One of the first places at which Columbus landed during his epic voyages of the 1490s was the island of Hispaniola. The island was then known as Santo Domingo, and is now divided between the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Columbus became the first governor of Santo Domingo. The Arawak Indian inhabitants were rapidly and brutally supplanted by the Spanish who used the island as a base to launch their conquests of the Caribbean and Central America (Columbus became Santo Domingo’s first governor). At the end of the 16th century, Spain’s European rivals started to challenge
it for control of the island and, in 1697, the Spanish ceded the western half of the island to France. The French turned their new territory into a major center for the slave trade, and this eventually led to the birth of Haiti as an independent nation. In what was to be the only successful slave rebellion, the French were defeated in a 12-year campaign, led by Toussaint L’Ouverture and others, which ended in 1804.
During the rest of the 19th century, Haiti was under the control of a succession of dictators, none of whom had the wherewithal to resolve the conflict between the country’s two main ethnic groups: the mulattos, who held political power, and the blacks. Early in the 20th century, the US took control of Haiti, sending troops in at one stage to support the regime. After 30 years as a US protectorate, Haiti was returned to local rule after World War II.
Elections in 1957 brought to power Dr Francis Duvalier, a country physician, who subsequently presided over a uniquely vicious authoritarian regime. With the help of a private militia known as the Tontons Macoutes (the Creole phrase for ‘bogeymen’), political dissent was systematically eradicated and opponents jailed or murdered. The traditional Voodoo religion was widely abused in order to intimidate critics. Duvalier (commonly known as ‘Papa Doc’) died in 1971, handing the leadership over to his son Jean Claude (‘Baby Doc’) who ruled the country for the next 15 years in the same manner as his father. Half-hearted efforts – such as the elections in which all opposition candidates were arrested on polling day – were made to present a more acceptable face to the outside world, primarily in order to secure foreign aid. Despite the constant attentions of the Tontons, political opposition continued to grow, crucially within the army; in the spring of 1986 these elements finally turned against the regime and forced Duvalier’s flight from the country.
A succession of military governments followed before Haiti began the transition to civilian rule. Presidential elections were held in mid-December 1990 under the supervision of the United Nations and brought to the presidency the radical priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Nine months later, army chief Brigadier-General Raoul Cedras seized power in a military coup. Aristide was exiled. In June 1992, the army installed a civilian government under Marc Bazin, one of the conservative presidential candidates defeated by Aristide. 12 months later, as the country suffered under the weight of international opprobrium, a deal between the Cedras/Bazin regime and Aristide allowed the latter to come back to the country. Political violence, orchestrated by a right-wing militia known as the Front Revolutionnaire pour l’Avancement et le Progrès d’Haiti (FRAPH), composed largely of ex-Tontons and financed by American intelligence (which was opposed to Aristide’s alleged radicalism) delayed Aristide’s resumption of the presidency. Ironically, it took the intervention of several thousand American troops at the end of 1994 – followed by a UN force – to restore some semblance of order.
In December 1995 Aristide’s truncated term of office came to an end. The presidential election that followed – from which Aristide was constitutionally barred – brought to power one of his close associates, René Préval. The Préval administration was dogged by violence and instability throughout its term and, in January 1999, Préval dissolved parliament pending parliamentary elections. These were repeatedly postponed until May 2000, when Aristide himself was able to stand once again under the banner of the ‘Famni Lavalas’ (literally, ‘Waterfall Family’). The poll had to re-run in November but both polls produced a decisive victory for Aristide. The UN pulled out, but political violence re-emerged with an attempted coup in December 2001 and serious street protests the following summer. The main cause was the country’s deteriorating economic situation. Aristide appointed a new premier, Yvon Neptune, in March 2002 after the removal of his predecessor, Jean-Marie Cherestal. In 2003 a wave of protests against Aristide quickly spread throughout the country plunging Haiti into chaos. By 2004, armed rebels had seized control of many towns and violence spread across the island. In February 2004, Aristide fled the country and now lives in exile in South Africa. Drug trafficking and corruption are major problems hampering the restoration of the country. The first presidential and legislative elections to be held since Aristide fled have been postponed three times. They are now due to be held in January 2006, with the second round in mid February.
Government Haiti is formally governed according to the terms of the Constitution promulgated in 1987 which allows for an executive president and a bicameral legislature (an 83-member Chamber of Deputies and 27-member Senate). The President is elected by popular vote every five years. The Chamber of Deputies is elected every four years; and the Senate every six years. The Constitution was restored in September 1994 after a three-year interruption following a military coup.
Economy Haiti’s average annual income of about US$500 per head is the lowest in the western hemisphere; moreover, vast disparities exist between the incomes of rich and poor. The World Bank estimates that 85% of the people live below the absolute poverty line.
Two-thirds of the employed population work in agriculture, mainly in the coffee plantations which generate 25% of Haiti’s export earnings, although these have suffered from periodic droughts and persistently low world prices. Sugar cane, sweet potatoes, cocoa and sisal are also grown for export.
The mining industry extracts marble, limestone and clay; there are also unexploited deposits of copper, silver and gold. The rest of the manufacturing sector involves food processing, metal products and textiles. Tourism, once promising, has all but vanished thanks to the country’s chronic political instability.
Haiti’s problems are so intractable that even after repeated, large injections of foreign aid and an IMF-approved economic plan, the economy remains stubbornly inert. The appalling state of the country’s infrastructure has much to do with this. The economy did however grow by 2.5% in 2006.
Haiti joined the Caribbean trading bloc CARICOM as a provisional member in 1997 and became a full member in 2002.
