Haiti Fast Facts
The Caribbean
Haiti was founded by the French in 1697 as a French colony and was renamed to the French colony of Saint-Domingue on January 1, 1802. However, when Haiti revolted against France in 1804, the entire colony was abolished and Haiti became a part of that country. Haiti’s capital city is Port-au-Prince, and this city is the largest city in the Caribbean.
In 1804, Haiti and France signed the Treaty of Basel and the Treaty of 1783 and both had the same rights of ownership of the Caribbean. In 1813, the Treaty of Vienna was signed and the French were the only ones owning the territory. The treaty also guaranteed the right to the Haitian slaves, which were originally brought from Africa to work in sugar and coffee plantations to Europe. As a result, the French abolished slavery in Haiti in 1834.
By 1819, more than two-thirds of the population of the Caribbean had been converted to Catholicism. By the year 1850, Haiti was a large, wealthy, and prosperous country.
Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince, served as the capital of the French Republic until the end of the French monarchy. It was also the capital of Haiti until 1803. The capital was the site of the first democratic elections in the Americas, when it elected Jean Jacques Dessalines as president.
Haiti had to face two major disasters in the twentieth century: during the slave revolt on February 27, 1902, and Hurricane Diane in September, 1935. The former devastated much of the country and forced the government to abandon all hope of independence.
As a result of the earthquake and subsequent catastrophic flooding in 1915, Haiti was destroyed in two ways: the destruction of all urban centers and the death of more than 200,000 people. About 1.5 million people became destitute, of whom about half died before relief efforts intervened. In 1934, the Haitian National Guard and the Army helped bring the country back to life. Many of Port-au-Prince’s most influential families, such as the Lélé family, the Maritains, and the Hernández de Córdoba family, were among the largest landowners at the time, and they
