty once again, but this time at the hands of the US government. The US occupation led to a proposal to make the Dominican Republic a US territory, basically create a “second Puerto Rico” but the movement was not popular internationally, and in 1924, the US withdrew and a new Dominican government was installed under US oversight. This is known as the “Third Republic.” Haiti was also occupied by the US during this period which went from 1915 to 1934.
In 1961, after the dictator Trujillo was killed, there was another period of instability and in 1965 the US government occupied the Dominican Republic once again to try and reorganize the country and in 1966 elections were held.
After this, both nations have not been occupied again and have maintained a bitter relationship with each other where discrimination and racism is often seen.”
