The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Dominican Republic: Dominican Republic – sovereign state occupying the eastern five-eighths of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. Its capital, Santo Domingo, was Western Europe's first permanent settlement in, and the first seat of Spanish colonial rule in the New World. For most of its independent history, the nation experienced political turmoil and unrest, suffering through many non-representative and tyrannical governments. Since the death of military dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina in 1961, the Dominican Republic has moved toward representative democracy.