Explored and claimed by
Columbus on his first voyage in 1492, the island of Hispaniola became a
springboard for Spanish conquest of the Caribbean and the American mainland.
In 1697, Spain recognized French dominion over the western third of the
island, which in 1804 became Haiti. The remainder of the island, by then
known as Santo Domingo, sought to gain its own independence in 1821, but was
conquered and ruled by the Haitians for 22 years; it finally attained
independence as the Dominican Republic in 1844. A legacy of unsettled,
mostly non-representative, rule for much of its subsequent history was
brought to an end in 1966 when Joaquin BALAGUER became president. He
maintained a tight grip on power for most of the next 30 years when
international reaction to flawed elections forced him to curtail his term in
1996. Since then, regular competitive elections have been held in which
opposition candidates have won the presidency. The Dominican economy has had
one of the fastest growth rates in the hemisphere.
