Dominican Republic

(Please note that I have been trying to profile one country per day in an effort to better educate myself about the world we live in. I am sharing the facts I find most interesting because like all bloggers I just assume that what interests me also interests you.)



- From the CIA World Handbook - "Explored and claimed by 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."

- The Dominican Republic has an area of about 48,720 sq km (about the size of New Hampshire and Vermont combined) and a population of about 8.7 million people - which is just slightly more than the population of the State of Georgia. 95% of the population of the Dominican Republic is Roman Catholic (which I'm guessing is just slightly higher than the percentage of Roman Catholics in Georgia).

- The heritage of the country is Spanish but the legal system system is based upon French legal codes.

- The country elects a same-ticket President and Vice President to serve a four-year term. This month - the country will hold its Presidential elections. The bicameral Congress consists of a Senate (30 seats) and a Chamber of Deputies (149 seats).

- 87% of export revenues come from the United States and this doesn't even count the number of baseball players that come from the Dominican Republic. Tourism is a booming business in the Dominican Republic and I have to think that the MLB players have no small part in that. Sammy Sosa, Pedro Martinez and all the other Dominican players are very proud of their country and it really comes across.

- The per capita GDP is about $6,300 (which is almost 5 times as much as the per capita GDP of neighboring Haiti). In fact - one of the biggest problems facing the Dominican Republic is illegal immigration from Haiti.

- From InfoPlease.com - "President Buenaventura Báez, faced with an economy in shambles, attempted to have the country annexed to the U.S. in 1870, but the U.S. Senate refused to ratify a treaty of annexation. Disorder continued until the dictatorship of Ulíses Heureaux; in 1916, when chaos broke out again, the U.S. sent in a contingent of marines, who remained until 1934. A sergeant in the Dominican army trained by the marines, Rafaél Leonides Trujillo Molina overthrew Horacio Vásquez in 1930 and established a dictatorship that lasted until his assassination 31 years later."