Hispaniola

Hispaniola sits in the Caribbean’s Greater Antilles, between Cuba and Puerto Rico. It is the West Indies’ most populous island and, after Cuba, its second-largest by land area, spanning 76,192 square kilometers (29,418 sq mi). The island is split into two independent nations: the Dominican Republic (48,445 km² / 18,705 sq mi) in the east, where Spanish is spoken, and Haiti (27,750 km² / 10,710 sq mi) in the west, where French and Haitian Creole are used. It is one of only two divided islands in the Caribbean, the other being Saint Martin, shared by France and the Netherlands. Before Europeans arrived, the island was home to the Ciguayos, Macorix, Ciboney, and Classic Taíno peoples.

Hispaniola holds the first European fort in the Americas, La Navidad (1492–1493); the first settlement, La Isabela (1493–1500); and the first permanent settlement, Santo Domingo (1498–present), which is now the capital of the Dominican Republic. These were built during Columbus’s first three voyages, backed by the Spanish Empire. Spain controlled the island from 1492 until the 1600s, when French pirates set up bases on the western side, leading to the French colony of Saint-Domingue by 1659. The island’s most common name, Hispaniola, comes from the Latinized form of Española, meaning “little Spain,” as coined by Pedro Mártir de Anglería. The name Santo Domingo, after Saint Dominic, is also widely used.

At European discovery in 1492, the island had several Indigenous names: Bohío (“homeland”), Haiti (“land of high mountains”), and Quisqueya (“mother of the lands”). Early chroniclers recorded these with various spellings, though Quisqueya’s authenticity is debated—some think it was invented by Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, while others believe it was used by the Ciguayo. Columbus’s journal only mentions Bohío for the island, using Babeque (“land of gold”) for an island to the east, likely Puerto Rico. During Columbus’s second voyage in 1493, physician Diego Álvarez Chanca noted that Haiti referred to the flat eastern part, followed by Samaná and Bohío. Bartolomé de las Casas, who settled in the Cibao valley in 1502, recorded Bohío and Haiti as Indigenous names. Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, a gold-smelting supervisor in 1514, also reported Haiti. D’Anghiera, in 1511, defined Haiti as “altitude” or “mountains” and Quisqueya as “something large” or “universality.” Ferdinand Columbus, who visited in 1502–1504 and again in 1509, identified Bohío and Haiti. Historians Alonzo de Santa Cruz and Francisco López de Gómara both used Haiti and Quisqueya; de Santa Cruz in 1540 said Haiti meant “mountains” and Quisqueya “greatness exceeding all,” while López de Gómara in 1553 defined Haiti as “rugged terrain” and Quisqueya as “large land.” Despite doubts about Quisqueya’s Taíno origins, Dominicans have adopted it as a poetic name for the Dominican Republic.

Upon landing in northwestern Haiti on December 5, 1492, Columbus called the island Española because it reminded him of parts of Spain. Historians de las Casas and d’Anghiera popularized the Latin form Hispaniola. In Spanish, it is now La Española, though Columbus didn’t use the article. The name Española was used until the mid-1600s, when it became known as Isla Española de Santo Domingo; by the 1700s, Santo Domingo prevailed. That name dates to 1498, when Bartholomew Columbus founded a city on the Ozama River, naming it after Saint Dominic.