Description
Hispaniola was visited and named by Christopher Columbus during his first voyage in 1492. The present-day division of the island into two countries – French- and Creole-speaking Haiti and the Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic – can be traced to the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick, in which Spain recognized French sovereignty over the western third of the island. In 1869, the ruler of the Dominican Republic, by then an independent country, sought to join the United States as a way of dealing with bankruptcy and internal unrest. Secretary of State William H. Seward was ...