Hispaniola
The island of
Hispaniola (from
Spanish,
La Española) is the second-largest
island of the
Antilles, lying between the islands of
Cuba to the west, and
Puerto Rico to the east.
Christopher Columbus arrived there on
December 5,
1492, and on his second voyage in
1493 founded the first
Spanish colony in the
New World on it.
Haiti occupies the western third of the island; the eastern two-thirds are the
Dominican Republic.
The
Taíno called the island
Quisqueya (or
Kiskeya), a name still in use in both countries. It poetically refers to the Dominican Republic in that country's
national anthem,
Quisqueyanos valientes. The Spanish rechristened the island
Santo Domingo, and the corresponding term
Saint-Domingue was taken up by the French. Another indigenous name,
Ayiti or variants thereof, was reintroduced in
1804 as the name for independent Haiti. The name Haiti was originally intended to mean the entire island, not just the western part, and in fact the present-day Dominican Republic was known briefly as
Spanish Haiti.
Bohio is yet a third indigenous name for the island.
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Topography map of Hispaniola |
After the French gained control of the western part of Hispaniola through the 1697
Treaty of Ryswick, the western part quickly came to overshadow the east in both wealth and population. Indeed, the population of the Dominican Republic did not overtake that of Haiti until about
1970. Haitians conquered the eastern part of the island on several occasions: in the
1790s under
Toussaint Louverture and in
1821-
1822 under
Jean-Pierre Boyer.
Hispaniola is the second-largest island in the
Caribbean (after
Cuba), with an area of 76,480 km². The island of Cuba lies to the northwest across the
Windward Passage; to the southwest lies
Jamaica, separated by the
Jamaica Channel.
Puerto Rico lies east of Hispaniola across the
Mona Passage. The
Bahamas and
Turks and Caicos Islands lie to the north.
Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico are collectively known as the
Greater Antilles. The Greater Antilles are made up of
continental rock, as distinct from the
Lesser Antilles, which are mostly young
volcanic or coral islands.
The Island has five major mountain ranges: The Central Range, known in the Dominican Republic as the
Cordillera Central, span the central part of the island, extending from the south coast of the Dominican Republic into northwestern Haiti, where they are known as the
Massif du Nord. This mountain range boasts the highest peak in the Antilles,
Pico Duarte at 3,087 meters (10,128 feet) above
sea level. The
Cordillera Septentrional runs parallel to the Central Range across the northern end of the Dominican Republic, extending into the
Atlantic Ocean as the
Samaná Peninsula. The highest point in the
Cordillera Septentrional is
Pico Diego de Ocampo. The
Cordillera Central and
Cordillera Septentrional are separated by the lowlands of the
Cibao Valley and the Atlantic coastal plains, which extend westward into Haiti as the
Plaine du Nord (Northern Plain). The lowest of the ranges is the
Cordillera Oriental, in the eastern part of the country.
The
Sierra de Neiba rises in the southwest of the Dominican Republic, and continues northwest into Haiti, parallel to the
Cordillera Central, as the
Montagnes Noires,
Chaîne des Matheux and the
Montagnes du Trou d'Eau.
The Plateau Central lies between the
Massif du Nord and the
Montagnes Noires, and the
Plaine de l'Artibonite lies between the
Montagnes Noires and the
Chaîne des Matheux, opening westward toward the
Gulf of Gonâves.
The southern range begins in the southwesternmost Dominican Republic as the Sierra de Bahoruco, and extends west into Haiti as the Massif de la Selle and the Massif de la Hotte, which form the mountainous spine of Haiti's southern peninsula.
Pic de la Selle is the highest peak in the southern range and is the highest point in Haiti, at 2,680 meters (8,793 feet) above sea level. A depression runs parallel to the southern range, between the southern range and the
Chaîne des Matheux-
Sierra de Neiba. It is known as the
Plaine du Cul-de-Sac in Haiti, and Haiti's capital
Port-au-Prince lies at its western end. The depression is home to a chain of salty lakes, including the
Saumatre Lagoon in Haiti and
Lake Enriquillo in the Dominican Republic.
The climate of Hispaniola is generally
humid and
tropical. The island has four distinct
ecoregions. The
Hispaniolan moist forests ecoregion covers approximately 50% of the island, especially the northern and eastern portions, predominantly in the lowlands but extending up to 2100 meters elevation. The
Hispaniolan dry forests ecoregion occupies approximately 20% of the island, lying in the
rain shadow of the mountains in the southern and western portion of the island and in the
Cibao valley in the center-north of the island. The
Hispaniolan pine forests occupy the mountainous 15% of the island, above 850 meters elevation. The
Enriquillo wetlands are a
flooded grasslands and savannas ecoregion that surround a chain of lakes and lagoons that includes
Lake Enriquillo,
Rincón Lagoon, and
Lake Caballero in the Dominican Republic and
Saumatre Lagoon and
Trou Cayman in Haiti.
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