Given the Human Development Index factors of both the Dominican Republic and Haiti which country would be considered more developed and why? Why would the people of Haiti speak French and the people of the Dominican Republic speak Spanish?

1. Dominican Republic–Haiti relations refers to the diplomatic relations between the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti. Relations have long been complex due to the substantial ethnic and cultural differences between the two nations and their sharing the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The living standards in the Dominican Republic are considerably higher than those in Haiti. The economy of the Dominican Republic is ten times larger than that of Haiti.[1] The migration of impoverished Haitians and deep-set cultural differences have contributed to a long-standing conflict.

2. The basis of Dominican Spanish comes from the Andalusian and Canarian dialects found in Southern Spain. Dominican Spanish is considered a subset of Caribbean Spanish. Some of the words used in Dominican Spanish were borrowed from the Arawak language.