Capital of the Dominican Republic

¶ … capital of the Dominican Republic is also its largest city and one of the most sizable in North America. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognizes the historical importance of Santo Domingo's old town, its Colonial Zone by designating it a World Heritage site. Santo Domingo is one of the oldest cities in the Americas and is the oldest continually inhabited European-established city in the New World. The Christopher Columbus first landed in the Americas on the Dominican Republic. His brother Bartholomew found Santo Domingo, which later became "the site of the first cathedral, hospital, customs house and university in the Americas," (UNESCO). The Americas' first monastery, convent, and fortress were also located in Santo Domingo although all are now historical ruins. Moreover, Santo Domingo became a model for future New World city planners with its grid system of roads (UNESCO).

Originally named Santo Domingo after Saint Dominic, the city was first settled in 1496 after two unsuccessful attempts at settlement elsewhere on Hispanola: Navidad and Isabella. Neither site proved tenable due to marauding native peoples and inhospitable geography. Santo Domingo, however, worked. Two years after the Europeans set up camp there the city was officially established in 1498. Santo Domingo quickly became a colonial headquarters used as a base of operations for subsequent waves of explorers and conquistadores. Invasions and explorations into Mexico and Cuba were planned out of Santo Domingo, which was governed by its first mayor Nicolas de Ovando starting in 1502. The golden age of Santo Domingo was short-lived, however. In fact, the ambitious Spanish projects of conquering the New World was exactly what brought about the city's downfall. Successful operations throughout the rest of the Americas meant that new settlers abandoned Santo Domingo for places formerly occupied by the Aztecs and the Incas. With the entire New World effectively under the control of Europeans, Santo Domingo dwindled in importance as a base of operations.

What began as a Spanish colonial settlement and bureaucratic hub also soon became a virtual war zone. Santo Domingo and the entire island of Hispanola briefly became a contested New World outpost for other resource-hungry Europeans. In 1586, Englishman Francis Drake conquered Santo Domingo. The English invasion drove out most of the Spanish settlers but Drake did not establish an English settlement in Santo Domingo. Instead, Drake looted the city and left the demolished town for pirates to plunder and pillage.

Almost a century later the French took aim at Santo Domingo and the entire island of Hispanola. First conquering the western half of the island, the French then briefly occupied the eastern half and Santo Domingo. The French drove in slaves from Africa in an attempt to cull the island's natural resources for economic gain, a move that also backfired on the French colonialists. Remarkably successful slave revolts forced the French to abandon post, liberating Haiti and placing Hispanola including the city Santo Domingo under Haitian rule.