Matthew+Kaminow

The Dominican Republic

Image Source: infoplease "Map: **Dominican Republic**"

__**MAP**__



//Vegetation directly corolates// //sources://
 * Zonu “Dominican Republic Population Map 1971”
 * mappery "Dominican Republic Vegetation Map"


 * Profile**

When Columbus discovered this island in the Caribbean during his first journey in 1492 he named it La Espanola but as time passed, it slowly became Hispaniola. He appointed his son, Diego Columbus the first viceroy of the island and he lived in the capitol, Santo Domingo, which was founded four years after the discovery of the island. This is important because it shows how the country was founded and who found it. Columbus was a Spaniard and therefore, the new country belonged to Spain. Spain gave the colony to France. this changed ownership and also customs and languages of the inhabitants. Then, the Haitians took back the land in 1801. This changes the rule again to the Haitians who live on he same island. Eight years later, rebels captured the capitol and set up the first republic.
 * Explored by Columbus in 1492:
 * Revolution that captured Santo Domingo 1808

In 1844, the rebel group known as La Trinitaria, organized by a man by the name of Juan Pablo Duarte, won its independence on February 27th 1844 and the name Dominican Republic was adopted.
 * Dominican Republic formed 1844

Geography and Climate

There is some amazing Geography in the Dominican Republic. There are glorious mountain ranges for climbing, sunny beaches for basking, wide rivers, lakes and oceans for swimming and plains for hiking. The Geography isn’t just important for tourist attractions though. It, along with the climate, played a very crucial roll in shaping the history of Dominican Republic. One of the many amazing physical features in the Dominican republic is the Cordillera Central which is home to Pico Duarte, that, standing over 3,086 meters in height, is the largest mountain in the Caribbean. Another is Lago Enriquillo, which, at 40 meters below see level is the lowest point of the west Indies. These features make many sports possible in the Dominican Republic such as wind surfing, mountain biking, swimming, and hiking, just to name a few. You can wind surf on one of the glorious beaches or mountain bike under the shade of trees and dense vegetation that grows throughout the height of the mountains. The lakes are full of fish and you can just sit there and fish the day away. The Tainos lived off of berries and fruits and they were able to do this because the climate and soil permitted it. Maybe they would not have been as peaceful if they had had to junt for their food and that way maybe they would still be around The Geography also held gold which they found and wore as jewelry. The Spanish didn’t care about the berries and trees as much as they did about the gold. If there had bee no gold there, then the Spanish wouldn’t have conquered and if the Spanish didn’t conquer then maybe the Tainos would still exist and they might have made world peace. The climate is almost always around a warm 22 degrees centigrade and roughly 72 degrees Fahrenheit all year round which provoked shorts and short sleeves even in the colder months.

This information is useful because now you know that you should pack comfortable clothes and a bathing suit for the beach and nice shoes for the mountain ranges and forests.

Historical Figures

Three admirable and important figures in the history of Dominican Republic are: Juan Pablo Duarte (father of Dominican Republic), Diego Columbus (son of Christopher Columbus, was not only viceroy of west Indies and the island of Hispaniola but spent most of his life competing for his father’s rights), and Nicholas de Ovando (who enslaved the native peoples of Hispaniola and used them to work in the gold mines). These people shaped the history of the Dominican Republic. They did some really cool things, even though not all of those things would be very tolerable today. The first person that will be spoken about is Nicolas de Ovando. Born in 1451, Nicolas de Ovando was the first governor of the West Indies and Dominican Republic. He found the peaceful Indians (Taíno). He saw that many of them wore golden jewelry and he realized that this could make Spain rich. At first they were reluctant but Ovando promised them, protection from the elements and Christianity for their labor. This made the Tainos work but soon became a means of outright and brutal exploitations. Another very important man in the history of Dominican Republic is Diego Columbus, son of Christopher Columbus. Born in 1479, Diego Columbus became the page of a Spanish court, governor and viceroy of the Indies. In 1492, when his father sailed the ocean blue, Diego Columbus was made a page in the Spanish court. When his father died in 1506, he fought to regain is fathers rights and in 1508, he was made governor of the Indies, the year after, he arrived in Santo Domingo and succeeded Nicolas de Ovando in the post. This was not enough for Columbus however as he continually fought for his fathers rights until he died in 1526. Now, we will skip about 300 years to the man who is considered the father of Dominican republic Juan Pablo Duarte. Born in 1813, Juan Pablo Duarte organized a freedom organization called, La Trinitaria, helped overthrow the Haitian Gov. and spent the end of his life in exile. Duarte was sent to Europe for his education from1828-1823 and when he returned to Hispaniola, he organized a secret rebellion with several other patriots and they named themselves, La Trinitaria. Their first attempt to overthrow the government in 1843 failed and he fled the country but the next year, La Trinitaria overthrew the government.

Everyday living There are many traditions of living out your everyday life in the Dominican Republic that don’t have an equivalent in America. There are special ways of greeting strangers and universal dress codes there and some universal gestures that are for the Dominican Republic and only Dominican Republic. For example, did you know that when just meeting for the first time people handshake but when two people know each other they kiss each other on the cheek or the hug and slap each other’s backs. Did you know that people’s dress in church is dictated by the religion of Spain but everywhere else you just wear what is comfortable? In the Dominican Republic, there are special ways of greeting people such as handshakes or hugs. When two men are meeting for the first time in their lives, however, they do not hug; they simply shake each other’s hands. When shaking hands, it is very important to keep eye contact to show interest in the other person. If you do not keep eye contact, it is a sign of disrespect. When woman, meeting for the first time greet each other they shake hands as well. When two women who know each other well meet they kiss each other on the cheek, same if a woman and man are greeting each other. There are also some very interesting hand gestures in the Dominican Republic. There are a lot of hand gestures in Dominican Republic, some of them are unique, others came from Spain or tourists. One of these hand gestures is scratching your nose. This means that you are confused. It has the same effect as saying, “huh” or “what”. Another interesting hand motion, though not really a hand gesture, is “talking with your hands”. This happens almost everywhere in the world and it is emphasizing words with various hand motions. One last hand motion is: when you beckon to someone, you extend your arm towards someone and scratch the air in the direction of the person you are beckoning to. This is just a small summary of the everyday life in the Dominican Republic.

Religions, Holidays, and Festivals

The Dominican Republic is a mono-religious country. 95% of the people are roman catholic. They celebrate almost every holiday with a feast followed by music and dancing. People usually wear costumes while dancing. There are many holidays that these people celebrate such as the feast of Our Lady of Altagracia and Independence day. Not all of the holidays that are celebrated by the Dominicans are religious though. Some non-religious holidays are New years and Independence day. Independence day is on February 27th and commemorates that day in 1844 when La Trinitaria won independence from the Haitian government. Another non-religious holiday is Juan Pablo Duarte’s birthday (he is the man who organized La Trinitaria). Which is celebrated as a national holiday on the 26 of January. There is also labor day on the may first and restoration day on the 16th of August which commemorates the restoration war with Spain in 1864. One last non-religious holiday falls on the 6th of November and it is Constitution Day. Some religious holidays that spawned in Spain and were brought over to the Dominican Republic when Nicholas de Ovando gave the Tainos elements of Christianity, are Epiphany, which commemorates the first manifestation of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles during his baptism in the Jordan river, and the feast of Our Lady of Altagracia, which fall on the 21st of January, this is a feast the commemorates the protector of the Dominican Republicans: the Virgin Mary. Another Religious holiday that is, like Epiphany, one of the three oldest Christian festivals that falls in between March and April is Easter. Easter commemorates the reincarnation of Jesus Christ after he was crucified. The next and last one that will be mentioned here is Christmas which, like Easter and Epiphany, is one of the three principal holidays. It commemorates the birthday of Jesus Christ. These are the holidays of the mono-religious country, Dominican Republic.

Sources: add the link by following the Link setting on top
 * Colonial-zone.com
 * Britannica online
 * Hispaniola.com "Geography of Dominican Republic"
 * Mongbay.com "Dominican Republic geography"
 * countries and their cultures
 * Google images
 * culture crossing "Dominican Republic"
 * encyclopedia
 * Hispaniola.com "Holidays in the Dominican Republic"
 * shower of roses "our lady of Altagracia"
 * wikipedia "Epiphany (holiday)"
 * welcome-Dominican-republic.com "Dominican Republic holidays and festivals