Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic, or SANTO (commonly SAN) DOMINGO, a state formed of the eastern portion of Hayti (q.v.), and embracing 20,587 sq. m., or over two-thirds of the whole island. The pop. was officially estimated in 1888 at 610,000; most of these are negroes or mulattoes, but the whites are comparatively more numerous and influential than in the Haitian Republic. The state religion is Roman Catholic, others being tolerated; the prevailing dialect is Spanish. Civilisation has not reached a high level; primary instruction, however, is now gratuitous and obligatory, and of late years the country has made considerable progress under the impulse of American enterprise. Large sugar plantations and factories have been developed in the south and west; the culture of tobacco, coffee, and cocoa has been greatly increased; and the export of mahogany, dye-woods, and guano has been revived. Gold, silver, quicksilver, iron, and coal have been found; and there is a railway of 72 miles. The imports have an annual value of over 2,000,000, the exports of near 3,000,000; the commerce is mainly with the United States, England, France, and Germany. Of 200 ships entering the port annually 25 are British. The revenue, under $4,000,000, hardly covers the expenditure. In 1893 the foreign debt amounted (including a loan of that year and £680,000 of unpaid interest) to close on £2,000,000. The executive of the republic is vested in a president, chosen by universal suffrage for a term of four years, and the legislative power in a congress of twenty-two deputies, elected in the ratio of two for each of the provinces and maritime districts, which, however, are under their own governors. The capital is San Domingo (q.v.).—The early history of this portion of the island, which remained Spanish when the western part was ceded to France in 1697, and which was united with the neighbouring state in 1795–1808 and 1822–43, properly belongs to that of Haiti (q.v.). In 1843 it assumed a separate standing as the Dominican Republic, the anarchy and misrule of which it exchanged in 1861 for the despotism of its former masters. But the harsh Spanish rule brought on a revolt in 1863, and the republic, reconstituted in 1865, has since maintained a troubled existence, under a succession of governments generally placed in power by more or less exciting revolutions. See Kimball, Life in San Domingo; Keim, San Domingo (Phila. 1870); and Hazard, Santo Domingo, Past and Present (New York, 1873).