Haiti

F

Defense

Under the François Duvalier regime, two-thirds of the national budget was spent on the armed forces. However, the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide took steps to eliminate the military’s participation in political affairs. In 1995 the armed forces were disbanded, although the military officially exists until the government amends the constitution to abolish it. A civilian police force was recruited, largely from ex-military personnel, to replace the armed forces and maintain law and order.

VI

History

The Arawak, the original inhabitants of the island Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, called the island Ayti, meaning “land of mountains.” When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492, he named the island La Isla Española (Spanish for “The Spanish Island”) in honor of his Spanish sponsors. The name later evolved into the modern name of the island, Hispaniola. After Native Americans destroyed an early Spanish settlement near Cap-Haïtien, the Spanish settled the eastern half of the island and left the west unsettled.

A

Colonization

During the 1600s pirates operated from hideouts on the northern coast of Haiti and the island of Tortuga. From there they attacked and plundered Spanish treasure galleons sailing in the Caribbean. French adventurers also hunted wild boar and other animals in Haiti to sell as food to passing ships. Eventually, French traders began to settle on the northern coast of Hispaniola. In 1697, under the Treaty of Ryswick, Spain formally ceded to France the western one-third of Hispaniola—the portion that later became Haiti. The official name of the French colony became Saint-Domingue; the Spanish portion of the island was called Santo Domingo.

During the 18th century Saint-Domingue became one of France’s richest colonies. The French established plantations in the lowlands based on the labor of black slaves, who were imported in large numbers from Africa. Sugar was the main product of these plantations, which also produced indigo, coffee, cacao, and cotton. By the end of the 1700s the population of Saint-Domingue totaled more than 450,000 slaves, more than 25,000 mulattoes, and about 30,000 French planters who lived in great luxury. Although most of the mulattoes were free, their rights were greatly restricted by racial laws.

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B

Revolt

In 1791, during the French Revolution, Haiti’s blacks began a series of violent uprisings known as the Haitian Slave Revolt. At that time most blacks in Haiti, many of whom had been born in Africa, were still slaves, and they outnumbered all other inhabitants of Haiti by 10 to 1. About 800 Haitian volunteers had fought in the American Revolution (1775-1783) under French general Marquis de Lafayette and thereby gained some military experience. However, the revolutionary spark that incited Haitian slaves to rebel came not only from within but also from the ideas that inspired the French Revolution.

Delegates from Haiti’s white planters (of French and Spanish descent) sought to obtain representation in the French national assembly while excluding mulatto freedmen from participation. The white planters further increased racial bitterness by barring mulatto representatives from assemblies held in Saint-Domingue. The mulattoes embraced the ideals of the French Revolution—liberty, equality, fraternity. Their aspirations filtered down to the long-restless slaves, who in 1791 rebelled.

The Haitian Slave Revolt was led by Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Henri Christophe, Alexandre Sabès Pétion, and Jean-Pierre Boyer. By 1794 forces under Toussaint Louverture had freed the colony’s slave population. The French could not spare troops from Europe to suppress the uprising. By 1801 Toussaint Louverture ruled the entire colony. Although Toussaint Louverture was captured by French forces in 1802 and died a prisoner in France, the rebellion he had fostered did not end. Other black generals led his army to victory.

C

Independence

On January 1, 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared the colony’s independence as the world’s first black republic. He named the new country Haiti. But the long years of war had destroyed most of the country’s plantations, and the people who ran them had been killed or had fled. As one of his first acts, Dessalines authorized former slaves to seize the land of their ex-masters. The land was soon divided into many small farms, on which the former slaves raised just enough food to feed themselves, a pattern that has continued to this day.

On May 18, 1803, the first Haitian national flag was created. It was similar to the French flag, except it omitted the middle white stripe. By uniting the blue and red stripes, the flag symbolized the union between blacks and mulattoes. The colors were also symbolic of the Vodun deities of motherly love (blue) and war (red).

Emulating Napoleon I of France, Dessalines had himself crowned emperor as Jacques I in October 1804. Without the white planters to enforce work, Dessalines resorted to forced labor. Resentment built, and in 1806 Dessalines was assassinated. In the anarchy that followed, two states were established: one in the north held by Henri Christophe as King Henri I, and one in the south governed by Alexandre Pétion as president for life. Upon the death of Christophe in 1820, Jean-Pierre Boyer, the successor to Pétion, began to consolidate his power throughout the island. He succeeded in unifying Hispaniola under his rule in 1822. In 1844 the eastern two-thirds of the island declared its independence as the Republic of Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic.

Boyer, a dictator, established strict austerity measures. Threatened by France and fearing reoccupation, he was forced to pay an exorbitant indemnity to compensate the French planters for losses from the revolution. To pay the indemnity he had to borrow money from France. This move began a foreign indebtedness that was to plague Haiti for a century. Disaffection with his regime increased, and in 1843 Boyer went into exile.

After Boyer Haiti sank into a slough of economic corruption and bankruptcy, political anarchy, and personal tyranny. In 1849 Faustin Élie Soulouque proclaimed himself emperor as Faustin I, and for ten years he ruled in a despotic manner. He exhausted the treasury, waged futile campaigns against Santo Domingo, and ruled cold-bloodedly. He was exiled in 1859. Although a limited return to republican government and sound leadership was achieved, largely during the administrations of Nicholas Fabre Geffrard (1859 to 1867) and Lysius Salomon (1879 to 1888), Haiti suffered intermittent crises until 1915.

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