The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island Hispaniola is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are occupied by two countries, Saint Martin being the other. Its size is 48,700 km² with an estimated population of almost 10,000,000.

The Dominican Republic is the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas: Santo Domingo, the country’s capital. For most of its independent history, the nation experienced political turmoil and unrest, suffering through many non-representative and tyrannical governments. Since the death of military dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina in 1961, the Dominican Republic has moved toward a liberal economic model, which has made it the largest economy in the region, and towards representative democracy.
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