Yearbook 2000
Dominican Republic. In the May 16 presidential election, Hipólito Mejía (Partido Revolucionário Dominicano, PRD) won by almost 50% over the ruling party’s Danilo Medina (Partido de la Liberación Dominicana, PLD). Joaquín Balaguer, Dominican politics grand old man (93 years) for four decades, looked defeated.
The Dominican Republic, under President Leonel Fernández, who took over after Balaguer’s resignation in 1996, has experienced a record economic growth – over 7% annually since 1998 – among other things. through privatizations of airports, sugar mills and electricity companies. But Mejía has nevertheless declared austerity, among other things. through mass redundancies within the state apparatus that Balaguer has built up and manipulated for many years and which is still large and ineffective.
- ABBREVIATIONFINDER: Offers three letter and two letter abbreviations for the country of Dominican Republic. Also covers country profile such as geography, society and economy.
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic; 2.9 million residents (2010). The city is on the south coast of Hispaniola. In addition to being the country’s political, economic and cultural center, Santo Domingo has some industry, especially light industry and assembly plants. Santo Domingo is the oldest European landscaped city in America.
Several buildings from the first decades of Columbus’s arrival on the island have been preserved. The Cathedral at Plaza Colón, Basílica Menor de Santa María, was built in 1514-40, restored in 1992. America’s oldest fortress building, Torre del Homenaje, part of the Ozan Fort, was built in 1503-07 by Governor Nicolás de Ovando (c. 1441-c. 1511).. Along the street Calle las Damas are two private residences built for the sailor Rodrigo de Bastidas (1460-1526) and Nicolás de Ovando. Here is also the Colony Museum Museo de las Casas Reales in the rebuilt Governor’s Palace and Audiencia from the same period; moreover, the Viceroy’s Museum in Alcázar de Colón, built 1510-14 by Columbus’ son Governor Diego Columbus (c. 1478-1526) and for a number of years the seat of the supreme Spanish authority in America. In addition, a number of other houses, churches and monasteries from the 1500-t have been preserved. The old town is declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The supposed terrestrial remains of Columbus are approximately 1992 transferred from the cathedral to a mausoleum in the cruciform building of Faro a Colón.
Founded by the Spaniards in 1496, Santo Domingo was the starting point for the Spanish conquest in America during the first decades of the 1500’s. From 1535, the Viceroy of New Spain was established with the capital of Mexico, and then the administration of South America was also transferred through the creation of the Viceroy of Peru in 1542. Santo Domingo served as the ecclesiastical and judicial center of the Caribbean and northern South America until the late 1700’s..; America’s first university was founded here in 1538. The city was named 1936-61 Ciudad Trujillo.
Population 2000
According to COUNTRYAAH, the population of Dominican Republic in 2000 was 8,471,210, ranking number 84 in the world. The population growth rate was 1.620% yearly, and the population density was 175.3171 people per km2.
