If Haiti owned the Dominican Republic (and Haiti speaks French) how comes Dominican Republic speak Spanish??
Haiti and Dominican Republic share the island Hispaniola and Dominican Republic was made independent from Haiti on 27 February 1844 and Haiti speaks French, so where along the lines did the Dominican Republic convert language? Do you know if Spaniards came into the country and over time the language changed or not? I do not understand, surely if Haiti owned what was then “eastern Haiti” now Dominican Republic, that side would speak French too. How does this work? I’m baffled…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Republic
Tagged with: comes • Dominican • French • Haiti • Language • owned • Republic • speak • speaks
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5 comments
Haiti does not own Dominican Republic. They both have separate cultures and languages mainly because of the history of slavery on the island on Hispaniola. The slaves were sent to Haiti to work on the plantations under the French slave masters. So they develop a language that was a mix of French and African. While the Spaniards had control of Dominica Republic.
Haiti/Dominican Republic was also called Hispanola by the spanish Christopher Columbus who settled in the islands first and was then ousted by the French, there was a lot of fighting for the island between the French and the Spaniards which eventually caused the split the Spaniards took back what is now know as the Dominican Republic and the French kept Hispanola now know as Haiti. There were still fights between the Haitians and the Spanish.
“Spain ceded the colony to France in 1795, and Haitian blacks under Toussaint L’Ouverture conquered it in 1801. In 1808 the people revolted and captured Santo Domingo the next year, setting up the first republic. Spain regained title to the colony in 1814. In 1821 Spanish rule was overthrown, but in 1822 the colony was reconquered by the Haitians. In 1844 the Haitians were thrown out, and the Dominican Republic was established, headed by Pedro Santana. Uprisings and Haitian attacks led Santana to make the country a province of Spain from 1861 to 1865. ” infoplease quote
The island when discover by Columbus was name La Espanola and became a colony of Spain. From this island the Spanish control the traffic between Europe and the Americas and the other colonies that they conquer. The French dominated the island of Tortuga and started to settle in the part of the island that is called Haiti. Later on that part of the island was giving to France by Spain. The French colonies that control the sugar fields needed slaves labor in order to work the fields and Africans were imported to the island. The French got too lazy and the slaves population was larger that the French and the slaves revolved and took over the island. There were two slaves leaders and they decided to establish two countries for each one of them to govern. La Espanola, today La Republica Dominicana (Dominican Republic) have always spoked Spanish even though the majority of the people of the Dominican Republic are decedent of African Slaves. The word Hispaniola is an incorrect word to use,, the name is La Espanola. (The Spaniard)(female.)
now i’m not 100% for sure, but the island is closer to spanish speaking countries and just adapted to spanish. or maybe at one time Haiti did speak french, but when they one their independence, over the years they probably slowly changed their language to spanish since it was easier.
I’m Dominican.
The actual Dominican Republic (Eastern part of the Hispaniola) had been under the Spanish influence since the times of colonization. In 1822, Haiti invades the country. Even though there were twenty two years of Haitian domination, it was not enough to change the whole culture, so the Dominicans stayed with the Spanish.