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Since the signing
of the
Treaty of Ryswick
between the kingdoms of Spain and France in 1697, the island
of Hispaniola (Haiti) has played host to two
separate and distinct societies that we now know as the
nations of
Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The French
eventually proved the value of Caribbean colonization, in an
economic as well as a maritime and strategic sense, by
developing modern-day
Haiti, then known as Saint-Domingue,
into the most productive colony in the Western Hemisphere.
Find more information about this period from
The
Haitian Embassy
Haiti History
-
Haitian Revolution
Saint-Domingue
eventually was lost to a
Slave
Rebellion. This positive impulse, liberally leavened
with hatred for the white men, who had seized them, shipped
them like cargo across the ocean, tortured and abused them,
and forced women into concubinage and men into arduous
labor, impelled the
Haitian
Population to an achievement
still unmatched in history: the overthrow of a slaveholding
colonial power and the establishment of a revolutionary
black republic. The ensuing
revolution was led by
Jean-Jacques Dessalines ,
Henri Christophe, and
Alexandre Sabès Pétion.
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Haiti History
- Isolation
The European
colonial powers and the United States shunned relations with
Haiti; in the process, they contributed to the establishment
of an
impoverished society, ruled by the military, guided by
the gun rather than the ballot, and controlled by a small,
mostly mulatto, ruling group that lived well, while their
countrymen either struggled to eke out a subsistence-level
existence on small plots of land or flocked to the banners
of regional strongmen in the seemingly never-ending contest
for power. The French colonial experience had left the
Haitians completely unprepared for orderly democratic
self-government, but the isolation of the post-independence
period assured the exclusion of liberalizing influences that
might have guided
Haiti along a somewhat different path of
political and economic development.
Haiti History
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Occupation:
The
United States Occupation of Haiti (1915-34) certainly brought little of
lasting value to the country's political culture or
institutions, in part because the Americans saw the Haitians
as uncivilized lackeys and treated them as such.
Both nations of Hispaniola share--along with much of the
developing world--the strong tendency toward political
organization built upon the personalistic followings of
strongmen, or caudillos, rather than on more legalistic
bases, such as constitutionalism. Click here for
Haitian Government.
Haiti History
-
Duvalier
This political
culture helps to explain the
brutal
regime of Duvaliers --
Francois Duvalier (1957-71)
and his son,
Jean-Claude Duvalier (1971-86)-- in Haiti. The regime lasted for approximately thirty years; sustained
itself in power by employing
terror and ruthlessly
suppressing dissent. It left Haiti mired
in political chaos and internal conflict upon their demise.
The following is
a list of related links about
Haiti History:
Government
Immigration
Travel Agency
Travel and Tour
Activist
Haiti History
- Post
Duvalier
As of late 1990,
however, the outcome of the situation remained extremely
unpredictable.
Lieutenant
General
Prosper Avril
took power in Haiti in September 1988, ousting the highly
unpopular military regime led by Lieutenant General
Henri Namphy .
Avril, a product of
the Haitian military tradition and the Duvalierist system,
initially gave assurances that he would serve only as a
transitional figure on the road to representative democracy.
Whatever his personal feelings or motivations, however,
Avril by his actions proved himself to be simply another
corrupt Haitian military strongman. Having scheduled
elections for 1990, he arrested and expelled leading
political figures and declared a state of siege in January
of that year. These actions triggered demonstrations,
protests, and rioting among a population weary of
exploitation and insincere promises of reform. Despite his
public rhetoric,
Avril presided over a military institution
that perpetuated the Duvalierist traditions of extortion,
graft, and price-gouging through state-owned enterprises. At
the same time, the military made no substantive effort to
address the problem of political violence.
By early 1990,
Haitians had had enough of promises; many decided to take
action on their own, much as they had during the uprising of
1985 that swept
Jean-Claude Duvalier from power. Violent demonstrations began in earnest in early March
1990, ostensibly in response to the army's fatal shooting of
an eleven- year-old girl in Petit Goâve. Streets blazed
across
Haiti as demonstrators ignited tires and automobiles,
chanted anti-Avril slogans, and fought with army troops.
Avril soon recognized the untenable nature of his position;
the United States ambassador reportedly influenced the
general's decision to step down in a private meeting held on
March 12.
Avril's flight from
Haiti on a United States Air
Force transport added his name to a long list of failed
Haitian strongmen, and it left the country under the
guidance of yet another military officer, Major General
(subsequently promoted to Lieutenant General) Hérard
Abraham. Consultations among civilian political figures produced a
provisional government headed by a judge of the Court of
Cassation (supreme court),
Ertha Pascal-Trouillot, a
woman little-known outside legal circles. Judge
Ertha Pascal-Trouillot reportedly accepted the post of provisional president after
three other supreme court judges declined; she was sworn in
on March 13. Appointed along with her was a nineteen-member
Council of State, made up of prominent civic and political
leaders. Although the new government announced no clear
definitions of the powers of the council vis-à-vis the
provisional president, some reports indicated that the
president could exercise independent authority in some
areas. The most compelling reality, however, was that all
powers of the provisional government had been granted by the
Haitian Armed Forces (Forces Armées d'Haïti--FAd'H), which
would provide the government's only mandate--and perhaps its
major political constituency--until valid popular elections
could be held.
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The Conseil Electoral Permanent (Permanent Electoral
Council- -CEP) scheduled local, legislative, and
presidential elections for sometime between November 4 and
November 29, 1990. The prospects for their successful
implementation, however, appeared highly problematical at
best. Seemingly unchecked political violence, which conjured
up for many the horrible images of the bloody election day
of November 1987, presented the major obstacle to free and
fair balloting. Negotiations between the FAd'H and the CEP
sought to establish security mechanisms that would prevent a
recurrence of the 1987 tragedy. Popular confidence in these
efforts, however, did not appear to be very great. In a larger sense, the utter absence of any democratic
tradition, or framework, in
Haiti stacked the odds heavily
against a smooth governmental transition. Economist Mats Lundahl has referred to
Haiti as a hysteretic state, "not
simply one where the past has shaped the present, but also
one where history constitutes one of the strongest obstacles
to change." Several conditions prevailing in
Haiti gave
substance to this definition. Among the wide array of personalistic political parties, only three--Marc Bazin's
Movement for the Installation of Democracy in Haiti (Mouvement
pour l'Instouration de la Démocratie en
Haiti -- MIDH), Serge
Gilles's National Progressive Revolutionary Haitian Party (Parti
Progressiste Révolutionnaire Haïtien--Ponpra), and Sylvio C.
Claude's Christian Democrat Party of
Haiti (Parti National
Chrétien d'Haiti--PDCH)--displayed any semblance of coherent
programs or disciplined party apparatus. The odyssey of the
Haitian military, from dominant power before the Duvaliers
to subordinate status under the dynastic dictatorship, left
uncertain the intentions of the FAd'H under Abraham's
leadership. The return of such infamous Duvalierist cronies
as former interior minister Roger LaFontant and persistent
rumors that Jean-Claude himself was contemplating a return
to the nation he had bled dry for fifteen years provoked
outrage among a population that wanted nothing so much as to
rid itself of the remaining vestiges of that predatory
regime. According to some observers, internal conditions had
approached, by the late summer of 1990, a sort of critical
mass, which, if not defused by way of fair and free
elections, could explode into generalized and ultimately
futile violence.
In July one of the more responsible political leaders,
Sylvio Claude, exhorted Haitians to block the return of
undesirables by seizing the international airport outside
Port au Prince. In a speech on
Haitian Radio, he declared,
"Instead of letting [the army] go kill you later, make them
kill you now." Among the figures targeted by Claude for such
action was former president
Leslie Francois Manigat, not
previously considered a controversial figure by most
observers. Perhaps in response to such rabble- rousing, the
provisional government announced on August 1 that
Leslie Francois Manigat
would be barred from returning to his native
Haiti.
In late July, the Council of State issued a communiqué,
laying down four conditions that it deemed necessary for
holding successful elections. First, effective legal action
had to be initiated against those who had participated in
the November 1987 attacks and other political murders;
second, a general climate of public security needed to be
established in order to encourage voters to go to the polls;
third, the public administration should be purged of
entrenched, corrupt bureaucrats; and fourth, some checks had
to be established over the powers of the rural section
chiefs (chefs de section), so that the rural
population could vote in an atmosphere free of coercion and
intimidation. It was not clear what action the Council would
take if these conditions had not been met by November.
The following is
a list of additional links about
Haiti History:
Agriculture
Airline Airport
Association
Hotel and Guest House
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