Republic of Haiti (1859–1957): Difference between revisions

{{Infobox former country

| era iso3166code = 19th and 20th centuryomit

| government_type = [[Unitary state|Unitary]] [[Presidential system|Presidentialpresidential]] [[republic]]

| event1 = [[United States occupation of Haiti|AmericanU.S. occupation]]

| date_event1 = {{nobr|28 July 1915 – 1 August 1934}}

| event2 = [[United Nations Charter|AdmittedUN to the]] [[United Nationsadmission]]

| event_end = {{nobr|[[Duvalier Ddynastydynasty|Duvalier takes power]]}}

| p1 = Second Empire of Haiti{{!}}{{nobr|Empire of Haiti}} (1849–1859)

| s2s1 = UnitedDuvalier Statesdynasty{{!}}{{nobr|Duvalier occupation of Haitidynasty}}

| image_coat = Coat of arms of Republic of Haiti (1859–1964).svg

| image_map = [[File:LocationHaiti.svg|275px]]

| capital = [[Port-au-Prince]]

| national_motto = ''L'Union fait la force'' ([[French language|French]])<br/>{{smallsmaller|"Unity Makes Strength"}}

| national_anthem = {{native name|fr|[[La Dessalinienne]]|nolink=on}}<br/>{{smallsmaller|''The Dessalines Song''}}<br>[[File:Haiti National Anthem.ogg]]

| religion = [[Roman Catholic Church in Haiti|Roman CatholicCatholicism]], [[Haitian Vodou|Vodou]]

| year_leader1 = 1859–1867 {{smallsmaller|(first)}}

| leader2 = {{nobr|[[Antonio Thrasybule Kébreau]]}}

| year_leader2 = 1957 {{smallsmaller|(last)}}

[[Fabre Geffrard]]'s government held office until 1867, and he encouraged a successful policy of national reconciliation. In 1860, he reached an agreement with the [[Roman CatholicPapal ChurchStates|Vatican]], reintroducing official Roman Catholic institutions, including schools, to the nation. In 1867 an attempt was made to establish a constitutional government, but successive presidents [[Sylvain Salnave]] and [[Nissage Saget]] were overthrown in 1869 and 1874 respectively. A more workable constitution was introduced under [[Michel Domingue]] in 1874, leading to a long period of democratic peace and development for Haiti. The debt to France was finally repaid in 1879, and Michel Domingue's government [[Peaceful transition of power|peacefully transferred power]] to [[Lysius Salomon]], one of Haiti's abler leaders. Monetary reform and a cultural renaissance ensued with a flowering of Haitian art. The final two decades of the 19th century were also marked by the development of a Haitian intellectual culture. Major works of history were published in 1847 and 1865. Haitian intellectuals, led by [[Louis-Joseph Janvier]] and [[Anténor Firmin]], engaged in a war of letters against a tide of racism and [[Social Darwinism]] that emerged during this period.

From 1911 to 1915, there were six presidents, each of whom was killed or forced into exile.<ref>{{harvnbcite book |first=Robert |last=Heinl |title=Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People, 1492–1995 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780761802303 |url-access=registration |publisher=[[University Press of America]] |location=Lantham, Maryland |year=1996 |ppage=791}}</ref> The revolutionary armies were formed by ''cacos'', peasant brigands from the mountains of the north, along the porous Dominican border, who were enlisted by rival political factions with promises of money to be paid after a successful revolution and an opportunity to plunder. The United States was particularly apprehensive about the role of the German community in Haiti (approximately 200 in 1910), who wielded a disproportionate amount of economic power. Germans controlled about 80% of the country's international commerce; they also owned and operated utilities in Cap Haïtien and Port-au-Prince, the main [[wharf]] and a tramway in the capital, and a railroad serving the Plaine de Cul-du-Sac.

The German community proved more willing to integrate into Haitian society than any other group of white foreigners, including the French. A number married into the nation's most prominent mulatto families, bypassing the constitutional prohibition against foreign land-ownership. They also served as the principal financiers of the nation's innumerable revolutions, floating innumerable loans-at high interest rates-to competing political factions. In an effort to limit German influence, in 1910–11, the US State Department backed a consortium of American investors, assembled by the [[Citibank|National City Bank of New York]], in acquiringsecuring controlthe currency issuance concession through the [[National Bank of the ''BanqueRepublic Nationaleof d'Haïti''Haiti]], which replaced the prior [[National Bank of Haiti]] as the nation's only commercial bank and custodian of the government treasury.

In December 1914, the U.S. military seized the Haitian government's gold reserve, urged on by the National City Bank and the [[National Bank of the Republic of Haiti]] (which was already under foreign direction). The U.S. took the gold to National City Bank's New York City vault.<ref name="central banks haiti gold">{{Cite book |title=Central Banks and Gold: How Tokyo, London, and New York Shaped the Modern World |last1=Bytheway |first1=Simon James |last2=Metzler |first2=Mark |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=2016 |isbn=9781501706509 |pages=43}}</ref>

Haiti elected a legislature in May 1946, and after two rounds of voting, [[Dumarsais Estimé]], a black cabinet minister, was elected president. He operated under a new constitution which expanded schools, established rural farming cooperatives, and raised salaries of civil servants. These early successes, however, were undermined by his personal ambition, and his alienation of the military and elite led to a coup in 1950, which reinstalled the military junta. Direct elections, the first in Haiti's history, were held in October 1950, and [[Paul Magloire]], an elite black Colonel in the military, was elected. [[Hurricane Hazel]] hit the island in 1954, which devastated the nation's infrastructure and economy. Hurricane relief was inadequately distributed and misspent, and Magloire jailed opponents and shut down newspapers. After refusing to step down after his term ended, a general strike shut down Port-au-Prince's economy, and Magloire fled, leaving the government in a state of chaos. When elections were finally organized, [[François Duvalier]], a rural doctor, was elected, on a platform of activism on behalf of Haiti's poor. His opponent, however, [[Louis Déjoie]], was a mulatto and the scion of a prominent family.<ref name=oavommo>{{Cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/haiti/16.htm|title = Haiti - POLITICS AND THE MILITARY, 1934-57}}</ref> Duvalier scored a decisive victory at the polls. His followers took two-thirds of the legislature's lower house and all of the seats in the Senate.