The Dominican Republic was Christopher Columbus’s first contact with America on his journey to what he thought was India. In fact, the so-called “Battle of the Arrows”, which forced Columbus and his fleet to leave the island and look for a new place to debark, was fought at his first point of contact: Samana. He then continued to the capital, Santo Domingo.

Since the country was the first landing point of the European colonists, the country developed comparably faster than its neighboring countries: the Dominican Republic had America’s very first cathedral, the first university, the first European roadway, and the first fort. Its early discovery led the country to what it is today: the clear leader in social and economic matters of the entire region.
In the different phases of the history of the Dominican Republic, the island was inhabited by the Indian tribe of the Tainos, later occupied by European colonists, who in turn brought slaves from Africa. It lived through Spanish, French, Haitian, American occupations and a dictatorship before it became what it is today, a peaceful democracy. Today, the Dominican Republic provides of a stable government with democratic elections, with well functioning branches of legislature.