7 ATLASES

History of the Dominican Republic in maps

The Dominican Republic as it appears in 7 interactive history atlases, from 1750 to 2015: Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.

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Map of Saint-Domingue in July 1801, showing the Dominican Republic — MAP OF SAINT-DOMINGUE IN JULY 1801

These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Cliopatria v0.2.1 — dated political boundaries · Carte de St. Domingue: paroisses et jurisdictions (1770), John Carter Brown Library · P. L. Griwtonn — Carte de l’Isle de St. Domingue avec les routes (1801), JCB Library · Natural Earth — physical reference geography

Source details

Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. CC BY4.0 · Dated polity and constituent territory selections; campaign-dependent occupation overlays reconstructed separately.
Carte de St. Domingue: paroisses et jurisdictions (1770), John Carter Brown Library. Historical map in the public domain; original scan not republished.
P. L. Griwtonn — Carte de l’Isle de St. Domingue avec les routes (1801), JCB Library. Historical map in the public domain; original scan not republished.
Natural Earth. Public domain

The frontier follows the published 1770 parish map, the closest acquired late-colonial boundary reference. For 1801 island-wide administration, it follows the published 1801 map.

reconstruction: 1801.5 · vector: 1801.5

Layer records and reconstruction methods

What was the Dominican Republic before it was Dominican Republic? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.

Dominican Republic · Industrial Revolution

c. 1750	Colony or dependency — the opening position
c. 1830	Agrarian economy

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Santo Domingo (mod. Dominican Rep.) · Age of Revolutions

APR 1775	Colonial possessions — the opening position
SEP 1822	Republics & revolutionary states

AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Santo Domingo (mod. Dominican Republic) · Haiti and Kenya independence

Spanish Santo Domingo, on the eastern side of Hispaniola, was older and poorer than the French colony beside it. Its economy depended on cattle ranching, and it held far fewer enslaved people. Spain ceded it to France on paper in 1795; Toussaint took it in 1801, Dessalines besieged it in 1805, and Haiti ruled it from 1822 to 1844. On 27 February 1844 it declared independence as the Dominican Republic. Freedom from Haitian rule became a central part of the new nation’s founding memory.

1789	Under colonial rule — the opening position
JUL 1801	Self-rule in all but name
JUN 1802	Under colonial rule
JUL 1825	Independence won
1844	Other states and societies

HAITI AND KENYA INDEPENDENCE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Santo Domingo (Dominican Rep.) · American Civil War

In March 1861, only weeks before Sumter, Spain re-annexed Santo Domingo. Spanish leaders were explicitly confident that a United States coming apart could not object. Their gamble failed nevertheless. The War of Restoration (1863–65) bled the Spanish out, and they left in the same summer the Confederacy died. The Dominican Republic’s second independence belongs to the wider story of a hemisphere in which empires moved while the United States was distracted and moved back when it reunited.