Culture

The Dominican people and their customs have origins consisting of Spanish, African and Taino roots.

The Dominican Republic was the first Spanish colony in the New World. Diseases inadvertently brought by the Spaniards previously unknown to the native inhabitants wiped out the vast majority of the Taino Indians on the island; the colonizers thus began importing massive numbers of African slaves to replace the natives. After the Haitian liberation of the entire island, slavery was abolished and free blacks (and those of mixed race) could be found all over the islands.