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You will learn about the 17th c. settlment, the french revolution,how we took our independance, and the 20c. settlment. tewentieth century.


On December 5, 1492, Christopher Columbus reached the island and he named it Hispaniola whish means, “Spanish Island. When he arrived on the north coast whish is now know in Haiti as mole saint Nicolas, he formed a settlement called la Navidad. Before Christopher Columbus arrived on the island it was occupied by the Taino, an Arawaks branch, while la Navidad was being destructed by the Americans, Christopher moved to the eastern side of the island and he created la Isabella. The gold that was found on the island was exploited by the Spaniards. The people who did want to work in the gold mines were forced to slavery to be slaughtered. The ones who fled to the mountains had established some independent settlements.

When the Europeans arrived on the island, they brought some infectious diseases. Sickness were not the only thing that they gave us, they also brought to us: malnutrition, ill treatment, birth rate fall, and they decimated the indigenous population. Since they Tainos were dying, they needed more slaves; the Spaniards started importing African slaves to do work. In 1517, the draft of slaves was finally authorized by the king of Spain, Carlos V. when the African slaves came to the island, they got married to Amerindians and they formed the marabou race.

The French buccaneers had settled in the western part of Hispaniola. Bertrand d’Ogeron, French Buccaneers, had gowned tobacco. It prompted many of the numerous buccaneers and freebooters to become a secondary population. This population did not submit to the royal authority of the Spanish until 1660. This caused many conflicts.
 
 

 

The 17th c. settelment:

 

Many colonist forms Martinique and Guadeloupe were attracted by Bertrand d’Orgeron such as jean Roy, jean Hebert, Guillaume Barre. All of these men came with there families on the island because they were pressured by lands generated by sugar plantations. During the year of 1670 to1690 there was a decrease of settlers on the island because there was a drop in the tobacco market. Settlements that were plundered during 1683-1686, such as Vera Cruz and Compech started to plunder. Then some orders were brought back by jean-Batiste Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay. Jean-Baptiste has ordered to establish the sugarcane and indigo plantations. In 1685, the first windmill to process sugar was invented.

 

            The treaty of Ryswick of 1697 allowed France and Spain to settle hostilities on Hispaniola. So this means the island was decided between them. The western third of the island was given to France and the named it Saint-Domingue. Many French colonists went there and they worked on plantains. There were about 30,000 colonists who settled in the western part of the island, from 1713 to 1787. By 1790, Saint-Domingue had overshadowed its wealth and population. Fast, it became the prosperous French colony in the new world because of its coffee, sugar and indigo industries. All this became possible because of the amount of enslaved African that they had. They lied of these slaves were ruled by the code noir whish means black code in English. it was created by Colbert and enacted by Louis XIV.

The French Revolution:

 

Saint-Domingue and the French war Indies has been generated by social upheavals because of the French revolution. The revolt of the slaves led to the abolition of slavery in 1793 by the commissioners Polverel and Sonthonx, the thing that was the most important was the revolt of the slaver. Six month later, this was a decision that had endorsed and generalized the whole of the French colonies by the convention. Toussaint Louverture was chosen as governor by French colonies by the convention. Toussaint louverture was chosen as governor by French after he has reported peace in Saint-Domingue. Toussaint had driven Spain and England out of the island because they had threatened the colony. By trading with the U.S and Great Britain he had restored prosperity.

 

Independence:

 

Napoleon Bonaparte sent about 30,000 men under the command of General Charles Leclerc to retake the island because Toussaint Louverture has created a separatist constitution. Napoleon got influenced by the traders and planters who were Creole. General Leclerc wanted to kick Louverture out and restores slavery. After the natives won some victories and the capture and deportation of Toussaint Louverture, the leader of the island, Jean Jacque Dessalines beat the French at the battles of Vertieres.

Donatien Marie Joseph de Rochambeau was the one leading.  The former slaves clamed Saint-Domingue impendent on January 1, 1804 after the second battle of impedance and liberation. After its independence, Saint-Domingue was no longer called like that; its new name was Haiti. Haiti was the fist country in the world of eliminates slavery.  

           

Jean-Jacques Dessalines was chosen as governor for life by his troops. The rest of whites that stayed on the island got exile by Dessalines and he ruled as a dictator. On October 17, 1806 he got assassinated. After the death of Jean-Jacques Dessaline, the country was divided into two kingdoms. The north part was rules by Henry Christophe and the south part was ruled by Alexandre Petion. When Haiti was under the rule of Jean Pierre Boyer, the he unified the two parts and took control of the east part. The king of France, Charles X, sent some ships and soldiers to take over Haiti once again in July 1825. So Boyer could keep peace, he made an agreement with France. In this treaty France would recognize Haiti as an independent country in exchange for a payment of 150 million francs.

 

After Jean Pierre Boyer left, there was a long series of coup d'état that followed and his power was still doubtful by the mulattos and the blacks leaders, the army, commercial. All of this made up many immigrants such as Americans, English, Germans and French. The country was weakening and becoming poor, the army started to revolt and it uphold by candidates to succession. At the start of the 20th c., Haiti was a quasi-permanent rebellion state.

 

Twentieth Century:

 

            From 1915 to 1934, the United States occupied the island. Then, 3 years after in 1957, a dictator called Duvalier ruled the country till 1986. He created a private army and some terrorist death group called Tonton Macoute. During these years, many Haitians left the country and went to settle in Quebec, Canada and the United states.

           

On December 1990, a priest called Jean-Bertrand Aristide won the presidential elections. On February 7, 1991, his mandate began. On September, a man named Raoul cedars carried out a coup d’état against President Aristide and it was supported by the business middle-class. With the support of Clinton’s administration, Aristide was backup up by the united stats and he took power again in 1994. One year later Aristide left the presidency and in 2000, he got re-elected. Some months after, Aristide was sent to exile because of popular demonstration and pressure that was exerted by the international community such as France the U.S and Canada. On February 29, 2004 Aristide got ushered by some US soldier and got exile once more. Some old soldiers that threatened to attack the capital.

 

The person who became president after jean-Bertrand Aristide was Boniface Alexandre, president of the supreme court of appeal. In February 2006, Rene Preval a farmer president in 1995 to 2000 was reelected. Preval and Aristide were close friends.

 

 

Government:

 

Haiti’s government is a presidential republic. It has a system of a multiparty where the president is the head of the state. He is elected directly by the popular elections. The prime minister is the head of the government and is chosen by the president from the mass of party in the national assembly. The executive party is made up pf both the president and the prime minister. They farm the government together.

 

The two chambers of the national assembly and the government make up the legislative power. The way the government is organized is unitarily. In the constitution of March 29, 1987, the political system of Haiti was set up. Now the current president of Haiti is called Rene Preval. Since 2004 when Aristide got exile till to say, the United Nations Stabilization mission in Haiti.

 

 

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This site has been written to show what is Haiti.