The recorded history of Haiti began in 1492, when the European navigator
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
* lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo
* es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón
* pt, Cristóvão Colombo
* ca, Cristòfor (or )
* la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
landed on a large island in the region of the western
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
that later came to be known as the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
. The western portion of the island of
Hispaniola
Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...
, where Haiti is situated, was inhabited by the
Taíno
The Taíno were a historic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the ...
and
Arawakan
Arawakan (''Arahuacan, Maipuran Arawakan, "mainstream" Arawakan, Arawakan proper''), also known as Maipurean (also ''Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúre''), is a language family that developed among ancient indigenous peoples in South America. Branch ...
people, who called their island ''Ayiti.'' The island was promptly claimed for the
Spanish Crown
, coatofarms = File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Spanish_Monarch.svg
, coatofarms_article = Coat of arms of the King of Spain
, image = Felipe_VI_in_2020_(cropped).jpg
, incumbent = Felipe VI
, incumbentsince = 19 Ju ...
, where it was named ''La Isla Española'' ("the Spanish Island"), later
Latinized to ''Hispaniola''. By the early 17th century, the French had built a settlement on the west of Hispaniola and called it
Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer ...
. Prior to the
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...
(1756–1763), the economy of Saint-Domingue gradually expanded, with sugar and, later, coffee becoming important export crops. After the war which had disrupted maritime commerce, the colony underwent rapid expansion. In 1767, it exported indigo, cotton and 72 million pounds of
raw sugar
Brown sugar is unrefined or partially refined soft sugar.
Brown Sugar may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Brown Sugar'' (1922 film), a 1922 British silent film directed by Fred Paul
* ''Brown Sugar'' (1931 film), a 1931 ...
. By the end of the century, the colony encompassed a third of the entire
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
.
In 1791, slaves staged a revolt which led to the
Haitian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution (french: révolution haïtienne ; ht, revolisyon ayisyen) was a successful insurrection by slave revolt, self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolt ...
.
André Rigaud
Benoit Joseph André Rigaud (17 January 1761 – 18 September 1811) was the leading mulatto military leader during the Haitian Revolution. Among his protégés were Alexandre Pétion and Jean-Pierre Boyer, both future presidents of Haïti.
Ea ...
, leader of the revolution forced the British to withdraw. When
Toussaint Louverture
François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (; also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda; 20 May 1743 – 7 April 1803) was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. During his life, Louverture ...
asserted independence in 1802,
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
sent an invasion force to coerce the Haitians. After the death of Toussaint while in imprisonment by the French, the Generals
Jean-Jacques Dessalines
Jean-Jacques Dessalines (Haitian Creole: ''Jan-Jak Desalin''; ; 20 September 1758 – 17 October 1806) was a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent First Empire of Haiti, Haiti under the Constitution of Haiti, 1 ...
,
Henri Christophe
Henri Christophe (; 6 October 1767 – 8 October 1820) was a key leader in the Haitian Revolution and the only monarch of the Kingdom of Haiti.
Christophe was of Bambara ethnicity in West Africa, and perhaps of Igbo descent. Beginning with t ...
, and
Alexandre Pétion
Alexandre Sabès Pétion (; April 2, 1770 – March 29, 1818) was the first president of the Republic of Haiti from 1807 until his death in 1818. He is acknowledged as one of Haiti's founding fathers; a member of the revolutionary quartet that ...
laid heavy battle against
Charles Leclerc
Charles Marc Hervé Perceval Leclerc (; born 16 October 1997) is a Monégasque racing driver, currently racing in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari. He won the GP3 Series championship in 2016 and the FIA Formula 2 Championship in .
Leclerc ma ...
, the leader of the French invasion. As the tide of the war turned in favor of the former slaves, Napoleon abandoned the invasion, which led to Dessalines declaring the independence of Haiti in 1804. However, the nation struggled economically due to
indemnity concerns.
Soon after independence, Haiti was proclaimed an
empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
under Dessalines. When Dessalines was overthrown in a coup d'etat, Haiti then divided off into two regions, controlled by rival regimes, with Christophe ruling the semi-feudal
northern state and Pétion ruling the more tolerant
southern republic.
Jean-Pierre Boyer
Jean-Pierre Boyer (15 February 1776 – 9 July 1850) was one of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution, and President of Haiti from 1818 to 1843. He reunited the north and south of the country into the Republic of Haiti in 1820 and also annex ...
succeeded Pétion in 1811; he consolidated power in the west and invaded Santo Domingo, thereby
unifying Hispaniola. In 1843, Haiti descended into chaos after a revolt which overthrew Boyer; the nation was then run by short-lived emperors and generals. A more workable constitution was introduced under
Michel Domingue
Michel Domingue served as the President of Haiti from 14 June 1874 to 15 April 1876.
Biography
Michel Domingue was born in Les Cayes in 1813. He graduated from military training and became commander of army units in Sud.
From 8 May 1868 to ...
in 1874, leading to a long period of democratic peace and development for Haiti.
Haiti was
occupied by the United States from 1915 to 1934. After the occupation, President
Sténio Vincent
Sténio Joseph Vincent (February 22, 1874 – September 3, 1959) was President of Haiti from November 18, 1930 to May 15, 1941.
Biography
Sténio Vincent was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. His parents were Benjamin Vincent and Iramène Brea, w ...
forced through a new constitution that allowed for sweeping powers for the executive branch. The first civilian president,
Dumarsais Estimé
Dumarsais Estimé (born April 21, 1900 in Verrettes, died July 20, 1953 in New York) was a Haitian politician and President of the Haitian Republic from August 16, 1946 to May 10, 1950.
Previously, he was a member of the Parliament for Verrett ...
, ruled for five years until 1950. After a brief period of instability,
François Duvalier
François Duvalier (; 14 April 190721 April 1971), also known as Papa Doc, was a Haitian politician of French Martiniquan descent who served as the President of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. He was elected president in the 1957 general election on ...
rose to prominence and painted himself as the legitimate heir to Estimé.
His regime is regarded as one of the most repressive and corrupt of modern times; his son,
Jean-Claude Jean-Claude is a French masculine given name. Notable people with the name include:
* Jean-Claude Ades, an Italian electronic music producer
* Jean-Claude Alibert (died 2020), a French racing driver
* Jean-Claude Amiot (born 1939), a French compos ...
, saw Haiti's economic and political condition continue to decline, although some of the more fearsome elements of his father's regime were abolished. The period after Duvalier was dominated by the presidency of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 15 July 1953) is a Haitian former Salesian priest and politician who became Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in ...
until his downfall in the controversial
2004 coup d'etat. A major
7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the country in 2010 and caused widespread devastation.
Pre-Spanish history
Successive waves of
Arawak
The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Greater ...
migrants, moving northward from the
Orinoco
The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...
delta in South America, settled the islands of the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
. Around 600 AD, the
Taíno
The Taíno were a historic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the ...
, an Arawak culture, arrived on the island, displacing the previous inhabitants, however this view is widely disputed. They were organized into ''
cacicazgo
''Cacicazgo'' is a phonetic Spanish transliteration (or a derivative) of the Taíno word for the lands ruled by a ''cacique''. The Spanish colonial system recognized indigenous elites as nobles in Mexico and Peru, and other areas. Nobles could en ...
s'' (chiefdoms), each led by a ''cacique'' (chief).
Spanish history (1492–1625)
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
* lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo
* es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón
* pt, Cristóvão Colombo
* ca, Cristòfor (or )
* la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
established the settlement,
La Navidad
La Navidad ("The Nativity", i.e. Christmas) was a settlement that Christopher Columbus and his men established on the northeast coast of Haiti (near what is now Caracol, Nord-Est Department, Haiti) in 1492 from the remains of the Spanish ship th ...
, near the modern town of
Cap-Haïtien
Cap-Haïtien (; ht, Kap Ayisyen; "Haitian Cape"), typically spelled Cape Haitien in English and often locally referred to as or , is a commune of about 190,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the department of Nord. Previousl ...
. It was built from the timbers of his wrecked ship, the
''Santa María'', during his
first voyage in December 1492. When he returned in 1493 on his second voyage he found the settlement had been destroyed and all 39 settlers killed. Columbus continued east and founded a new settlement at
La Isabela
La Isabela in Puerto Plata Province, Dominican Republic was the first Spanish town in the Americas. The site is 42 km west of the city of Puerto Plata, adjacent to the village of El Castillo. The area now forms a National Historic Park.
...
on the territory of the present-day
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...
in 1493. The capital of the colony was moved to
Santo Domingo
, total_type = Total
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, timezone = AST (UTC −4)
, area_code_type = Area codes
, area_code = 809, 829, 849
, postal_code_type = Postal codes
, postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional)
, websi ...
in 1496, on the south west coast of the island also in the territory of the present-day Dominican Republic. The Spanish returned to western Hispaniola in 1502, establishing a settlement at Yaguana near modern-day
Léogâne
Léogâne ( ht, Leyogàn) is one of the List of communes of Haiti, coastal communes in Haiti. It is located in the eponymous Léogâne Arrondissement, which is part of the Ouest (department), Ouest Department. The port town is located about we ...
. A second settlement was established on the north coast in 1504 called Puerto Real near modern
Fort-Liberté
Fort-Liberté ( ht, Fòlibète) is a commune and administrative capital of the Nord-Est department of Haiti. It is close to the border of the Dominican Republic and is one of the oldest cities in the country. Haiti's independence was proclaimed ...
– which in 1578 was relocated to a nearby site and renamed Bayaja.
Following the arrival of Europeans, La Hispaniola's indigenous
Taino population suffered greatly to near extinction, in possibly the worst case of depopulation in the Americas. A commonly accepted hypothesis attributes the high mortality of this colony in part to European diseases to which the natives had no immunity. The Taino population declined by up to 95% in the century after the Spanish arrival,
from a pre contact population of 8,000,000 to
to a few tens of thousands.
Many authors have described the treatment of the Taino in
Hispaniola
Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...
under the
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
as genocide.
A small number of
Taínos were able to survive and set up villages elsewhere. Spanish interest in
Hispaniola
Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...
began to wane in the 1520s, as more lucrative
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
and
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
deposits were found in Mexico and South America. Thereafter, the population of Spanish Hispaniola grew at a slow pace.
The settlement of Yaguana was burnt to the ground three times in its just over a century long existence as a Spanish settlement, first by French pirates in 1543, again on 27 May 1592, by a 110-strong landing party from a four-ship English naval squadron led by
Christopher Newport
Christopher Newport (1561–1617) was an English seaman and privateer. He is best known as the captain of the ''Susan Constant'', the largest of three ships which carried settlers for the Virginia Company in 1607 on the way to found the settle ...
in his flagship Golden Dragon, who destroyed all 150 houses in the settlement, and finally by the Spanish themselves in 1605, for reasons set out below.
In 1595, the Spanish, frustrated by the twenty-year
rebellion of their Dutch subjects, closed their home ports to rebel shipping from the Netherlands, cutting them off from the critical salt supplies necessary for their herring industry. The Dutch responded by sourcing new salt supplies from Spanish America where colonists were more than happy to trade. So large numbers of Dutch traders/pirates joined their English and French brethren trading on the remote coasts of Hispaniola. In 1605, Spain was infuriated that Spanish settlements on the northern and western coasts of the island persisted in carrying out large scale and illegal trade with the Dutch, who were at that time fighting a war of independence against Spain in Europe and the English, a very recent enemy state, and so decided to forcibly resettle their inhabitants closer to the city of
Santo Domingo
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, population_density_km2 = auto
, timezone = AST (UTC −4)
, area_code_type = Area codes
, area_code = 809, 829, 849
, postal_code_type = Postal codes
, postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional)
, websi ...
. This action, known as the ''Devastaciones de Osorio'', proved disastrous for the colonists; more than half of the resettled colonists died of starvation or disease, over 100,000 cattle were abandoned, and many slaves escaped. Five of the existing thirteen settlements on the island were brutally razed by Spanish troops including the two settlements on the territory of present-day Haiti, La Yaguana, and Bayaja. Many of the inhabitants fought, escaped to the jungle, or fled to the safety of passing Dutch ships.
This Spanish action was counterproductive as English, Dutch, and French pirates were now free to establish bases on the island's abandoned northern and western coasts, where wild cattle were now plentiful and free. In 1697, after decades of fighting over the territory, the Spanish ceded the western
part of the island to the French, who henceforth called it Saint-Domingue. Saint-Domingue developed into a highly lucrative colony for France. Its economy was based on a labor-intensive sugar industry which rested on vast numbers of African slaves. Meanwhile, the situation on the Spanish part of the island deteriorated. The entire Spanish empire sank into a deep economic crisis, and Santo Domingo was in addition struck by earthquakes, hurricanes and a shrinking population.
French Saint-Domingue (1625–1789)
Early French Saint-Domingue (1625–1711)
The
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
built a settlement on the west coast of Hispaniola where it was known that this region that 'the most fertile part of the West Indies'.
The Pearl of the Antilles (1711–1789)
![Cap_Français_-_Gravure_ancienne_-_1728](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Cap_Fran%C3%A7ais_-_Gravure_ancienne_-_1728.jpg)
In 1711, the city of
Cap-Français was formally established by
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Vers ...
and took over as capital of the colony from
Port-de-Paix
Port-de-Paix (; ht, Pòdepè or ; meaning "Port of Peace") is a List of communes of Haiti, commune and the capital of the Nord-Ouest (department), Nord-Ouest Departments of Haiti, department of Haiti on the Atlantic coast. It has a population of ...
. In 1726, the city of
Les Cayes
Les Cayes ( , ), often referred to as Aux Cayes (; ht, Okay), is a commune and seaport in the Les Cayes Arrondissement, in the Sud department of Haiti, with a population of 71,236. Due to its isolation from the political turmoil of the capital, ...
was founded on the Southern coast which became the biggest settlement in the south. In 1749, the city of
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...
was established on the West coast, which in 1770 took over as the capital of the colony from Cap-Français, however that same year the
1770 Port-au-Prince earthquake and tsunami destroyed the city killing 200 people immediately, and 30,000 later from famine and disease brought on by the natural disaster. This was the second major earthquake to hit Saint-Domingue as it followed the
1751 Port-au-Prince earthquake
The 1751 Port-au-Prince earthquake occurred at 12:50 UTC on 21 November in French Haiti, followed by a tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large v ...
which had left only a single stone-built building standing in the town.
Prior to the
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...
(1756–1763), the economy of Saint-Domingue gradually expanded, with sugar and, later, coffee becoming important export crops. After the war, which disrupted maritime commerce, the colony underwent rapid expansion. In 1767, it exported 72 million pounds of
raw sugar
Brown sugar is unrefined or partially refined soft sugar.
Brown Sugar may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Brown Sugar'' (1922 film), a 1922 British silent film directed by Fred Paul
* ''Brown Sugar'' (1931 film), a 1931 ...
and 51 million pounds of refined sugar, one million pounds of indigo, and two million pounds of cotton. Saint-Domingue became known as the "Pearl of the
Antilles
The Antilles (; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Antiy; es, Antillas; french: Antilles; nl, Antillen; ht, Antiy; pap, Antias; Jamaican Patois: ''Antiliiz'') is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mex ...
" – the richest colony in the 18th century
French empire
French Empire (french: Empire Français, link=no) may refer to:
* First French Empire, ruled by Napoleon I from 1804 to 1814 and in 1815 and by Napoleon II in 1815, the French state from 1804 to 1814 and in 1815
* Second French Empire, led by Nap ...
. By the 1780s, Saint-Domingue produced about 40 percent of all the sugar and 60 percent of all the coffee consumed in Europe. This single colony, roughly the size of
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
or
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
, produced more sugar and coffee than all of
Britain's West Indian colonies combined.
In the second half of the 1780s, Saint-Domingue accounted for a third of the entire
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
. The population of the African slaves imported for these plantations is estimated to have been 790,000. Between 1764 and 1771, the average importation of slaves varied between 10,000 and 15,000, by 1786 about 28,000, and, from 1787 onward, the colony received more than 40,000 slaves a year. However, the inability to maintain slave numbers without constant resupply from Africa meant the slave population, by 1789, totaled 500,000, ruled over by a white population that, by 1789, numbered only 32,000. At all times, a majority of slaves in the colony were African-born, as the brutal conditions of slavery prevented the population from experiencing growth through natural increase. African culture thus remained strong among slaves to the end of French rule, in particular the folk-religion of
Vodou, which commingled Catholic liturgy and ritual with the beliefs and practices of
Guinea
Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
,
Congo
Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa:
* Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...
, and
Dahomey
The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a region ...
.
![Citadelle Laferrière Aerial View](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Citadelle_Laferri%C3%A8re_Aerial_View.jpg)
To regularize slavery, in 1685
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Vers ...
enacted the ''
Code Noir
The (, ''Black code'') was a decree passed by the French King Louis XIV in 1685 defining the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire. The decree restricted the activities of free people of color, mandated the conversion of all e ...
'', which accorded certain human rights to slaves and responsibilities to the master, who was obliged to feed, clothe, and provide for the general well-being of their slaves. The ''code noir'' also sanctioned corporal punishment, allowing masters to employ brutal methods to instill in their slaves the necessary docility while ignoring provisions intended to regulate the administration of punishments. A passage from
Henri Christophe
Henri Christophe (; 6 October 1767 – 8 October 1820) was a key leader in the Haitian Revolution and the only monarch of the Kingdom of Haiti.
Christophe was of Bambara ethnicity in West Africa, and perhaps of Igbo descent. Beginning with t ...
's personal secretary, who lived more than half his life as a slave, describes the crimes perpetrated against the slaves of Saint-Domingue by their French masters:
Thousands of slaves found freedom by fleeing from their masters, forming communities of
maroons
Maroons are descendants of African diaspora in the Americas, Africans in the Americas who escaped from slavery and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous peoples, eventually ethnogenesi ...
and raiding isolated plantations. The most famous was
Mackandal, a one-armed slave, originally from
Guinea
Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
, who escaped in 1751. A
Vodou Houngan (priest), he united many of the different maroon bands. He spent the next six years staging successful raids and evading capture by the French, reputedly killing over 6,000 people while preaching a fanatic vision of the destruction of white civilization in St. Domingue. In 1758, after a failed plot to poison the drinking water of the plantation owners, he was captured and burned alive at the public square in Cap-Français.
Saint-Domingue also had the largest and wealthiest
free population of color in the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
, the ''
gens de couleur
In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; plural: ''gentes'' ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same Roman naming conventions#Nomen, nomen and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a ''stirps'' (p ...
'' (French, "people of color"). The mixed-race community in Saint-Domingue numbered 25,000 in 1789. First-generation gens de couleur were typically the offspring of a male, French slaveowner, and an African slave chosen as a concubine. In the French colonies, the semi-official institution of "
plaçage
Plaçage was a recognized extralegal system in French and Spanish slave colonies of North America (including the Caribbean) by which ethnic European men entered into civil unions with non-Europeans of African, Native American and mixed-race descen ...
" defined this practice. By this system, the children were free people and could inherit property, thus originating a class of "mulattos" with property and some with wealthy fathers. This class occupied a middle status between African slaves and French colonists. Africans who attained freedom also enjoyed status as gens de couleur.
As numbers of ''gens de couleur'' grew, the French rulers enacted discriminatory laws. Statutes forbade ''gens de couleur'' from taking up certain professions, marrying whites, wearing European clothing, carrying swords or firearms in public, or attending social functions where whites were present. However, these regulations did not restrict their purchase of land, and many accumulated substantial holdings and became slave-owners. By 1789, they owned one-third of the plantation property and one-quarter of the slaves of
Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer ...
. Central to the rise of the ''gens de couleur'' planter class was the growing importance of coffee, which thrived on the marginal hillside plots to which they were often relegated. The largest concentration of ''gens de couleur'' was in the southern peninsula, the last region of the colony to be settled, owing to its distance from Atlantic shipping lanes and its formidable terrain, with the highest mountain range in the Caribbean.
Revolutionary period (1789–1804)
Ogé's revolt (1789–1791)
The outbreak of
revolution in France in the summer of 1789 had a powerful effect on the colony. While the French settlers debated how new revolutionary laws would apply to Saint-Domingue, outright civil war broke out in 1790 when the free men of color claimed they too were French citizens under the terms of the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (french: Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789, links=no), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolu ...
. Ten days before the
fall
Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March (Souther ...
of the
Bastille
The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was sto ...
, in July 1789, the French
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...
had voted to seat six delegates from Saint-Domingue. In Paris, a group of wealthy mulattoes, led by
Julien Raimond
Julien Raimond (1744 – 1801) was a Saint Dominican indigo planter in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, now the Republic of Haiti, who became a leader in its revolution and the formation of Haiti.
Early activism
He was born a free man of c ...
and
Vincent Ogé
Vincent Ogé ( – 6 February 1791) was a Dominican Creole revolutionary, merchant, military officer and goldsmith best known for his role in leading a failed uprising against French colonial rule in the colony of Saint-Domingue in 1790. A mixed ...
, unsuccessfully petitioned the white planter delegates to support mulatto claims for full civil and political rights. Through the efforts of a group called
'' Société d'Amis des Noirs'', of which Raimond and Ogé were prominent leaders, in March 1790 the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...
granted full civic rights to the ''gens de couleur.''
Vincent Ogé traveled to St. Domingue to secure the promulgation and implementation of this decree, landing near Cap-Français (now
Cap-Haïtien
Cap-Haïtien (; ht, Kap Ayisyen; "Haitian Cape"), typically spelled Cape Haitien in English and often locally referred to as or , is a commune of about 190,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the department of Nord. Previousl ...
) in October 1790 and petitioning the royal governor, the Comte de Peynier. After his demands were refused, he attempted to incite the ''gens de couleur'' to revolt. Ogé and
Jean-Baptiste Chavennes, a veteran of the
Siege of Savannah
The siege of Savannah or the Second Battle of Savannah was an encounter of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) in 1779. The year before, the city of Savannah, Georgia, had been captured by a British expeditionary corps under Lieutenan ...
during the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
, attempted to attack Cap-Français. However, the mulatto rebels refused to arm or free their slaves, or to challenge the status of slavery, and their attack was defeated by a force of white militia and black volunteers (including
Henri Christophe
Henri Christophe (; 6 October 1767 – 8 October 1820) was a key leader in the Haitian Revolution and the only monarch of the Kingdom of Haiti.
Christophe was of Bambara ethnicity in West Africa, and perhaps of Igbo descent. Beginning with t ...
). Afterward, they fled across the frontier to
Hinche
Hinche (; ht, Ench; es, Hincha) is a commune in the Centre department Haiti. It has a population of about 50,000. It is the capital of the Centre department. Hinche is the hometown of Charlemagne Péralte, the Haitian nationalist leader who r ...
, at the time in the Spanish part of the island. However, they were captured, returned to the French authorities, and both Ogé and Chavannes were executed in February 1791.
The rising of the slaves (1791–1793)
![Incendie_de_la_Plaine_du_Cap](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Incendie_de_la_Plaine_du_Cap._-_Massacre_des_Blancs_par_les_Noirs._FRANCE_MILITAIRE._-_Martinet_del._-_Masson_Sculp_-_33.jpg)
A
vodou ceremony at
Bois Caïman
Bois Caïman ( ht, Bwa Kayiman, lit=Alligator Forest) was the site of the first major meeting of Slavery in Haiti, enslaved blacks during which the first major slave insurrection of the Haitian Revolution was planned.
Role during the Haitian R ...
(Alligator Woods) near Cap-Français on 14 August 1791, presided over by a
houngan
Oungan (also written as ''houngan'') is the term for a male priest in Haitian Vodou (a female priest is known as a (''mambo''). The term is derived from Gbe languages (Fon, Ewe, Adja, Phla, Gen, Maxi and Gun). The word hounnongan means chief ...
(Vodou priest) named
Dutty Boukman
Dutty Boukman (or Boukman Dutty; died 7 November 1791) was an early leader of the Haitian Revolution. Born in Senegambia (present-day Senegal and Gambia), he was enslaved
to Jamaica. He eventually ended up in Haiti, where he became a leader ...
, is traditionally considered to mark the beginning of the
Haitian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution (french: révolution haïtienne ; ht, revolisyon ayisyen) was a successful insurrection by slave revolt, self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolt ...
. Following this ceremony, slaves in the northern region of the colony staged a revolt, and although Boukman was captured and executed, the rebellion continued to spread rapidly throughout the entire colony. Beginning in September, some thirteen thousand slaves and rebels in the south, led by
Romaine-la-Prophétesse
Romaine-la-Prophétesse (, Romaine the Prophetess), born Romaine Rivière around 1750 in Santo Domingo, was a free black coffee plantation owner and leader of an uprising early in the Haitian Revolution.
In 1791, in response to rising racial ten ...
, freed slaves and took supplies from and burned plantations, ultimately occupying the area's two major cities,
Léogâne
Léogâne ( ht, Leyogàn) is one of the List of communes of Haiti, coastal communes in Haiti. It is located in the eponymous Léogâne Arrondissement, which is part of the Ouest (department), Ouest Department. The port town is located about we ...
and
Jacmel
Jacmel (; ht, Jakmèl) is a commune in southern Haiti founded by the Spanish in 1504 and repopulated by the French in 1698. It is the capital of the department of Sud-Est, 24 miles (39 km) southwest of Port-au-Prince across the Tiburon Peninsula ...
.
[Terry Rey, ''The Priest and the Prophetess: Abbé Ouvière, Romaine Rivière, and the Revolutionary Atlantic World'' (2017), pp. 28, 32–35, 48–49, 52][James Alexander Dun, ''Dangerous Neighbors: Making the Haitian Revolution'' (2016), p. 65]
In 1792,
Léger-Félicité Sonthonax
Léger-Félicité Sonthonax (7 March 1763 – 23 July 1813) was a French abolitionist and Jacobin before joining the Girondist party, which emerged in 1791. During the French Revolution, he controlled 7,000 French troops in Saint-Domingue during pa ...
and two other national commissioners were sent to the colony by the French Legislative Assembly as part of a Revolutionary Commission. Sonthonax's main goal was to maintain French control of Saint-Domingue, stabilize the colony, and enforce the social equality recently granted to free people of color by the National Convention of France. In March 1792, a coalition of whites and conservative free blacks and forces led by another of the national commissioners, Edmond de Saint-Léger, put down Romaine-la-Prophétesse's revolt
[Rey (2017), pp. 137, 157–59.][Jeremy D. Popkin, ''A Concise History of the Haitian Revolution'' (2011), p. 51] after
André Rigaud
Benoit Joseph André Rigaud (17 January 1761 – 18 September 1811) was the leading mulatto military leader during the Haitian Revolution. Among his protégés were Alexandre Pétion and Jean-Pierre Boyer, both future presidents of Haïti.
Ea ...
, who led free black confederate forces based near Port-au-Prince, declined to ally with it.
[Rey (2017), p. 103.]
Toussaint Louverture ascendant (1793–1802)
![Vue_de_l%27incendie_de_la_ville_du_cap_français_f1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Vue_de_l%27incendie_de_la_ville_du_cap_fran%C3%A7ais_f1.highres.jpg)
On 29 August 1793, Sonthonax took the radical step of proclaiming the freedom of the slaves in the north province (with severe limits on their freedom). In September and October, emancipation was extended throughout the colony. The French National Convention, the first elected Assembly of the
First Republic (1792–1804), on 4 February 1794, under the leadership of
Maximilien de Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman who became one of the best-known, influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. As a member of the Esta ...
, abolished slavery by law in France and all its colonies. The constitution of 1793, which was never applied, and the constitution of 1795, which was put into effect, did both contain an explicit ban on slavery.
The slaves did not immediately flock to Sonthonax's banner, however.
Counter-revolutionary
A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "counter-revoluti ...
planters continued to fight Sonthonax, with support from the British. They were joined by many of the free men of color who opposed the abolition of slavery. It was not until word of France's ratification of emancipation arrived back in the colony that
Toussaint Louverture
François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (; also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda; 20 May 1743 – 7 April 1803) was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. During his life, Louverture ...
and his corps of well disciplined, battle-hardened former slaves came over to the French Republican side in early May 1794. A change in the political winds in France caused Sonthonax to be recalled in 1796, but not before taking the step of arming the former slaves.
When the radical revolutionaries in Paris declared war against Spain in January 1793, the Spanish Crown sent its forces in
Santo Domingo
, total_type = Total
, population_density_km2 = auto
, timezone = AST (UTC −4)
, area_code_type = Area codes
, area_code = 809, 829, 849
, postal_code_type = Postal codes
, postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional)
, websi ...
into battle on the side of the slaves. By the end of 1793, Spain controlled most of the north, except British-held Môle-Saint-Nicolas and French-held Le Cap François and Port-de-Paix. In 1795, Spain ceded Santo Domingo to France and Spanish attacks on Saint-Domingue ceased.
In the south, the British suffered a series of defeats at the hands of the mulatto General
André Rigaud
Benoit Joseph André Rigaud (17 January 1761 – 18 September 1811) was the leading mulatto military leader during the Haitian Revolution. Among his protégés were Alexandre Pétion and Jean-Pierre Boyer, both future presidents of Haïti.
Ea ...
. On 6 October 1794, Rigaud captured Léogane. On 26 December 1794, he attacked the British-held Tiburon, routing the British garrison. In 1798, having lost territory and thousands of men to
yellow fever
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...
, the British were forced to withdraw.
In the meantime, Rigaud had set up a mulatto separatist movement in the south. With the British gone, Toussaint
launched an offensive against his strongholds in 1799. As he sent General
Dessalines
Dessalines ( ht, Desalin) wrongly referred to as ''Marchand-Dessalines'' ( ht, Machan Desalin), is a commune in the Artibonite department of Haiti. It is named after Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ru ...
against Grand and Petit Goâve and General
Christophe against the mulatto stronghold of Jacmel, American warships bombarded mulatto fortifications and destroyed Rigaud's transport barges. Rigaud's forces were overwhelmed and defeated in 1800.
By 1801, Toussaint was in control of all of Hispaniola, after conquering
French Santo Domingo and proclaiming the abolition of slavery there. He did not, however, proclaim full independence for the country, nor did he seek reprisals against the country's former white slaveholders, convinced that the French would not restore slavery and "that a population of slaves recently landed from Africa could not attain to civilization by 'going it alone.'"
Napoleon defeated (1802–1804)
![Revenge_taken_by_the_Black_Army_for_the_Cruelties_practised_on_them_by_the_French](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Revenge_taken_by_the_Black_Army_for_the_Cruelties_practised_on_them_by_the_French.png)
Toussaint, however, asserted so much independence that in 1802,
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
sent a massive invasion force, under his brother-in-law
Charles Leclerc
Charles Marc Hervé Perceval Leclerc (; born 16 October 1997) is a Monégasque racing driver, currently racing in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari. He won the GP3 Series championship in 2016 and the FIA Formula 2 Championship in .
Leclerc ma ...
, to increase French control. For a time, Leclerc met with some success; he also brought the eastern part of the island of Hispaniola under the direct control of France in accordance with the terms of the 1795
Treaties of Bâle with Spain. With a large expedition that eventually included 40,000 European troops, and receiving help from white colonists and mulatto forces commanded by
Alexandre Pétion
Alexandre Sabès Pétion (; April 2, 1770 – March 29, 1818) was the first president of the Republic of Haiti from 1807 until his death in 1818. He is acknowledged as one of Haiti's founding fathers; a member of the revolutionary quartet that ...
, a former lieutenant of Rigaud, the French won several victories after severe fighting. Two of Toussaint's chief lieutenants, Dessalines and Christophe, recognizing their untenable situation, held separate parleys with the invaders and agreed to transfer their allegiance. At this point, Leclerc invited Toussaint to negotiate a settlement. It was a deception; Toussaint was seized and deported to France, where he died of
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
while imprisoned at
Fort de Joux
The Fort de Joux or Château de Joux is a castle, later transformed into a fort, located in La Cluse-et-Mijoux in the Doubs department in the Jura mountains of France. It commands the mountain pass ''Cluse de Pontarlier''.
History
The Château ...
in the
Jura Mountains
The Jura Mountains ( , , , ; french: Massif du Jura; german: Juragebirge; it, Massiccio del Giura, rm, Montagnas da Jura) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the Frenc ...
in April 1803.
On 20 May 1802, Napoleon signed a law to maintain slavery where it had not yet disappeared, namely
Martinique
Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...
,
Tobago
Tobago () is an List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, island and Regions and municipalities of Trinidad and Tobago, ward within the Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located northeast of the larger island of Trini ...
, and
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindian ...
. A confidential copy of this decree was sent to Leclerc, who was authorized to restore slavery in Saint-Domingue when the time was opportune. At the same time, further edicts stripped the ''gens de couleur'' of their newly won civil rights. None of these decrees were published or executed in St. Domingue, but, by midsummer, word began to reach the colony of the French intention to restore slavery. The betrayal of Toussaint and news of French actions in Martinique undermined the collaboration of leaders such as
Dessalines
Dessalines ( ht, Desalin) wrongly referred to as ''Marchand-Dessalines'' ( ht, Machan Desalin), is a commune in the Artibonite department of Haiti. It is named after Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ru ...
,
Christophe, and
Pétion. Convinced that the same fate lay in store for Saint-Domingue, these commanders and others once again battled Leclerc. With the French intent on reconquest and re-enslavement of the colony's black population, the war became a bloody struggle of atrocity and attrition. The rainy season brought
yellow fever
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...
and
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
, which took a heavy toll on the invaders. By November, when Leclerc died of yellow fever, 24,000 French soldiers were dead and 8,000 were hospitalized, the majority from disease.
Afterward, Leclerc was replaced by
Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau
Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau (7 April 1755 – 20 October 1813) was a French military commander. He was the son of Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau.
Biography
He served in the American Revolution ...
. Rochambeau wrote to Napoleon that, to reclaim Saint-Domingue, France must 'declare the negroes slaves, and destroy at least 30,000 negroes and negresses.' In his desperation, he turned to increasingly wanton acts of brutality; the French burned alive, hanged, drowned, and tortured black prisoners, reviving such practices as burying blacks in piles of insects and boiling them in cauldrons of molasses. One night, at Port-Républican, he held a ball to which he invited the most prominent mulatto ladies and, at midnight, announced the death of their husbands. However, each act of brutality was repaid by the Haitian rebels. After one battle, Rochambeau buried 500 prisoners alive; Dessalines responded by hanging 500 French prisoners. Rochambeau's brutal tactics helped unite black and mulatto soldiers against the French.
As the tide of the war turned toward the former slaves, Napoleon abandoned his dreams of restoring France's New World empire. In 1803, war resumed between France and Britain, and with the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
firmly in control of the seas, reinforcements and supplies for Rochambeau never arrived in sufficient numbers. To concentrate on the war in Europe, Napoleon signed the
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or app ...
in April, selling France's North American possessions to the United States. The Haitian army, now led by Dessalines, devastated Rochambeau and the French army at the
Battle of Vertières
The Battle of Vertières ( ht, Batay Vètyè) was the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution, and the final part of the Revolution under Jean Jacques Dessalines. It was fought on 18 November 1803 between the indigenous Haitian army and Nap ...
on 18 November 1803.
On 1 January 1804 Dessalines then declared independence, reclaiming the indigenous Taíno name of Haiti ("Land of Mountains") for the new nation. Most of the remaining French colonists fled ahead of the defeated French army, many migrating to
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
or
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
. Unlike Toussaint, Dessalines showed little equanimity with regard to the whites. In a final act of retribution,
the remaining French were slaughtered by Haitian military forces in a white
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
. Some 2,000 Frenchmen were massacred at Cap-Français, 900 in Port-au-Prince, and 400 at Jérémie. He issued a proclamation declaring, "we have repaid these cannibals, war for war, crime for crime, outrage for outrage."
One exception to Dessalines' proclamation was a group of
Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...
from the
Polish Legions that had joined the French military under Napoleon.
A majority of Polish soldiers refused to fight against the Haitian forces. At the time, there was a familiar situation going on back in their homeland, as these Polish soldiers were fighting for their liberty from the invading Russians, Prussians and Austrians that began in 1772. As hopeful as the Haitians, many Poles were seeking union amongst themselves to win back their homeland. As a result, many Polish soldiers admired their enemy and decided to turn on the French army and join the
Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
an slaves, and participated in the Haitian revolution of 1804, supporting the principles of liberty for all the people.
Władysław Franciszek Jabłonowski
Władysław Franciszek Jabłonowski (25 October 1769 – 29 September 1802) was a Polish general and military commander, who fought for France during the Napoleonic Wars. He is the first known Polish general of African descent.
After enlist ...
who was half-Black was one of the Polish generals at the time. Polish soldiers had a remarkable input in helping the Haitians in the retaliation fights against the French oppressor. They were spared the fate of other Europeans. For their loyalty and support for overthrowing the French, some Poles acquired Haitian citizenship after Haiti gained its independence, and many of them settled there, never to return to
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
. It is estimated that around 500 of the 5,280 Poles chose this option. Of the remainder, 700 returned to France to eventually return to Poland, and some, after capitulating, agreed to serve in the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
.
160 Poles were later given permission to leave Haiti and some particular ones were sent to France at Haitian expense. To this day, many Polish Haitians still live in Haiti and are of
multiracial descent, however, some have blonde hair, light eyes, and other European features. Today, descendants of those Poles who stayed are living in
Cazale
Cazale (french: Casale) also Cazales, is a village in Haiti. It is located in a mountainous region more than 70 kilometers from Port-au-Prince, the capital. It is the main population center of the Polish community in Haiti, called ''La Pologne' ...
,
Fond-des-Blancs
Fond-des-Blancs is a communal section located in the Sud department of Haiti in the Aquin Arrondissement. It is one of several communities of Polish Haitians, mixed-race descendants of Polish Legionnaires who originally fought with the French a ...
,
La Vallée-de-Jacmel
La Vallée (; ht, Lavale) is a commune in the Jacmel Arrondissement, in the Sud-Est department of Haiti. It has 36,188 inhabitants.
Geography
Situated between the communes of Jacmel et Bainet. The name La Vallée de Jacmel could translate as ...
,
La Baleine,
Port-Salut
Port-Salut is a coastal commune in the Sud department of Haiti.
Port-Salut is a popular destination for local Haitians, as well as tourists, due to the surrounding beaches.
Port-Salut is the hometown of Haiti's former president, Jean-Bertr ...
and
Saint-Jean-du-Sud
Saint-Jean-du-Sud ( ht, Sen Jan disid) is a commune in the Port-Salut Arrondissement, in the Sud department of Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country locat ...
.
Following Haitian independence, the new nation struggled economically as European nations and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
refused to extend diplomatic recognition to Haiti. In 1825, the French returned with a fleet of fourteen warships and demanded
an indemnity of 150 million francs in exchange for diplomatic recognition; Haitian President
Jean-Pierre Boyer
Jean-Pierre Boyer (15 February 1776 – 9 July 1850) was one of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution, and President of Haiti from 1818 to 1843. He reunited the north and south of the country into the Republic of Haiti in 1820 and also annex ...
agreed to the French demands under duress. In order to finance the debt, the Haitian government was forced to take numerous high-interest loans from foreign creditors, and
the debt to France was not fully paid until 1947.
Independence: The early years (1804–1843)
Black Republic (1804)
Haiti is the world's oldest black republic and one of the oldest republics in the Western Hemisphere. Although Haiti actively assisted the independence movements of many Latin American countries – and secured a promise from the great liberator,
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830) was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and B ...
, that he would free slaves after winning independence from Spain – the nation of former slaves was excluded from the hemisphere's first regional meeting of independent nations, held in
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
in 1826. Despite the efforts of anti-slavery senator
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of th ...
of Massachusetts, the United States did not recognize the independence of Haiti until 1862. The Southern slave states controlled Congress and, afraid of encouraging slave revolts, blocked this; Haiti was quickly recognized (along with other progressive measures, such as ending
slavery in the District of Columbia
The slave trade in the District of Columbia was legal from its creation until 1850, when the trade in enslaved people in the District was outlawed as part of the Compromise of 1850. That restrictions on slavery in the District were probably coming ...
), after these legislators left Washington in 1861, their states having declared their secession.
Upon assuming power, General Dessalines authorized the Constitution of 1804. This constitution, in terms of social freedoms, called for:
# Freedom of religion (Under Toussaint, Catholicism had been declared the official state religion);
# All citizens of Haiti, regardless of skin color, to be known as "Black" (this was an attempt to eliminate the multi-tiered racial hierarchy that had developed in Haiti, with full or near full-blooded Europeans at the top, various levels of light to brown skin in the middle, and dark skinned "Kongo" from Africa at the bottom).
# White men were forbidden from possessing property or domain on Haitian soil. Should the French return to reimpose slavery, Article 5 of the constitution declared: "At the first shot of the warning gun, the towns shall be destroyed and the nation will rise in arms."
First Haitian Empire (1804–1806)
On 22 September 1804, Dessalines, preferring Napoleon's style rather than the more liberal yet vulnerable type of political government of the French Republican Radicals (see
liberalism and radicalism in France
Liberalism and radicalism in France refer to different movements and ideologies. The main line of conflict in France during the 19th century was between monarchists (mainly Legitimists and Orléanists but also Bonapartists) and republicans ( Rad ...
), proclaimed himself Emperor Jacques I. Yet two of his own advisers,
Henri Christophe
Henri Christophe (; 6 October 1767 – 8 October 1820) was a key leader in the Haitian Revolution and the only monarch of the Kingdom of Haiti.
Christophe was of Bambara ethnicity in West Africa, and perhaps of Igbo descent. Beginning with t ...
and
Alexandre Pétion
Alexandre Sabès Pétion (; April 2, 1770 – March 29, 1818) was the first president of the Republic of Haiti from 1807 until his death in 1818. He is acknowledged as one of Haiti's founding fathers; a member of the revolutionary quartet that ...
, helped provoke his assassination in 1806. The conspirators ambushed him north of
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...
at Pont Larnage (now known as Pont-Rouge) on 17 October 1806 en route to battle rebels to his regime.
The state created under Dessalines was the opposite of what the Haitian mass or the peasantry preferred. While both the elite leaders, such as Dessalines, as well as the Haitian population agreed the state should be built on the ideals of freedom and democracy,
these ideals in practice looked very different for both groups. The main reason for this difference in viewpoints of nationalisms come from the fact that one group lived as slaves, and the other did not.
[Mimi Sheller, Black Publics and Peasant Radicalism in Haiti and Jamaica (Florida: ]University Press of Florida
The University Press of Florida (UPF) is the scholarly publishing arm of the State University System of Florida, representing Florida's twelve state universities. It is located in Gainesville near the University of Florida, one of the state's maj ...
, 2000), 5. For one, the economic and agricultural practices of Dessalines, and leaders after him, were based on the need to create a strong economic state, that was capable of maintaining a strong military. For the elite leaders of Haiti, maintaining a strong military to ward off either the French or other colonial powers and ensure independence would create a free state. The leaders of Haiti tied independence from other powers as their notion of freedom.
However, the Haitian peasantry tied their notion of freedom to the land. Because of the mountainous terrain, Haitian slaves were able to cultivate their own small tracts of land. Thus, freedom for them was the ability to cultivate their own land within a subsistence economy. Unfortunately, because of the leaders' desires, a system of coerced plantation agriculture emerged. Furthermore, while all Haitians desired a black republic,
the cultural practices of African-Americans were a point of contention. Many within the Haitian population wanted to maintain their African heritage, which is a logical connection to wanting a black republic. However, the elites typically tried to prove the sophistication of Haitians through literature. Some authors wrote that the barbarism of Africa must be expelled, while maintaining African roots.
Furthermore, other authors tried to prove the civility of the elite Haitians by arguing that blacks were capable of establishing and running a government by changing and augmenting the history of the revolution to favor the mulatto and black elites, rather than the bands of slaves. Furthermore, to maintain freedom and independence, the elites failed to provide a civil society that the Haitian mass desired. The Haitian peasants desired not only land freedom but also civil rights, such as voting and political participation as well as access to education.
The state failed to provide those basic rights.
The state was essentially run by the military, which meant that it was very difficult for the Haitian population to participate in democratic processes. Most importantly, the state failed to provide proper access to education that a state consisting of former slaves would need. It was nearly impossible for the former slaves to participate effectively because they lacked the basic literacy that was intentionally denied to them by French colonial rule. Through differing views on Haitian nationalism and freedom, the elites created a state that greatly favored them, over the Haitian population and the Haitian peasantry.
The struggle for unity (1806–1820)
![Duckworth's Action off San Domingo, 6 February 1806](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Duckworth%27s_Action_off_San_Domingo%2C_6_February_1806.jpg)
After the Dessalines coup d'état, the two main conspirators divided the country in two rival regimes. Christophe created the
authoritarian
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic votin ...
State of Haiti
The State of Haiti (french: link=no, État d'Haïti; ht, Leta an Ayiti) was the name of the state in northern Haiti. It was created on 17 October 1806 following the assassination of Emperor Jacques I and the overthrow of the First Empire of Hai ...
in the north, and the ''
gent de couleur'' Pétion established the
Republic of Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and so ...
in the south. Christophe attempted to maintain a strict system of labor and agricultural production akin to the former plantations. Although, strictly speaking, he did not establish slavery, he imposed a semi-feudal system, fumage, in which every able man was required to work in plantations (similar to ''
latifundios
A ''latifundium'' (Latin: ''latus'', "spacious" and ''fundus'', "farm, estate") is a very extensive parcel of privately owned land. The latifundia of Roman history were great landed estates specializing in agriculture destined for export: grain, ...
'') to produce goods for the fledgling country. His method, though undoubtedly oppressive, produced the most revenues of the two governments.
By contrast, Pétion broke up the former colonial estates and parceled out the land into small holdings. In Pétion's south, the ''
gens de couleur
In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; plural: ''gentes'' ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same Roman naming conventions#Nomen, nomen and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a ''stirps'' (p ...
'' minority led the government and feared losing popular support, and thus, sought to assuage class tensions with land redistribution. Because of the weak international position and its labor policies (most peasants lived through a subsistence economy), Pétion's government was perpetually on the brink of bankruptcy. Yet, for most of its time, it produced one of the most liberal and tolerant Haitian governments ever. In 1815, at a key period of
Bolívar's fight for Venezuelan independence, he gave the Venezuelan leader
asylum
Asylum may refer to:
Types of asylum
* Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome
* Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute
* Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea
* ...
and provided him soldiers and substantial material support. It also had the least of internal military skirmishes, despite its continuous conflicts with Christophe's northern kingdom. In 1816, however, after finding the burden of the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
intolerable, he suspended the legislature and turned his post into
President for Life. Not long after, he died of
yellow fever
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...
, and his assistant
Jean-Pierre Boyer
Jean-Pierre Boyer (15 February 1776 – 9 July 1850) was one of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution, and President of Haiti from 1818 to 1843. He reunited the north and south of the country into the Republic of Haiti in 1820 and also annex ...
replaced him.
![Kingdom of Haiti](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Kingdom_of_Haiti.jpg)
In this period, the eastern part of the island rose against the new powers following general Juan Sánchez Ramírez's claims of independence from France, which broke the Treaties of Bâle attacking Spain and prohibited commerce with Haiti. In the Palo Hincado battle (7 November 1808), all the remaining French forces were defeated by Spanish-creole insurrectionists. On 9 July 1809, Santo Domingo was born. The government put itself under the control of Spain, earning it the nickname of "España Boba" (meaning "The Idiot Spain").
In 1811,
Henri Christophe
Henri Christophe (; 6 October 1767 – 8 October 1820) was a key leader in the Haitian Revolution and the only monarch of the Kingdom of Haiti.
Christophe was of Bambara ethnicity in West Africa, and perhaps of Igbo descent. Beginning with t ...
proclaimed himself King Henri I of the
Kingdom of Haiti
The Kingdom of Haiti (french: Royaume d'Haïti; ht, Wayòm an Ayiti) was the state established by Henri Christophe on 28 March 1811 when he proclaimed himself King Henri I after having previously ruled as president of the State of Haiti, in the ...
in the North and commissioned several extraordinary buildings. He even created a nobility class in the fashion of European monarchies. Yet in 1820, weakened by illness and with decreasing support for his authoritarian regime, he killed himself with a silver bullet rather than face a coup d'état. Immediately after, Pétion's successor, Boyer, reunited Haiti through diplomatic tactics and ruled as president until his overthrow in 1843.
Boyer's domination of Hispaniola (1820–1843)
![President_Jean-Pierre_Boyer_of_Haiti_(Hispaniola_Unification_Regime)_Portrait](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/President_Jean-Pierre_Boyer_of_Haiti_%28Hispaniola_Unification_Regime%29_Portrait.jpg)
Almost two years after Boyer had consolidated power in the west, Haiti invaded Santo Domingo (present-day Dominican Republic) and declared the island free from European powers. Boyer, however, responding to a party on the east that preferred Haiti over Colombia, occupied the ex-Spanish colony in January 1822, encountering no military resistance. In this way he accomplished the unity of the island, which was only carried out for a short period of time by
Toussaint Louverture
François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (; also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda; 20 May 1743 – 7 April 1803) was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. During his life, Louverture ...
in 1801. Boyer's occupation of the Spanish side also responded to internal struggles among Christophe's generals, to which Boyer gave extensive powers and lands in the east. This occupation, however, pitted the Spanish white elite against the iron fisted Haitian administration, and stimulated the emigration of many white wealthy families. The entire island remained under Haitian rule until 1844, when in the east a nationalist group called
La Trinitaria led a revolt that partitioned the island into
Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
on the west and
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...
on the east, based on what would appear to be a riverine territorial 'divide' from the pre-contact period.
From 1824 to 1826, while the island was under one government, Boyer promoted the largest single
free-Black immigration from the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
in which more than 6,000 immigrants settled in different parts of the island. Today remnants of these immigrants live throughout the island, but the larger number reside in
Samaná, a peninsula on the Dominican side of the island. From the government's perspective, the intention of the immigration was to help establish commercial and diplomatic relationships with the US, and to increase the number of skilled and agricultural workers in Haiti.
![Sans Souci Palace](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Sans_Souci_Palace.jpg)
In exchange for diplomatic recognition from France, Boyer was forced to pay a huge indemnity for the loss of French property during the revolution. To pay for this, he had to float loans in France, putting Haiti into a state of debt. Boyer attempted to enforce production through the ''Code Rural'', enacted in 1826, but peasant freeholders, mostly former revolutionary soldiers, had no intention of returning to the forced labor they fought to escape. By 1840, Haiti had ceased to export sugar entirely, although large amounts continued to be grown for local consumption as ''taffia''-a raw rum. However, Haiti continued to export coffee, which required little cultivation and grew semi-wild.
The
1842 Cap-Haïtien earthquake
The 1842 Cap-Haïtien earthquake occurred at 17:00 local time (21:00 UTC) on 7 May. It had an estimated magnitude of 8.1 on the scale and triggered a destructive tsunami. It badly affected the northern coast of Haiti and part of what is now the ...
destroyed the city, and the
Sans-Souci Palace
The Palace of Sans-Souci, or Sans-Souci Palace (french: Palais Sans Souci ), was the principal royal residence of Henri Christophe, Henry I, King of Haiti, King of Kingdom of Haiti, Haiti, better known as Henri Christophe. It is located in ...
, killing 10,000 people. This was the third major earthquake to hit Western Hispaniola following the 1751 and 1770 Port-au-Prince earthquakes, and the last until the devastating
earthquake of 2010.
Political struggles (1843–1915)
![Haiti German legation 1900](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Haiti_German_legation_1900.jpg)
In 1843, a revolt, led by
Charles Rivière-Hérard
Charles Rivière-Hérard also known as Charles Hérard aîné (16 February 1789 – 31 August 1850) was an officer in the Haitian Army under Alexandre Pétion during his struggles against Henri Christophe. He was declared President of Haiti on ...
, overthrew Boyer and established a brief parliamentary rule under the
Constitution of 1843. Revolts soon broke out and the country descended into near chaos, with a series of transient presidents until March 1847, when General
Faustin Soulouque
Faustin-Élie Soulouque (15 August 1782 – 3 August 1867) was a Haitian politician and military commander who served as President of Haiti from 1847 to 1849 and Emperor of Haiti from 1849 to 1859.
Soulouque was a general in the Haitian Army w ...
, a former slave who had fought in the rebellion of 1791, became president. During this period, Haiti unsuccessfully
waged war against the Dominican Republic.
In 1849, taking advantage of his popularity, President Faustin Soulouque proclaimed himself Emperor Faustin I. His iron rule succeeded in uniting Haiti for a time, but it came to an abrupt end in 1859 when he was deposed by General
Fabre Geffrard
Guillaume Fabre Nicolas Geffrard (19 September 1806 – 31 December 1878) was a Mulatto Haitians, mulatto general in the Haitian Military of Haiti, army and President of Haiti from 1859 until his deposition in 1867. On 18 April 1852, Fausti ...
, styled the Duke of Tabara.
Geffrard's military government held office until 1867, and he encouraged a successful policy of national reconciliation. In 1860, he reached an agreement with the
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
, reintroducing official Roman Catholic institutions, including schools, to the nation. In 1867 an attempt was made to establish a constitutional government, but successive presidents
Sylvain Salnave
Sylvain Salnave (February 6, 1827 – January 15, 1870) was a Haitian general who served as the President of Haïti from 1867 to 1869. He was elected president after he led the overthrow of President Fabre Geffrard. During his term there were cons ...
and
Nissage Saget
Jean-Nicolas Nissage Saget (1810–1880) succeeded Sylvain Salnave as President of Haiti in 1869. Coming into power by coup, Saget was the first Haitian president to serve out his term of office (1869–1874) and retire voluntarily, although his ...
were overthrown in 1869 and 1874 respectively. A more workable constitution was introduced under
Michel Domingue
Michel Domingue served as the President of Haiti from 14 June 1874 to 15 April 1876.
Biography
Michel Domingue was born in Les Cayes in 1813. He graduated from military training and became commander of army units in Sud.
From 8 May 1868 to ...
in 1874, leading to a long period of democratic peace and development for Haiti. The debt to France was finally repaid in 1879, and Michel Domingue's government
peacefully transferred power
A peaceful transition or transfer of power is a concept important to democratic governments in which the leadership of a government peacefully hands over control of government to a newly-elected leadership. This may be after elections or during t ...
to
Lysius Salomon
Louis Étienne Félicité Lysius Salomon (June 30, 1815 – October 19, 1888) was the President of Haiti from 1879 to 1888. Salomon is best remembered for instituting Haiti's first postal system and for his lively enthusiasm for Haiti's moderniz ...
, one of Haiti's abler leaders. Monetary reform, with the creation in 1880-1881 of the
National Bank of Haiti
The National Bank of Haiti (french: Banque Nationale d'Haïti) was a French bank founded in 1881 by Crédit Industriel et Commercial and headquartered in Paris to serve the Haiti indemnity obligation. It had a monopoly of currency issuance in Hai ...
, and a cultural renaissance ensued with a flowering of Haitian art.
The last two decades of the 19th century were also marked by the development of a Haitian intellectual culture. Major works of history were published in 1847 and 1865. Haitian intellectuals, led by
Louis-Joseph Janvier
Louis-Joseph Janvier (May 7, 1855 - 24 March 1911) was a Haitian journalist, diplomat and novelist.
Born in Port-au-Prince, Janvier attended medical school in Haiti. He then moved to France to finish his education, and received a doctorate in medi ...
and
Anténor Firmin
Joseph Auguste Anténor Firmin (18 October 1850 – 19 September 1911), better known as Anténor Firmin, was a Haitian barrister and philosopher, pioneering anthropologist, journalist, and politician. Firmin is best known for his book ''De l'ég ...
, engaged in a war of letters against a tide of racism and
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism refers to various theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics, and which were largely defined by scholars in We ...
that emerged during this period.
The Constitution of 1867 saw peaceful and progressive transitions in government that did much to improve the economy and stability of the Haitian nation and the condition of its people. Constitutional government restored the faith of the Haitian people in legal institutions. The development of industrial sugar and rum industries near
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...
made Haiti, for a while, a model for economic growth in Latin American countries.
This period of relative stability and prosperity ended in 1911, when revolution broke out and the country slid once again into disorder and debt.
From 1911 to 1915, there were six different presidents, each of whom was killed or forced into exile. The revolutionary armies were formed by ''cacos'', peasant brigands from the mountains of the north, along the porous Dominican border, who were enlisted by rival political factions with promises of money to be paid after a successful revolution and an opportunity to plunder.
The United States was particularly apprehensive about the role of the German community in Haiti (approximately 200 in 1910), who wielded a disproportionate amount of economic power. Germans controlled about 80% of the country's international commerce; they also owned and operated utilities in Cap Haïtien and Port-au-Prince, the main
wharf
A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring locatio ...
and a tramway in the capital, and a railroad serving the Plaine de Cul-du-Sac.
The German community proved more willing to integrate into Haitian society than any other group of white foreigners, including the French. A number married into the nation's most prominent mulatto families, bypassing the constitutional prohibition against foreign land-ownership. They also served as the principal financiers of the nation's innumerable revolutions, floating innumerable loans-at high interest rates-to competing political factions.
In an effort to limit German influence, in 1910–1911, the US State Department backed a consortium of American investors, assembled by the
National City Bank of New York
Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...
, in securing the currency issuance concession through the
National Bank of the Republic of Haiti
The Bank of the Republic of Haiti (french: Banque de la République d'Haïti; ht, Bank Repiblik Ayiti; BRH) is the central bank of Haiti. It was formed in 1979 from the National Bank of the Republic of Haiti (french: Banque Nationale de la Répub ...
, which replaced the prior
National Bank of Haiti
The National Bank of Haiti (french: Banque Nationale d'Haïti) was a French bank founded in 1881 by Crédit Industriel et Commercial and headquartered in Paris to serve the Haiti indemnity obligation. It had a monopoly of currency issuance in Hai ...
as the nation's only commercial bank and custodian of the government treasury.
In February 1915,
Vilbrun Guillaume Sam
Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam (4 March 1859 – 28 July 1915) was President of Haiti from 4 March to 27 July 1915, when he was assassinated. He was a cousin of Tirésias Simon Sam, Haiti's president from 1896 to 1902.
Early life and education
C ...
established a dictatorship, but in July, facing a new revolt, he massacred 167 political prisoners, all of whom were from elite families, and was lynched by a mob in
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...
.
File:Fabre Geffrard (President d'Haiti 1859-1867).jpg, Fabre Geffrard
Guillaume Fabre Nicolas Geffrard (19 September 1806 – 31 December 1878) was a Mulatto Haitians, mulatto general in the Haitian Military of Haiti, army and President of Haiti from 1859 until his deposition in 1867. On 18 April 1852, Fausti ...
File:Charles Rivière-Hérard.jpg, Charles Rivière-Hérard
Charles Rivière-Hérard also known as Charles Hérard aîné (16 February 1789 – 31 August 1850) was an officer in the Haitian Army under Alexandre Pétion during his struggles against Henri Christophe. He was declared President of Haiti on ...
File:Michel Domingue (President d'Haiti 1874-1876).jpg, Michel Domingue
Michel Domingue served as the President of Haiti from 14 June 1874 to 15 April 1876.
Biography
Michel Domingue was born in Les Cayes in 1813. He graduated from military training and became commander of army units in Sud.
From 8 May 1868 to ...
File:Salomon 200.jpg, Lysius Salomon
Louis Étienne Félicité Lysius Salomon (June 30, 1815 – October 19, 1888) was the President of Haiti from 1879 to 1888. Salomon is best remembered for instituting Haiti's first postal system and for his lively enthusiasm for Haiti's moderniz ...
United States occupation (1915–1934)
![Bread market, St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Bread_market%2C_St._Michel_%28Haiti%29_%2815629128676%29.jpg)
In 1915 the United States, responding to complaints to President
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
from American banks to which Haiti was deeply in debt, occupied the country. The
occupation of Haiti lasted until 1934. The US occupation was resented by Haitians as a loss of sovereignty and there were revolts against US forces. Reforms were carried out despite this.
Under the supervision of the United States Marines, the Haitian National Assembly elected
Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave
Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave (6 April 1863 – 26 July 1926) was a Haitian political figure. He served as president of Haiti from 12 August 1915 to 15 May 1922, during the U.S. military occupation that had begun on 27 July 1915.
U.S. Admiral ...
president. He signed a treaty that made Haiti a ''de jure'' US protectorate, with American officials assuming control over the Financial Advisory, Customs Receivership, the Constabulary, the Public Works Service, and the Public Health Service for a period of ten years. The principal instrument of American authority was the newly created ''Gendarmerie d'Haïti'', commanded by American officers. In 1917, at the demand of US officials, the National Assembly was dissolved, and officials were designated to write a new constitution, which was largely dictated by officials in the
US State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...
and
US Navy Department.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
, Under-Secretary for the Navy in the
Wilson
Wilson may refer to:
People
* Wilson (name)
** List of people with given name Wilson
** List of people with surname Wilson
* Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender
* Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson Ro ...
administration, claimed to have personally written the new constitution. This document abolished the prohibition on foreign ownership of land – the most essential component of Haitian law. When the newly elected National Assembly refused to pass this document and drafted one of its own preserving this prohibition, it was forcibly dissolved by ''Gendarmerie'' commandant
Smedley Butler
Major General Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881June 21, 1940), nicknamed the "Maverick Marine", was a senior United States Marine Corps officer who fought in the Philippine–American War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Mexican Revolution and W ...
. This constitution was approved by a plebiscite in 1919, in which less than 5% of the population voted. The US State Department authorized this plebiscite presuming that "the people casting ballots would be 97% illiterate, ignorant in most cases of what they were voting for."
The Marines and ''Gendarmerie'' initiated an extensive road-building program to enhance their military effectiveness and open the country to US investment. Lacking any source of adequate funds, they revived an 1864 Haitian law, discovered by Butler, requiring peasants to perform labor on local roads in lieu of paying a road tax. This system, known as the
corvée
Corvée () is a form of unpaid, forced labour, that is intermittent in nature lasting for limited periods of time: typically for only a certain number of days' work each year.
Statute labour is a corvée imposed by a state for the purposes of ...
, originated in the unpaid labor that French peasants provided to their
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...
lords. In 1915, Haiti had of road usable by automobile, outside the towns. By 1918, more than of road had been built or repaired through the corvée system, including a road linking
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...
to
Cap-Haïtien
Cap-Haïtien (; ht, Kap Ayisyen; "Haitian Cape"), typically spelled Cape Haitien in English and often locally referred to as or , is a commune of about 190,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the department of Nord. Previousl ...
. However, Haitians forced to work in the corvée labor-gangs, frequently dragged from their homes and harassed by armed guards, received few immediate benefits and saw this system of forced labor as a return to slavery at the hands of white men.
In 1919, a new ''caco'' uprising began, led by
Charlemagne Péralte
Charlemagne Masséna Péralte (1886 – 1 November 1919) was a Haitian nationalist leader who opposed the United States occupation of Haiti in 1915. Leading guerrilla fighters called the Cacos, he posed such a challenge to the US forces in Haiti ...
, vowing to 'drive the invaders into the sea and free Haiti.' The Cacos
attacked Port-au-Prince in October but were driven back with heavy casualties. Afterwards, a
Creole-speaking American ''Gendarmerie'' officer and two US marines infiltrated Péralte's camp, killing him and photographing his corpse in an attempt to demoralize the rebels. Leadership of the rebellion passed to
Benoît Batraville
Benoît () is a French male given name. It is less frequently spelled Benoist. The name comes from the Latin word , which means "the one who says the good", equivalent in meaning to Bénédicte or the English name Benedict. A female derivative ...
, a Caco chieftain from
Artibonite, who also launched an
assault on the capital. His death in 1920 marked the end of hostilities. During Senate hearings in 1921, the commandant of the Marine Corps reported that, in the twenty months of active resistance, 2,250 Haitians had been killed. However, in a report to the Secretary of the Navy he reported the death toll as being 3,250. Haitian historians have estimated the true number was much higher; one suggested, "the total number of battle victims and casualties of repression and consequences of the war might have reached, by the end of the pacification period, four or five times that – somewhere in the neighborhood of 15,000 persons."
In 1922, Dartiguenave was replaced by
Louis Borno
Eustache Antoine Francois Joseph Louis Borno (September 20, 1865 – July 29, 1942) was a lawyer and Haitian politician who served as President of Haiti from 1922 to 1930 during the period of the American occupation of Haiti (1915–34).
Early ...
, who ruled without a legislature until 1930. That same year, General
John H. Russell, Jr., was appointed High Commissioner. The Borno-Russel dictatorship oversaw the expansion of the economy, building over of road, establishing an automatic telephone exchange, modernizing the nation's port facilities, and establishing a public health service.
Sisal
Sisal (, ) (''Agave sisalana'') is a species of flowering plant native to southern Mexico, but widely cultivated and naturalized in many other countries. It yields a stiff fibre used in making rope and various other products. The term sisal ma ...
was introduced to Haiti, and sugar and cotton became significant exports. However, efforts to develop commercial agriculture had limited success, in part because much of Haiti's labor force was employed at seasonal work in the more established sugar industries of
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
and the
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...
. An estimated 30,000–40,000 Haitian laborers, known as ''braceros'', went annually to the
Oriente Province
Oriente (, "East") was the easternmost province of Cuba until 1976. The term "Oriente" is still used to refer to the eastern part of the country, which currently is divided into five different provinces. Fidel and Raúl Castro were born in a sm ...
of Cuba between 1913 and 1931. Most Haitians continued to resent the loss of sovereignty. At the forefront of opposition among the educated elite was ''L'Union Patriotique,'' which established ties with opponents of the occupation in the US itself, in particular the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
(NAACP).
The
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
decimated the prices of Haiti's exports and destroyed the tenuous gains of the previous decade. In December 1929, Marines in
Les Cayes
Les Cayes ( , ), often referred to as Aux Cayes (; ht, Okay), is a commune and seaport in the Les Cayes Arrondissement, in the Sud department of Haiti, with a population of 71,236. Due to its isolation from the political turmoil of the capital, ...
killed ten Haitians during a march to protest local economic conditions. This led
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
to appoint two commissions, including one headed by a former US governor of the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
William Cameron Forbes
William Cameron Forbes (May 21, 1870 – December 24, 1959) was an American investment banker and diplomat. He served as Governor-General of the Philippines, governor-general of the Philippines from 1909 to 1913 and ambassador of the United States ...
, which criticized the exclusion of Haitians from positions of authority in the government and constabulary, now known as the ''Garde d'Haïti''. In 1930,
Sténio Vincent
Sténio Joseph Vincent (February 22, 1874 – September 3, 1959) was President of Haiti from November 18, 1930 to May 15, 1941.
Biography
Sténio Vincent was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. His parents were Benjamin Vincent and Iramène Brea, w ...
, a long-time critic of the occupation, was elected president, and the US began to withdraw its forces. The withdrawal was completed under US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
(FDR), in 1934, under his "
Good Neighbor policy
The Good Neighbor policy ( ) was the foreign policy of the administration of United States President Franklin Roosevelt towards Latin America. Although the policy was implemented by the Roosevelt administration, President Woodrow Wilson had pr ...
". The US retained control of Haiti's external finances until 1947. All three rulers during the occupation came from the country's
mulatto
(, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...
minority. At the same time, many in the growing black professional classes departed from the traditional veneration of Haiti's French cultural heritage and emphasized the nation's African roots, most notably ethnologist
Jean Price-Mars
Jean Price-Mars (15 October 1876 – 1 March 1969) was a Haitian doctor, teacher, politician, diplomat, writer, and ethnographer.[François Duvalier
François Duvalier (; 14 April 190721 April 1971), also known as Papa Doc, was a Haitian politician of French Martiniquan descent who served as the President of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. He was elected president in the 1957 general election on ...](_blank)
.
The transition government was left with a better infrastructure, public health, education, and agricultural development as well as a democratic system. The country had fully democratic elections in 1930, won by
Sténio Vincent
Sténio Joseph Vincent (February 22, 1874 – September 3, 1959) was President of Haiti from November 18, 1930 to May 15, 1941.
Biography
Sténio Vincent was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. His parents were Benjamin Vincent and Iramène Brea, w ...
. The Garde was a new kind of military institution in Haiti. It was a force manned overwhelmingly by blacks, with a United States-trained black commander, Colonel
Démosthènes Pétrus Calixte. Most of the Garde's officers, however, were mulattoes. The Garde was a national organization;
it departed from the regionalism that had characterized most of Haiti's previous armies. In theory, its charge was apolitical—to maintain internal order, while supporting a popularly elected government. The Garde initially adhered to this role.
Elections and coups (1934–1957)
Vincent's presidency (1934–1941)
President Vincent took advantage of the comparative national stability, which was being maintained by a professionalized military, to gain absolute power. A plebiscite permitted the transfer of all authority in economic matters from the legislature to the executive, but Vincent was not content with this expansion of his power. In 1935 he forced through the legislature a new constitution, which was also approved by plebiscite. The constitution praised Vincent, and it granted the executive sweeping powers to dissolve the legislature at will, to reorganize the judiciary, to appoint ten of twenty-one senators (and to recommend the remaining eleven to the lower house), and to rule by decree when the legislature was not in session. Although Vincent implemented some improvements in infrastructure and services, he brutally repressed his opposition, censored the press, and governed largely to benefit himself and a clique of merchants and corrupt military officers.
Under Calixte the majority of Garde personnel had adhered to the doctrine of political nonintervention that their Marine Corps trainers had stressed. Over time, however, Vincent and Dominican dictator
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina sought to buy adherents among the ranks. Trujillo, determined to expand his influence over all of Hispaniola, in October 1937 ordered the indiscriminate butchery by the Dominican army of an estimated 14,000 to 40,000 Haitians on the Dominican side of the
Massacre River
The Massacre River is a river on the Caribbean island of Dominica.
Naming
The town of Massacre, Dominica, which runs along the river, was named by the French after a massacre of Caribs carried out by the English that occurred in the area in 1 ...
. Some observers claim that Trujillo supported an abortive coup attempt by young Garde officers in December 1937. Vincent dismissed Calixte as commander and sent him abroad, where he eventually accepted a commission in the Dominican military as a reward for his efforts while on Trujillo's payroll. The attempted coup led Vincent to purge the officer corps of all members suspected of disloyalty, marking the end of the apolitical military.
Lescot's presidency (1941–1946)
![Elie Lescot portrait](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Elie_Lescot_portrait.jpg)
In 1941 Vincent showed every intention of standing for a third term as president, but after almost a decade of disengagement, the United States made it known that it would oppose such an extension. Vincent accommodated the Roosevelt administration and handed power over to
Elie Lescot.
Lescot was of mixed race and had served in numerous government posts. He was competent and forceful, and many considered him a sterling candidate for the presidency, despite his elitist background. Like the majority of previous Haitian presidents, however, he failed to live up to his potential. His tenure paralleled that of Vincent in many ways. Lescot declared himself commander in chief of the military, and power resided in a clique that ruled with the tacit support of the Garde. He repressed his opponents, censored the press, and compelled the legislature to grant him extensive powers. He handled all budget matters without legislative sanction and filled legislative vacancies without calling elections. Lescot commonly said that Haiti's declared state-of-war against the Axis powers during World War II justified his repressive actions. Haiti, however, played no role in the war except for supplying the United States with raw materials and serving as a base for a United States Coast Guard detachment.
Aside from his authoritarian tendencies, Lescot had another flaw: his relationship with
Rafael Trujillo
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina ( , ; 24 October 189130 May 1961), nicknamed ''El Jefe'' (, "The Chief" or "The Boss"), was a Dominican dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from February 1930 until his assassination in May 1961. He ser ...
. While serving as Haitian ambassador to the
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...
, Lescot fell under the sway of Trujillo's influence and wealth. In fact, it was Trujillo's money that reportedly bought most of the legislative votes that brought Lescot to power. Their clandestine association persisted until 1943, when the two leaders parted ways for unknown reasons. Trujillo later made public all his correspondence with the Haitian leader. The move undermined Lescot's already dubious popular support.
In January 1946, events came to a head when Lescot jailed the Marxist editors of a journal called ''La Ruche'' (The Beehive). This action precipitated student strikes and protests by government workers, teachers, and shopkeepers in the capital and provincial cities. In addition, Lescot's mulatto-dominated rule had alienated the predominantly black Garde. His position became untenable, and he resigned on 11 January. Radio announcements declared that the Garde had assumed power, which it would administer through a three-member junta.
Revolution of 1946
The Revolution of 1946 was a novel development in Haiti's history, as the Garde assumed power as an institution, not as the instrument of a particular commander. The members of the junta, known as the Military Executive Committee (Comité Exécutif Militaire), were Garde commander
Colonel Franck Lavaud, Antoine Levelt, Major Antoine Levelt, and Paul E. Magloire, Major Paul E. Magloire, commander of the Presidential Guard. All three understood Haiti's traditional way of exercising power, but they lacked a thorough understanding of what would be required to make the transition to an elected civilian government. Upon taking power, the junta pledged to hold free elections. The junta also explored other options, but public clamor, which included public demonstrations in support of potential candidates, eventually forced the officers to make good on their promise.
Haiti elected its National Assembly in May 1946. The Assembly set 16 August 1946, as the date on which it would select a president. The leading candidates for the office—all of whom were black—were
Dumarsais Estimé
Dumarsais Estimé (born April 21, 1900 in Verrettes, died July 20, 1953 in New York) was a Haitian politician and President of the Haitian Republic from August 16, 1946 to May 10, 1950.
Previously, he was a member of the Parliament for Verrett ...
, a former school teacher, assembly member, and cabinet minister under Vincent; Félix d'Orléans Juste Constant, leader of the Haitian Communist Party (Parti Communiste d'Haïti—PCH); and former Garde commander
Démosthènes Pétrus Calixte, who stood as the candidate of a progressive coalition that included the Worker Peasant Movement (Mouvement Ouvrier Paysan—MOP). MOP chose to endorse Calixte, instead of a candidate from its own ranks, because the party's leader, Daniel Fignolé, was only thirty-three years old—too young to stand for the nation's highest office. Estimé, politically the most moderate of the three, drew support from the black population in the north, as well as from the emerging black middle class. The leaders of the military, who would not countenance the election of Juste Constant and who reacted warily to the populist Fignolé, also considered Estimé the safest candidate. After two rounds of polling, legislators gave Estimé the presidency.
Estimé's presidency (1946–1950)
![Dumarsais estime portrait](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Dumarsais_estime_portrait.jpg)
Estimé's election represented a break with Haiti's political tradition. Although he was reputed to have received support from commanders of the Garde, Estimé was a civilian. Of humble origins, he was passionately anti-elitist and therefore generally anti-mulatto. He demonstrated, at least initially, a genuine concern for the welfare of the people. Operating under a new constitution that went into effect in November 1946, Estimé proposed, but never secured passage of, Haiti's first social- security legislation. He did, however, expand the school system, encourage the establishment of rural cooperatives, raise the salaries of civil servants, and increase the representation of middle-class and lower-class blacks in the public sector. He also attempted to gain the favor of the Garde—renamed the Haitian Army (Armée d'Haïti) in March 1947—by promoting Lavaud to brigadier general and by seeking United States military assistance.
Estimé eventually fell victim to two of the time-honored pitfalls of Haitian rule: elite intrigue and personal ambition. The elite had a number of grievances against Estimé. Not only had he largely excluded them from the often lucrative levers of government, but he also enacted the country's first income tax, fostered the growth of labor unions, and suggested that vodou be considered as a religion equivalent to Roman Catholicism—a notion that the Europeanized elite abhorred. Lacking direct influence in Haitian affairs, the elite resorted to clandestine lobbying among the officer corps. Their efforts, in combination with deteriorating domestic conditions, led to a coup in May 1950.
To be sure, Estimé had hastened his own demise in several ways. His nationalization of the Standard Fruit Company banana concession sharply reduced the firm's revenues. He alienated workers by requiring them to invest between 10 percent and 15 percent of their salaries in national-defense bonds. The president sealed his fate by attempting to manipulate the constitution in order to extend his term in office. Seizing on this action and the popular unrest it engendered, the army forced the president to resign on 10 May 1950. The same junta that had assumed power after the fall of Lescot reinstalled itself. An army escort conducted Estimé from the National Palace and into exile in Jamaica. The events of May 1946 made an impression upon the deposed minister of labor, François Duvalier. The lesson that Duvalier drew from Estimé's ouster was that the military could not be trusted. It was a lesson that he would act upon when he gained power.
Magloire's presidency (1950–1956)
![Paul Magloire portrait](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Paul_Magloire_portrait.jpg)
The power balance within the junta shifted between 1946 and 1950. Lavaud was the preeminent member at the time of the first coup, but Magloire, now a colonel, dominated after Estimé's overthrow. When Haiti announced that its first direct elections (all men twenty-one or over were allowed to vote) would be held on 8 October 1950, Magloire resigned from the junta and declared himself a candidate for president. In contrast to the chaotic political climate of 1946, the campaign of 1950 proceeded under the implicit understanding that only a strong candidate backed by both the army and the elite would be able to take power. Facing only token opposition, Magloire won the election and assumed office on 6 December.
Magloire restored the elite to prominence. The business community and the government benefited from favorable economic conditions until Hurricane Hazel hit the island in 1954. Haiti made some improvements on its infrastructure, but most of these were financed largely by foreign loans. By Haitian standards, Magloire's rule was firm, but not harsh: he jailed political opponents, including Fignolé, and shut down their presses when their protests grew too strident, but he allowed labor unions to function, although they were not permitted to strike. It was in the arena of corruption, however, that Magloire overstepped traditional bounds. The president controlled the sisal, cement, and soap monopolies. He and other officials built imposing mansions. The injection of international hurricane relief funds into an already corrupt system boosted graft to levels that disillusioned all Haitians. To make matters worse, Magloire followed in the footsteps of many previous presidents by disputing the termination date of his stay in office. Politicians, labor leaders, and their followers flocked to the streets in May 1956 to protest Magloire's failure to step down. Although Magloire declared martial law, a general strike essentially shut down Port-au-Prince. Again like many before him, Magloire fled to Jamaica, leaving the army with the task of restoring order.
The rise of Duvalier (1956–1957)
The period between the fall of Magloire and the election of Duvalier in September 1957 was a chaotic one, even by Haitian standards. Three provisional presidents held office during this interval; one resigned and the army deposed the other two, Franck Sylvain and Fignolé. Duvalier is said to have engaged actively in the behind-the-scenes intrigue that helped him to emerge as the presidential candidate that the military favored. The military went on to guide the campaign and the elections in a way that gave Duvalier every possible advantage. Most political actors perceived Duvalier—a medical doctor who had served as a rural administrator of a United States-funded anti-yaws campaign before entering the cabinet under Estimé—as an honest and fairly unassuming leader without a strong ideological motivation or program. When elections were finally organized, this time under terms of universal suffrage (both men and women now had the vote), Duvalier painted himself as the legitimate heir to Estimé. This approach was enhanced by the fact that Duvalier's only viable opponent, Louis Déjoie, was a mulatto and the scion of a prominent family. Duvalier scored a decisive victory at the polls. His followers took two-thirds of the legislature's lower house and all of the seats in the Senate.
The Duvalier era (1957–1986)
'Papa Doc' (1957–1971)
![François Duvalier (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Fran%C3%A7ois_Duvalier_%28cropped%29.jpg)
A former Minister of Health who had earned a reputation as a humanitarian while serving as an administrator in a U.S.-funded anti-yaws campaign,
François Duvalier
François Duvalier (; 14 April 190721 April 1971), also known as Papa Doc, was a Haitian politician of French Martiniquan descent who served as the President of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. He was elected president in the 1957 general election on ...
(known as ''"Papa Doc"'') soon established another dictatorship. His regime is regarded as one of the most repressive and corrupt of modern times, combining violence against political opponents with exploitation of
Vodou to instill fear in the majority of the population. Duvalier's paramilitary police, officially the Volunteers for National Security (''Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale'' – VSN) but more commonly known as the Tonton Macoutes, named for a Vodou monster, carried out political murders, beatings, and intimidation. An estimated 30,000 Haitians were killed by his government. Sexual violence in Haiti, Duvalier employed rape as a political tool to silence political opposition. Incorporating many ''
houngan
Oungan (also written as ''houngan'') is the term for a male priest in Haitian Vodou (a female priest is known as a (''mambo''). The term is derived from Gbe languages (Fon, Ewe, Adja, Phla, Gen, Maxi and Gun). The word hounnongan means chief ...
s'' into the ranks of the Macoutes, his public recognition of Vodou and its practitioners and his private adherence to Vodou ritual, combined with his reputed private knowledge of magic and sorcery, enhanced his popular persona among the common people and served as a peculiar form of legitimization.
Duvalier's policies, designed to end the dominance of the mulatto elite over the nation's economic and political life, led to massive emigration of educated people, deepening Haiti's economic and social problems. However, Duvalier appealed to the black middle class of which he was a member by introducing public works into middle-class neighborhoods that previously had been unable to have paved roads, running water, or modern sewage systems. In 1964, Duvalier proclaimed himself "President for Life".
The John F. Kennedy, Kennedy administration suspended aid in 1961, after allegations that Duvalier had pocketed aid money and intended to use a Marine (military), Marine Corps mission to strengthen the Macoutes. Duvalier also clashed with Dominican President Juan Bosch (politician), Juan Bosch in 1963, after Bosch provided aid and asylum to Haitian exiles working to overthrow his regime. He ordered the Presidential Guard to occupy the Dominican chancery in Pétion-Ville to apprehend an officer involved in a plot to kidnap his children, leading Bosch to publicly threaten to invade Haiti. However, the Dominican army, which distrusted Bosch's leftist leanings, expressed little support for an invasion, and the dispute was settled by Organization of American States, OAS emissaries.
In 1971, Papa Doc entered into a 99-year contract with Don Pierson representing Dupont Caribbean Inc. of Texas for a free port project on the old buccaneer stronghold of Freeport Tortuga, Tortuga island located some off the north coast of the main Haitian island of Hispaniola.
'Baby Doc' (1971–1986)
![Fleeing Duvaliers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Fleeing_Duvaliers.jpg)
On Duvalier's death in April 1971, power passed to his 19-year-old son Jean-Claude Duvalier (known as ''"Baby Doc"''). Under Jean-Claude Duvalier, Haiti's economic and political condition continued to decline, although some of the more fearsome elements of his father's regime were abolished. Foreign officials and observers also seemed more tolerant toward Baby Doc, in areas such as human-rights monitoring, and foreign countries were more generous to him with economic assistance. The United States restored its aid program in 1971. In 1974, Baby Doc expropriated the Freeport Tortuga project and this caused the venture to collapse. Content to leave administrative matters in the hands of his mother, Simone Ovid Duvalier, while living as a playboy, Jean-Claude enriched himself through a series of fraudulent schemes. Much of the Duvaliers' wealth, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars over the years, came from the ''Régie du Tabac'' (Tobacco Administration), a tobacco monopoly established by Estimé, which expanded to include the proceeds from all government enterprises and served as a slush fund for which no balance sheets were ever kept. His marriage, in 1980, to a beautiful mulatto divorcée, Michèle Bennett, in a $3 million ceremony, provoked widespread opposition, as it was seen as a betrayal of his father's antipathy towards the mulatto elite. At the request of Michèle, Papa Doc's widow Simone was expelled from Haiti. Baby Doc's kleptocracy left the regime vulnerable to unanticipated crises, exacerbated by endemic poverty, most notably the epidemic of African swine fever virus—which, at the insistence of United States Agency for International Development, USAID officials, led to the slaughter of the Creole Pig, creole pigs, the principal source of income for most Haitians; and the widely publicized outbreak of AIDS in the early 1980s. Widespread discontent in Haiti began in 1983, when Pope John Paul II condemned the regime during a visit, finally provoking a rebellion, and in February 1986, after months of disorder, the army forced Duvalier to resign and go into exile.
The struggle for democracy (1986–present day)
Transitional government (1986–1990)
From 1986 to early 1988 Haiti was ruled by a provisional military government under General Namphy. In 1987, a new constitution was ratified, providing for an elected bicameralism, bicameral parliament, an elected president, and a prime minister, cabinet, ministers, and supreme court appointed by the president with parliament's consent. The Constitution also provided for political decentralization through the election of mayors and administrative bodies responsible for local government. The Haitian presidential election, 1987, November 1987 elections were cancelled after troops massacred 30–300 voters on election day.
[Whitney, Kathleen Marie (1996), "Sin, Fraph, and the CIA: U.S. Covert Action in Haiti", ''Southwestern Journal of Law and Trade in the Americas'', Vol. 3, Issue 2 (1996), pp. 303–32, esp. p. 319.] Jimmy Carter later wrote that "Citizens who lined up to vote were mowed down by fusillades of terrorists' bullets. Military leaders, who had either orchestrated or condoned the murders, moved in to cancel the election and retain control of the Government." The election was followed several months later by the Haitian presidential election, 1988, which was boycotted by almost all the previous candidates, and saw turnout of just 4%.
The 1988 elections led to Leslie Manigat, Professor Leslie Manigat becoming president, but three months later he too was ousted by the military. Further instability ensued, with several massacres, including the St Jean Bosco massacre in which the church of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 15 July 1953) is a Haitian former Salesian priest and politician who became Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in ...
was attacked and burned down. During this period, the Haitian Service d'Intelligence National, National Intelligence Service (SIN), which had been set up and financed in the 80s by the Central Intelligence Agency as part of the war on drugs, participated in drug trafficking and political violence.
The rise of Aristide (1990–1991)
In December 1990,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 15 July 1953) is a Haitian former Salesian priest and politician who became Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in ...
, a liberation theology Roman Catholic (Salesian) priest, won 67% of the vote in Haitian general election, 1990–1991, elections that international observers deemed largely free and fair. Aristide's radical populist policies and the violence of his bands of supporters alarmed many of the country's elite, and, in September 1991, he was overthrown in the 1991 Haitian coup d'état, which brought General Raoul Cédras to power. The coup saw hundreds killed, and Aristide was forced into exile, his life saved by international diplomatic intervention.
Military rule (1991–1994)
![Port-au-Prince airfield seizure](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Port-au-Prince_airfield_seizure.jpg)
An estimated 3,000–5,000 Haitians were killed during the period of military rule. The coup created a large-scale exodus of refugees to the United States. The United States Coast Guard interdicted (in many cases, rescued) a total of 41,342 Haitians during 1991 and 1992. Most were denied entry to the United States and repatriated back to Haiti. Aristide has accused the United States of backing the 1991 coup. In response to the coup, the United Nations Security Council passed United Nations Security Council Resolution 841, Resolution 841 imposing international sanctions and an arms embargo on Haiti.
On 16 February 1993, the ferry ''Neptune'' sank, drowning an estimated 700 passengers. This was the worst ferry disaster in Haitian history.
The military regime governed Haiti until 1994, and according to some sources included drug trafficking led by Chief of National Police Michel François. Various initiatives to end the political crisis through the peaceful restoration of the constitutionally elected government failed. In July 1994, as repression mounted in Haiti and a civilian human rights monitoring mission was expelled from the country, the United Nations Security Council adopted United Nations Security Council Resolution 940, which authorized member states to use all necessary means to facilitate the departure of Haiti's military leadership and to restore Haiti's constitutionally elected government to power.
The return of Aristide (1994–1996)
In mid-September 1994, with U.S. troops prepared to enter Haiti by force for Operation Uphold Democracy, President Bill Clinton dispatched a negotiating team led by former president Jimmy Carter to persuade the authorities to step aside and allow for the return of constitutional rule. With intervening troops already airborne, Cédras and other top leaders agreed to step down. In October, Aristide was able to return. The Haitian general election, 1995 in June 1995 saw Aristide's coalition, the Lavalas (Waterfall) Political Organization, gain a sweeping victory, and René Préval, a prominent Aristide political ally, elected president with 88% of the vote. When Aristide's term ended in February 1996, this was Haiti's first ever transition between two democratically elected presidents.
Preval's first Presidency (1996–2001)
![René Préval on March 31, 2010](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Ren%C3%A9_Pr%C3%A9val_on_March_31%2C_2010.jpg)
In late 1996, Aristide broke with Préval and formed a new political party, the Lavalas Family (Fanmi Lavalas, FL), which won Haitian legislative election, 1997, elections in April 1997 for one-third of the Senate and local assemblies, but these results were not accepted by the government. The split between Aristide and Préval produced a dangerous political deadlock, and the government was unable to organize the local and parliamentary elections due in late 1998. In January 1999, Préval dismissed legislators whose terms had expired – the entire Chamber of Deputies and all but nine members of the Senate, and Préval then ruled by decree.
Aristide's second presidency (2001–2004)
In May 2000 the Haitian legislative election, 2000 for the Chamber of Deputies and two-thirds of the Senate took place. The election drew a voter turnout of more than 60%, and the FL won a virtual sweep. However, the elections were marred by controversy in the Senate race over the calculation of whether Senate candidates had achieved the majority required to avoid a run-off election (in Haiti, seats where no candidate wins an absolute majority of votes cast has to enter a second-round run-off election). The validity of the Electoral Council's post-ballot calculations of whether a majority had been attained was disputed. The Organization of American States complained about the calculation and declined to observe the July run-off elections. The opposition parties, regrouped in the Democratic Convergence (Convergence Démocratique, CD), demanded that the elections be annulled, and that Préval stand down and be replaced by a provisional government. In the meantime, the opposition announced it would boycott the Haitian presidential election, 2000, November presidential and senatorial elections. Haiti's main aid donors threatened to cut off aid. At the November 2000 elections, boycotted by the opposition, Aristide was again elected president, with more than 90% of the vote, on a turnout of around 50% according to international observers. The opposition refused to accept the result or to recognize Aristide as president. Due to these events, Haiti's donor, the European Union and the United States, cut of aid to the country.
Allegations emerged of drug trafficking reaching into the upper echelons of government, as it had done under the military regimes of the 1980s and early 1990s (illegal drug trade in Haiti). Canadian police arrested Oriel Jean, Aristide's security chief and one of his most trusted friends, for money laundering. Beaudoin Ketant, a notorious international drug trafficker, Aristide's close partner, and his daughter's godfather, claimed that Aristide "turned the country into a narco-country; it's a one-man show; you either pay (Aristide) or you die".
Aristide spent years negotiating with the Convergence Démocratique on new elections, but the Convergence's inability to develop a sufficient electoral base made elections unattractive, and it rejected every deal offered, preferring to call for a US invasion to topple Aristide.
The 2004 coup d'état
Anti-Aristide protests in January 2004 led to violent clashes in Port-au-Prince, causing several deaths. In February, a revolt broke out in the city of Gonaïves, which was soon under rebel control. The rebellion then began to spread, and Cap-Haïtien, Haiti's second-largest city, was captured. A mediation team of diplomats presented a plan to reduce Aristide's power while allowing him to remain in office until the end of his constitutional term. Although Aristide accepted the plan, it was rejected by the opposition.
![Port-au-Prince med](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Port-au-Prince_med.jpg)
On 29 February 2004, with rebel contingents marching towards Port-au-Prince, Aristide departed from Haiti. Aristide insists that he was essentially kidnapped by the U.S., while the U.S. United States Department of State, State Department maintains that he resigned from office. Aristide and his wife left Haiti on an American airplane, escorted by American diplomats and military personnel, and were flown directly to Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, where he stayed for the following two weeks, before seeking
asylum
Asylum may refer to:
Types of asylum
* Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome
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* ...
in a less remote location.
Though this has never been proven, many observers in the press and academia believe that the US has not provided convincing answers to several of the more suspicious details surrounding the coup, such as the circumstances under which the US obtained Aristide's purported letter of "resignation" (as presented by the US) which, translated from Kreyòl, may not have actually read as a resignation.
Aristide has accused the U.S. of deposing him in concert with the Haitian opposition.
In a 2006 interview, he said the U.S. went back on their word regarding compromises he made with them over privatization of enterprises to ensure that part of the profits would go to the Haitian people and then "relied on a disinformation campaign" to discredit him.
Political organizations and writers, as well as Aristide himself, have suggested that the rebellion was in fact a foreign controlled coup d'état. Caribbean Community, Caricom, which had been backing the peace deal, accused the United States, France, and the International community of failing in Haiti because they allegedly allowed a controversially elected leader to be violently forced out of office. The international community stated that the crisis was of Aristide's making and that he was not acting in the best interests of his country. They have argued that his removal was necessary for future stability in the island nation.
Investigators claimed to have discovered extensive embezzlement, corruption, and money laundering by Aristide. It was claimed Aristide had stolen tens of millions of dollars from the country.
[Former hell-sent dictator Aristide secret offshore accounts and other crimes](_blank)
/ref> None of the allegations about Aristide's involvement in embezzlement, corruption, or money laundering schemes could be proven. The criminal court case brought against Aristide was quietly shelved, though various members of his Lavalas party languished for years in prison without charge or trial due to similar accusations The Haitian government suspended the suit against Aristide on 30 Jun 2006 to prevent it from being thrown out for want of prosecution.
The government was taken over by Supreme Court of Haiti, Supreme Court Chief Justice Boniface Alexandre. Alexandre petitioned the United Nations Security Council for the intervention of an international peacekeeping force. The Security Council passed a resolution the same day "[t]aking note of the resignation of Jean-Bertrand Aristide as President of Haiti and the swearing-in of President Boniface Alexandre as the acting President of Haiti in accordance with the Constitution of Haiti" and authorized such a mission. As a vanguard of the official U.N. force, a force of about 1,000 United States Marine Corps, U.S. Marines arrived in Haiti within the day, and Canadian and French troops arrived the next morning; the United Nations indicated it would send a team to assess the situation within days. On 1 June 2004, the peacekeeping mission was passed to United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH and comprised a 7,000 strength force led by Brazil and backed by Argentina, Chile, Jordan, Morocco, Nepal, Peru, Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, Spain, Sri Lanka, and Uruguay.
Brazilian forces led the United Nations peacekeeping troops in Haiti composed of United States, France, Canada, and Chile deployments. These peacekeeping troops were a part of the ongoing MINUSTAH operation.
In November 2004, the University of Miami School of Law carried out a Human Rights Investigation in Haiti and documented serious human rights abuses. It stated that "summary executions are a police tactic."[Griffin Report – Haiti Human Rights Investigation, 11–21 November 2004 – By Thomas M. Griffin, ESQ. – Center for the Study of Human Rights, University of Miami School of Law – (Professor Irwin P. Stotzky, Director) –
] It also suggested a "disturbing pattern."
In March 2004, the Haiti Commission of Inquiry, headed by former US attorney-general Ramsey Clark, published its findings : "Noting that 200 US special forces had travelled to the Dominican Republic for "military exercises" in February 2003, the commission accused the US of arming and training Haitian rebels there. With permission from the Dominican president, Hipólito Mejía, US forces trained near the border, in an area used by former soldiers of the disbanded Haitian army to launch attacks on Haitian state property."
On 15 October 2005, Brazil called for more troops to be sent due to the worsening situation in the country.
After Aristide's overthrow, the violence in Haiti continued, despite the presence of peacekeepers. Clashes between police and Fanmi Lavalas supporters were common, and peacekeeping forces were accused of conducting a massacre against the residents of Cité Soleil in July 2005. Several of the protests resulted in violence and deaths.
The second Préval presidency (2006–2011)
In the midst of the ongoing controversy and violence, however, the interim government planned legislative and executive elections. After being postponed several times, these were held in February 2006. The elections were won by René Préval, who had a strong following among the poor, with 51% of the votes. Préval took office in May 2006.
In the spring of 2008, Haitians demonstrated against rising food prices. In some instances, the few main roads on the island were blocked with burning tires and the airport at Port-au-Prince was closed. Protests and demonstrations by Fanmi Lavalas continued in 2009.
Earthquake of 2010
On 12 January 2010, Port-au-Prince, Haiti suffered a devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, earthquake of magnitude 7.0 with a death toll estimated by the Haitian government at over 300,000, and by non-Haitian sources from 50,000 to 220,000. Aftershocks followed, including one of magnitude 5.9. The capital city, Port-au-Prince, was effectively leveled. A million Haitians were left homeless, and hundreds of thousands starved. The earthquake caused massive devastation with most buildings crumbled, including Haiti's presidential palace. The enormous death toll made it necessary to bury the dead in mass graves. Most bodies were unidentified and few pictures were taken, making it impossible for families to identify their loved ones. The spread of disease was a major secondary disaster. Many survivors were treated for injuries in emergency makeshift hospitals, but many more died of gangrene, malnutrition, and infectious diseases.
The Martelly presidency (2011–2016)
On 4 April 2011, a senior Haitian official announced that Michel Martelly had won the Haitian general election, 2010–2011, second round of the election against candidate Mirlande Manigat. The election involved voter suppression and other methods of rigging. Michel Martelly also known by his stage name "Sweet Micky" is a former musician and businessman. Martelly's administration was met with both anger and acclaim. On one hand, he and his associates were accused of being involved in money laundering and various other crimes resulting in countless demonstrations (which on many occasions would become violent). Many criticized him for the slow progression of the reconstruction phase following the recent quake, or for taking credit for projects started in previous administrations. Some disliked him for his vulgar language and risque past which didn't seem to completely go away upon taking presidency. On the other hand, many believe that he was the most productive Haitian president since the Duvalier era. Under his administration, the majority of those left homeless following the quake were given new housing. He offered free education programs to large portions of the Haitian youth as well as an income program for Haitian mothers and students. The administration launched a massive reconstruction program involving principle administration district, Champs-de-Mars, that would modernize and rehabilitate various government buildings, public places, and parks. Michel Martelly put emphasis on foreign investment and business with his slogan "Haiti is Open for Business". Perhaps one of the more major contributions made for the revitalization of the Haitian economy was their push for tourists. Minister of Tourism, Stéphanie Villedrouin, embarked on various competitive tourist projects, including the development of Ile-a-Vache, Jacmel, the north, south-west, and Cotes-des-Arcadins. Tourism had risen significantly between 2012 and 2016. On 8 February 2016, Michel Martelly stepped down at the end of his term without a successor in place.
The Moïse presidency (2017–2021)
Following Hurricane Mathew, Jovenel Moïse was chosen to succeed Martelly as president in an election that has been described by activists as an "electoral coup d'etat." The election was overseen by the United States, which has a United States involvement in regime change in Latin America, history of interrupting democratic processes in Latin America, including in Haiti itself. He was inaugurated on the grounds where the national palace had been on 7 February 2017. He went on to start the "Caravan de Changement" project, which aims to revitalize the industries and infrastructure of Haiti's less popular areas; however, the actual impact of these efforts is debated. In recent months, Moïse has been implicated in the embezzlement of funds from the PetroCaribe program, as has his predecessor, Martelly.
On 7 July 2018 2018–2019 Haitian protests, protests led by opposition politician Jean-Charles Moïse began, demanding the resignation of Jovenel Moïse. Released in November 2017, a Senate probe of the period 2008–2016 (concerning the René Préval and Michel Martelly administrations, as well as the chief of staff of then-sitting President Jovenel Moïse) revealed significant corruption had been funded with Venezuelan loans through the Petrocaribe program. Significant protests broke out in February 2019 following a report from the court investigating the Petrocaribe Senate probe.
A new round of protests broke out in February 2021 amid a dispute over Moïse's presidential term. The protesters claim that Moïse's term officially ended on 7 February 2021 and demanded that he step down. Moïse, however, claimed that he has one more year to serve because of delays in starting his term. Protesters have also expressed concerns about a referendum proposed by Moïse, which would reportedly scrap the ban on consecutive presidential terms and enable Moïse to run again.
On 7 July 2021 President Moïse Assassination of Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated. Prime Minister Claude Joseph became interim president.
The Henry presidency (2021–)
Ariel Henry has served as the acting prime minister and the acting president since 20 July 2021.
2021 earthquake
On 14 August 2021, a strong 2021 Haiti earthquake, 7.2 earthquake occurred in Haiti. The earthquake spawned tsunami warnings on the Haitian Coast. The warning was cancelled later that day. The death toll from the quake as of 15 August 2021 is 1,419 people.
Gang violence
On 7 July 2022 masive clashes between two rival gangs began in Cite Soleil, an impoverished and densely populated neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Thousands of families had to hide inside their homes, unable to get food or water; dozens of residents were killed by stray bullets. A week of gang violence has left at least 89 people dead. Since an oil terminal that supplies the capital and all of northern Haiti is located in Cite Soleil, the clashes have had a devastating effect on the region’s economy.
On 11 October 2022, Henry and his cabinet requested the deployment of foreign troops to oppose the gangs and anti-government demonstrations in Port-au-Prince. On 15 October, the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and Canada sent armored vehicles and military equipment to aid the Haitian government.
See also
* External debt of Haiti
* French colonization of the Americas
* History of the Americas
* History of the Caribbean
* History of the Dominican Republic
* History of Latin America
* History of North America
* List of heads of state of Haiti
* Parsley Massacre—Trujillo's Massacre of Haitians
* Politics of Haiti
* Spanish colonization of the Americas
* Timeline of Haitian history
* United States occupation of Haiti
* 2018–2019 Haitian protests
* 2020 Royal Chapel of Milot fire
Notes
Further reading
;Published in the 19th century
*
*
*
;Published in the 20th century
*
;Published in the 21st century
* Girard, Philippe. ''Haiti: The Tumultuous History'' (New York: Palgrave, Sept. 2010).
* Polyne Millery. ''From Douglass to Duvalier: U.S. African Americans, Haiti, and Pan-Americanism, 1870–1964'' (University Press of Florida; 2010) 292 pages;
* Popkin, Jeremy. ''You Are All Free: The Haitian Revolution and the Abolition of Slavery''. (Cambridge University Press; 2010) 422 pages
* Girard, Philippe. ''The Slaves Who Defeated Napoléon: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian War of Independence'' (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, November 2011).
External links
Bob Corbett's 1995 on-line course on Haitian history
The Louverture Project
– a Haitian History Wiki
{{DEFAULTSORT:History of Haiti
History of Haiti,
History of Hispaniola, *
American colonization movement