Hispaniola

Hispaniola is an island in the Greater Antilles that is home to two countries: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Both nations began as colonies to major European powers. They were used as convenient locations to create plantations, or large farms of cash crops. The indigenous population of Hispaniola was forced to labor on plantations. This caused a severe decline in the indigenous population. To replace the lost workers, the European colonists imported African slaves.

The African slave population quickly outgrew the population of ruling colonists. Inspired by the French Revolution, the slaves rebelled, overthrowing their colonial masters. They founded the nation of Haiti. Over time, slaves imported to a different European colony founded the Dominican Republic. Both nations struggled with stable governance in their early years. Their governments were the subject of several coups. However, they stabilized over time, turning to democratically elected leadership.

Hispaniola is located in a region of the Caribbean known as the hurricane belt. It is commonly the target of powerful tropical storms and hurricanes. These storms sometimes deal severe damage to the infrastructure of both the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Damaged infrastructure has had a severely negative effect on the economy of Haiti.

Background

Hispaniola is an island that hosts two nations: the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Haiti controls the western third of the island, while the Dominican Republic controls the remaining two-thirds. Cuba is to Hispaniola's west, Jamaica is southwest, and Puerto Rico is to the east. The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands are to the northwest.

Containing roughly 29,273 square miles (75,843 square kilometers) of land, a length of roughly 400 miles (673 kilometers), and a width of 150 miles (241 kilometers), Hispaniola is the second-largest island in the Caribbean. It is one of a group of islands known as the Greater Antilles, which also includes Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the Cayman Islands. Unlike the Lesser Antilles, the Greater Antilles are made of continental rock.

Hispaniola contains five major mountain ranges. The Cordillera Oriental are the lowest range on the island and are located on the eastern portion of Hispaniola. The Sierre de Bahoruco begin in the southwestern region of the Dominican Republic and move into Hassif de la Selle. The Cordillera Septentrional range extends from the northern Dominican Republic to the Samana Peninsula. The Sierra de Neiba range begins in the southwest region of the Dominican Republic and moves northwest through Haiti. The fifth range, the Cordillera Central, extends from northwestern Haiti to the south coast of the Dominican Republic.

Hispaniola commonly produces several types of cash crops. Sugarcane was introduced to the island by Christopher Columbus and was flourishing by the late nineteenth century. By the twentieth century, the Dominican Republic was one of the largest producers of sugar in the world. Additionally, the Dominican Republic sometimes sold large quantities of coffee beans.

Although tropical in climate, the weather on Hispaniola is often dangerous. The island is located in the hurricane belt, a region that commonly experiences extremely severe weather. Hispaniola is often struck by powerful tropical storms and hurricanes. These sometimes cause extensive damage to the island's infrastructure and agriculture. Some of the most severe storms can be deadly to anyone in their path. Additionally, Hispaniola is subject to severe earthquakes. In 2010, an earthquake that measured 7.0 on the Richter scale killed more than 220,000 people on the island.

Infrastructure damaged by the 2010 earthquake, in addition to damages from numerous tropical storms, has had an extreme impact on Haiti. The country has also suffered from floods and mudslides. These natural disasters have caused Haiti to be one of the poorest nations in the world.

The humanitarian crisis in Haiti continued to worsen from the 2010s into the 2020s. The country's leader, President Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated on July 7, 2021, and was suddenly replaced by Ariel Henry. This resulted in a sudden increase in gang violence throughout the country. Weeks later, Hispaniola was struck by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake. Following Henry's resignation in March 2024, the failures of the transitional government led to pervasive violence and hunger throughout the country. Experts estimated that roughly half of Haiti's population required humanitarian aid in 2025.

Overview

Hispaniola was inhabited by indigenous people for more than 5,000 years before the first European contact. Experts believe that these indigenous peoples immigrated to Hispaniola from Central and South America. Rather than an original population that slowly seeded the island with people, experts believe that multiple waves of immigration occurred. Members of multiple American tribes and the descendants of the immigrants intermingled, forming new tribal identities.

Christopher Columbus was one of the first Europeans to visit Hispaniola. Prior to his arrival on the island, Columbus landed on several other islands of the Greater Antilles. Upon landing on Hispaniola, he was greeted by the Taino tribe.

When Columbus arrived on Hispaniola in December 1492, it is estimated that millions of indigenous peoples lived on the island. Columbus was extremely impressed by the scenic beauty of the island. After leaving, he returned the following year to found a permanent European settlement. Soon after, more than one thousand Spanish colonists arrived on the island.

The Spanish immigrants founded the Nueva Isabela on the north coast. Then they founded Santo Domingo in the south. The Spanish were immediately interested in monetizing the natural resources of Hispaniola. Most importantly, they realized that Hispaniola contained large quantities of valuable gold.

The indigenous peoples were quickly weakened by new diseases brought over by the Spanish colonists. The colonists forced many of the indigenous peoples into labor, especially panning for gold. When the indigenous peoples began to resist, the colonists killed their leaders. This ended most resistance.

As the indigenous peoples were pressed into service, their numbers quickly declined. They suffered from famine, overworking, and smallpox. Many of the indigenous peoples died in a short period of time, significantly reducing the workforce utilized by the colonists. To replace them, the Spanish began importing African slaves.

After the gold supply dropped in the sixteenth century, many of the Spanish left for Mexico. The remainder began farming animals for a living. When the island became a stopping point for pirates in the seventeenth century, many of the inhabitants moved closer to Santo Domingo. This left much of the island uninhabited. Later, French colonists took up residence on the other half of the island, naming their colony Saint-Domingue. In 1697, the Spanish officially recognized the western third of Hispaniola as French.

The French colony was immensely more successful than the Spanish colony. French colonists planted numerous large plantations. They imported countless African slaves to work those plantations, and then sold the crops for a large profit. Saint-Domingue quickly became one of the richest colonies in the world.

The French treated their slaves brutally. Because of the large numbers of slaves required to maintain Saint-Domingue's large plantations, slaves greatly outnumbered the French settlers. When the French Revolution broke out in Europe, many mixed-race individuals began campaigning for their personal rights on Saint-Domingue. Similarly, many slaves began demanding their freedom.

On August 22, 1791, slaves across Saint-Domingue revolted against the plantation owners. The slaves launched a large-scale, violent revolution against the ruling class, killing the slave owners and burning the sugar fields. The slaves seized control of French Hispaniola, eventually unifying under the general Toussaint L'Ouverture.

French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte planned an invasion of Haiti to retake it for the French in 1801. He sent roughly thirty-five thousand soldiers to the island, in an attempt to force the former slaves to submit. Although L'Ouverture was captured and died in prison, thirty thousand of Napoleon's troops were slain. On January 1, 1804, the former slaves officially founded the Republic of Haiti.

In 1821, Santo Domingo rose in rebellion against Spain. They wanted to cast off colonial rule. However, President Jean-Pierre Boyer of Haiti saw an opportunity. He invaded the eastern half of the island, forcibly reuniting Hispaniola under Haitian rule in 1822. This lasted through 1843, when the Boyer administration was overthrown by another revolution. At that time, the eastern half of the island pushed for autonomous rule. They threw off the Haitian government, declaring its independence as the Dominican Republic in 1844.

Many citizens of the Dominican Republic resisted declaring independence. They feared a full-scale invasion from Haiti, which was a significantly larger and more powerful nation. In 1861, the country voluntarily became a Spanish colony to protect itself from Haiti. It remained such until 1865. For a brief period of time in the twentieth century, the Dominican Republic was ruled by the United States. For long stretches of time, the Dominican Republic was ruled by various dictators. The most famous of these dictators, Rafael Trujillo, ruled from 1930 until he was killed by assassins in 1961.

After the death of Trujillo, the Dominican Republic attempted to establish democracy. For five years, this process was inhibited by a series of political coups. However, from 1966 onward, regular political elections became a core part of the government of the Dominican Republic. At that point, all of Hispaniola was democratically ruled.

Bibliography

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