Haiti is a country located on the western half of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, bordering the Dominican Republic to the east. Haiti was a colony of France until 1804, when the Haitian Revolution succeeded in giving the colony independence. Haiti's overwhelmingly black population was able to overthrow the white minority elite and establish an empire under Henri Christophe, but it would later become a republic. Since the 1800s, Haiti has been a very poor and corrupt country, with political crises, natural disasters, and weak governments leading to the country suffering. Almost 87% of the country's exports are clothing or clothing-related items, and
History[]
Map of Haiti
Haiti was ruled by France as the colony of Saint-Domingue from the 1600s until 1791, when Toussaint L'ouverture began the Haitian Revolution with the goal of abolishing slavery and creating an egalitarian society. The revolution saw the French colonial authorities be expelled, and the Haitian Revolution was the only successful slave revolt to lead to the establishment of a new country. Haiti proceeded to occupy Santo Domingo (present-day Dominican Republic) to the east after invading Spain's colony to free the slaves there as well, and French, Spanish, and British troops failed to put down the uprising. Although L'ouverture was captured and died in a French prison, Jean-Jacques Dessalines forced the French out and declared the First Haitian Empire in 1804. He was assassinated in 1806, and the State of Haiti briefly existed before Henri Christophe declared the Kingdom of Haiti, which lasted from 1811 to 1820. From 1822 to 1844, Hispaniola was united under a republic, but in 1844 the Spanish-speaking eastern Hispaniolans overthrew the Haitians and proclaimed the independence of the Dominican Republic, while Haiti became the Second Haitian Empire in 1849, reigning for ten years with Faustin Soulouque as emperor.
Republic of Haiti[]
In 1859, Fabre Geffrard led a coup by the mulatto elite against the empire and re-established a republic, and Haiti was ruled as a republic (although there were no democratic elections; only coups and appointments decided who the next president would be) until 1957, when Francois Duvalier seized power following six years of political unrest following Paul Magloire's ouster. The black and red flag that the Haitian independence fighters had once flown was restored as the flag of Haiti, and Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier and "Baby Doc" Jean-Claude Duvalier succeeded him on his 1971 death, reigning until his 1986 overthrow. In the September 1988 Haitian coup d'etat, Prosper Avril led a coup against the military government of Henri Namphy that oversaw the transition from the Duvalier family's rule to democracy, and his reign saw human rights violations. On 7 February 1991, in the first democratic elections held in the history of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected as president with 67% of the vote, but in September 1991 Raoul Cedras led a coup to regain power for the military. The United States assisted in restoring him to power in Operation Uphold Democracy, but in 2004 he would be overthrown in another coup by Boniface Alexandre. In 2006, elections were held and Rene Preval was elected as the new president, and he was the first democratically-elected Haitian president to serve a full term in office. In 2011, he lost elections due to the crisis surrounding the Haitian earthquake, and former musician "Sweet Micky" Michel Martelly was elected president. He promised to reinstate the military since Aristide abolished it in the 1990s, but when he left office in February 2016 after elections were held in October 2015, no president assumed office, and Jocelerme Privert was interim president as elections were postponed repeatedly.
Culture[]
In 2015, Haiti had a population of 10,604,000 people, with 80% being Catholic, 16% being Protestant, 3% being another religion, and 1% atheist; voodoo practicioners were a small minority in the country, often practicing another religion as well. The gene pool of Haiti was 95.5% Sub-Saharan African, 4.3% European, and the remaining .2% being of East Asian descent.
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