History of the Dominican Republic History of the Dominican Republic The recorded history of the Dominican Republic began when the Genoa-born navigator Christopher Columbus, working for the Spanish Crown, happened upon a large island in the region of the western Atlantic Ocean that later came to be known as the Caribbean. It was inhabited by the Taíno, an Arawakan people, who variously called their island Ayiti, Bohio, or Quisqueya (Kiskeya). Columbus promptly claimed the island for the Spanish Crown, naming it La Isla Española ("the Spanish Island"), later Latinized to Hispaniola. What would become the Dominican Republic was the Spanish Captaincy General of Santo Domingo
Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic of the Independent Haitian Episcopal Church. The American Episcopal Church began missionary work in the Dominican Republic when the country was occupied by the United States Marine Corps. William Wyllie, who arrived in 1918, and Archibald Beer, who arrived in 1920, were the first missionaries. The bishops of Puerto Rico and Haiti supervised the mission territory from 1918 to 1960. The Missionary District of the Dominican Republic was established by the General Convention in 1940. Paul Axtell Kellogg became the first resident Bishop of the Dominican Republic in 1960. The Dominican Republic became a missionary diocese in 1970, and it