Dominicans ( ), also known as Quisqueyans ( ), are an ethno-national people, a people of shared ancestry and culture, who have ancestral roots in the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican ethnic group was born out of a fusion of mostly European (mainly Spanish), Indigenous, and African elements, dating as far back as the 1500s, resulting in the vast majority of Dominicans being of mixed-race heritage. Dominicans trace their roots mainly to these three sources, the vast majority being mixed, and smaller numbers being predominantly European or African. The demonym Dominican is derived from Santo Domingo (Spanish equivalent Saint Dominic) and directly inherited from the name of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, which was synonymous with the island of Hispaniola as a whole and centered in the city of Santo Domingo, the capital of modern Dominican Republic. Recent immigrants and their children, who are legal citizens of the Dominican Republic, can be considered "Dominican" by nationality but not ethnicity due to not having ancestral roots in the country.

"Dominican" was historically the name for the inhabitants of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, the site of the first Spanish settlement in the Western Hemisphere. The majority of Dominicans primarily trace their origin to the Captaincy General's European settlers, with Indigenous and African influences., Claudio «La hispanización del mestizaje cultural en América» Revista Complutense de Historia de América, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. p. 133 (1981)

The majority of Dominicans reside in the Dominican Republic, while there is also a large Dominican diaspora, mainly in the United States and Spain. The total population of the Dominican Republic in 2016 was estimated by the National Bureau of Statistics of the Dominican Republic at 10.2 million, with 9.3 million of those being natives of the country, and the rest being of foreign origin.

Name Historically the Dominican Republic was known as Santo Domingo, the name of its present capital and its patron saint, Saint Dominic. Hence the residents were called "Dominicanos" (Dominicans). The revolutionaries named their newly independent country "La República Dominicana". It was often referred to as the "Republic of San Domingo" in English language 19th century publications.

History Pre-European history

Prior to European colonization, the Indigenous inhabitants of the island belonged to multiple peoples, including the Macorix, the Ciguayos, and the Xaraguá-speaking Taíno, seafaring peoples who likely moved into Hispaniola from the north-east region of South America, displacing earlier inhabitants, c. AD 650. The Native Tainos divided the island into several chiefdoms and engaged in farming, fishing, as well as hunting, and gathering.

The Spaniards arrived in 1492. Columbus and his crew were the first recorded Europeans to encounter the Taíno people. Columbus described them as a physically tall and well-proportioned people, with a noble character. After initially amicable relationships, the Taínos fought against the conquest, led by the female Chief Anacaona of Xaraguá and her ex-husband Chief Caonabo of Maguana, as well as Chiefs Guacanagaríx, Guamá, Hatuey, and Enriquillo. The latter's successes gained his people an autonomous enclave for a time on the island. Within a few years after the 1492 arrival, the Indigenous population had declined drastically, due to smallpox, measles, and other diseases that arrived with the Europeans. Census records from 1514 reveal that at least 40% of Spanish men in Santo Domingo were married to Indigenous women, and many present-day Dominicans have significant Indigenous ancestry.

European colonization Christopher Columbus arrived on the island in December 5, 1492, during the first of his four voyages to the Americas. He claimed the land for Spain and named it La Española due to its diverse climate and terrain which reminded him of the Spanish landscape. In 1496, Bartholomew Columbus, Christopher's brother, built the city of Santo Domingo, Western Europe's first permanent colonization in the "New World." The colony thus became the springboard for the further Spanish conquest of America and for decades the headquarters of Spanish colonial power in the hemisphere.

In 1501, the colony began to import African slaves. In 1697, after decades of armed struggles with the French, Spain ceded the western coast of the island to France with the Treaty of Ryswick, whilst the Central Plateau remained under Spanish domain.

By the middle of the 18th century, the population was bolstered by European emigration from the Canary Islands, resettling the northern part of the colony and planting tobacco in the Cibao Valley, and importation of slaves was renewed. After 1700, with the arrival of new Spanish colonists, the African holocaust resumed. However, as industry moved from sugar to cattle ranching, racial and caste divisions became less important, eventually leading to a blend of cultures—Spanish, African, and Indigenous—which would form the basis of national identity for Dominicans. It is estimated that the population of the colony in 1777 was 400,000, of which 100,000 were European, 70,000 African, 100,000 European/Indigenous mestizo, 60,000 African/Indigenous mestizo, and 70,000 African/European.

Dominican privateers in the service of the Spanish Crown captured British, Dutch, French and Danish ships in the Caribbean Sea throughout the 18th century.

Independence

Santo Domingo attained independence as the Dominican Republic in 1844 from the Haitian government. In 1861, the Dominicans voluntarily returned to the Spanish Empire, but two years later they launched a war that restored independence in 1865. A legacy of unsettled, mostly non-representative rule followed, capped by the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo from 1930 to 1961. Trujillo's regime carried out killings of thousands of Haitians and committed crimes in the United States, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Raids on the national treasury enabled Trujillo to amass a net worth of 800 million dollars (5.3 billion dollars today).Rogozinski 258 It has been estimated that Trujillo's tyrannical rule was responsible for the death of more than 50,000 Dominicans. The Dominican Civil War of 1965 was ended by a United States-led intervention, and was followed by the authoritarian rule of Joaquín Balaguer, the leader from 1966 to 1978. Since that time, the Dominican Republic has moved steadily toward representative democracy.

Genetics and ethnicities

According to recent genealogical DNA studies of the Dominican population, the genetic makeup is predominantly European and Sub-Saharan African, with a lesser degree of Native American ancestry. The average DNA admixture of the founder Dominican population was 73% European, 10% Native, and 17% African, but due to the Transatlantic slave trade and the migration from other Afro-Caribbean countries, the current overall admixture is 50%-60% European, 8-10% Native and 30%-40% African.

2022 census Responses for the 2022 census population of 12 years old and above. National Statistics Office. Ethnic-racial group Population % Indio/a2,946,37734.2 Moreno/a 2,237,370 26.1 White 1,611,752 18.7 Mestizo/a 665,387 7.7 Black 642,018 7.5 Mulatto/a 330,207 3.8 Asian 28,343 0.3 Other 31,802 0.3 Don't know / no response 123,039 1.4 Total 8,616,295 100

A previous survey published in 2021, shows this results(Indio 45%, Afro-Dominicans/moreno(term used as an euphemism for black) 25%, jabao 2%, 18% as white, 8% Afro-Dominicans, and 0.5% as "other". Previously, in the 1996 electoral roll, 82.5% of the adult population were Indio, 7.55% white, 4.13% black, and 2.3% mulatto. Other estimates puts the Dominican population at 60% mixed, 35% black, and 5% white.

Other groups in the country include the descendants of West Asians—mostly Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians. A smaller, yet significant presence of East Asians (primarily ethnic Chinese and Japanese) can also be found throughout the population. Dominicans are also composed of Sephardic Jews that were exiled from Spain and the Mediterranean area in 1492 and 1497, coupled with other migrations dating to the 1700s and during the Second World War contribute to Dominican ancestry.

In recent times, Dominican and Puerto Rican researchers identified in the current Dominican population the presence of genes belonging to the aborigines of the Canary Islands (commonly called Guanches). These types of genes have also been detected in Puerto Rico.

+ Genetic ancestry of Dominican populationStudyYearCaucasoidAmerindian Genome-wide patterns of population structure and admixture among Hispanic/Latino populationsGenome-wide patterns of population structure and admixture among Hispanic/Latino populations 2010 51% 42% 7% Reconstructing the Population Genetic History of the Caribbean 2013 57% 35% 8% Unravelling the hidden ancestry of American admixed populations 2015 52% 40% 8% A continuum of admixture in the Western Hemisphere revealed by the African Diaspora genomeA continuum of admixture in the Western Hemisphere revealed by the African Diaspora genome 2016 52% 38% 10% Admixture in the Americas: Regional and National Differences 2016 47% 42% 12% Y Haplogroup Diversity of the DR: Reconstructing the Effect of the European Colonization and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trades Y Haplogroup Diversity of the DR: Reconstructing the Effect of the European Colonization and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trades202059%38%3% Admixture mapping of peripheral artery disease in a Dominican population reveals a putative risk locus on 2q35Admixture mapping of peripheral artery disease in a Dominican population reveals a putative risk locus on 2q35 2023 56% 37% 6%

In Dominican Republic Dominican Republic employs the jus sanguinis nationality law principle, unlike majority of other countries in the Americas. Therefore, citizenship is inherited through at least one parent or legal guardian who is a Dominican citizens or alternatively by invoking and proving one's ancestral link to the country. This means that being a Dominican citizen and being an ethnic Dominican is not always interchangeable, as the former implies citizenship that one can receive moving from any country in the world to Dominican Republic, while the latter implies a people tied by ancestry and culture. Ethnic Dominicans are people who are not only born in Dominican Republic (and have legal status) or born abroad with ancestral roots in the country, but more importantly have family roots in the country going back several generations and descend from a mix of varying degrees of Spanish, Indigenous, and African, the three principal foundational roots of Dominican Republic. Nearly all Dominicans are mixed race, with 75% being "visibly" and "evenly" mixed, and the remaining 25% being predominantly of African or European blood. According to a 2017 estimate from the Dominican government, Dominican Republic had a population of 10,189,895, of which 847,979 were immigrants or descendants of recent immigrants and 9,341,916 were ethnic Dominicans.

Immigration in the 20th and 21st centuries In the twentieth century, many Chinese, Arabs (primarily from Lebanon and Syria), Japanese and to a lesser degree Koreans settled in the country, working as agricultural laborers and merchants. Waves of Chinese immigrants, the latter ones fleeing the Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army (PLA), arrived and worked in mines and building railroads. The current Chinese Dominican population totals 50,000 (2010 year). The Arab community is also rising at an increasing rate.