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History

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The Dominican Republic's history is a rich and ever-changing one of sadness and resilience and the ability to bounce back. First to this land, that we know of, were early settlers that came from Central America and spoke Arawak and either roamed through or got pushed out by the Taino Indians who also speak Arawak. These people are very peaceful by nature and the name Taino means friendly or noble people. These settlers then stayed until 1500 years ago Christopher Columbus came to what he named Hispaniola. The Taino people are believed to have welcomed the Spaniards on their arrival. However he passed them disease that they were not accustomed to and used them to get silver and gold from the land. If they did not provide enough good they were punished. The Taínos were harmed by Spanish diseases and slavery and their community numbers decreased. Of the 400, 000 Taínos that lived on Hispaniola at the time of European arrival, fewer than 1000 were still alive 30 years later.



This colonization of the Spaniards continued and more people from Central America also joined Hispaniola. On the other side of the island the French colonist landed and created a separate colony. In 1821 the colonist in Santo Domingo declared independence and were free from Spain. This land creating controversy has been fought over for a significance amount of time. For some time the Spaniards fought for their land and occurred through War of Restoration. Finally on March 3rd in 1865 the Queen of Spain signed a decree annulling the annexation and withdrew her soldiers from the island. (Hispaniola.com and Lonelyplanet.com)

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National Anthem
The National Anthem in the Dominican Republic is called "Himno Nacional". This version is actually the third version that the Dominican Republic. The first was used from 1844 independence to 1885 named "Cancion Dominicana". The second did not have a title and was used until the motion was made in 1897 to use this anthem.It was fully adopted by the president Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina in 1934. This song was inspired by Jose Reyes push for a different anthem. He wrote the music and asked Emilio Prud'homme to write the lyrics. Once published the public enjoyed it and the National Congress in 1897 made it the official national anthem. One interesting thing about this anthem is that the name Dominican is not used in the lyrics but instead uses "Quisqueyano" a more poetic term and one that is referencing the original native inhabitants. (nationalanthems.info) media type="custom" key="7837289" width="159" height="159" align="center" Click here to see larger image. The more times the word is said in the anthem the larger the word is. You can see that strength was important as well as remembering the thousands who help them break free.
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