Posts Tagged Hispaniola
The birth of Haitian-Dominican border: 1777-1936
Posted by ONeil in History of the Borderlands on September 22nd, 2009
One of the concrete "bornes" that mark the Haitian-Dominican border
In last week’s post, we looked at how Gold, Cows, and Pirates led to the division of Hispaniola between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. We left off in the story with France building up the economy of its sides of the island through the development of large sugar plantations while the Spanish continued to neglect the eastern side of the island.
Gold, cows, and pirates: the story of how the island of Hispaniola (or Quisqueya) ended up split into two countries: 1492-1777
Posted by ONeil in History of the Borderlands on September 2nd, 2009
Drawing of the finale of Act I of The Pirates of Penzance, found in Wikipedia
The island of Hispaniola (or Quisqueya as the Haitians prefer to call it) is unique in that it is the only island in the world that contains two nation states,yet these two countries couldn’t be more different. Haiti is very African in look and culture and Haitians speak French and Creole. The Dominican Republic is very Latin American in its look and culture and Dominicans speak Spanish. The two countries don’t even share the same national sports: Haitians are fanatics for soccer and Dominicans for baseball. How did this small island end up so deeply divided? It all began with a story of gold, cows, and pirates. Read the rest of this entry »
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