The Dominican Republic: A Nation That Shares an Island With Its Own Complicated History

The Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, the only Caribbean island divided between two independent nations, a border shaped by centuries of colonial rivalry between Spain and France, and later by a genuinely difficult, at times violent, shared history between the two countries that has persisted well into the modern era. Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital, holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas, founded in 1496 by Bartholomew Columbus, brother of Christopher Columbus.

That early founding means Santo Domingo’s Zona Colonial contains numerous genuine architectural firsts for the Americas, the oldest cathedral, the oldest paved street, and the oldest fortress, all still standing and now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a concentration of colonial-era firsts unmatched anywhere else in the hemisphere.

An Economy Rebuilt Substantially Around Baseball

The Dominican Republic has become one of the most significant sources of Major League Baseball talent outside the United States, a disproportionate number of MLB players trace their origins to Dominican baseball academies, and the sport functions as a genuine pathway to economic opportunity for many young Dominicans, supported by an extensive network of scouting and training facilities run directly by American teams. That baseball culture runs deep enough that informal games are a near-constant sight throughout the country, from professional academies to sandlots in even the smallest towns.

The country’s north coast, particularly around Puerto Plata and Cabarete, has become internationally significant for windsurfing and kitesurfing, drawing competitive athletes specifically for consistent trade winds considered among the most reliable in the Caribbean.

Painting Colonial Stone and Caribbean Light

Santo Domingo’s oldest colonial architecture in the Americas, set against warm Caribbean light, gives a watercolourist genuine historical weight to work with. We’ve captured that character in our own Dominican Republic Watercolor Print, painted first by hand and printed to order on archival paper, a small piece of the Caribbean for a wall at home.

Home to the Americas’ oldest surviving colonial city and a modern baseball pipeline reaching directly into Major League stadiums, the Dominican Republic remains a country whose firsts span considerably more centuries than most visitors realise.