Mixed Dominicans

Prior to European colonization the inhabitants of the island were the Arawakan-speaking Taíno, a seafaring people who moved into Hispaniola from the north-east region of South America, displacing earlier inhabitants,[4] c. AD 650. The native Tainos divided the island into several chiefdoms and engaged in farming, fishing,[5] as well as hunting, and gathering.[4]

The Spaniards arrived in 1492. Columbus and his crew were the first Europeans to encounter the Taíno people. Columbus described the native Taínos as a physically tall, and well-proportioned people, with a noble character. After initially amicable relationships, the Taínos fought against the conquest, led by the female Chief Anacaona of Xaragua and her ex-husband Chief Caonabo of Maguana, as well as Chiefs Guacanagaríx, Guamá, Hatuey, and Enriquillo. The latter's successes gained his people an autonomous enclave for a time on the island. Within a few years after 1492 the population of Taínos had declined drastically, due to warfare and intermixing. Census records from 1514 reveal that at least 40% of Spanish men in Santo Domingo were married to Taino women,[6] and many present-day Dominicans have significant Taíno ancestry.[7][8]

Christopher Columbus arrived on the island in December 5, 1492, during the first of his four voyages to the Americas. He claimed the land for Spain and named it La Española due to its diverse climate and terrain which reminded him of the Spanish landscape. In 1496, Bartholomew Columbus, Christopher's brother, built the city of Santo Domingo in the southern coast of the island. The colony became a military base of Spanish conquistadors for the further Spanish conquest of the Americas and the first seat of Spanish colonial rule in the New World. For centuries the colony fought against British, Dutch, and French expeditions into the region until the 17th century when pirates working for the French Empire took over part of the west coast. After decades of armed conflicts, Spain ceded the western third of Hispaniola to France in the Treaty of Ryswick.

Dominican Republic national pantheon in Santo Domingo.

In the 1700s Santo Domingo's exports soared and the island's agricultural productivity rose.[9] The population was bolstered by European emigration from the Canary Islands, resettling the northern part of the colony in the Cibao Valley.[10][11] During this period, the privateers of Santo Domingo sailed into enemy ports looking for ships to attack, thus disrupting commerce between Spain's enemies in the Atlantic. Dominicans in the service of the Spanish Crown captured British, Dutch, French and Danish ships in the Caribbean Sea throughout the 18th century.[12] The revenue acquired in these acts of piracy was invested in the economic expansion of the colony. Numerous captive Africans were also taken from enemy slave ships in West Indian waters. The population of Santo Domingo grew to approximately 125,000 in the year 1791. Of this number, 40,000 were white landowners, about 70,000 were of multiracial origin, and some 15,000 were black slaves.[13][14][15] [16][17]

From the start of the colonial period in the 1500s, Miscegenation (Mestizaje), intermixing of races particularly Spanish settlers, native Tainos, and imported Africans (free or enslaved), was very strong.[18] In fact, colonial Santo Domingo had higher amount of mixing and lesser racial tensions in comparison to other colonies, even other Spanish colonies, this was due to the fact that for most of its colonial period, Santo Domingo was used as a military base where the majority of the white Spanish settlers had an economy based on Cattle ranching, which was a far less labor-intensive than the more common plantation slavery at the time.[19][20] By the 1700s, the majority of the population was mixed race, forming the basis of the Dominican ethnicity as a distinct people well before independence was achieved.[21]

Juan Pablo Duarte, founding father of the Dominican Republic.

Map of the Dominican Republic and Haiti in 1859.

During the 1800s Dominicans were often at war, fighting the French, Haitians, Spanish, or amongst themselves, resulting in a society heavily influenced by military strongmen. Santo Domingo attained independence as the Dominican Republic in 1844. Dominican nationalists led an insurrection against the Haitians. On the morning of 27 February 1844, the gates of Santo Domingo rang with the shots of the plotters, who had emerged from their meetings to openly challenge the Haitians. Their efforts were successful, and for the next ten years, Dominican military strongmen fought to preserve their country's independence from the Haitian government. After ousting the Haitian occupying force from the country, Dominican nationalists fought against a series of attempted Haitian invasions that served to consolidate their independence from 1844 to 1856.[22] Under the command of Faustin Soulouque Haitian soldiers tried to gain back control of lost territory, but this effort was to no avail as the Dominicans would go on to decisively win every battle henceforth. In March 1844, a 30,000-strong two-pronged attack by Haitians was successfully repelled by an under-equipped Dominican army under the command of the wealthy rancher Gen. Pedro Santana.[23] Four years later, Dominican fleets attacked Haitian towns, and land reinforcements in the south to force the determined Haitian leader to concede.[23] In the most thorough and intense encounter of all, Dominicans armed with swords sent Haitian troops into flight on all three fronts in 1855.[23]

In the twentieth century, many immigrants came from other Caribbean islands, including the Bahamas, Turks, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Antigua, St. Vincent, Montserrat, Tortola, St. Croix, St. Thomas, Martinique, and Guadeloupe. They worked on sugarcane plantations and docks and settled mainly in the coastal areas of the country. The immigration of Cocolos began in the late 1800s with the rise and development of the sugar industry in the Dominican Republic. The first Turks and Caicos Islander immigrants began arriving in Puerto Plata after the Dominican War of Restoration, long before the modern sugar industry was established. When the railroad of Puerto Plata-Santiago was built in the late 19th century, many came from these islands to work on the railroad as well as others from Saint Thomas, which was then a Danish colony, they also settled in large numbers in Puerto Plata.[24]

More recently, a large source of immigrants is Haiti, and to a lesser degree Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, among others. Arabs (primarily from Lebanon and Syria) also settled in the country, working as agricultural laborers and merchants. Most immigrants intermixed with the local Dominican population, especially immigrants that came before 1980.

Musically, the Dominican Republic is known for the creation of multiple musical styles and genres but is mostly recognized for merengue, a type of lively, fast-paced rhythm and dance music based on a mixture of European and African musical elements of drums, brass, piano, chorded instruments, and traditionally the accordion, as well as some elements unique to the Dominican Republic, such as the tambora and güira. Its syncopated beats use Latin percussion, brass instruments, bass, and piano or keyboard. Between 1937 and 1950 merengue music was promoted internationally by Dominican groups.

Dominican traditional music and dance culture.

Bachata, a form of music and dance that originated in the countryside and rural neighborhoods of the Dominican Republic, has become quite popular in recent years. Bachata is mainly derived from Spanish guitar music, with some African and Native influences. It is closely related to the pan-Latin American romantic style called bolero. Over time, it has also been influenced by merengue and by a variety of Latin American guitar styles.

The typical or national dress for the Dominican women tends to be a blouse, with ruffles on the sleeves, and a long skirt. Other times it tends to be a full body dress, but keeping the long wide skirt and the same of type of blouse. They adorn their hair with flowers, generally red caienne. The predominant color is white, contrasting with the red and blue colors. Dominican men often wear a white long sleeved shirt with details around the buttons and pants that are white or light grey, which can be long or mid-calf, and a hat. Sometimes they usually carry machetes or other bladed weapons. This suit has a strong Hispanic colonial influence.