Why is haiti in the position that it is now?

Answer 1

My learned fellow respondent (whom I think is Israeli) hit the nail on the head.

Haiti started out on the back foot. It gained its independence through a rebellion - a successful slave rebellion against their cruel (French) masters. But in order to gain her sovereignty and keep France from trying to retake her, Haiti paid compensation to the French planters who were thrown off their sugar plantations. Most of these planters relocated to Louisiana (which was then part of the Louisiana Territory).

The slaves, sadly, had no skills other than the ones they knew by rote. They were not educated. They did not know how to build roads or mills; they did not know how to "do" politics. But they did know how to revolt, and to this end aided in the slave revolutions in Latin America. Slaves all over the Caribbean basin started getting revolutionary ideas.

The slave-owning powers (France, Britain, Spain, the US) , fearing slave revolutions of their own, formed a "cordon sanitaire" around Haiti - a total blockade. The Vatican withdrew its priests from Haiti and did not return them until 1860. France refused to recognize Haiti's independence until it agreed to pay an indemnity of 150 million francs, to compensate for the losses of French planters in the revolution, in 1833. Payment of this indemnity brought the government deeply in debt and crippled the country's economy.

Throughout the nineteenth century, the country was ruled by a series of presidents, most of whom remained in office only briefly. Meanwhile, the country's economy was gradually dominated by foreigners, particularly from Germany. Concerned about German influence, and disturbed by the hanging of President Guillaume Sam by an enraged crowd, the United States invaded and occupied Haiti in 1915. The United States imposed a constitution (written by future president Franklin D. Roosevelt) and applied an old system of compulsory corvée labor to everyone. The occupation ended in 1834, but only because the Americans left power in the hands of the white and mulatto minority.

The country was ruled by ruthless dictators, all of them backed by the US and European powers, thereafter.

The unravelling of the Duvalier regime began with a popular movement supported by the local church and set in motion by the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1983, who before embarking his plane gave a rousing speech ending with an angry exclamation: "Things must change here!"

The charismatic black leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president in 1991, but was deposed in a coup shortly after. There followed three years of brutal control by a military junta led by Raoul Cedras, before a second American invasion and occupation in 1994 returned Aristide to power. One of the first acts of the re-installed government of Aristide was to disband the army, to great popular acclaim.

Aristide was succeeded by a close ally and former prime minister, René Préval, in 1996. While Aristide was the first democratically elected president in Haitian history, Préval's administration was most notable for the fact that he was the first person in Haiti's history to constitutionally succeed a president and then serve a complete term, leaving office voluntarily at the prescribed time. Every previous president had either died in office, been assassinated, been deposed, overstayed his prescribed term, or been installed by a foreign power.

Aristide returned to office in 2001 after elections that were boycotted by many of his opponents, who accused his party, Fanmi Lavalas, of counting votes improperly in a previous senatorial election, as well as threatening critics. Aristide denied the charges and accused his opponents of accepting U.S. assistance, and plotting to overthrow his government. The opposition mostly denied this, but many of its members continually called for his early resignation. Part of the problem was that Aristide moved to raise the minimum wage of Haitian workers, and expatriate Haitian businessmen (most of them living in New York and Miami) did not want to pay their workers the suggested $1.25 an hour. They wanted to perpetuate slavery on the island - or something like it.

In February 2004, the Aristide government was overthrown by armed rebels, consisting mostly of paramilitary groups led by Guy Philippe, former police chief of Cap-Haïtien, believed to have been backed by the US-based Haitian expat businessmen and CIA-trained mercenaries in the Dominican Republic. These armed opponents were alleged to be allied with the political opposition. As Aristide departed the country, many members of his government fled or went into hiding, and the United States again sent Marines into Port-au-Prince. After Aristide's departure, Supreme Court Chief Justice Boniface Alexandre succeeded to the presidency appointed by a council of elders and supported by the United States, Canada, and France. In the months following the February coup, the country was engulfed into violence between the interim government's forces and Lavalas supporters, and many members of the Lavalas party were sent to jail, exiled, or killed. Much of the violence began after police of the interim force began shooting at peaceful Lavalas demonstrations in mid 2004. Over 10,000 workers in Haitian civil enterprises lost their jobs following the coup. A study published in the British medical journal "The Lancet" found through single spatial sampling that 8,000 murders and 35,000 sexual assaults occurred in the greater Port-au-Prince area during the period of the interim regime.

Answer 2

First because after its independence all the powerful countries in that time turned their back to Haiti because they couldn't use the people as slaves anymore.

Second because France made the new Hatian Republic pay for all the french people that they killed to get their independence. It was a lot of money, it took Haiti a few decades to pay the total amount which was ridiculous because a lot of slaves died before and no one paid for that, but unfortunately that's how things work in this world.

And third because of a series of bad goverments.

Answer 3

Good question. It was the first black republic in the Carribean.
It's a beautiful country and the people (in general) are proud of their heritage.

Unfortunately, they've been plagued by corrupt officials as well as dictators (the Duvaliers). That's why they are so poor that they make US slums look like mansions.

Truly sad.