When Christopher Columbus landed on the Northern side of the Island of Hispaniola, on December 6th, 1492, he established the first seat of Spanish colonial rule in the New World. Following years of struggling to gain their independence from Haiti and the Spanish, being occupied for a number of years by the United States, and dealing with a Civil War and a dictatorship, the Dominican Republic finally began moving toward a representative democracy in 1978. Today, the country boasts the ninth-largest economy in Latin America and has the largest economy in the Caribbean and Central American Region. Today, the Dominican Republic’s economy thrives on agriculture and tourism, as it’s a popular tourist destination for people all around the world.