Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic - Is officially known as The Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is is a North American country on the island of Hispaniola and shares borders with Haiti, the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. claimed by Christopher 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. In 1861, the Dominicans voluntarily returned to the Spanish Empire, but two years later they launched a war that restored independence in 1865. The Dominican Republic has enjoyed strong Gross Domestic Product growth since 2005, and continued to post sound gains through mid-2008. The economy is highly dependent upon the US, the source of nearly three-fourths of exports, and remittances represent about a tenth of Gross Domestic Product, equivalent to almost half of exports and three-quarters of tourism receipts.

Hispaniola was inhabited by the Taínos, an Arawakan-speaking people who may have arrived around A.D. 600, displacing earlier inhabitants. The Taínos called the island Kiskeya or Quisqueya, meaning "mother of the earth", as well as Haití or Aytí, and Bohio.