Hispaniola

Hispaniola is an island in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean, located between Cuba and Puerto Rico. It is the most populous island in the West Indies and the second-largest by land area, after Cuba. The island covers 76,192 square kilometers and is divided into two countries: the Dominican Republic to the east and Haiti to the west.

When Christopher Columbus arrived, the island was home to several groups of Indigenous peoples, including the Ciguayos, Macorix, Ciboney, and Classic Taíno. Hispaniola holds historical importance as the site of the first European fort in the Americas, called La Navidad, and the first permanent settlement, Santo Domingo, which is today the capital of the Dominican Republic.

The Spanish controlled the island from 1492 until the 17th century, when French pirates began using the western part. This led to the creation of the Saint-Domingue colony under the French Empire. The island’s most common name, Española, reflects its early ties to Spain.

Etymology

Indigenous rule

When Europeans first arrived in 1492, the island was home to several groups of Native people. They had different names for their land. Some called it Bohío, meaning “homeland.” Others used the name Haiti, which means “land of high mountains.” Another name, Quisqueya, means “mother of the lands.” There is some debate about whether Quisqueya was truly a Native name or was later created by writers. Yet another name, Babeque, likely referred to a different island, not this one.

Spanish rule

When Christopher Columbus landed in 1492, he named the island Española, meaning “little Spain,” because it reminded him of parts of Spain. Later, the name Hispaniola was used, which is the Latin version of “Spain.” The name Santo Domingo came from a city founded in 1498, named after a saint. Over time, this name was used for the whole island.

Spanish and French rule

In the mid-1600s, the French took over the western part of the island and called it Saint-Domingue. They built large farms and brought in many people from Africa to work there. The eastern part stayed under Spanish control and was called the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo.

Independence

After the Haitian Revolution from 1791 to 1804, the western part of the island became independent and was named Haiti. The eastern part later became independent in 1844 and was named the Dominican Republic. Because of this, the whole island is now commonly called Hispaniola.

From 1915 to 1934, the United States helped govern Haiti, and from 1916 to 1924, it helped govern the Dominican Republic. During this time, leaders suggested using the name Hispaniola for the whole island, which is why we use that name today.

History

See also: Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, Saint-Domingue, History of Haiti, and History of the Dominican Republic

Pre-Columbian

The Pomier Caves are a series of caves located north of San Cristóbal in the Dominican Republic. They contain the largest collection of rock art in the Caribbean, made by the Taíno people, but also the Carib people and the Igneri.

The Archaic Age people arrived from mainland Central America or northern South America about 6,000 years ago and are thought to have practiced a largely hunter-gatherer lifestyle. During the 1st millennium BC, the Arawakan-speaking ancestors of the Taino people began to migrate into the Caribbean. Unlike the Archaic peoples, they practiced the intensive production of pottery and agriculture. The earliest evidence the Ortoiroid people, which dates to around 600 AD. The Taino represented the dominant group on the island during the period of European contact. Each society was a small independent kingdom with a leader known as a cacique. In 1492, which is considered the peak of the Taíno, five different kingdoms ruled over the island, the Xaragua, Higuey (Caizcimu), Magua (Huhabo), Ciguayos (Cayabo or Maguana), and Marien (Bainoa). Many distinct Taíno languages also existed in this time period. There is still heated debate over the population of Taíno in 1492, but estimates range from no more than a few tens of thousands, according to a 2020 genetic analysis, to upwards of 750,000.

A Taíno home consisted of a circular building with woven straw and palm leaves as covering. Most individuals slept in fashioned hammocks, but grass beds were also used. The cacique lived in a different structure with larger rectangular walls and a porch. The Taíno village also had a flat court used for ball games and festivals. Religiously, the Taíno people were polytheists, and their gods were called Zemí. Religious worship and dancing were common, and medicine men or priests also consulted the Zemí for advice in public ceremonies.

For food, the Taíno relied on meat and fish as a primary source for protein. On the island they hunted small mammals, but also snakes, worms, and birds. In lakes and in the sea they were able to catch ducks and turtles. The Taíno also relied on agriculture as a primary food source. They raised crops in a conuco, which is a large mound packed with leaves and fixed crops to prevent erosion. Some common agricultural goods were cassava, maize, squash, beans, peppers, peanuts, cotton, and tobacco, which was used as an aspect of social life and religious ceremonies.

The Taíno people traveled often and used hollowed canoes with paddles when on the water for fishing or for migration purposes, and upwards of 100 people could fit into a single canoe. The Taíno came frequently in contact with the Caribs, another indigenous tribe. The Taíno people used bows and arrows with poisoned tips and some war clubs. When Columbus landed on Hispaniola, many Taíno leaders wanted protection from the Caribs.

Post-Columbian

See also: History of the Dominican Republic and History of Haiti

Christopher Columbus first landed at Hispaniola on December 6, 1492, at a small bay he named San Nicolas, now called Môle-Saint-Nicolas on the north coast of present-day Haiti. He was welcomed by the Taíno. One of the first inhabitants Columbus came across on this island was "a girl wearing only a gold nose plug". Trading with the Taíno yielded more gold than they had come across previously on the other Caribbean islands, and Columbus was led to believe that much more gold would be found inland. Soon the Taínos were trading pieces of gold for hawk's bells with their cacique declaring the gold came from Cibao. Traveling further east from Navidad, Columbus came across the Yaque del Norte River, which he named Río de Oro (River of Gold) because its "sands abound in gold dust". Before he could explore further, his flagship Santa Maria ran aground and sank in the bay on December 24. With only two smaller ships remaining for the voyage home, Columbus built a fortified encampment, La Navidad, on the shore and left behind 21 crewman to await his return the following year.

Colonization began in earnest the following year when Columbus brought 1,300 men to Hispaniola in November 1493 with the intention of establishing a permanent settlement. They found the encampment at Navidad had been destroyed, and all the crewmen left behind had been killed by the natives. Columbus decided to sail east in search of a better site to found a settlement. In January 1494 they established La Isabela in present-day Dominican Republic. Columbus later learned that the chief Caonabo had massacred his settlement at Navidad.

Colonial era weapons and armor in Museum of the Royal Houses.

While Columbus established the settlement of La Isabela in 1494, he sent Alonso de Ojeda and 15 men to search for the mines of Cibao. After a six-day journey, Ojeda came across an area containing gold, in which the gold was extracted from streams by the Taíno people. Columbus visited the mines of Cibao in March. He constructed the Fort of Santo Tomás, present day Jánico, leaving Captain Pedro Margarit in command of 56 men.^{: 119, 122–126}  In 1495, Columbus with his ally Guacanagarix embarked on a war of revenge against Caonabo, capturing him and his family while "killing many Indians and capturing others". Afterwards, "every person of fourteen years of age or upward was to pay a large hawk's bell of gold dust" every three months, as "the Spaniards were sure there was more gold in the island than the natives had yet found, and were determined to make them dig it out."^{: 149–150} 

After being destroyed by a hurricane, Nueva Isabela was rebuilt on the opposite side of the Ozama River and called Santo Domingo. It is the oldest permanent European settlement in the Americas. The island had an important role in the establishment of Latin American colonies for decades to come. Due to its strategic location, it was the military stronghold of conquistadors of the Spanish Empire, serving as a headquarters for the further colonial expansion into the Americas. The colony was a meeting point of European explorers, soldiers, and settlers who brought with them the culture, architecture, laws, and traditions of the Old World.

Spaniards imposed a harsh regime of forced labor and enslavement of the Taínos, as well as redirection of their food production and labor to Spaniards. This had a devastating impact on both mortality and fertility of the Taíno population over the first quarter century. Colonial administrators and Dominican and Hieronymite friars observed that the search for gold and agrarian enslavement through the encomienda system were deciminating the indigenous population. Demographic data from two provinces in 1514 shows a low birth rate, consistent with a 3.5% annual population decline. In 1503, Spaniards began to bring enslaved Africans after a charter was passed in 1501, allowing the import of African slaves. The Spanish believed Africans would be more capable of performing physical labor. From 1519 to 1533, an indigenous uprising ensued, known as Enriquillo's Revolt, after the Taíno cacique who led them. During the revolt, escaped African slaves (maroons) worked with the Taíno people.

16th century: gold, sugar and pirates

Gold mining using forced indigenous labor began early on Hispaniola. Miguel Díaz and Francisco de Garay discovered large gold nuggets on the lower Haina River in 1496. These San Cristobal mines were later known as the Minas Viejas mines. In 1499 the first major discovery of gold was made in the Cordillera Central, which led to a mining boom. By 1501 Columbus's cousin, Giovanni Colombo, had discovered gold near Buenaventura. The deposits were later known as Minas Nuevas. Two major mining areas resulted, one along San Cristobal-Buenaventura, and another in Cibao within the La Vega-Cotuy-Bonao triangle, while Santiago de los Caballeros, Concepción, and Bonao became mining towns. A gold rush ensued, and Royal Governor Nicolás de Ovando expropriated the gold mines of Miguel Díaz and Francisco de Garay in 1504. Pit mines became royal mines for Ferdinand II of Aragon, who reserved the best mines for himself, though placers were open to private prospectors. Ferdinand kept 967 natives in the San Cristóbal mining area, supervised by salaried miners.^{: 68, 71, 78, 125–127} 

Under Governor Ovando, the indigenous people were forced to work in the gold mines. By 1503, the Spanish Crown legalized the allocation of private grants of indigenous labor to particular Spaniards for mining through the encomienda system. Once the indigenous were forced into mining far from their home villages, they suffered hunger and other difficult conditions. By 1508, the Taíno population of about 400,000 was reduced to 60,000, and by 1514, only 26,334 remained. About half resided in the mining towns of Concepción, Santiago, Santo Domingo, and Buenaventura. The repartimiento of 1514 accelerated emigration of the Spanish colonists, coupled with the exhaustion of the mines.^{: 191–192}  The first documented outbreak of smallpox, previously an Eastern hemisphere disease, occurred on Hispaniola in December 1518 among enslaved African miners. Some scholars speculate that European diseases arrived before this date, but there is no compelling evidence for an outbreak. The natives had no acquired immunity to European diseases, including smallpox. By May 1519, as many as one-third of the remaining Taínos had died. In the century following the Spanish arrival on Hispaniola, the Taíno population fell by up to 95% of the population, out of a pre-contact population estimated from tens of thousands to 8,000,000. Many authors have described the treatment of Tainos in Hispaniola under the Spanish Empire as genocide.

Sugar cane was introduced by settlers from the Canary Islands, and the first sugar mill in the New World was established in 1516 on Hispaniola. The need for a labor force to meet the growing demands of sugar cane cultivation led to an exponential increase in the importation of slaves over the following two decades. The sugar mill owners soon formed a new colonial elite. The first major slave revolt in the Americas occurred in Santo Domingo during 1521, when enslaved Muslims of the Wolof nation led an uprising in the sugar plantation of admiral Don Diego Colon, son of Christopher Columbus. Many of these insurgents managed to escape where they formed independent maroon communities in the south of the island.

Beginning in the 1520s, the Caribbean Sea was raided by increasingly numerous French pirates. In 1541, Spain authorized the construction of Santo Domingo's fortified wall and in 1560 decided to restrict sea travel to enormous, well-armed convoys. In another move, which would destroy Hispaniola's sugar industry, in 1561 Havana, which was more strategically located in relation to the Gulf Stream, was selected as the designated stopping point for the merchant flotas, which had a royal monopoly on commerce with the Americas. In 1564, the island's main inland cities Santiago de los Caballeros and Concepción de la Vega were destroyed by an earthquake. In the 1560s, English privateers joined the French in regularly raiding Spanish shipping in the Americas.

17th century: European skirmishes, division of the island and trade

By the early 17th century, Hispaniola and its nearby islands (notably Tortuga) became regular stopping points for Caribbean pirates. In 1606, the government of Philip III ordered all inhabitants of Hispaniola to move close to Santo Domingo, to fight against piracy. Rather than secure the island, his action meant that French, English, and Dutch pirates established their own bases on the less populated north and west coasts of the island.

In 1625, French and English pirates arrived on Tortuga, which was originally settled by a few Spanish colonists. The pirates were attacked in 1629 by Spanish forces commanded by Don Fadrique de Toledo, who had fortified the island, and expelled the French and English. As most of the Spanish army left for the main island of Hispaniola to root out French colonists there, the French returned to Tortuga in 1630 and had battles for several decades. In 1654, the Spanish re-captured Tortuga for the last time.

In 1655 Tortuga was reoccupied by the English and French. In 1660 the English appointed a Frenchman as governor who proclaimed the King of France, set up French colours, and defeated several English attempts to reclaim the island. In 1665, French colonization of the island was officially recognized by King Louis XIV. The French colony was given the name Saint-Domingue. By 1670 a Welsh privateer named Henry Morgan invited the pirates on Tortuga to set sail under him. They were hired by the French as a striking force that allowed France to have a much stronger hold on the Caribbean region. Consequently, the pirates never really controlled the island and kept Tortuga as a neutral hideout. The capital of the French Colony of Saint-Domingue was moved from Tortuga to Port-de-Paix on Hispaniola in 1676.

In 1680, new Acts of Parliament forbade sailing under foreign flags (in opposition to former practice). This was a major legal blow to the Caribbean pirates. Settlements were made in the Treaty of Ratisbon of 1684, signed by the European powers, that put an end to piracy. Most of the pirates after this time were hired out into the Royal services to suppress their former buccaneer allies. In the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick, Spain formally ceded the western third of the island to France. Saint-Domingue quickly came to overshadow the east in both wealth and population. Nicknamed the "Pearl of the Antilles", it became the most prosperous colony in the West Indies, with a system of human slavery used to grow and harvest sugar cane during a time when European demand for sugar was high. Slavery kept costs low and profit was maximized. It was an important port in the Americas for goods and products flowing to and from France and Europe.

18th century to 19th century: Independence

European colonists often died young due to tropical fevers, as well as from violent slave resistance in the late 18th century. In 1791, during the French Revolution, a major slave revolt broke out on Saint-Domingue. When the French Republic abolished slavery in the colonies on February 4, 1794, it was a European first. The ex-slave army joined forces with France in its war against its European neighbors. In the second 1795 Treaty of Basel (July 22), Spain ceded the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, later to become the Dominican Republic. French settlers had begun to colonize some areas in the Spanish side of the territory.^{[citation needed]}

Under Napoleon, France reimposed slavery in most of its Caribbean islands in 1802 and sent an army to bring the island into full control. However, thousands of the French troops succumbed to yellow fever during the summer months, and more than half of the French army died because of disease. After an extremely brutal war with atrocities committed on both sides, the French removed the surviving 7,000 troops in late 1803, and the surviving leaders of the Haitian Revolution declared western Hispaniola the new nation of independent Haiti in early 1804. France continued to rule Spanish Santo Domingo. In 1805, after renewed hostilities with the ruling French government in Santo Domingo, Haitian troops of General Jean Jacques Dessalines tried to conquer all of Hispaniola. He launched an invasion of Santo Domingo and sacked the towns of Santiago de los Caballeros and Moca, killing most of their residents, but news of a French fleet sailing towards Haiti forced the invading army to withdraw from the east, leaving it in French hands.

In 1808, a second revolution against France broke out on the island. Following Napoleon's invasion of Spain, the criollos of Santo Domingo revolted against the French regime. With the aid of Great Britain, the French was defeated, and Santo Domingo was returned to Spanish control. France would never regain control of the island, and after some 12 years of Spanish dominion, the leaders in Santo Domingo revolted again, and eastern Hispaniola was declared independent as the Republic of Spanish Haiti in 1821. Fearing the influence of a society of slaves that had successfully revolted against their owners, the United States and European powers refused to recognize Haiti, the second republic in the Western Hemisphere. France demanded a high payment for compensation to slaveholders who lost their property, and Haiti was saddled with unmanageable debt for decades. By this point, the entire island was united under Haitian control. However, suppression of the Dominican culture and the imposition of heavy taxation would lead to the Dominican War of Independence and the establishment of the Dominican Republic in 1844. (This is one of the reasons for the tensions between the two countries today). Years of war, political chaos and economic crisis came to an end with a reintegration of the Dominican Republic to Spanish rule in 1861, at the request of discouraged Dominican political leaders who had hoped that the Spanish would restore order to the country. However, just as in the España Boba period, taxations, corruption, and second class treatment of the Dominicans caused support for the regime to wane, and new independence movements had sparked throughout the country. In August 1863, the Dominican Restoration War erupted on the island, and after suffering heavy defeats, the Spanish Crown capitulated. A royal decree, the Treaty of El Carmelo, recognized the independence of the Dominican Republic, and the Spanish were expelled for good in 1865. Renewed annexation projects, this time to the United States, was defeated in Congress, and the masterminds were ousted in an uprising in 1874. Both states have remained independent since then.

20th century to present: Foreign intervention, dictatorships, aftermath

In the 20th century, however, both states have endured similar outcomes. With many ensuing conflicts such as Banana Wars and World War II taking place, political and economic instabilities continued to ravage as constant power struggles and civil wars engulfed among leaders in both states. Such actions triggered renewed external interest in launching military interventions on the island. This would finally come with U.S. forces issuing a military occupation of both states, first with Haiti in (/wiki/United_States_occupation_of_Haiti), and the Dominican Republic in (/wiki/Military_Government_of_Santo_Domingo). In the following decades after American forces departed from the island, both states would be ruled by heavy handed politicians that had risen to prominence during the American occupation. Haiti's François Duvalier (Papa Doc) and his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc) and Dominican Republic's Rafael Trujillo would emerge as the leading autocratic rulers at this time. Eventually, the dictatorships of both countries came to a close with the assassination of Trujillo in 1961, (which plunged the country into chaos, triggering a bloody revolution and a second U.S intervention in 1965), and the death of François Duvalier and overthrow of Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1971 and 1986, respectively. Both states would return to a democratic government, as proven with the elections of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti, and Joaquín Balaguer in the Dominican Republic. From this point forward, however, the two countries underwent two distinct paths, both politically and economically. While the Dominican Republic was able to recover from the political crisis that ravaged the country since its conception in 1844, Haiti's political crisis continued to destabilize. The political chaos that erupted following the overthrow of Aristide in 2004 caused a mass intervention by the U.N., which lasted until 2017. Even by that point, Haiti had already suffered a massive catastrophic earthquake in 2010, cholera outbreaks continued, and gang violence had escalated further, which is still ongoing to this day.

Haiti would become one of the poorest countries in the Americas, while the Dominican Republic gradually has developed into one of the largest economies of Central America and the Caribbean.

Geography

See also: Geography of Haiti, Geography of the Dominican Republic, Islands of Haiti, Navassa Island, and Caribbean bioregion

Hispaniola is the second-largest island in the Caribbean, after Cuba. It covers 76,192 square kilometers. The eastern part belongs to the Dominican Republic, and the western part belongs to Haiti.

The island has five major mountain ranges. The highest peak is Pico Duarte, which stands at 3,101 meters above sea level. The island also has many forests, lakes, and rivers, and its climate changes depending on the region and the season.

Hispaniola's weather varies a lot because of its mountains. Some areas get a lot of rain, while others are drier. The northern coast gets the most rain, while the southern coast is drier, especially in Haiti.

The island has four main types of natural areas. These include moist forests, dry forests, pine forests, and grasslands around lakes. Haiti has lost many of its forests over time, while the Dominican Republic has been working to grow its forests back.

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of the Dominican Republic and Demographics of Haiti

Hispaniola is the most crowded island in the Caribbean, home to about 23 million people as of July 2023.

The Dominican Republic is a country where Spanish is the main language, spoken by almost everyone. Most people there follow Roman Catholicism, but there are also smaller groups that practice other religions like Evangelicalism, Protestantism, and others.

Haiti is a country where most people speak Haitian Creole, a language derived from French. Roman Catholicism is the main religion there as well, though many also practice Haitian Vodou. About 25% of Haitians belong to Protestant churches.

Ethnic composition

See also: People of the Dominican Republic and People of Haiti

The Dominican population is made up of about 73% mixed ethnicity, 16% white, and 11% black. The people there are descendants of early Spanish settlers and black slaves from West and Central Africa.

In Haiti, about 95% of the population is black, and 5% is white or mixed ethnicity.

Economics

See also: Economy of Haiti and Economy of the Dominican Republic

Hispaniola has the biggest economy in the Greater Antilles, but most of its growth is in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic's economy is much stronger than Haiti's. In 2025^[update], the average yearly income was about US$3,040 in Haiti and US$30,870 in the Dominican Republic.

The island has a long history of finding valuable materials. Long ago, people found gold here, but didn’t use it much. Later, many minerals were discovered, including silver, manganese, copper, and nickel. Today, mines still operate, finding these valuable materials in different parts of the island.

Human development

This section shows the areas of the Dominican Republic and Haiti ranked by how well people live, using a special measure called the Human Development Index from 2023.

• Santo Domingo in South Metro

• Santiago de los Caballeros in Cibao North

• Port-au-Prince in Ouest Metro

• Cap Haitien in Nord