Mountains Beyond Mountains (MBM)
A Brief History of Haiti
The following is an edited version of the history provided by the American Friends Service Committee using supplemental material from The Library of Congress Country Studies.
As a French colony in the 1700s, Saint Domingue (later Haiti) was perhaps the most valuable territory in the world. Through the extensive use of slave labor from West Africa, plantations produced cocoa, cotton, sugar, and coffee. By 1789, half a million slaves produced goods that accounted for over one-third of French trade. Saint Domingue was the second largest trading partner of the United States. In the United States, the slave population totaled nearly 750,000. Though only 1/6 the size of Virginia, Saint Domingue enslaved 500,000 people.
In 1791, the slaves rebelled and in 1804 declared independence from France and established Haiti, the first Black republic in the western hemisphere. Haiti, or Ayiti in Creole is the name given to the land by the former Taino-Arawak peoples meaning “mountainous country.” Given the politics of slavery in the United States, the U.S. refused to recognize Haiti until 1862. The French recognized Haitian independence in exchange for 150 million francs.
Though a free republic, the Haitian population was divided into a small mulatto, city-dwelling elite and a majority population of former slaves living in the countryside farming small plots. The elite controlled the government, commerce, and military.
In the 1890s, the United States, Germany, and other European countries saw Haiti as an important source of wealth and an important geo-political location for military bases. Between 1915 and 1934, the U.S. Marines occupied Haiti, controlling its government and finances. The U.S. Marines force peasants into corvée labor to build roads. A peasant rebellion is put down in 1919.
From 1957 until 1986 François Duvalier or "Papa Doc" and Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, ruled the country mostly through terror. Under the Duvaliers, 80% of the population was rural and poor with over 70% of pre-school children suffering from malnutrition.
By the early 1980s, members of the Haitian majority organized several uprisings. In 1986, the U.S., fearing instability in what was now known as the poorest country in the western hemisphere, facilitated the departure of Jean Claude Duvalier to France. Though the end of the dictatorship was marked with violence and several coups d’état, grassroots organizing by peasants, trade unions, church groups, human rights groups, women, and youth brought the victory of Father Jean Bertrand Aristide in the 1990 presidential election.
Changes made by the Aristide government in public health and education threatened some of the traditional elite, the military and the U.S. supporters. This fear led to the September 30, 1991 coup d'état that ousted President Aristide. In the following three years, a brutal military dictatorship persecuted popular leaders and over 4,000 people were killed. On October 15, 1994 President Aristide returned to Haiti. However, with his term ending in 1996, Aristide stepped down and René Préval, Aristide’s former prime minister, was elected president and sworn in on February 7, 1996. In November 2000 Aristide was reelected as president.
Despite Aristide’s return, the situation in Haiti remains unstable. The rate of inflation continues to rise, creating a very difficult situation for a country that imports most of its subsistence goods. The majority (80%) of Haitians continue to live in poverty.
Miscellaneous Web Resources:
Library of Congress website provides 1) data on Haiti’s population, economy, religion, political system, and geography 2) histories for select periods including the U.S. occupation.
UNEP (United Nations Environmental Program) allows you to view graphs that compare nations on health, environment, economy, and education.
Paul Farmer, “Haitian Refugees, Sovereignty and Globalization” in America, September 15, 2003.
comparisons of Cuba, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, Honduras, Haiti on eight United Nation Goals