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Country Information:
https://www.cia.gov/
Background:
Explored and 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. A legacy of
unsettled, mostly non-representative rule
followed, capped by the dictatorship of Rafael
Leonidas TRUJILLO from 1930-1961. Juan BOSCH was
elected president in 1962, but was deposed in a
military coup in 1963. In 1965, the United
States led an intervention in the midst of a
civil war sparked by an uprising to restore
BOSCH. In 1966, Joaquin BALAGUER defeated BOSCH
in an election to become president. BALAGUER
maintained a tight grip on power for most of the
next 30 years when international reaction to
flawed elections forced him to curtail his term
in 1996. Since then, regular competitive
elections have been held in which opposition
candidates have won the presidency. Former
President (1996-2000) Leonel FERNANDEZ Reyna won
election to a second term in 2004 following a
constitutional amendment allowing presidents to
serve more than one term.
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