Celebrate
The Dominican Republic Flag

Present day Dominican Republic Flag is proudly displayed and celebrated in all the important events and places in the Dominican Republic.

It's history is closely connected to France and Haiti, and encircled by revolution.

Juan Pablo Duarte , one of the country's founding fathers, created the flag's original design and consulted a secret political organization, called La Trinitaria, a secret society organized into small self contained groups with secret passwords and codes.

Only the most trusted men were accepted into this group .
This organization was founded by Juan Pablo Duarte, Francisco del Rosario Sanchez, and Ramon Matias Mella, after careful consideration of the design, the organization submitted it's approval to Juan Pablo Duarte in June 1838.

Founding Fathers

Dominican Flag

Flag Introduction

The development of the Dominican flag has its roots in the French rebellion.

The French flag, also known as the "Tricolor" for the blue, white, and red vertical bands that make up its design, was first introduced in 1789 as a representation of a revolution for human and civil rights, representing democracy for all.

This is a time of disease, cruelty and slavery, in the 1790's, the west coast of Hispaniola (modern day Haiti) had a slave population of more than 550,000, outnumbering their French masters almost 8 to 1.

These slaves were miserably overworked and dangerously angry; so the Tricolor flew over Hispaniola, not as a symbol of freedom, but as a representation of repression, anger and injustice.

Due to slavery and the islands natural resources, at the turn of the 18th century, Hispaniola was France's most lucrative possession in the West Indies.

In 1791, with the help of the English, the Haitian Revolution began its struggle against the French occupation, the Haitians under the black General Toussaint L'Ouverture, fought many bloody battles and managed to free many French slaves.

Continuous fighting by African slaves lead to a successful uprising securing their freedom and eventually forming their own country .... Haiti.

Haitian's create first Flag

The Haitian's created a flag of their own using the French flag as a model.

They eliminated the white stripe, and place the remaining red and blue bands horizontally. The removal of the white stripe symbolizes the abolition of the White Man's control. 1804 L'Ouverture declares haitian independence.

In 1789, Dessaline's and Toussaint L'Ouverture set to invades the Spanish Colony, the occupation lasted from 1801 to 1805.

Haiti for the second time invades from 1822 to 1844, the Haitian military was commanded by Jean-Pierre Boyer, Haiti conquers the Spanish Colony abolishes slavery, and went on to occupy the eastern part of Hispaniola (modern day Dominican Republic).

By the mid 1830's Dominicans, frustrated with the situation under the Haitian government, began to fight for freedom.

For 22 Years, until 1844, under General Jean-Pierre Boyer, the Haitian's occupied Spanish Hispaniola, however illiteracy was widespread throughout the Haitian military and they had few resources resulting in mismanagement of the Spanish Colony.

1844 Juan Pablo Duarte and Trinitarians revolt against Haitians, establish independent Dominican Republic on February 27 (Dominican Independence Day)

First version of the Dominican Republic Flag

The first version of the Dominican Republic flag was born when Juan Pablo Duarte modified the Haitian flag by superimposing a white cross over it.

This design consists of two blue upper quadrants and two red lower quadrants with a white cross in the middle dividing them all. Some people will argue that the original design consisted of a white, green and red color scheme with a cross.

The first Dominican Republic flag was created by Ms. Maria Trinidad Sanchez and Ms. Concepcion Bona, It flew for the first time on the day of Dominican independence, February 27, 1844.

Modern Dominican Republic Flag

The modern version of the Dominican flag can be traced to 1908 when the blue and red quadrants were placed in alternating positions. The middle of the flag represents the Dominican Republic Emblem.

Today the Dominican Republic is the number one travel destination in the Caribbean.

Republica Dominicana

Dominican Republic Flag