White Dominicans
White Dominicans, also known as Caucasian Dominicans, are Dominicans of full or near full White European or West Asian ancestry. The 2022 Dominican Republic census reported that 1,611,752 people or 18.7% of those 12 years old and above identify as white, 731,855 males and 879,897 females. An estimate put it at 17.8% of the Dominican Republic's population, according to a 2021 survey by the United Nations Population Fund.
The majority of white Dominicans have ancestry from the first European settlers to arrive in Hispaniola in 1492 and are descendants of the Spanish and Portuguese who settled in the island during colonial times, as well as the French who settled in the 17th and 18th centuries. Many whites in the Dominican Republic also descend from Italians, Dutchmen, Germans, Hungarians, Scandinavians, Americans and other nationalities who have migrated between the 19th and 20th centuries. About 9.2% of the Dominican population claims a European immigrant background, according to the 2021 Fondo de Población de las Naciones Unidas survey.
White Dominicans historically made up a larger percentage in the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo and for a time were the single largest ethnic group prior to the 19th century. Similar to the rest of the Hispanic Caribbean, the majority of Spaniards who settled the Dominican Republic came from southern Spain, Andalusia and the Canary Islands, with some Castillian and Catalan immigration.
Population
The 1750 estimates show that there were 30,863 whites, or 43.7% out of a total population of 70,625, in the colony of Santo Domingo. other estimates include 1790 with 40,000 or 32% of the population, and in 1846 with 80,000 or 48.5% of the population.The first census of 1920 reported that 24.9% identified as white. The second census, taken in 1935, covered race, religion, literacy, nationality, labor force, and urban–rural residence.
The census bureau continued to gather data on ethnic-racial identification until 1960, discontinuing its use of classifications until 2022.
The most recent census in 2022 reported that 1,611,752 or 18.7% of Dominicans 12 years old and above self identify as white.
The Dominican identity card used to categorised people as yellow, white, Indian, and black, in 2011 the Junta planned to replace Indian with mulatto in a new ID card with biometric data that was under development, but in 2014 when it released the new ID card, it decided to just drop racial categorisation, the old ID card expired on 10 January 2015. The Ministry of Public Works and Communications uses racial classification in the driver's license, being white, mestizo, mulatto, black, and yellow the categories used.
History
Conquest and settlement
The presence of whites in the Dominican Republic dates back to the founding of La Isabela, one of the first European settlements in the Americas, by Bartholomew Columbus in 1493. The presence of precious metals such as gold boosted migration of thousands of Spaniards to Hispaniola seeking easy wealth. They tried to enslave the Taíno, but many of these died of diseases, and those who survived did not make good slaves.In 1510, there were 10,000 Spaniards in the colony of Santo Domingo, and it rose to over 20,000 in 1520. But following the depleting of the gold mines, the island began to depopulate, as most poor Spanish colonists embarked to the newly conquered Mexico or to Venezuela. This was followed by a limited Spanish migration toward Hispaniola, composed overwhelmingly by males. In order to counteract the depopulation and impoverishment of the colony, the Spanish Monarchy allowed the importation of African slaves to hew sugar cane.
By 1542 there were only few hundred natives. Several epidemics wiped out the remaining natives on the island.
The shortage of Spanish females led to miscegenation, that drove the creation of a caste system,, in which Spaniards were at the top, mixed-race people at middle, and Amerindians and black people at the bottom. Endogamy became a norm within the higher classes, in order to maintain their status and remain racially pure especially, specially because only pure whites were able to inherit majorats. As a result, Santo Domingo, like the rest of Hispanic America, became a pigmentocracy. The local-born whites were known as blancos de la tierra, in contrast to the blancos de Castilla, "whites from Castile".
The color prejudice between blacks and whites practically disappeared due to the great misery that prevailed in the colony.
By the mid-17th century, the overall population decreased to 3,000 inhabitants and it was concentrated in or near the city of Santo Domingo. About one tenth of the colony's population was Portuguese-born; they were concentrated in the Cibao valley, where they had an influence on the Spanish dialect spoken in that area; another 3% was born in Spain or descended exclusively from Spaniards.
18th century
During the eighteenth century, there were French colonists that settled in many Spanish towns, particularly in Santiago, by 1730 they totalled 25% of the population. This was seen as a problem for the Spanish authorities, because if the population became mostly French, there could be problems of loyalty toward Spain.In 1718 a Royal Decree ordered the expulsion of the French people from Santo Domingo. The Grand Mayor of Santiago, Antonio Pichardo Vinuesta, refused to obey the decree arguing that most of the Frenchmen had married local women and that their expulsion would damage the economy of the Cibao. Grand Mayor Pichardo was tried and imprisoned in the city of Santo Domingo, but in the next year, the Council of the Indies reasoned in favor of Pichardo and decided a pardon to the French. In 1720–1721, a revolt in Santiago against a new tax on beef exports to the Saint Domingue, arose Frenchification fears in the Santo Domingo elite; Captain-General, governor of the Santo Domingo, accused the Cibaenian elite of seeking to annex their province to France.
After the failed plans of the Spanish Monarchy to expel the French colonists, the Monarchy decided to actively encourage the mass settlement of Spanish families in order to counteract the Frenchification of the colony. Over the next decades, the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo was the subject of a mass migration of Spaniards, most of whom came from the Canary Islands.
During that period, Neyba, San Juan de la Maguana, Puerto Plata, Dajabón, Montecristi, Santa Bárbara de Xamaná, San Rafael de la Angostura, Sabana de la Mar, Las Caobas, Baní, Las Matas de Farfán, San Miguel de la Atalaya, Moca, Juana Núñez, San José de los Llanos, San Pedro de Macorís, and San Carlos de Tenerife, were founded. Due to this migration, it decreased the amount of coloreds and blacks: the black population dropped to 12%, the mulatto population to 8%, and the quadroons to 31%.
After that peak, the local white population began to migrate, first with the Haitian rule, and later with the constant political and economic instability after Dominican independence. Historically, migration to Puerto Rico was constant and it boosted in the 20th century because of the oppressive regimes of Trujillo and Balaguer. Although, the country has received a tiny but steady immigration, which has partly offset the constant emigration.
Dominican War of Independence
The Haitian Occupation of Santo Domingo lasted from 1822 until 1844, and sometime during this span, a totalitarian military government took place that forbade the Dominican people by law from taking public office, were on permanent curfew since early dusk and had the public university closed down on the pretext that it was a subversive institution.In 1838 Dominican nationalists Juan Pablo Duarte, Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, Matías Ramón Mella established the Trinitario movement. In 1844, the members chose El Conde, the prominent “Gate of the Count” in the old city walls, as a rallying point for their insurrection against the Haitian government. On the morning of 27 February 1844, El Conde rang with the shots of the plotters, who had emerged from their secret meetings to openly challenge the Haitians. Their efforts were successful, and for the next ten years, Dominican military strongmen fought to preserve their country's independence against the Haitian government.
Under the command of Faustin Soulouque Haitian soldiers tried to gain back control of lost territory, but this effort was to no avail as the Dominicans would go on to decisively win every battle henceforth. In March 1844, a 30,000-strong two-pronged attack by Haitians was successfully repelled by an under-equipped Dominican army under the command of the wealthy rancher Gen. Pedro Santana. Four years later, it took a Dominican flotilla harassing Haitian coastal villages, and land reinforcements in the south to force Haitian emperor into a one-year truce. In the most thorough and intense encounter of all, Dominicans armed with swords sent Haitian troops into flight on all three fronts in 1855 solidifying the Dominican nation's independence.