Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Aftershocks
In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010, the
Dominican government provided medical and humanitarian assistance, and much of the aid
from other countries was shipped overland through the DR. However, the thaw in relations
only lasted so long. Haiti's cholera epidemic that erupted the following year led to the tem-
porary closure of some border crossings, which ignited more conflict: several Haitians
were killed and scores injured in protests. A rising number of incidents at the end of 2010
and beginning of 2011 left dozens of Haitians dead and hundreds injured in clashes in poor
barrios around the country. Some Dominicans, claiming they were trying to evict illegal
Haitians, say they were justified by the threat of cholera and crime. In the beginning of
February 2011, the Dominican government initiated a widespread crackdown, deporting
'illegal' Haitians back over the border.
TIMELINE
4000 BC
Earliest evidence of human colonization of Hispaniola. Stone-flaked tools found at archae-
ological digs are thought to have been brought by hunter-gatherers migrating from the Yu-
catan peninsula in Mexico.
1200 BC
Ancestral Arawaks arrive in Hispaniola, via the Lesser Antilles. Dubbed 'the Saladoid cul-
ture,' they live in settled agricultural communities, and are best known for their sophistic-
ated pottery.
AD 500-1000
A third wave of migration arrives in Hispaniola, with the rich seafaring culture of the
Taínos. The population expands rapidly, and is divided into a series of interdependent but
competing chiefdoms.
1492
Christopher Columbus makes landfall on Hispaniola on Christmas Day and founds the set-
tlement of La Navidad (Nativity) near modern-day Cap-Haïtien in Haiti, before returning to
Spain with Taíno captives.
