Editing Dominican Republic (section)

===European colonization===
[[Christopher Columbus]] arrived on the island on December 5, 1492, during the first of his [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus|four voyages]] to the Americas. He claimed the land for Spain and named it ''La Española'', due to its diverse climate and terrain, which reminded him of the [[Spain|Spanish]] landscape.<ref>[http://www.catholictradition.org/Tradition/christopher-columbus.htm Christopher Columbus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016024039/http://www.catholictradition.org/Tradition/christopher-columbus.htm |date=October 16, 2014 }}. Catholictradition.org. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.</ref> In 1496, [[Bartholomew Columbus]], Christopher's brother, built the city of [[Ciudad Colonial (Santo Domingo)|Santo Domingo]], Western Europe's first permanent settlement in the "[[New World]]". The Spaniards created a [[plantation economy]].<ref name=transat>{{cite book |last=Rawley |first=James A. |author2=Behrendt, Stephen D. |author2-link=Stephen D. Behrendt |title=The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A History |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2005 |page=49 |isbn=978-0-8032-3961-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sn5pK8rbR5MC&pg=PA49 |access-date=January 11, 2024 |archive-date=January 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111005716/https://books.google.com/books?id=Sn5pK8rbR5MC&pg=PA49#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

Initially, after friendly relationships, the Taínos resisted the conquest, led by female Chief [[Anacaona]] of Xaragua and her ex-husband Chief [[Caonabo]] of Maguana, as well as Chiefs [[Guacanagaríx]], [[Guamá]], [[Hatuey]], and [[Enriquillo]]. The latter's successes gained his people an autonomous enclave on the island. Within a few years after 1492, the population of Taínos had declined drastically due to [[smallpox]],<ref>"[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/what-became-of-the-taino-73824867/ What Became of the Taíno?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011062036/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/what-became-of-the-taino-73824867/|date=October 11, 2016}}". ''[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]'' October 2011</ref> measles, and other diseases that arrived with the Europeans.<ref name="history">[http://www.dshs.texas.gov/preparedness/bt_public_history_smallpox.shtm "History of Smallpox&nbsp;– Smallpox Through the Ages"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161106211915/http://www.dshs.texas.gov/preparedness/bt_public_history_smallpox.shtm|date=November 6, 2016}}. ''Texas Department of State Health Services.''</ref> African slaves were imported to replace the dwindling Taínos.

The last record of pure Taínos in the country was from 1864. Still, Taíno biological heritage survived due to intermixing. Census records from 1514 reveal that 40% of Spanish men in Santo Domingo were married to Taíno women,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ferbel Azcarate |first=Pedro J. |date=December 2002 |title=Not Everyone Who Speaks Spanish is from Spain: Taíno Survival in the 21st Century Dominican Republic |url=http://www.kacike.org/FerbelEnglish.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=KACIKE: The Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology |issue=Special |issn=1562-5028 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040617195321/http://www.kacike.org/FerbelEnglish.pdf |archive-date=June 17, 2004 |access-date=September 24, 2009}}</ref> and some present-day Dominicans have Taíno ancestry.<ref name="Guitar" /><ref name="Martinez" />

[[File:Treaty of Aranjuez English.svg|thumb|Map showing the border situation on Hispaniola following the [[Treaty of Aranjuez (1777)]]]]
By the time of the [[Treaty of Ryswick]] in 1697, which ceded the western one-third of the island to France, the population of Santo Domingo consisted of a few thousand whites, approximately 30,000 black slaves, and a few Taínos.{{sfn|Scheina|2003|p=341}} By 1789, the population had grown to 125,000, but Santo Domingo remained one of Spain's less wealthy and strategically important colonies in the New World.{{sfn|Scheina|2003|p=341}} The population composition of Santo Domingo sharply contrasted with that of the neighboring French colony of [[Saint-Domingue]]—the wealthiest colony in the Caribbean and whose population of half a million was 90% enslaved and four times as numerous as Santo Domingo.<ref name="google48">{{cite book |editor-last=Knight |editor-first=Franklin W. |title=General history of the Caribbean |date=1997 |publisher=Unesco |location=London |isbn=978-92-3-103146-5 |page=48 |edition=1. publ. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ppGJBmQVJjEC&pg=PR2 |access-date=April 30, 2015 |archive-date=January 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111004217/https://books.google.com/books?id=ppGJBmQVJjEC&pg=PR2#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/dominican-republic/3.htm|title=Dominican Republic – THE FIRST COLONY|access-date=August 16, 2016|archive-date=December 13, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213213711/http://countrystudies.us/dominican-republic/3.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1795, Spain ceded Santo Domingo to France by the [[Peace of Basel|Treaty of Basel]] as a result of its defeat in the [[War of the Pyrenees]]. Saint-Domingue achieved independence as Haiti from France on January 1, 1804. In 1809, the French were expelled from the island and Santo Domingo returned to [[España Boba|Spanish rule]].{{sfn|Scheina|2003|p=342}}