The first recorded history of the island of Hispaniola, of which the largest portion is occupied by The Dominican Republic with the rest being Haiti, comes from its discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1492 when he named the island La Española.

At that time the island was already populated by the Taínos Indians who greeted the Spanish in a very friendly manner. Their name for the island was Quisqueya, a name which survives today as a "Barrio" or district in the Capital Santo Domingo.

Columbus was enchanted by the island and its people and in his reports talked about the high mountains, the great valleys and beautiful natural resources he found. His attention was attracted even further after finding traces of gold in one of the rivers.

Disaster struck though on Christmas Eve 1492 when his ship the Santa Maria crashed onto a reef a couple of miles east of Cap Haitien. After salvaging what could be saved the crew created a small settlement called “el fortín de navidad”. And Columbus left a few of his people there before returning to Spain.

On his return he found that the settlement had been destroyed by the Indians. It appeared that the crew he had left behind had begun abusing the local inhabitants and when they got tired of it they had retaliated.

The capital, Santo Domingo, was created in 1496 and is the oldest recorded European settlement in the Western Hemisphere. Spain gifted the territory to France in 1795, and Haitians, ruled by Toussaint L'Ouverture, conquered it in 1801, the first of several wars and armed disputes between the two countries. In 1808 the people revolted and captured Santo Domingo the next year, setting up the first republic. Spain regained title to the country in 1814 a colonial regime which lasted until 1821 when the rule of Spain was overthrown. In 1822 the colony was conquered again by the Haitians, a recorded brutal regime which lasted until 1844, when they were once again overthrown and the Dominican Republic was established headed by Pedro Santana. Continued uprisings and Haitian attacks led Santana to make the country a province of Spain once again from 1861 to 1865 providing the country with military aid and assistance to withstand the attacks from their volatile neighbours as well as internal disputes and uprisings.

One of the longest rulers of the Dominican Republic was Rafael Trujillo who took control of the country in 1930, and stayed in power for 31 years, until 1961 largely at the behest and blessing of the government of the U.S.A. His rule was by no means benevolent and he committed a large number of criminal acts as well as torturing a lot of people. Following a massacre at the border of Dominican Republic with Haiti he was assassinated in 1961 by gunmen reportedly hired by the CIA and his vice-president at the time, Dr. Joaquín Balaguer, took control of the presidency. Some time later Juan Bosch was elected by the people to be president, however chaos continued to reign once again as the dissatisfied people blamed the government for their living conditions and a rebel army started to be formed. Seeing the prospect of an armed rebellion taking place the president of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson sent a military force to re-establish order, ultimately resulting in the resignation of Bosch. During the following years, several presidents came to power but corruption within the government and the lack of initiatives to improve the working conditions of the poorer citizens kept being one of the main concerns year after year.

In 1996 Leonel Fernandez was elected president of Dominican Republic in the hope that his reforms would finally help the people to achieve what they always wanted. However in 2000, even when the country was experiencing the greatest economic growth in its history, Leonel Fernandez was voted out due to the suspicion of corruption. In 2004, however, he returned again to the presidency and was again re-elected for a further term in 2008. 

Although there are continuing rumours of corruption within the government the economy of the Dominican Republic has improved consistently under his control and joining the North American Free Trade area and opening of free trade zones has brought increased investment into the country along with improved employment opportunities and wages.