The Dominican Republic was first discovered in the year of 1492 by none other than Christopher Columbus. When Christopher Columbus first sighted what is today known as the Dominican Republic, he told Spain that he found a land that was the “fairest under the sun.” The Dominican Republic is located in between the chain of Caribbean islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico. The island has very favorable climate and gentle winds. With its good mineral wealth, the Dominican Republic was preferred as the early location for Spanish trade, administration in the New World and culture. Christopher Columbus named the Dominican Republic “Espanola” or “Little Spain” to show his love for the island. Today the island is divided into two countries which are the Dominican Republic, which consists of Hispanic, Western, Spanish speaking, population which of whom are mostly white or mulatto. The second country is Haiti, which is French and African Culturally and the population consists of people whom are mostly black. The Dominican Republic has four parallel mountain ranges that run from northwest to southwest that segregate the country into several smaller pieces and also separate the capital of Santo Domingo from the agricultural area and also from the center of the tourist trade area which is located on the northern coast. The mountain ranges are mostly unpopulated and are far less important to the Dominican Republic than the valleys of the cordillera. The Dominican Republic is usually blessed with beautiful weather and temperature and rainfall but the island also contains serious climatic problems such as hurricanes of which left many of its people dead and homeless in the year of 1930. This Hurricane served as a reason or excuse for Dictator R...
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...les of democracy completely. The structure of the Dominican Republic has not always conformed to the west and democratic tradition. Instead it uses a lot of elaborate for with questionable substance. The country’s constitution has taken after the Constitution of the United States but the underlying political realities are very different. Politics are key to the success of the Dominican Republic’s future and democratic system. The noticeable difference with today’s politics and policy makers is that political leaders must now deal with a large amount of problems and public issues that require them to make all of these decisions by ruling not just for themselves but also for jobs, water, education, housing and social development. The Dominican politics have evolved into a quest for power and privilege that together will keep the country prospering and growing.
Junot Diaz is Dominican American, and he came from a very poor family with five other siblings. Since they were not that wealthy, they lived in a simple way. Even though his mother was basically the bread winner of the family since his father could not keep a job, she still manages to send money back home every six months or so. When they got home from their vacation, they had found out that someone has broken into their house and stole most of his mother’s money. It was easy for them to be a target because they were recent immigrant, and in their neighborhood cars and apartment were always getting jacked. His mother was very upset; she blamed her children, because she thought it was their friends who had done such a thing. “We kids knew where
In the early 1930’s, the Dominican Republic elected a new president by the name of Rafael Trujillo. Rafael Trujillo was a ruthless and selfish dictator even before he won the election. To win the election, he used his connections to kill supporters of the opposing candidates. Rafael Trujillo used his powers to oppress and murder masses of people (2 ”Rafael Trujillo”). Even though he was initially seen as a beneficial leader, Rafael Trujillo was proven to be an evil dictator.
Belonging to the Dominican Republic, Salcedo is one of the smallest provinces in all of its country. It is also the province that has been recently dedicated to the Mirabal sisters. Four Dominican women who fought for the freedom of the Dominican republic from the Dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo. Patia Mercedes, born on February 27, 1924, was the eldest sister. Bélgica Adela Mirabal, the second sister, was born on February 29, 1925. Minerva Argentina, the third sister, was born on March 12, 1926. And lastly, Maria Teresa, the youngest sister was born on October 15, 1936. The four sisters were daughters of Enrique Mirabal Fernández and Mercedes "Chea" Reyes Camilo. The Mirabal family lived in a part of Salcedo named “Ojo De Agua” (Eye Of Water). They were
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina reigned over the Dominican Republic in a dictatorship, extending over thirty years. He is known as having been the “most ruthless dictator in Latin America.” However, there is another side to the story. Trujillo was the third son of a humble sheep herder and worked as a sugar plantation guard in his adolescent years. He enlisted in the United States Marines Corp during the U.S.’s occupation in the Dominican Republic. He built himself up to National Commander and claimed presidency in 1930. He was a man known to be surrounded by “a surfeit of booze, women, wealth, power, and enemies.” Until his final years, he was admired by the Dominican people and seen as a demi-god and savior. During his first prosperous years
Today I bring to your forefront of thought, the island of Hispaniola. This island is the namesake for the two countries who run the land, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Both nations hail from a joint introduction into the world market and post-European colonization, but as time progressed, each one had a different outlook to the world stage. The present day Dominican Republic and Haiti are worlds apart on an island which keeps them together. Their culture is separated by the colonial residuals that lay imbedded into their communities. They are on different sides of the spectrum of structural growth due to the resulting outcomes from decades of political ruling and policy making. On one side we have the second independent state of the Americas,
The Dominican Republic is different from many countries but specially the United States. Many people go on summer to the Dominican Republic but had they ever ask themselves what makes this small and beautiful island different from the most powerful country in the world (The United States).When I wake up in the Dominican Republic the year stations are all the same, hot, no change. The climate in the Dominican Republic is Semitropical. The language of the Dominican Republic is Spanish. Still the culture of the Dominican Republic is unique. The Dominican culture is awesome all types of colors and variety in base of people. People dance all the time. However every weekend is a celebration. I can go to the beach whenever I like to, I don’t have to wait until summer. But what does it makes it different from United States. In contrast when I wake up in the United States it can be cold one day and the next day hot. The climate in the United States varies due to the differences in latitude and a range of geography features. Basically United States has 4 types of weather, cold, not too cold, a little bit hot, too hot. The language in the United States is English. The culture of the United States is Western, but is influenced by African, Native Americans, Asian, Polynesian, and Latin American. United States has a mix culture because people come all over the world, to have better opportunities or just to change their way of life. The weekends in the United States are
The first instance of colonialism forced upon the inhabitants of the Dominican Republic was the “discovery” by Christopher Columbus on October 12, 1492. Ernesto Sagas and Orlando Inoa presented the interaction in their book The Dominican People: A Documentary History. The confrontation between these two diametrically opposed cultures proved to be “far from equal; the Amerindians’ Stone Age culture was no match for European military technology. The initial encounter took place on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, part of which is now the Dominican Republic” (Inoa pg. 1). This was the first step in a trek through five and a half centuries of Dominican Republic history, and unfortunately much of it was filled with the horror of colonialism. In fact, the Dominican Republic became the “hub” for the colonization of the America’s, and acted as the stepping-stone for European colonizers into a vast, never before exploited goldmine for both natural and human resources. As Sagas and Inoa discuss, the island of Hispaniola, "became the center of the Spanish colonial enterprise in the New World. It was in Hispaniola where the first major contacts between Europeans and Amerindians took place, where the first exploitative economic activities in the New World were developed, where Europeans first established permanent settlements and colonial institutions, and where the stage was set for the colonization of the rest of the New World (Inoa pg. 1.)." Thus the groundwork was established for colonialism not only for the Dominican Republic, but for the entire hemisphere. According to Sagas and Inoa, colonization was inevitable because interaction with Europeans was predictable. They wrote, “[i]f Christopher Columbus had...
... Housing for the D.R. Fellow nations sought to believe that the U.s would repeat the actions with the D.R that they took almost 50 years the events of the Dominican revolution. The U.S and the Dominican Republic share a good relationship and today with a strong democracy the small island in the Caribbean has well imitated the United States and gain a strong independence.
Peter H. Smith. , & , (2012). Democracy in Latin America. (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Countries that were once colonies went through various stages of evolution in order to develop economically, politically, and culturally while gaining independence. Cuba, a former colony of Spain, has changed drastically throughout the years. Although in some cases, colonialism has had a positive effect on the country in the area regarding education and health care and on the other hand, has created an economic gap between the citizens. The government, social structure, and economy in the country can be compared and contrasted throughout the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial years.
de Besault, Lawrence. President Trujillo: His work and the Dominican Republic. Santiago: Editorial El Diario, 1941.
The Dominican Republic is a nation located in the Caribbean Sea and shares the land with Haiti, and the whole island is called Hispaniola as it was named when Christopher Columbus discovered it during his first voyage in the year 1492. The country has proved to be one of the leading Caribbean countries with accessible healthcare to its citizens and even expats. However, the country has a multinational population with low-to-medium incomes and multi-level access to healthcare based on income. Despite this, improvements to healthcare system can lead to better medical outcomes to all the citizens and even to the suffering citizens of the Haiti. Because the Dominican Republic is an immediate neighbor to struggling Haiti, it is the moral obligation of the Dominican to provide Haitians with access to healthcare.
When comparing two countries, there is bound to be multiple differences between them. No two countries are exactly alike and the aforementioned statement is true when comparing the Dominican Republic and the United States. They differ in location and geography but also have many other differences. Some of the main differences occur in the topics of culture, customs and way of life.
There have been enormous efforts to spread democracy as a political system throughout the world by the developed democratic countries and the international development organizations including the World Bank. By the late 1990s the United States alone spent over a half billion dollars to promote democratic expansion throughout the world (Diamond, 2003). These were done considering that the democratic system leads towards development. As a result in the late 20th century we saw a huge political transformation towards democracy. During the last few decades a huge number of countries adopted democracy as their political system. However, it retain a big question how far democracy is successful in bringing development of a country? At this stage, some people also criticizes the effort of democratization arguing that it is done without considering the context of a country, sometimes democracy is not ideal for all countries and it is an effort to extinct diversity of political system. In studying the literature regarding the debate, we found a paradoxical relationship between democracy and development. Some argue that democracy has failed to ensure expected outcomes in terms of development. While others confronted that democracy has a considerable impact on development. Another group of people argue that form of political system actually does not have any impact on development process. On the verge of these debates, some development institutions and academics throw light on why democracy is not working properly, and what measure should be taken to make it more successful in bringing effective development of developing countries. Consequently, this writing is an effort of revisiting the different views about impact of democra...
Firstly, K. Isbester mentions that democracy has a different meaning for everyone, as some can define democracy as a good aspect for development, on the contrary other believe that it is nothing more than voting after several years. Although, Latin America see democratic g...