In 1804, Haiti became the world's first independent black republic following a slave revolution. 200 years later, ravaged by colonialism and violence, it was placed under UN military occupation. Haiti's New Dictatorship traces the country's recent history, from the 2004 coup d'état against President Aristide to the Duvalier dictatorship. The article begins by talking about Haiti during the colonial era. Columbus left a colony behind, and the devastation of the native population through brutal violence, forced labor, and disease began immediately. Over the next century, the original populations of many new Spanish colonies were wiped out, further reducing the pool of forced labor. Haiti was thus one of the first destinations for men and women captured during the transatlantic slave trade. In the 16th and 17th centuries, European colonial powers, including Spain, the Netherlands, England, and France, fought naval battles directly and through proxies for colonial possessions in America. France began settling settlers in western Hispaniola in the 17th century, and at the end of that century the Spanish ceded the western part of Hispaniola to the French, who named the colony Saint-Domingue. By the end of the 18th century, the slave population far outnumbered the white population. The slaves' resistance was constant and, in many ways, successful: they attacked plantations, liberated others, and, like slaves in Brazil, Colombia, elsewhere in the Caribbean, and the United States, they founded Maroon societies of escaped slaves. Haiti's independence was won in a bitter and brutal revolt against French colonial masters, the only successful slave revolt in history. Despite Toussaint's willingness to make all concessions except the reimposition of slavery, including allowing the colony to remain part of France, the French under Napoleon ultimately decided to launch a genocidal campaign: if the population of Haiti should not have been the possession of France, it would have been completely destroyed. They tear up the roads with gunfire; throw corpses and horses into all the fountains; burn and destroy everything, so that those who came to enslave us have before their eyes the image of this hell that they deserve. At the end of the War of Independence in 1804, Haiti was divided between two revolutionary generals, Alexandre Pétion as president in the south and Henri Christophe as king in the north. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Similarly, Haiti might have hoped that the United States, once it became independent, could embrace its independent neighbor. The United States refused to recognize Haiti and feared the example of a successful slave revolt. Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the former field slave who had led the final struggle for independence after the capture of Toussaint L'Ouverture, declared himself emperor after the victory, but was assassinated shortly afterward. Alexandre Pétion, president of Haiti after Dessalines' assassination, aided South American revolutionary Simon Bolivar in the fight for independence against Spain. The compensation amounts to 150 million francs, based on the profits that the colonists could have made during this period: it represented France's annual budget plus ten years of income from plantations and estates destroyed during the war. A French bank lent Haiti 30 million francs for the first tranche, deducting management fees and charging interestexorbitant: at the time the payments were made, Haiti was still 6 million francs deeper in the abyss. It took Haiti 122 years, until 1947, to finish paying the compensation debt. Scorched earth warfare, disunity, and compensation prevented Haiti from establishing itself economically. The monopoly on skills and organization by the settlers before the revolution meant that after the revolution, when settlers left or were massacred, the country lacked skills. Another earthquake in 1843, as well as hurricanes and epidemics, were also devastating. Shortly after the civil war in the United States, Haiti was finally recognized. Saddled with these crushing debts, Haiti was barely able to move forward. In the 1910s, this influence was symbolized by HASCO, The Haitian American Sugar Company. Like United Fruit in the banana republics of Latin America, HASCO was a major player and vehicle in Haitian politics. As the economic power of the United States grew in the 19th century, so did its influence in Haiti. In 1915, U.S. Marines invaded Haiti. When the Marines left 19 years later, in 1934, the United States reserved a special role for itself. The United States left behind two military forces against the population, the gendarmerie and the National Guard, which became the Haitian army. Two years later, in 1937, the Trujillo dictatorship, supported by the United States, massacred thousands of Haitian workers there. , as part of a systematically planned five-day pogrom. In his history of this period, Matthew Smith argues that the Haitian government may have had enough force to prevent massacres, but that it was focused on internal threats to its own stability and not on the security of its population, which also had no international champions. . The Haitian government agreed to $750,000 in compensation for the victims' families in exchange for the cancellation of an independent investigation into the massacre. In 1941, the Haitian-American Agricultural Development Corporation, or SHADA, was established with a $5 million grant from the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Elected by the legislature to surprise and disbelief in Port-au-Prince, he found that people were shouting threats and insults at him, while many women were, according to one observer, on their knees and moaning miserably. Estime used patronage to gain some popular support, brought some socialists associated with the popular movement into his government, and initiated some economic planning. When this attracted the attention of the United States, Estime dismissed socialist ministers from his cabinet, while attempting a modest reform program, including an increase in the minimum wage, an income tax, new labor laws, labor inspectors, cooperatives, the rehabilitation of schools and a rural development campaign. The American companies SHADA and HASCO were described as communist by the Estimes administration; US banks have refused government debt relief and new loans. Estime led a successful public campaign to raise domestic funds to repay a $5 million loan, but was again rebuffed in most of his efforts to obtain new loans from the United States. A poorly planned attempt to nationalize the banana industry damaged Haiti's market share and its economy. , and the finances of his government. He was deposed in a coup by the National Guard, which he had renamed the Haitian Army in 1950. The post-coup regime of Philippe Magloire repaired all tensionsin relations with the United States and created an anti-communist dictatorship allied with the Dominican Republic and Trujillo. Batistas Cuba. The United States came to Papa Docs' aid in 1959 when some Haitian exiles staged an insurrection against the dictator. The Marines and U.S. Navy deployed to help defeat the rebels and end the insurgency. Papa Doc held elections in 1961 and had eliminated all effective opposition by 1964, naming himself president for life in the Constitution and granting himself the right to appoint his successor. By the time of Papa Doc's death in 1971, the regime had killed between 30,000 and 60,000 people, tortured and exiled many more, and embezzled $10 million from the small treasury for Papa Doc's personal use. The Baby Docs regime was no different in its abuses or support of the United States. Between Baby Docs' departure and the January 1988 elections, the FADH killed more people than Baby Doc had killed in the previous 15 years. That year, 1988, there was an internal revolt within the FADH, led by General Prosper Avril, who took control of Namphy in a coup d'état. Popular resistance did not stop, however. not and, in 1990, Avril was forced to cede power to a civilian member of the Supreme Court, Ertha Pascal Trouillot, and to flee, again aboard an American plane. The popular movement continued, demanding economic reforms, an end to corruption and justice for the victims of the FADH and the Tontons Macoutes. In response, the Haitian right also mobilized: Roger Lafontant, former leader of the Tontons Macoutes, Duvalierist minister of Defense and Interior, organized a series of right-wing rallies between July and December 1990. Faced with a situation explosively, the American embassy put pressure on the FADH to authorize new elections. The Lavalas movement decided in October to contest the elections rather than boycott them, with Aristide as its presidential candidate. The United States sponsored Marc Bazin, a former World Bank employee whose agenda was based on privatization and regressive income redistribution. Aristide won 67 percent of the vote in an election described as free and fair by observers from the United Nations, the United States and the Organization of American States. Bazin, his closest rival, won 14 percent. Aristide's election represented a major change in Haiti's historical pattern. Aristide's inauguration was scheduled for February 7, 1991. The leader of the Tontons Macoutes Lafontant seized the presidential palace and took President Trouillot hostage. Lavalas mobilized in the streets and the FADH overthrew the coup. Aristide took power as planned and appointed René Préval, an agronomist associated with the rural popular movement, as prime minister. When Parliament attempted to pass a measure of censure against Préval in August, Lavalas again mobilized to protest. Aristide began taking steps to dismantle the army, to separate the police from the army. The commission never began its work because Aristide was overthrown in a coup on September 29, 1991. Shortly after the coup, Aristide would appoint a new prime minister, sanctions would be lifted , the army would be reformed, the putschists would be amnestied. , and Aristide would be returned to power on October 30, 1993, with the help of a UN peacekeeping force. October 30 comes and goes and the massacres continue. The United States tried, unsuccessfully, to get Aristide to sign other plans, in which there would be an even more widespread amnesty and in which Aristide would share power with a prime minister chosen by the United States. The United States has..