A brief history of Haiti

As I noticed in Romania, American high school history classes are great at avoiding topics in history that paint the U.S. in bad light. Yes, we talked about some of our unbecoming past; but, generally just things that were too big to avoid. Haiti’s history with the U.S., and France, and most of the developed world is not pleasant, and in the scope of their history too big to avoid; yet, I know it wasn’t part of my curriculum. To be able to practice public health or healthcare in a country it is of vital importance to understand the culture and history. So I thought I’d share with all of you the highlights.

In 1492, Columbus landed on the island of Hispaniola (present day Haiti and Dominican Republic). Within a few centuries of his arrival, the entire native Taino population died, mainly due to new pathogens. This was the first impact of globalization in Haiti. The demise of the native people, made colonization of Haiti a simple task, and in 1697 the French began ruling. The French turned Haiti into a slave colony for sugar production, mahogany exportation and as a source for American slaves. By the late 1700s, the slave population made up more than 85% of the island and an independence revolution began. In 1804, Haiti became the first independent black nation and the only slave colony to win its independence. This independence came at a high price however. The revolutionary war destroyed the colonial infrastructure. Additionally, most European nations, in addition to the United States, put trade embargos on Haiti destroying their ability to become economically independent. To make things even worse, the French being incredibly sore losers, made the Haitian government pay retributions for winning the war. The amount imposed, if done today, would be $21 billion. This debt payment took 80% of Haiti’s annual budget until the 1950s, leaving little money for development.

The twentieth century is when the United States really began influencing Haiti’s history. From 1915-1934, the U.S. Marines occupied Haiti as an attempt to secure U.S. sugar interests. Then the U.S. implemented an ineffective development plan, which was been attempted in many other countries with similar consequences. President Clinton, during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, in 2011, explained it well,

“Since 1981, the United States has followed a policy, until the last year or so when we started rethinking it, that we rich countries that produce a lot of food should sell it to poor countries and relieve them of the burden of producing their own food, so, thank goodness, they can leap directly into the industrial era. It has not worked. It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake. It was a mistake that I was party to. I am not pointing the finger at anybody. I did that. I have to live every day with the consequences of the lost capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti.”

Finally, we get to the recent history that most people are familiar with: the devastating natural disasters of the last 5 years. Starting with four hurricanes devastating the island during a short period in 2008, culminating with the 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12, 2010 and most recently flooding due to Hurricane Sandy. These disasters have destroyed a lot of the infrastructure that did exist and have caused 2 million Haitians to be displaced.

The history of Haiti is fascinating. I don’t pretend to do it any justice here. It is intertwined in complex ways with many countries, is rooted in African tradition, filled with people who have family in the States or France, similar in climate to the rest of the Caribbean; but, entirely unique.