Reframing Haiti’s History:
13 things you (likely) didn’t learn in school

Haiti is a complex country. Like so many things, what is happening there today is seen through a narrow lens of events at this moment in time. Civil unrest. Natural disasters. Disease outbreaks. But it is important to ask why these things are happening. There is a long history that needs to be followed back to the beginning to understand how Haiti has arrived where it is today and how colonialism, racism, and foreign interventions are at the root of so many of Haiti’s problems and worked against the dream of what Haiti could be.

ONE: Doctrine of Discovery

TWO: The Rise of St. Dominique

1496-1791 — Spain officially claimed Hispanola in 1496 and began establishing colonies and plantations on the island. In 1625 as part of a political exchange, France took control over the western portion of the island, renaming it Saint-Domingue. It became a valuable colony for France, generating one-third of the country’s overall income - producing 40 percent of all the sugar and 60 percent of all the coffee consumed in Europe. These crops were grown using slave labour, initially using the indigenous Taino population, then using African slaves. An estimated 800,000 Africans — approximately one third of the entire Atlantic slave trade — were kidnapped and forced to work on the French plantations. They were brutally treated, enduring horrible abuses with almost no concern for their lives. By the end of the 1700s, black slaves outnumbered their white masters 20 to one.

THREE: Haitian Revolution

1791-1804 — The Haitian Revolution was the largest and most successful slave rebellion in history. Unwilling to be subjugated, African slaves fought for a decade to end Napoleon’s rule and French control over the colony and established Haiti as the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere. The rebellion, led by former slave Toussaint L’Ouverture, was influenced by the French Revolution which represented a new concept of human rights, universal citizenship and participation in government. The Haitian Revolution culminated in the elimination of slavery in Saint-Domingue and the founding of the Haitian Republic in 1804. European and North American governments were shocked by revolution and the killing of white settlers in response to generations of slavery and abuse. They were also concerned that the Haitian Revolution might inspire other uprisings that would undermine the global colonial slave economy and were unwilling to recognize the new republic.

FOUR: Paying for Independence

FIVE: American Occupation

1915-1934 — In 1915, the United States marines invaded Haiti. The US justification for the occupation was to bring stability and democracy to the country, but in fact it was a thinly disguised racially motivated move to establish control over Haiti. The US took control of the country’s finances and rewrote Haiti’s constitution to give foreigners land-owning rights. To support US funded “infrastructure development,” Haitians were returned to forced labour within their own country. Over the next two decades, an estimated 15,000 Haitians died fighting to remove the US controlled government. Before officially pulling out of Haiti in 1934, the US established a new police force modelled after their own occupation forces. The US continued to control Haiti’s finances until 1947 when it made its final “independence” payment to France.

SIX: 1937 “Parsley” Massacre

1934-1957 — During its occupation of Haiti, the US also oversaw the formal establishment of the Haitian/Dominican border. This border had a long history of conflict and the US actions inflamed existing immigration and racial issues between the two countries. In 1930, Rafel Trujillo, a soldier in the Dominican army trained by the U.S. Forces became the leader and dictator of the Dominican Republic. He was openly hostile to Haitian immigrants who he saw as a detriment to the social and economic development of the Dominican nation. In October 1937, Trujillo ordered the killing of an estimated 20,000 Haitian workers along the northern border. The military supposedly targeted anyone who could not pronounce “parsley” in Spanish by properly rolling their “r”s  as a way to identify Haitian Creole speakers. The grisly massacre was largely ignored by the international community and the lasting repercussions still haunt relations between the two countries.

SEVEN: Duvaliers

1957-1986 — The US occupation had lasting effects on Haiti’s rural communities. François Duvalier, or “Papa Doc”, was a country doctor who observed the frustration of the poor black majority with the privileges of Haiti’s urban mulatto elite. In 1957, Duvalier was elected president running on a populist and black nationalist platform and his regime rapidly became totalitarian and in 1964 he named himself Haiti’s “President for Life”. Papa Doc fostered a cult of personality, claiming he was the physical embodiment of Haiti and based his appearance on Baron Samedi, one of the loa, or spirits, of Haitian Vodou representing death. To control the population, Duvalier created a violent and terrifying militia, the Tonton Macoute. An estimated 60,000 Haitians were killed during his three decades in power. During the Cold War, Duvalier’s staunch opposition to communism helped countries look past his tyrannical rule and during his reign Haiti received substantial international aid, most of it going directly to the Duvalier family and other corrupt officials. His son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc”, succeeded him in 1971 and continued his father’s brutal and corrupt regime until he was finally overthrown and driven into exile in 1986. He returned to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and died in 2014. 

EIGHT: The Rising Flood

1990-2004 — In 1990, Jean Bertrand Aristide, a Haitian priest turned politician and key member of the social-democratic Lavalas (“flood” in Creole) movement, became the country’s first democratically elected president. His first term was brief, ending in a 1991 military coup. He was returned to power three years later after the US put pressure on the military regime. Aristide was president from 1994 to 1996 and from 2001 to 2004. Under his leadership, the Famni Lavalas Party emphasized investment in education and health care as priorities. Aristide was ousted in the 2004 military coup d'état supported by the United States, Canada and France. Aristide was forced into exile in the Central African Republic and did not return to Haiti until 2011.

NINE: MINUSTAH

2004-2019 — The United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti, also known by its French acronym MINUSTAH, was a United Nations peacekeeping mission that initially was sent to Haiti to bring stability after the 2004 overthrow of Aristide. Its mission was extended after the 2010 catastrophic earthquake. MINUSTAH has been criticised as an attempt by the United States, Canada and France to maintain control over Haiti’s political landscape. During its time in Haiti, MINUSTAH soldiers have been accused of a number of sexual assault and human rights abuse cases and of fathering hundreds of children, leaving mothers struggling with stigma, poverty and single parenthood. UN soldiers have also been identified as the source of Haiti’s 2011 cholera epidemic.

TEN: Earthquake

2010 — In the late afternoon of January 12, 2010, an earthquake rocked the area around Port-au-Prince. Within minutes, an estimated 250,000 poorly-built residences and 30,000 commercial buildings were destroyed leaving approximately 300,000 Haitians dead and an estimated 3 million affected in some way by the disaster. The nation's history of national debt, prejudicial trade policies by other countries, and foreign intervention into national affairs, contributed to the existing poverty and poor housing conditions and helped contribute to the high level of destruction and death. With 27 of 28 government buildings destroyed and half of its civil service killed, the already impoverished Haitian government had no capacity to quickly respond to the magnitude of devastation. Foreign governments and individuals quickly came to assistance, pledging almost $13 billion in aid to help the country. A decade later, little has changed for the average Haitian. Many aid agencies have been criticized for spending much of their money on foreign contractors and administration, with very little funding actually being spent on the ground in Haiti and increasing distrust of foreign interventions.

ELEVEN: Cholera

2011- 2016 — In October 2010, a cholera outbreak was confirmed in Haiti — the first in the country's modern history. The cholera strain was linked to a similar outbreak in South Asia and was traced back to a UN base where a contingent of Nepalese troops were stationed. The base had a faulty sewage system that was leaking into the Artibonite River, which is used by thousands of Haitians for drinking, cooking, and bathing. It’s estimated that 10,000 Haitians have died from this disease and over 800,000 have been infected since the outbreak began. For many years the UN denied any responsibility for introducing the disease to Haiti, but after a lengthy legal battle, the UN Secretary General finally issued a formal apology in 2017 and pledged $400 million in reparations. As of 2020, only $3 million has been spent, raising harsh criticism from UN rights monitors and adding to Haitians’ ongoing mistrust of the international community.

TWELVE: Petrocaribe

2018-2019 — PetroCaribe, was an energy initiative launched by Venezuela in 2005 as a type of development loan to Caribbean countries but instead of loaning cash, it provided oil. Under PetroCaribe, Haiti could defer payments for Venezuelan oil and use the extra money to develop the economy and fund social programs. Instead, at least $2 billion (equivalent to almost a quarter of Haiti’s total economy for 2017) went missing and Haitians saw few of the promised benefits. Over the summer of 2018, government plans to raise fuel taxes and spiraling inflation sparked violent protests. These protests and calls for the removal of President Jovenel Moïse have continued and grown into ongoing civil unrest that has put the country into regular lockdowns, paralyzed Haiti’s government, caused widespread shortages of fuel and food, and pushed Haiti into a greater state of uncertainty. Now with the additional medical challenges created by the Covid-19 epidemic, Haiti’s 11.3 million residents are in desperate need of support to make the changes their country needs to move them out of this crisis.