República DominicanaDominican Republic
Flag Coat of arms
Motto "Dios, Patria, Libertad"  (Spanish) "God, Homeland, Liberty"
Anthem Quisqueyanos valientes
Capital (and largest city)		Santo Domingo 1 18°30′N, 69°59′W
Demonym		Dominican
Government		Presidential Republic
-	President	Leonel Fernández
Independence		From Haiti
-	Date	27 February 1844
Area
-	Total	48,442 km² (130th) 18,810 sq mi
-	Water (%)	1.6
Population
-	July 2007 estimate	9,183,984 (87th)
-	2000 census	9,365,818
-	Density	182 /km² (58th) 474 /sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2006 estimate
-	Total	$77.09 billion (69th)
-	Per capita	$8,400 (77th)
Gini (2003)		51.7 (high)
HDI (2004)		0.751 (medium) (94th)
Currency		Peso (DOP)
Time zone		Atlantic (UTC-4)
Internet TLD		.do
Calling code		+1spec. 1-809 and +1-829
1	Known as Ciudad Trujillo from 1936 to 1961

The Dominican Republic (Spanish: República Dominicana, IPA ) is a Latin American country that occupies the eastern two-thirds of the Caribbean island called Hispaniola. It shares a border with the Republic of Haiti, making it one of two Caribbean islands that are split by two countries; the other is Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten. Hispaniola is the second-largest of the Greater Antilles islands, and lies west of Puerto Rico and east of Cuba and Jamaica.

More than 500 years of mixed lapses of prosperity and turmoil give this island-nation the longest historical record of any of the other country in the Western hemisphere: The Dominican Republic is the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, and became the first point of colonization in the Western Hemisphere by explorers from Europe. Present-day Dominican Republic has the first cathedral, university, road, and fortress of the Americas, and Santo Domingo was the first city founded there. Santo Domingo (originally New Isabela) was also the first colonial capital in the Americas.

Dominican Republic Pictures