A landmark new collaborative archival project has opened thousands of pages of shared history between France and the Dominican Republic to global public access, marking a major milestone in bilateral cultural cooperation.
The National Archives of France has launched a fully bilingual digital portal that hosts a vast collection of historical documents chronicling France’s historical presence in Santo Domingo, the territory that now makes up the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola. Spanning more than two centuries of history, the collection includes materials dating from 1795 all the way to the modern day, creating a comprehensive, easily accessible resource for anyone seeking to explore the intertwined past of the two nations.
This digital initiative is the direct outcome of a formal cooperation agreement signed on June 25, 2025, between the Dominican Republic’s General Archive of the Nation (AGN) and the Archives Directorate of France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. Beyond the launch of the digital portal, the agreement also lays out a roadmap for future collaborative work, including the development of standardized catalogs and detailed descriptive guides that will further simplify navigation of the collections for both academic researchers and casual members of the public.
The project builds on years of existing partnership between the AGN and France’s Interministerial Archives Service (SIAF), the government body that oversees both the Overseas National Archives and the National Archives of France, which provided the institutional foundation for expanding access to the previously underutilized collection.
The portal was officially introduced to the public during a formal inauguration ceremony held at the National Archives of France in Paris. The event was attended by senior representatives from archival institutions on both sides of the Atlantic, including Roberto Cassá, Director of the Dominican Republic’s AGN, senior French archival officials, and David Puig, the Dominican Ambassador to France.
At its core, the initiative is designed to fulfill two linked goals: preserving the shared historical heritage that connects France and the Dominican Republic, and tearing down barriers to access that have previously limited public and research engagement with these important documents. By making the full collection available online free of charge, organizers hope to support academic inquiry, empower Dominican and French citizens to explore their shared history, and leave a lasting accessible resource for future generations to study the deep historical ties between the two nations.