Santo Domingo And Haiti Research Paper

112 Words1 Pages
The island of present-day Santo Domingo and Haiti was originally named Ayiti (meaning mountainous land), by its inhabitants. From 1492 to 1696, Ayiti became Espanola, meaning “Little Spain”. Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer who settled the island under Spain, named it after the Spanish crown. When the French took over the western portion of Hispaniola, it was named Saint-Domingue from 1697 to 1803. The Republic of Haiti, or Haiti, has been the official name since 1804. After gaining independence from France, Haitian blacks and mulattoes (of black and white ancestry) created the name by altering the original name, Ayiti. They changed the name to symbolize the breaking away of France and