<P> 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 until 1821 except for a time as a French colony from 1795 to 1809 . It was then part of a unified Hispaniola with Haiti from 1822 until 1844 . In 1844 , Dominican independence was proclaimed and the republic , which was often known as Santo Domingo until the early 20th century , maintained its independence except for a short Spanish occupation from 1861 to 1865 and occupation by the United States from 1916 to 1924 . </P>
when did santo domingo liberate itself from haiti and change its name to dominican republic
1844