As Christopher Colombus once said 'The Dominican Republic is the most beautiful island a man's eye's have ever seen”. The Dominican Republic is an up and coming island for Tourism, it has some of the best beaches in the world, with crystal clear water's and plentiful sunshine. You can head in land to the Mountains for river rafting and canyoning for the adventure seekers.  On the North coast there is lot's to offer whether it be windsurfing, kite surfing and underwater the island has yet more to offer diver's and snorkeller's, with coral garden's, caves providing a home for colourful fish. The largest visitor's to Dominican water's are the humpback whales, which migrate there from Jan to mar, to mate and reproduce. As of 2004 Ocean world opened its doors where you can have an experience of a lifetime, swim with dolphins, sealions, sharks, tigers and many more.

History

Christopher Columbus landed on the island he later named Hispaniola during his first voyage to the new world in 1492.

The western third of the island is occupied by French-speaking Haiti, while the Eastern part two thirds is the Spanish speaking Dominican Republic. It is believed that at the time of Columbus' arrival there was between 300,000 and 500,000 Amerindians, known as Tainos(indians), tragically the Spanish enslaved the Tainos and eliminated them by the 1530's. African slaves were imported to replace the Tainos as a stronger and more reliable workforce and today the population of 8 million is largely a mixture of Spanish and African.

From when the island was first discovered many countries wanted to take over the Dominican, but on Feb 27th 1844 independence was proclaimed by the three founding fathers, Juan Pablo Duarte, Francisco de Rosario Sanchez and Roman Mella.  There independence is celebrated every year with carnivals and street parties.

The country was ruled by many dictators one in 1887 Ulises Heureaux who was assassinated in 1899, who left the country in debt, and another Rafael Trujillo in 1930. Trujillo dominated the country for over 30 years and was one of the most feared dictators in the Americas.
Now it's alot different with the current President Leonel Fernandez who was first elected in 1996-2000 and re-elected in 2004-present.