The Dominican Republic is located in the central Caribbean and covers 48,322 square kilometers (18,657 square miles) of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with Haiti. In 2003 the republic's population was roughly 8.7 million. The country is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on its north coast and the Caribbean Sea on its south coast. Mountain chains, or cordilleras, frame the fertile Cibao valley; the country also has humid lowlands and several rivers. The Dominican capital of Santo Domingo was the first city in the Western Hemisphere.

The Dominican Republic's relatively high 2002 per capita gross domestic product ($6,300) masks the country's marked income inequality. After spectacular economic growth in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Dominican economy experienced a major bank collapse in mid–2003. This resulted in a severe economic downturn accompanied by inflation and a sharp devaluation of the peso.

Although the Dominican Republic was a Spanish colony...