The island of Hispaniola (La Isla Española), which today is occupied by the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, was one of several landfalls Christopher Columbus made during his first voyage to the New World in 1492. Columbus established a makeshift settlement on the north coast, which he dubbed Navidad (Christmas), after his flagship, the Santa María, struck a coral reef and foundered near the site of present-day Cap Haïtien.
The Taino Indian (or Arawak) inhabitants referred to their homeland by many names, but they most commonly used Ayti, or Hayti (mountainous). Initially hospitable toward the Spaniards, these natives responded violently to the newcomers' intolerance and abuse. When Columbus returned to Hispaniola on his second voyage in 1493, he found that Navidad had been razed and its inhabitants, slain. But the Old World's interest in expansion and its drive to spread Roman Catholicism were not easily deterred; Columbus established a second settlement, Isabela, farther to the east.
Hispaniola, or Santo Domingo, as it became known under Spanish dominion, became the first outpost of the Spanish Empire. The initial expectations of plentiful and easily accessible gold reserves proved unfounded, but the island still became important as a seat of colonial administration, a starting point for conquests of other lands, and a laboratory to develop policies for governing new possessions. It was in Santo Domingo that the Spanish crown introduced the system of repartimiento, whereby peninsulares (Spanish-born persons residing in the New World) received large grants of land and the right to compel labor from the Indians who inhabited that land.
Columbus, Santo Domingo's first administrator, and his brother Bartolomé Columbus fell out of favor with the majority of the colony's settlers, as a result of jealousy and avarice, and then also with the crown because of their failure to maintain order. In 1500 a royal investigator ordered both to be imprisoned briefly in a Spanish prison. The colony's new governor, Nicolás de Ovando, laid the groundwork for the island's development. During his tenure, the repartimiento system gave way to the encomienda system under which all land was considered the property of the crown. The system also granted stewardship of tracts to encomenderos, who were entitled to employ (or, in practice, to enslave) Indian labor.
The Taino Indian population of Santo Domingo fared poorly under colonial rule. The exact size of the island's indigenous population in 1492 has never been determined, but observers at the time produced estimates that ranged from several thousand to several million. An estimate of 3 million, which is almost certainly an exaggeration, has been attributed to Bishop Bartolomé de Las Casas. According to all accounts, however, there were hundreds of thousands of indigenous people on the island. By 1550 only 150 Indians lived on the island. Forced labor, abuse, diseases against which the Indians had no immunity, and the growth of the mestizo (mixed European and Indian) population all contributed to the elimination of the Taino and their culture.
Several years before the Taino were gone, Santo Domingo had lost its position as the preeminent Spanish colony in the New World. Its lack of mineral riches condemned it to neglect by the mother country, especially after the conquest of New Spain (Mexico). In 1535 the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which included Mexico and the Central American isthmus, incorporated Santo Domingo, the status of which dwindled still further after the conquest of the rich kingdom of the Incas in Peru. Agriculture became the mainstay of the island's economy, but the disorganized nature of agricultural production did not approach the kind of intense productivity that was to characterize the colony under French rule.
L’île d’Hispaniola (La Isla Española), qui est aujourd’hui occupée par les nations haïtienne et dominicaine, était l’une des nombreuses embûches faites par Christophe Colomb lors de son premier voyage dans le Nouveau Monde en 1492. Colomb a créé une colonie sur la côte nord, qu'il a surnommée Navidad (Noël), après que son navire amiral, Santa María, a percuté un récif corallien et a sombré près du site de l'actuel Cap Haïtien.
Les habitants indiens Taino (ou Arawak) ont fait référence à leur patrie sous plusieurs noms, mais ils utilisaient le plus souvent Ayti, ou Hayti (montagneux). Initialement hospitaliers envers les Espagnols, ces indigènes ont répondu violemment à l'intolérance et aux abus des nouveaux arrivants. Lorsque Colomb revint à Hispaniola lors de son deuxième voyage en 1493, il s'aperçut que Navidad avait été rasé et que ses habitants avaient été tués. Mais l'intérêt de l'ancien monde pour l'expansion et sa volonté de propager le catholicisme romain ne furent pas facilement dissuadés; Columbus a établi une deuxième colonie, Isabela, plus à l’est.
Hispaniola, ou Saint-Domingue, ainsi qu’il est devenu connu sous le règne espagnol, est devenu le premier avant-poste de l’Empire espagnol. Les attentes initiales concernant des réserves d'or abondantes et facilement accessibles se sont révélées infondées, mais l'île a continué à jouer un rôle important en tant que siège de l'administration coloniale, point de départ pour la conquête d'autres terres et laboratoire pour élaborer des politiques régissant les nouveaux biens. C’est à Saint-Domingue que la couronne espagnole a adopté le système du repartimiento, selon lequel les peninsulares (personnes nées en Espagne qui résident dans le Nouveau Monde) recevaient de grandes concessions de terres et le droit de contraindre les Indiens qui les habitaient à travailler.
Colomb, premier administrateur de Saint-Domingue, et son frère Bartolomé Colomb sont tombés en disgrâce auprès de la majorité des colons de la colonie en raison de la jalousie et de l'avarice, puis de la couronne pour ne pas avoir maintenu l'ordre. En 1500, un enquêteur royal ordonna leur emprisonnement dans une prison espagnole. Le nouveau gouverneur de la colonie, Nicolás de Ovando, a jeté les bases du développement de l'île. Au cours de son mandat, le système de repartimiento a cédé le pas au système d'encomienda selon lequel toutes les terres étaient considérées comme la propriété de la Couronne. Le système accordait également la gestion des tracts aux encomenderos, qui avaient le droit d'employer (ou, en pratique, de réduire en esclavage) la main-d'œuvre indienne.
La population indienne Taino de Saint-Domingue a eu des résultats médiocres sous le régime colonial. La taille exacte de la population autochtone de l'île en 1492 n'a jamais été déterminée, mais les observateurs de l'époque produisirent des estimations allant de plusieurs milliers à plusieurs millions. Une estimation de 3 millions, ce qui est presque certainement une exagération, a été attribuée à Mgr Bartolomé de Las Casas. Selon tous les témoignages, cependant, il y aurait des centaines de milliers d'Autochtones sur l'île. En 1550, seulement 150 Indiens vivaient sur l'île. Le travail forcé, les abus, les maladies contre lesquelles les Indiens n'étaient pas immunisés et la croissance de la population métisse (mélange d'individus européens et indiens) ont tous contribué à l'élimination des Taino et de leur culture.
Quelques années avant le départ des Taino, Saint-Domingue avait perdu sa position de première colonie espagnole dans le Nouveau Monde. Son manque de richesses minérales le condamnait à être négligé par la métropole, notamment après la conquête de la Nouvelle-Espagne (Mexique). En 1535, la vice-royauté de la Nouvelle-Espagne, qui comprenait le Mexique et l'isthme d'Amérique centrale, incorpora Saint-Domingue, dont le statut se détériora encore après la conquête du riche royaume des Incas au Pérou. L’agriculture est devenue le pilier de l’économie de l’île, mais la nature désorganisée de la production agricole n’approche pas du type de productivité intense qui caractérisera la colonie sous la domination française.
Although Hispaniola never realized its economic potential under Spanish rule, it remained strategically important as the gateway to the Caribbean. The Caribbean region provided the opportunity for seafarers from Britain, France, and the Netherlands to impede Spanish shipping, to waylay galleons crammed with gold, and to establish a foothold in a hemisphere parceled by papal decree between the Roman Catholic kingdoms of Spain and Portugal. This competition was carried on throughout the Caribbean, but nowhere as intensely as on Hispaniola.
Sir Francis Drake of England led one of the most famous forays against the port of Santo Domingo in 1586, just two years before he played a key role in the English navy's defeat of the Spanish Armada. Drake failed to secure the island, but his raid, along with the arrival of corsairs and freebooters in scattered settlements, was part of a pattern of encroachment that gradually diluted Spanish dominance.
Bien que Hispaniola n’ait jamais réalisé son potentiel économique sous la domination espagnole, elle restait stratégiquement importante en tant que porte d’entrée des Caraïbes. La région des Caraïbes a été l’occasion pour les marins britanniques, français et néerlandais d’empêcher la navigation espagnole de traverser des galions gorgés d’or et de s’implanter dans un hémisphère divisé par décret papal entre les royaumes catholiques d’Espagne et du Portugal. Cette compétition s’est déroulée dans toute la Caraïbe, mais nulle part aussi intensément que sur Hispaniola.
Sir Francis Drake, d'Angleterre, dirigea l'une des incursions les plus célèbres contre le port de Saint-Domingue en 1586, deux ans seulement avant de jouer un rôle clé dans la défaite de l'armée anglaise par l'Armée espagnole. Drake n'a pas réussi à sécuriser l'île, mais son raid, ainsi que l'arrivée de corsaires et de flibustiers dans des colonies dispersées, faisaient partie d'un schéma d'empiétement qui a progressivement dilué la domination espagnole.
Reportedly expelled by the Spanish from Saint Christopher (Saint Kitts), the original French residents of Tortuga Island (Ile de la Tortue), off the northwest coast of Hispaniola, sustained themselves mostly through two means: curing the meat and tanning the hides of wild game, and pirating Spanish ships. The former activity lent these hardy souls the colorful designation of buccaneers, derived from the Arawak word for the smoking of meat. It took decades for the buccaneers and the more staid settlers that followed them to establish themselves on Tortuga. Skirmishes with Spanish and English forces were common. As the maintenance of the empire tried the wit, and drained the energies, of a declining Spain, however, foreign intervention became more forceful.
The freewheeling society of Tortuga that was often described in romantic literature had faded into legend by the end of the seventeenth century. The first permanent settlement on Tortuga was established in 1659 under the commission of King Louis XIV. French Huguenots had already begun to settle the north coast of Hispaniola by that time. The establishment in 1664 of the French West India Company for the purpose of directing the expected commerce between the colony and France underscored the seriousness of the enterprise. Settlers steadily encroached upon the northwest shoulder of the island, and they took advantage of the area's relative remoteness from the Spanish capital city of Santo Domingo. In 1670 they established their first major community, Cap François (later Cap Français, now Cap-Haïtien). During this period, the western part of the island was commonly referred to as Saint-Domingue, the name it bore officially after Spain relinquished sovereignty over the area to France in the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697.
Les Espagnols, originaires de l'île de la Tortue, originaires de Saint-Christophe (Saint-Kitts) et originaires de l'île de Tortue, situés au large de la côte nord-ouest de Hispaniola, se seraient principalement soutenus par deux moyens: guérir la viande et tanner la des peaux de gibier et des bateaux espagnols piratés. La première activité donnait à ces âmes robustes la désignation colorée de flibustiers, dérivée du mot arawak pour fumer de la viande. Il a fallu des décennies pour que les flibustiers et les colons les plus assidus qui les suivaient s'établissent à Tortuga. Les escarmouches avec les forces espagnoles et anglaises étaient courantes. Alors que le maintien de l'empire mettait à mal l'esprit et vidait les énergies d'une Espagne en déclin, l'intervention étrangère devint plus forte.
La société de liberté de l'île de la Tortue, souvent décrite dans la littérature romantique, était devenue une légende à la fin du dix-septième siècle. Le premier établissement permanent sur l'île de la Tortue a été établi en 1659 sous la commission du roi Louis XIV. Les huguenots français avaient déjà commencé à s'établir sur la côte nord d'Hispaniola à cette époque. La création en 1664 de la Compagnie française des Indes occidentales dans le but de diriger les échanges commerciaux attendus entre la colonie et la France soulignait le sérieux de l'entreprise. Les colons ont progressivement empiété sur l'épaule nord-ouest de l'île et ont tiré parti de l'éloignement relatif de la région par rapport à la capitale espagnole, Santo Domingo. En 1670, ils fondèrent leur première grande communauté, Cap François (futur Cap Français, aujourd'hui Cap-Haïtien). Au cours de cette période, la partie occidentale de l'île était communément appelée Saint-Domingue, nom qu'elle portait officiellement après que l'Espagne eut renoncé à la souveraineté sur la région en faveur de la France dans le traité de Ryswick de 1697.
By the mid-eighteenth century, a territory largely neglected under Spanish rule had become the richest and most coveted colony in the Western Hemisphere. By the eve of the French Revolution, Saint-Domingue produced about 60 percent of the world's coffee and about 40 percent of the sugar imported by France and Britain. Saint-Domingue played a pivotal role in the French economy, accounting for almost two-thirds of French commercial interests abroad and about 40 percent of foreign trade. The system that provided such largess to the mother country, such luxury to planters, and so many jobs in France had a fatal flaw, however. That flaw was slavery.
The origins of modern Haitian society lie within the slaveholding system. The mixture of races that eventually divided Haiti into a small, mainly mulatto elite and an impoverished black majority began with the slavemasters' concubinage of African women. Today Haiti's culture and its predominant religion (voodoo) stem from the fact that the majority of slaves in SaintDomingue were brought from Africa. (The slave population totalled at least 500,000, and perhaps as many as 700,000, by 1791.) Only a few of the slaves had been born and raised on the island. The slaveholding system in Saint-Domingue was particularly cruel and abusive, and few slaves (especially males) lived long enough to reproduce. The racially tinged conflicts that have marked Haitian history can be traced similarly to slavery.
While the masses of black slaves formed the foundation of colonial society, the upper strata evolved along lines of color and class. Most commentators have classified the population of the time into three groups: white colonists, or blancs; free blacks (usually mulattoes, or gens de couleur--people of color), or affranchis; and the slaves.
Conflict and resentment permeated the society of SaintDomingue . Beginning in 1758, the white landowners, or grands blancs, discriminated against the affranchis through legislation. Statutes forbade gens de couleur from taking up certain professions, marrying whites, wearing European clothing, carrying swords or firearms in public, or attending social functions where whites were present. The restrictions eventually became so detailed that they essentially defined a caste system. However, regulations did not restrict the affranchis' purchase of land, and some eventually accumulated substantial holdings. Others accumulated wealth through another activity permitted to affranchis by the grands blancs--in the words of historian C.L.R. James, "The privilege of lending money to white men." The mounting debt of the white planters to the gens de couleur provided further motivation for racial discrimination.
Vers le milieu du XVIIIe siècle, un territoire largement négligé sous la domination espagnole était devenu la colonie la plus riche et la plus convoitée de l'hémisphère occidental. À la veille de la Révolution française, Saint-Domingue produisait environ 60% du café mondial et environ 40% du sucre importé par la France et la Grande-Bretagne. Saint-Domingue a joué un rôle central dans l'économie française, représentant près des deux tiers des intérêts commerciaux français à l'étranger et environ 40% du commerce extérieur. Le système qui fournissait une telle ampleur à la métropole, un tel luxe aux planteurs et tant d’emplois en France présentait toutefois un défaut fatal. Ce défaut était l’esclavage.
Les origines de la société haïtienne moderne se situent à l’intérieur du système des esclavages. Le mélange de races qui a fini par diviser Haïti en une petite élite composée principalement de mulâtres et une majorité noire appauvrie a commencé avec le concubinage de femmes africaines des maîtres d'esclaves. Aujourd'hui, la culture d'Haïti et sa religion prédominante (le vaudou) découlent du fait que la majorité des esclaves de SaintDomingue ont été amenés d'Afrique. (La population d'esclaves s'élevait à au moins 500 000 et peut-être même à 700 000 en 1791.) Seuls quelques-uns des esclaves étaient nés et avaient grandi sur l'île. Le système d'esclavage à Saint-Domingue était particulièrement cruel et abusif, et peu d'esclaves (surtout les hommes) vivaient assez longtemps pour se reproduire. Les conflits racistes qui ont marqué l’histoire haïtienne peuvent être assimilés à l’esclavage.
Alors que les masses d’esclaves noirs constituaient la base de la société coloniale, les couches supérieures évoluaient le long de lignes de couleurs et de classes. La plupart des commentateurs ont classé la population de l'époque en trois groupes: les colons blancs ou blancs; Noirs libres (généralement des mulâtres ou gens de couleur) ou des affranchis; et les esclaves.
Les conflits et les ressentiments ont imprégné la société de SaintDomingue. À partir de 1758, les propriétaires blancs, ou grands blancs, établissent une discrimination à l'encontre des affranchis par le biais de lois. Les lois interdisaient à gens de couleur d'exercer certaines professions, d'épouser des Blancs, de s'habiller à l'européenne, de porter des épées ou des armes à feu en public ou d'assister à des réceptions en présence de Blancs. Les restrictions sont finalement devenues si détaillées qu'elles ont essentiellement défini un système de castes. Cependant, la réglementation ne limitait pas l'achat de terres par les affranchis et certains finissaient par accumuler des avoirs importants. D'autres ont accumulé des richesses grâce à une autre activité que les grands blancs ont pu affranchir - pour reprendre les termes de l'historien C.L.R. James, "Le privilège de prêter de l'argent à des hommes blancs." La dette croissante des planteurs blancs vis-à-vis de la gens de couleur a constitué un motif supplémentaire de discrimination raciale.
Violent conflicts between white colonists and black slaves were common in Saint-Domingue. Bands of runaway slaves, known as maroons (marrons), entrenched themselves in bastions in the colony's mountains and forests, from which they harried white-owned plantations both to secure provisions and weaponry and to avenge themselves against the inhabitants. As their numbers grew, these bands, sometimes consisting of thousands of people, began to carry out hit-and-run attacks throughout the colony. This guerrilla warfare, however, lacked centralized organization and leadership. The most famous maroon leader was François Macandal, whose six-year rebellion (1751-57) left an estimated 6,000 dead. Reportedly a boko, or voodoo sorcerer, Macandal drew from African traditions and religions to motivate his followers. The French burned him at the stake in Cap Français in 1758. Popular accounts of his execution that say the stake snapped during his execution have enhanced his legendary stature.
Many Haitians point to the maroons' attacks as the first manifestation of a revolt against French rule and the slaveholding system. The attacks certainly presaged the 1791 slave rebellion, which evolved into the Haitian Revolution. They also marked the beginning of a martial tradition for blacks, just as service in the colonial militia had done for the gens de couleur. The maroons, however, seemed incapable of staging a broad-based insurrection on their own. Although challenged and vexed by the maroons' actions, colonial authorities effectively repelled the attacks, especially with help from the gens de couleur, who were probably forced into cooperating.
The arrangement that enabled the whites and the landed gens de couleur to preserve the stability of the slaveholding system was unstable. In an economic sense, the system worked for both groups. The gens de couleur, however, had aspirations beyond the accumulation of goods. They desired equality with white colonists, and many of them desired power. The events set in motion in 1789 by the French Revolution shook up, and eventually shattered, the arrangement.
The National Assembly in Paris required the white Colonial Assembly to grant suffrage to the landed and tax-paying gens de couleur. (The white colonists had had a history of ignoring French efforts to improve the lot of the black and the mulatto populations.) The Assembly refused, leading to the first mulatto rebellion in Saint-Domingue. The rebellion, led by Vincent Ogé in 1790, failed when the white militia reinforced itself with a corps of black volunteers. (The white elite was constantly prepared to use racial tension between blacks and mulattoes to advantage.) Ogé's rebellion was a sign of broader unrest in Saint-Domingue.
A slave rebellion of 1791 finally toppled the colony. Launched in August of that year, the revolt represented the culmination of a protracted conspiracy among black leaders. According to accounts of the rebellion that have been told through the years, François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture helped plot the uprising, although this claim has never been substantiated. Among the rebellion's leaders were Boukman, a maroon and voodoo houngan (priest); Georges Biassou, who later made Toussaint his aide; Jean-François, who subsequently commanded forces, along with Biassou and Toussaint, under the Spanish flag; and Jeannot, the bloodthirstiest of them all. These leaders sealed their compact with a voodoo ceremony conducted by Boukman in the Bois Cayman (Alligator Woods) in early August 1791. On August 22, a little more than a week after the ceremony, the uprising of their black followers began.
The carnage that the slaves wreaked in northern settlements, such as Acul, Limbé, Flaville, and Le Normand, revealed the simmering fury of an oppressed people. The bands of slaves slaughtered every white person they encountered. As their standard, they carried a pike with the carcass of an impaled white baby. Accounts of the rebellion describe widespread torching of property, fields, factories, and anything else that belonged to, or served, slaveholders. The inferno is said to have burned almost continuously for months.
News of the slaves' uprising quickly reached Cap Français. Reprisals against nonwhites were swift and every bit as brutal as the atrocities committed by the slaves. Although outnumbered, the inhabitants of Le Cap (the local diminutive for Cap Français) were well-armed and prepared to defend themselves against the tens of thousands of blacks who descended upon the port city. Despite their voodoo-inspired heroism, the ex-slaves fell in large numbers to the colonists' firepower and were forced to withdraw. The rebellion left an estimated 10,000 blacks and 2,000 whites dead and more than 1,000 plantations sacked and razed.
Even though it failed, the slave rebellion at Cap Français set in motion events that culminated in the Haitian Revolution. Mulatto forces under the capable leadership of André Rigaud, Alexandre Pétion, and others clashed with white militiamen in the west and the south (where, once again, whites recruited black slaves to their cause). Sympathy with the Republican cause in France inspired the mulattoes. Sentiment in the National Assembly vacillated, but it finally favored the enfranchisement of gens de couleur and the enforcement of equal rights. Whites, who had had little respect for royal governance in the past, now rallied behind the Bourbons and rejected the radical egalitarian notions of the French revolutionaries. Commissioners from the French Republic, dispatched in 1792 to Saint-Domingue, pledged their limited support to the gens de couleur in the midst of an increasingly anarchic situation. In various regions of the colony, black slaves rebelled against white colonists, mulattoes battled white levies, and black royalists opposed both whites and mulattoes. Foreign interventionists found these unstable conditions irresistible; Spanish and British involvement in the unrest in Saint-Domingue opened yet another chapter in the revolution.
Les conflits violents entre colons blancs et esclaves noirs étaient courants à Saint-Domingue. Des bandes d'esclaves en fuite, connues sous le nom de marrons (marrons), se sont retranchées dans des bastions des montagnes et des forêts de la colonie, d'où elles ont harcelé des plantations appartenant à des Blancs à la fois pour s'assurer des provisions et des armes et se venger des habitants. Au fur et à mesure de leur nombre, ces bandes, composées parfois de milliers de personnes, ont commencé à lancer des attaques à maintes reprises dans toute la colonie. Cette guérilla manquait toutefois d'organisation et de leadership centralisés. Le chef marron le plus célèbre était François Macandal, dont la rébellion de six ans (1751-57) fit environ 6 000 morts. Apparemment un sorcier boko ou vaudou, Macandal s'est inspiré des traditions et des religions africaines pour motiver ses disciples. Les Français l'ont incendié sur le bûcher de Cap Français en 1758. Les comptes rendus populaires de son exécution, selon lesquels le pieu cassé lors de son exécution ont renforcé son statut légendaire.
De nombreux Haïtiens considèrent les attaques des marrons comme la première manifestation d'une révolte contre le régime français et le système d'esclavage. Les attaques présageaient certainement la rébellion d'esclaves de 1791, devenue la révolution haïtienne. Ils marquèrent également le début d'une tradition martiale pour les Noirs, tout comme le service dans la milice coloniale avait été accompli pour la gens de couleur. Les marrons, cependant, semblaient incapables d'organiser eux-mêmes une insurrection généralisée. Bien que contestées et contrariées par les actions des marrons, les autorités coloniales ont effectivement repoussé les attaques, en particulier avec l'aide de gens de couleur, qui ont probablement été forcés de coopérer.
L’arrangement qui permettait aux Blancs et aux gens de couleur débarqués de préserver la stabilité du système de détention esclavagiste était instable. Sur le plan économique, le système fonctionnait pour les deux groupes. La gens de couleur, cependant, avait des aspirations allant au-delà de l'accumulation de biens. Ils désiraient l'égalité avec les colons blancs et beaucoup d'entre eux désiraient le pouvoir. Les événements déclenchés en 1789 par la Révolution française ont bouleversé et finalement brisé l’arrangement.
L’Assemblée nationale à Paris a demandé à l’Assemblée coloniale blanche d’accorder le suffrage aux gens de couleur débarqués et payant des impôts. (Les colons blancs ignoraient depuis longtemps les efforts français pour améliorer le sort des populations noires et des mulâtres.) L'Assemblée refusa, ce qui mena à la première rébellion de mulâtres à Saint-Domingue. La rébellion, dirigée par Vincent Ogé en 1790, échoua lorsque la milice blanche se renforça avec un corps de volontaires noirs. (L’élite blanche était constamment disposée à tirer parti de la tension raciale entre les noirs et les mulâtres.) La rébellion d’Ogé était le signe de troubles plus vastes à Saint-Domingue.
Une rébellion d'esclaves de 1791 finit par renverser la colonie. Lancée en août de la même année, la révolte représentait l'aboutissement d'un complot prolongé entre dirigeants noirs. Selon les récits de la rébellion racontés au fil des ans, François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture a contribué à l'intrigue, mais cette affirmation n'a jamais été étayée. Parmi les chefs de la rébellion, il y avait Boukman, un maroon et un vaudou houngan (prêtre); Georges Biassou, qui a ensuite fait de Toussaint son aide; Jean-François, qui a par la suite commandé les forces, ainsi que Biassou et Toussaint, sous pavillon espagnol; et Jeannot, le plus assoiffé de sang. Ces dirigeants ont scellé leur pacte avec une cérémonie vaudou organisée par Boukman à Bois Cayman (Alligator Woods) début août 1791. Le 22 août, un peu plus d'une semaine après la cérémonie, le soulèvement de leurs disciples noirs a commencé.
Le carnage que les esclaves ont provoqué dans les colonies du nord, telles que Acul, Limbé, Flaville et Le Normand, a révélé la fureur mijotée d’un peuple opprimé. Les bandes d'esclaves ont massacré tous les Blancs rencontrés. Comme standard, ils portaient un brochet avec la carcasse d'un bébé blanc empalé. Les récits de la rébellion décrivent l'incendie généralisé de propriétés, de champs, d'usines et de tout ce qui a appartenu à ou a servi des propriétaires d'esclaves. L’enfer aurait brûlé presque continuellement pendant des mois.
La nouvelle du soulèvement des esclaves parvient rapidement à Cap Français. Les représailles contre les non-Blancs ont été rapides et tout aussi brutales que les atrocités commises par les esclaves. Les habitants de Le Cap (le diminutif local de Cap Français), bien que dépassés en nombre, étaient bien armés et prêts à se défendre contre les dizaines de milliers de Noirs qui se sont abattus sur la ville portuaire. Malgré leur héroïsme inspiré du vaudou, les anciens esclaves sont tombés en grand nombre sous la puissance de feu des colons et ont été forcés de se retirer. La rébellion a laissé environ 10 000 Noirs et 2 000 Blancs morts et plus de 1 000 plantations saccagées et rasées.
Même s’il échoua, la rébellion d’esclaves du Cap Français déclencha des événements qui aboutirent à la révolution haïtienne. Les forces mulâtres sous la direction compétente d'André Rigaud, d'Alexandre Pétion et d'autres se sont affrontées avec des miliciens blancs de l'ouest et du sud (où, une fois encore, les Blancs ont recruté des esclaves noirs pour leur cause). La sympathie pour la cause républicaine en France a inspiré les mulâtres. Le sentiment à l'Assemblée nationale a fluctué, mais il a finalement favorisé l'émancipation de la gens de couleur et l'application de l'égalité des droits. Les Blancs, qui avaient eu peu de respect pour la gouvernance royale dans le passé, se sont maintenant ralliés aux Bourbons et ont rejeté les notions radicalement égalitaires des révolutionnaires français. Les commissaires de la République française, envoyés en 1792 à Saint-Domingue, ont annoncé leur soutien limité à la gens de couleur dans une situation de plus en plus anarchique. Dans diverses régions de la colonie, des esclaves noirs se sont rebellés contre des colons blancs, des mulâtres ont combattu des levées blanches et des royalistes noirs se sont opposés à la fois aux Blancs et aux mulâtres. Les interventionnistes étrangers trouvaient ces conditions instables irrésistibles; La participation espagnole et britannique aux troubles à Saint-Domingue a ouvert un nouveau chapitre de la révolution.
Social historian James G. Leyburn has said of Toussaint Louverture that "what he did is more easily told than what he was." Although some of Toussaint's correspondence and papers remain, they reveal little of his deepest motivations in the struggle for Haitian autonomy. Born sometime between 1743 and 1746 in Saint-Domingue, Toussaint belonged to the small, fortunate class of slaves employed by humane masters as personal servants. While serving as a house servant and coachman, Toussaint received the tutelage that helped him become one of the few literate black revolutionary leaders.
Upon hearing of the slave uprising, Toussaint took pains to secure safe expatriation of his master's family. It was only then that he joined Biassou's forces, where his intelligence, skill in strategic and tactical planning (based partly on his reading of works by Julius Caesar and others), and innate leadership ability brought him quickly to prominence.
Le Cap fell to French forces, who were reinforced by thousands of blacks in April 1793. Black forces had joined the French against the royalists on the promise of freedom. Indeed, in August Commissioner Léger-Félicité Sonthonax abolished slavery in the colony.
Two black leaders who warily refused to commit their forces to France, however, were Jean-François and Biassou. Believing allegiance to a king would be more secure than allegiance to a republic, these leaders accepted commissions from Spain. The Spanish deployed forces in coordination with these indigenous blacks to take the north of Saint-Domingue. Toussaint, who had taken up the Spanish banner in February 1793, came to command his own forces independently of Biassou's army. By the year's end, Toussaint had cut a swath through the north, had swung south to Gonaïves, and effectively controlled north-central Saint- Domingue.
Some historians believe that Spain and Britain had reached an informal arrangement to divide the French colony between them-- Britain to take the south and Spain, the north. British forces landed at Jérémie and Môle Saint-Nicolas (the Môle). They besieged Port-au-Prince (or Port Républicain, as it was known under the Republic) and took it in June 1794. The Spanish had launched a two-pronged offensive from the east. French forces checked Spanish progress toward Port-au-Prince in the south, but the Spanish pushed rapidly through the north, most of which they occupied by 1794. Spain and Britain were poised to seize Saint- Domingue, but several factors foiled their grand design. One factor was illness. The British in particular fell victim to tropical disease, which thinned their ranks far more quickly than combat against the French. Southern forces led by Rigaud and northern forces led by another mulatto commander, Villatte, also forestalled a complete victory by the foreign forces. These uncertain conditions positioned Toussaint's centrally located forces as the key to victory or defeat. On May 6, 1794, Toussaint made a decision that sealed the fate of a nation.
After arranging for his family to flee from the city of Santo Domingo, Toussaint pledged his support to France. Confirmation of the National Assembly's decision on February 4, 1794, to abolish slavery appears to have been the strongest influence over Toussaint's actions. Although the Spanish had promised emancipation, they showed no signs of keeping their word in the territories that they controlled, and the British had reinstated slavery in the areas they occupied. If emancipation wasToussaint's goal, he had no choice but to cast his lot with the French.
In several raids against his former allies, Toussaint took the Artibonite region and retired briefly to Mirebalais. As Rigaud's forces achieved more limited success in the south, the tide clearly swung in favor of the French Republicans. Perhaps the key event at this point was the July 22, 1794, peace agreement between France and Spain. The agreement was not finalized until the signing of the Treaty of Basel the following year. The accord directed Spain to cede its holdings on Hispaniola to France. The move effectively denied supplies, funding, and avenues of retreat to combatants under the Spanish aegis. The armies of Jean-François and Biassou disbanded, and many flocked to the standard of Toussaint, the remaining black commander of stature.
In March 1796, Toussaint rescued the French commander, General Etienne-Maynard Laveaux, from a mulatto-led effort to depose him as the primary colonial authority. To express his gratitude, Laveaux appointed Toussaint lieutenant governor of Saint-Domingue. With this much power over the affairs of his homeland, Toussaint was in a position to gain more. Toussaint distrusted the intentions of all foreign parties--as well as those of the mulattoes--regarding the future of slavery; he believed that only black leadership could assure the continuation of an autonomous Saint-Domingue. He set out to consolidate his political and military positions, and he undercut the positions of the French and the resentful gens de couleur.
A new group of French commissioners appointed Toussaint commander in chief of all French forces on the island. From this position of strength, he resolved to move quickly and decisively to establish an autonomous state under black rule. He expelled Sonthonax, the leading French commissioner, who had proclaimed the abolition of slavery, and concluded an agreement to end hostilities with Britain. He sought to secure Rigaud's allegiance and thus to incorporate the majority of mulattoes into his national project, but his plan was thwarted by the French, who saw in Rigaud their last opportunity to retain dominion over the colony.
Once again, racial animosity drove events in Saint-Domingue, as Toussaint's predominantly black forces clashed with Rigaud's mulatto army. Foreign intrigue and manipulation prevailed on both sides of the conflict. Toussaint, in correspondence with United States president John Adams, pledged that in exchange for support he would deny the French the use of Saint-Domingue as a base for operations in North America. Adams, the leader of an independent, but still insecure, nation, found the arrangement desirable and dispatched arms and ships that greatly aided black forces in what is sometimes referred to as the War of the Castes. Rigaud, with his forces and ambitions crushed, fled the colony in late 1800.
After securing the port of Santo Domingo in May 1800, Toussaint held sway over the whole of Hispaniola. This position gave him an opportunity to concentrate on restoring domestic order and productivity. Like Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henri (Henry) Christophe, Toussaint saw that the survival of his homeland depended on an export-oriented economy. He therefore reimposed the plantation system and utilized nonslaves, but he still essentially relied on forced labor to produce the sugar, coffee, and other commodities needed to support economic progress. He directed this process through his military dictatorship, the form of government that he judged most efficacious under the circumstances. A constitution, approved in 1801 by the then still-extant Colonial Assembly, granted Toussaint, as Governor-general-for-life, all effective power as well as the privilege of choosing his successor.
Toussaint's interval of freedom from foreign confrontation was unfortunately brief. Toussaint never severed the formal bond with France, but his de facto independence and autonomy rankled the leaders of the mother country and concerned the governments of slave-holding nations, such as Britain and the United States. French first consul Napoléon Bonaparte resented the temerity of the former slaves who planned to govern a nation on their own. Moreover, Bonaparte regarded Saint-Domingue as essential to potential French exploitation of the Louisiana Territory. Taking advantage of a temporary halt in the wars in Europe, Bonaparte dispatched to Saint-Domingue forces led by his brother-in-law, General Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc. These forces, numbering between 16,000 and 20,000--about the same size as Toussaint's army--landed at several points on the north coast in January 1802. With the help of white colonists and mulatto forces commanded by Pétion and others, the French outmatched, outmaneuvered, and wore down the black army. Two of Toussaint's chief lieutenants, Dessalines and Christophe, recognized their untenable situation, held separate parleys with the invaders, and agreed to transfer their allegiance. Recognizing his weak position, Toussaint surrendered to Leclerc on May 5, 1802. The French assured Toussaint that he would be allowed to retire quietly, but a month later, they seized him and transported him to France, where he died of neglect in the frigid dungeon of Fort de Joux in the Jura Mountains on April 7, 1803.
The betrayal of Toussaint and Bonaparte's restoration of slavery in Martinique undermined the collaboration of leaders such as Dessalines, Christophe, and Pétion. Convinced that the same fate lay in store for Saint-Domingue, these commanders and others once again battled Leclerc and his disease-riddled army. Leclerc himself died of yellow fever in November 1802, about two months after he had requested reinforcements to quash the renewed resistance. Leclerc's replacement, General Donatien Rochambeau, waged a bloody campaign against the insurgents, but events beyond the shores of Saint-Domingue doomed the campaign to failure.
By 1803 war had resumed between France and Britain, and Bonaparte once again concentrated his energies on the struggle in Europe. In April of that year, Bonaparte signed a treaty that allowed the purchase of Louisiana by the United States and ended French ambitions in the Western Hemisphere. Rochambeau's reinforcements and supplies never arrived in sufficient numbers. The general fled to Jamaica in November 1803, where he surrendered to British authorities rather than face the retribution of the rebel leadership. The era of French colonial rule in Haiti had ended.
Après avoir entendu parler du soulèvement des esclaves, Toussaint s’est efforcé d’assurer l’expatriement en toute sécurité de la famille de son maître. C’est seulement à ce moment-là qu’il a rejoint les forces de Biassou, où son intelligence, son habileté en planification stratégique et tactique (basée en partie sur la lecture d’œuvres de Julius Caesar et d’autres), et sa capacité de leadership innée l’ont rapidement mis en évidence.
Le Cap est tombé aux mains des forces françaises, renforcées par des milliers de Noirs en avril 1793. Les forces noires avaient rejoint les Français contre les royalistes avec la promesse de la liberté. En août, le commissaire Léger-Félicité Sonthonax a aboli l'esclavage dans la colonie.
Jean-François et Biassou sont deux des chefs noirs qui ont refusé avec prudence d'engager leurs forces en France. Croyant que l'allégeance à un roi serait plus sûre que l'allégeance à une république, ces dirigeants ont accepté des commissions d'Espagne. Les forces espagnoles déployèrent des forces en coordination avec ces Noirs autochtones pour s'emparer du nord de Saint-Domingue. Toussaint, qui avait revêtu la bannière espagnole en février 1793, venait commander ses propres forces indépendamment de l'armée de Biassou. À la fin de l’année, Toussaint s’était frayé un chemin dans le nord, avait basculé au sud vers les Gonaïves et contrôlait efficacement le centre-nord de Saint-Domingue.
Certains historiens pensent que l’Espagne et la Grande-Bretagne étaient parvenues à un accord informel pour diviser la colonie française entre elles - la Grande-Bretagne prenant le sud et l’Espagne, le nord. Les forces britanniques ont débarqué à Jérémie et au Môle Saint-Nicolas (le Môle). Ils ont assiégé Port-au-Prince (ou Port Républicain, comme on l'appelait sous la République) et l'ont pris en juin 1794. Les Espagnols avaient lancé une offensive à deux volets depuis l'est. Les forces françaises ont contrôlé les progrès espagnols vers Port-au-Prince dans le sud, mais les Espagnols ont rapidement traversé le nord, dont ils occupaient la majeure partie en 1794. L'Espagne et la Grande-Bretagne étaient sur le point de s'emparer de Saint-Domingue, mais plusieurs facteurs ont déjoué leur projet. . Un facteur était la maladie. Les Britanniques en particulier ont été victimes d'une maladie tropicale, qui a réduit leurs effectifs beaucoup plus rapidement que les combats contre les Français. Les forces du Sud dirigées par Rigaud et celles du Nord dirigées par un autre commandant de mulâtre, Villatte, ont également empêché une victoire complète des forces étrangères. Ces conditions incertaines placent les forces centralisées de Toussaint au centre de la victoire ou de la défaite. Le 6 mai 1794, Toussaint prit une décision qui scellait le destin d'une nation.
Après avoir organisé la fuite de sa famille de la ville de Saint-Domingue, Toussaint a annoncé son soutien à la France. La confirmation de la décision de l'Assemblée nationale, le 4 février 1794, d'abolir l'esclavage semble avoir été l'influence la plus forte sur les actions de Toussaint. Bien que les Espagnols aient promis leur émancipation, ils ne montrent aucun signe de tenir parole dans les territoires qu’ils contrôlent et les Britanniques ont rétabli l’esclavage dans les zones qu’ils occupent. Si l’émancipation était le but de Toussaint, il n’aurait pas d’autre choix que de se lancer devant les Français.
Lors de plusieurs raids contre ses anciens alliés, Toussaint s'empare de la région de l'Artibonite et se retire brièvement à Mirebalais. Alors que les forces de Rigaud atteignaient un succès plus limité dans le sud du pays, la marée montait nettement en faveur des républicains français. L'événement clé à ce stade est peut-être l'accord de paix du 22 juillet 1794, conclu entre la France et l'Espagne. L'accord n'a pas été finalisé avant la signature du traité de Bâle l'année suivante. L'accord prévoyait que l'Espagne cède ses avoirs sur Hispaniola à la France. La décision a effectivement nié les approvisionnements, le financement et les possibilités de retraite des combattants sous l’égide de l’Espagne. Les armées de Jean-François et de Biassou se sont dissoutes et beaucoup se sont rassemblées sous l'étendard de Toussaint, le dernier commandant noir de stature.
En mars 1796, Toussaint a sauvé le commandant français, le général Etienne-Maynard Laveaux, d’un effort mené par une mulâtre pour le destituer du statut de première autorité coloniale. Pour exprimer sa gratitude, Laveaux a nommé Toussaint lieutenant-gouverneur de Saint-Domingue. Avec autant de pouvoir sur les affaires de sa patrie, Toussaint était en mesure de gagner plus. Toussaint se méfiait des intentions de toutes les parties étrangères - ainsi que de celles des mulâtres - concernant l'avenir de l'esclavage; il croyait que seul un leadership noir pouvait assurer la continuation d'un Saint-Domingue autonome. Il a entrepris de consolider ses positions politiques et militaires et a sapé les positions des Français et de la gens de couleur vexé.
Un nouveau groupe de commissaires français a nommé Toussaint commandant en chef de toutes les forces françaises sur l'île. De cette position de force, il résolut de prendre des mesures rapides et décisives pour établir un État autonome sous domination noire. Il a expulsé Sonthonax, le principal commissaire français, qui avait proclamé l'abolition de l'esclavage et conclu un accord pour mettre fin aux hostilités avec la Grande-Bretagne. Il cherchait à assurer l’allégeance de Rigaud et à intégrer ainsi la majorité des mulâtres dans son projet national, mais son projet était contrecarré par les Français qui voyaient à Rigaud leur dernière chance de conserver leur domination sur la colonie.
Encore une fois, l’animosité raciale a conduit aux événements de Saint-Domingue, alors que les forces à majorité noire de Toussaint se sont affrontées à l’armée de mulâtres de Rigaud. Des intrigues et des manipulations étrangères ont prévalu des deux côtés du conflit. Toussaint, dans une correspondance avec le président des États-Unis, John Adams, a promis qu'en échange de son soutien, il refuserait aux Français l'utilisation de Saint-Domingue comme base d'opérations en Amérique du Nord. Adams, le chef d'une nation indépendante mais toujours incertaine, trouva cet arrangement souhaitable et envoya des armes et des navires qui aidèrent grandement les forces noires dans ce que l'on appelle parfois la guerre des Castes. Rigaud, avec ses forces et ses ambitions écrasées, a fui la colonie à la fin des années 1800.
Après avoir sécurisé le port de Saint-Domingue en mai 1800, Toussaint domine l’ensemble de Hispaniola. Cette position lui a permis de se concentrer sur le rétablissement de l'ordre intérieur et de la productivité. Comme Jean-Jacques Dessalines et Henri (Henry) Christophe, Toussaint a constaté que la survie de son pays dépendait d'une économie axée sur l'exportation. Il a donc réimposé le système de plantation et utilisé des non-esclaves, mais il s’appuyait toujours essentiellement sur le travail forcé pour produire le sucre, le café et d’autres produits nécessaires au soutien du progrès économique. Il a dirigé ce processus à travers sa dictature militaire, la forme de gouvernement qu'il jugeait la plus efficace dans les circonstances. Une constitution, approuvée en 1801 par l’Assemblée coloniale de l’époque encore en place, accordait à Toussaint, gouverneur général à vie, tout pouvoir effectif ainsi que le privilège de choisir son successeur.
La trahison de la restauration de l'esclavage en Martinique par Toussaint et Bonaparte a sapé la collaboration de dirigeants tels que Dessalines, Christophe et Pétion. Convaincus que le même sort était réservé à Saint-Domingue, ces commandants et d'autres se sont de nouveau affrontés contre Leclerc et son armée en proie à la maladie. Leclerc lui-même meurt de la fièvre jaune en novembre 1802, environ deux mois après avoir demandé des renforts pour annuler la nouvelle résistance. Le général Donatien Rochambeau, qui remplace Leclerc, a mené une campagne sanglante contre les insurgés, mais les événements au-delà des côtes de Saint-Domingue ont voué à l'échec.
En 1803, la guerre entre la France et la Grande-Bretagne a repris et Bonaparte concentre de nouveau ses énergies sur la lutte en Europe. En avril de cette année, Bonaparte a signé un traité qui permettait l’achat de la Louisiane par les États-Unis et mettait fin aux ambitions françaises dans l’hémisphère occidental. Les renforts et les fournitures de Rochambeau ne sont jamais arrivés en nombre suffisant. Le général se réfugia en Jamaïque en novembre 1803, où il se rendit aux autorités britanniques plutôt que de subir les représailles des dirigeants rebelles. L'ère de la domination coloniale française en Haïti était terminée.
On January 1, 1804, Haiti proclaimed its independence. Through this action, it became the second independent state in the Western Hemisphere and the first free black republic in the world. Haiti's uniqueness attracted much attention and symbolized the aspirations of enslaved and exploited peoples around the globe. Nonetheless, Haitians made no overt effort to inspire, to support, or to aid slave rebellions similar to their own because they feared that the great powers would take renewed action against them. For the sake of national survival, nonintervention became a Haitian credo.
Dessalines, who had commanded the black and the mulatto forces during the final phase of the revolution, became the new country's leader; he ruled under the dictatorial 1801 constitution. The land he governed had been devastated by years of warfare. The agricultural base was all but destroyed, and the population was uneducated and largely unskilled. Commerce was virtually nonexistent. Contemplating this bleak situation, Dessalines determined, as Toussaint had done, that a firm hand was needed.
White residents felt the sting most sharply. While Toussaint, a former privileged slave of a tolerant white master, had felt a certain magnanimity toward whites, Dessalines, a former field slave, despised them with a maniacal intensity. He reportedly agreed wholeheartedly with his aide, Boisrond-Tonnerre, who stated, "For our declaration of independence, we should have the skin of a white man for parchment, his skull for an inkwell, his blood for ink, and a bayonet for a pen!" Accordingly, whites were slaughtered wholesale under the rule of Dessalines.
Although blacks were not massacred under Dessalines, they witnessed little improvement in the quality of their lives. To restore some measure of agricultural productivity, Dessalines reestablished the plantation system. Harsh measures bound laborers to their assigned work places, and penalties were imposed on runaways and on those who harbored them. Because Dessalines drew his only organizational experience from war, it was natural for him to use the military as a tool for governing the new nation. The rule of Dessalines set a pattern for direct involvement of the army in politics that continued unchallenged for more than 150 years.
In 1805 Dessalines crowned himself Emperor of Haiti. By this point, his autocratic rule had disenchanted important sectors of Haitian society, particularly mulattoes such as Pétion. The mulattoes resented Dessalines mostly for racial reasons, but the more educated and cultured gens de couleur also derided the emperor (and most of his aides and officers) for his ignorance and illiteracy. Efforts by Dessalines to bring mulatto families into the ruling group through marriage met with resistance. Pétion himself declined the offer of the hand of the emperor's daughter. Many mulattoes were appalled by the rampant corruption and licentiousness of the emperor's court. Dessalines's absorption of a considerable amount of land into the hands of the state through the exploitation of irregularities in titling procedures also aroused the ire of landowners.
The disaffection that sealed the emperor's fate arose within the ranks of the army, where Dessalines had lost support at all levels. The voracious appetites of his ruling clique apparently left little or nothing in the treasury for military salaries and provisions. Although reportedly aware of discontent among the ranks, Dessalines made no effort to redress these shortcomings. Instead, he relied on the same iron-fisted control with which he kept rural laborers in line. That his judgement in this matter had been in error became apparent on the road to Port-au-Prince as he rode with a column of troops on its way to crush a mulattoled rebellion. A group of people, probably hired by Pétion or Etienne-Elie Gérin (another mulatto officer), shot the emperor and hacked his body to pieces.
Under Dessalines the Haitian economy had made little progress despite the restoration of forced labor. Conflict between blacks and mulattoes ended the cooperation that the revolution had produced, and the brutality toward whites shocked foreign governments and isolated Haiti internationally. A lasting enmity against Haiti arose among Dominicans as a result of the emperor's unsuccessful invasion of Santo Domingo in 1805. Dessalines's failure to consolidate Haiti and to unite Haitians had ramifications in the years that followed, as the nation split into two rival enclaves.
Le 1er janvier 1804, Haïti a proclamé son indépendance. Grâce à cette action, il est devenu le deuxième État indépendant de l'hémisphère occidental et la première république noire libre au monde. La singularité d'Haïti a beaucoup attiré l'attention et symbolisait les aspirations des peuples asservis et exploités du monde entier. Néanmoins, les Haïtiens ne firent aucun effort manifeste pour inspirer, soutenir ou aider des rébellions d'esclaves semblables aux leurs, car ils craignaient que les grandes puissances ne prennent de nouvelles mesures à leur encontre. Au nom de la survie nationale, la non-intervention est devenue un credo haïtien.
Dessalines, qui avait commandé les forces noires et mulâtresses pendant la phase finale de la révolution, devint le nouveau chef du pays; il régit sous la constitution dictatoriale de 1801. La terre qu'il gouvernait avait été dévastée par des années de guerre. La base agricole était pratiquement détruite et la population non éduquée et peu qualifiée. Le commerce était pratiquement inexistant. En contemplant cette sombre situation, Dessalines a déterminé, comme Toussaint, qu’il fallait une main ferme.
Les habitants de race blanche ont ressenti le plus fort mal au cœur. Alors que Toussaint, ancien esclave privilégié d'un maître blanc tolérant, avait ressenti une certaine magnanimité envers les Blancs, Dessalines, un ancien esclave des champs, les méprisait avec une intensité maniaque. Boisrond-Tonnerre, son assistant, a déclaré: "Pour notre déclaration d'indépendance, nous devrions avoir la peau d'un homme blanc pour parchemin, son crâne pour son encrier, son sang pour son encre et sa baïonnette pour son stylo!" En conséquence, les Blancs ont été abattus en gros sous la règle de Dessalines.Bien que les Noirs n’aient pas été massacrés sous Dessalines, ils n’ont guère amélioré leur qualité de vie. Pour restaurer une certaine mesure de la productivité agricole, Dessalines a rétabli le système de plantation. Des mesures sévères ont contraint les ouvriers aux lieux de travail qui leur étaient assignés et des sanctions ont été imposées aux fugueurs et à ceux qui les hébergent. Comme Dessalines tirait sa seule expérience d’organisation de la guerre, il était naturel pour lui d’utiliser l’armée comme outil de gouvernement de la nouvelle nation. La règle de Dessalines a défini un modèle d’implication directe de l’armée dans la politique qui n’a pas été contesté pendant plus de 150 ans.
En 1805, Dessalines s’est couronné Empereur d’Haïti. À ce stade, son régime autocratique avait désenchanté d’importants secteurs de la société haïtienne, en particulier les mulâtres tels que Pétion. Les mulâtres étaient mécontents de Dessalines principalement pour des raisons raciales, mais les gens de couleur les plus éduqués et les plus cultivés se moquaient également de l'empereur (et de la plupart de ses aides et officiers) pour son ignorance et son analphabétisme. Les efforts de Dessalines pour amener les familles mulâtresses au sein du groupe au pouvoir par le biais du mariage ont rencontré une résistance. Pétion lui-même a décliné l'offre de la main de la fille de l'empereur. De nombreux mulâtres ont été consternés par la corruption généralisée et la licence de la cour de l'empereur. L’absorption par Dessalines d’une quantité considérable de terres entre les mains de l’État grâce à l’exploitation d’irrégularités dans les procédures de délivrance a également suscité la colère des propriétaires terriens.
La désaffection qui a scellé le destin de l’empereur s’est manifestée dans les rangs de l’armée, où Dessalines avait perdu son soutien à tous les niveaux. Les appétits voraces de sa clique dirigeante n'ont apparemment laissé que peu ou rien dans le trésor pour les salaires et les provisions de l'armée. Bien que censément conscient du mécontentement dans les rangs, Dessalines n’a fait aucun effort pour remédier à ces carences. Au lieu de cela, il s’appuyait sur le même contrôle à main de fer avec lequel il maintenait la main-d’œuvre rurale. Le fait que son jugement dans cette affaire ait été erroné est devenu évident sur la route qui mène à Port-au-Prince alors qu'il chevauchait une colonne de troupes sur son chemin pour écraser une rébellion à mulâtres. Un groupe de personnes, probablement embauché par Pétion ou par Etienne-Elie Gérin (un autre officier mulâtre), a abattu l'empereur et lui a mis son corps en pièces.
Sous Dessalines, l’économie haïtienne n’avait que peu progressé malgré le rétablissement du travail forcé. Le conflit entre noirs et mulâtres a mis fin à la coopération créée par la révolution et la brutalité envers les Blancs a choqué les gouvernements étrangers et isolé Haïti internationalement. Suite à l'invasion infructueuse de Saint-Domingue en 1805 par l'empereur, les dominicains eurent une hostilité durable à l'encontre de Dominicains. L'échec de Dessalines à consolider Haïti et à unir les Haïtiens eut des ramifications dans les années qui suivirent, la nation se divisant en deux enclaves rivales.
Many candidates succeeded Dessalines, but only three approached his stature. Most Haitians saw Henry Christophe as the most logical choice. He had served as a commander under Toussaint and could therefore claim the former leader's mantle and some of his mystique. Christophe was black like Dessalines, but he lacked Dessalines's consuming racial hatred, and he was much more pragmatic in this regard. His popularity, especially in the north, however, was not strong enough to offset the mulatto elite's growing desire to exert control over Haiti through a leader drawn from its own ranks. The mulattoes had two other candidates in mind: Gérin and Pétion, the presumed authors of Dessalines's assassination.
In November 1806, army officers and established anciens libres (pre-independence freedmen) landowners--an electorate dominated by the mulatto elite--elected a constituent assembly that was given the task of establishing a new government. Members of the assembly drafted a constitution that established a weak presidency and a comparatively strong legislature. They selected Christophe as president and Pétion as head of the legislature, the earliest attempt in Haiti to establish what would later be known as the politique de doublure (politics by understudies). Under this system, a black leader served as figurehead for mulatto elitist rule.
The only defect in the mulattoes' scheme was Christophe himself, who refused to be content with his figurehead role. He mustered his forces and marched on Port-au-Prince. His assault on the city failed, however, mainly because Pétion had artillery and Christophe did not. Indignant, but not defeated, Christophe retreated to north of the Artibonite River and established his own dominion, which he ruled from Cap Haïtien (which he would later rechristen Cap Henry). Periodic and ineffectual clashes went on for years between this northern territory and Pétion's republic, which encompassed most of the southern half of the country and boasted Port-au-Prince as its capital.
The northern dominion became a kingdom in 1811, when Christophe crowned himself King Henry I of Haiti. Unlike Dessalines, who as emperor declared, "Only I am royal," Christophe installed a nobility of mainly black supporters and associates who assumed the titles of earls, counts, and barons.
Below this aristocratic level, life in the northern kingdom was harsh, but not nearly so cruel as the conditions that had prevailed under Dessalines. Laborers remained bound to their plantations, but working hours were liberalized, and remuneration was increased to one-fourth of the harvested crop.
Christophe was a great believer in discipline. He brought African warriors from Dahomey (present-day Benin), whom he dubbed Royal Dahomets. They served as the primary agents of his authority. Incorruptible and intensely loyal to Christophe, the Dahomets brought order to the countryside.
Many people were dissatisfied with the strictness of Christophe's regime. As productivity and export levels rose, however, the quality of their lives improved in comparison with revolutionary and immediately post-revolutionary days.
In the more permissive southern republic, where Pétion ruled as president-for-life, people's lives were not improving. The crucial difference between the northern kingdom and the southern republic was the way each treated landownership. Christophe gave ownership of the bulk of the land to the state and leased large tracts to estate managers. Pétion took the opposite approach and distributed state-owned land to individuals in small parcels. Pétion began distributing land in 1809, when he granted land to his soldiers. Later on, Pétion extended the land-grant plan to other beneficiaries and lowered the selling price of state land to a level where almost anyone could afford to own land.
Pétion's decision proved detrimental in the shaping of modern Haiti. Smallholders had little incentive to produce export crops instead of subsistence crops. Coffee, because of its relative ease of cultivation, came to dominate agriculture in the south. The level of coffee production, however, did not permit any substantial exports. Sugar, which had been produced in large quantities in Saint-Domingue, was no longer exported from Haiti after 1822. When the cultivation of cane ceased, sugar mills closed, and people lost their jobs. In the south, the average Haitian was an isolated, poor, free, and relatively content yeoman. In the north, the average Haitian was a resentful but comparatively prosperous laborer. The desire for personal autonomy motivated most Haitians more than the vaguer concept of contributing to a strong national economy, however, and defections to the south were frequent, much to the consternation of Christophe.
Pétion, who died in 1818, left a lasting imprint upon his homeland. He ruled under two constitutions, which were promulgated in 1806 and 1816. The 1806 document resembled in many ways the Constitution of the United States. The 1816 charter, however, replaced the elected presidency with the office of president for life.
Pétion's largely laissez-faire rule did not directly discriminate against blacks, but it did promote an entrenched mulatto elite that benefited from such policies as the restoration of land confiscated by Dessalines and cash reimbursement for crops lost during the last year of the emperor's rule. Despite the egalitarianism of land distribution, government and politics in the republic remained the province of the elite, especially because the control of commerce came to replace the production of commodities as the focus of economic power in Haiti. Pétion was a beneficent ruler, and he was beloved by the people, who referred to him as "Papa Bon Coeur" (Father Good Heart). But Pétion was neither a true statesman nor a visionary. Some have said that his impact on the nations of South America, through his support for rebels such as Simón Bolívar Palacios and Francisco de Miranda, was stronger and more positive than his impact on his own impoverished country.
Although Christophe sought a reconciliation after Pétion's death, the southern elite rejected the notion of submission to a black leader. Because the president-for-life had died without naming a successor, the republican senate selected Pétion's mulatto secretary and commander of the Presidential Guard (Garde Présidentielle), General Jean-Pierre Boyer, to fill the post. In the north, King Henry committed suicide in October 1820, after having suffered a severe stroke that caused him to lose control of the army, his main source of power. The kingdom, which had been ruled by an even narrower clique than the republic, was left ripe for the taking. Boyer claimed it on October 26 at Cap Haïtien at the head of 20,000 troops. Haiti was once again a single nation.
De nombreux candidats ont succédé à Dessalines, mais trois seulement se sont approchés de sa stature. La plupart des Haïtiens considéraient Henry Christophe comme le choix le plus logique. Il avait servi en tant que commandant sous Toussaint et pouvait donc revendiquer le manteau de l'ancien dirigeant et une partie de sa mystique. Christophe était noir comme Dessalines, mais il manquait de la haine raciale dévorante de Dessalines et il était beaucoup plus pragmatique à cet égard. Sa popularité, surtout dans le nord du pays, ne fut cependant pas assez forte pour compenser le désir croissant de l'élite mulâtre de contrôler Haïti par l'intermédiaire d'un dirigeant issu de ses propres rangs. Les mulâtres avaient en tête deux autres candidats: Gérin et Pétion, auteurs présumés de l'assassinat de Dessalines.
En novembre 1806, des officiers de l’armée et des anciens propriétaires terriens - un électorat dominé par l’élite mulâtre - établissent une ancienne assemblée constituante à qui est confiée la tâche de mettre en place un nouveau gouvernement. Les membres de l'assemblée ont rédigé une constitution qui établissait une présidence faible et une législature relativement forte. Ils ont choisi Christophe comme président et Pétion à la tête de la législature, ce qui a été la première tentative en Haïti pour mettre en place ce que l'on appellera plus tard la politique de doublure (politique par doublons). Dans ce système, un chef noir servait de figure de proue du pouvoir élitiste mulâtre.
Le seul défaut du stratagème des mulâtres était Christophe lui-même, qui refusait de se contenter de son rôle de figure de proue. Il a rassemblé ses forces et a marché sur Port-au-Prince. Son assaut sur la ville échoua cependant, principalement parce que Pétion avait l'artillerie et que Christophe n'en avait pas. Indigné, mais non vaincu, Christophe se retira au nord de la rivière Artibonite et créa son propre royaume, qu'il dirigea depuis Cap Haïtien (qu'il réitérera plus tard Cap Henry). Des affrontements périodiques et inefficaces ont duré des années entre ce territoire du nord et la république de Pétion, qui couvrait la majeure partie de la moitié sud du pays et dont la capitale se vantait de Port-au-Prince.
La domination du nord devint un royaume en 1811, lorsque Christophe se couronna roi Henri Ier d’Haïti. Contrairement à Dessalines, qui, en tant qu'empereur, a déclaré: "Moi seul suis royal", Christophe a installé une noblesse composée principalement de partisans et d'associés noirs qui ont pris les titres de comte, de comte et de baron.
Au-dessous de ce niveau aristocratique, la vie dans le royaume du Nord était dure, mais pas aussi cruelle que les conditions qui prévalaient sous Dessalines. Les ouvriers sont restés liés à leurs plantations, mais les heures de travail ont été libéralisées et la rémunération a été portée à un quart de la récolte.Christophe était un grand partisan de la discipline. Il a amené des guerriers africains du Dahomey (aujourd'hui le Bénin), qu'il a surnommé le Royal Dahomets. Ils ont servi de principaux agents de son autorité. Incorruptibles et extrêmement fidèles à Christophe, les Dahomets ont mis de l'ordre à la campagne.
Beaucoup de gens étaient mécontents de la sévérité du régime de Christophe. Cependant, à mesure que la productivité et les exportations ont augmenté, leur qualité de vie s’est améliorée par rapport aux jours révolutionnaires et immédiatement post-révolutionnaires.
Dans la république méridionale plus permissive, où Pétion siégeait en tant que président à vie, la vie des gens ne s’améliorait pas. La différence cruciale entre le royaume du nord et la république du sud était la façon dont chacun traitait la propriété foncière. Christophe a confié à l'État la plus grande partie du terrain et a loué de vastes étendues à des gestionnaires de biens immobiliers. Pétion a adopté l'approche inverse et a distribué des terres appartenant à l'État à des particuliers dans de petites parcelles. Pétion commença à distribuer des terres en 1809, lorsqu'il céda des terres à ses soldats. Par la suite, Pétion a étendu le plan de concession de terres à d'autres bénéficiaires et a abaissé le prix de vente des terres domaniales à un niveau où presque tout le monde pouvait se permettre de posséder des terres.
La décision de Pétion s'est avérée préjudiciable à la formation d'Haïti moderne. Les petits exploitants étaient peu incités à produire des cultures d'exportation plutôt que des cultures de subsistance. Le café, en raison de sa relative facilité de culture, a fini par dominer l’agriculture du sud. Cependant, le niveau de production de café ne permettait aucune exportation substantielle. Le sucre, produit en grande quantité à Saint-Domingue, n’est plus exporté d’Haïti après 1822. Lorsque la culture de la canne à sucre a cessé, les sucreries ont fermé et des personnes ont perdu leur emploi. Au sud, l’haïtien moyen était un homme isolé, pauvre, libre et relativement content. Dans le nord, l’haïtien moyen était un ouvrier irrité mais relativement prospère. Le désir d’autonomie personnelle a cependant motivé la plupart des Haïtiens plus que le concept plus vague de contribution à une économie nationale forte, et les défections au sud étaient fréquentes, à la grande consternation de Christophe.
Pétion, décédé en 1818, a laissé une empreinte durable sur son pays natal. Il régit sous deux constitutions, promulguées en 1806 et 1816. Le document de 1806 ressemblait à bien des égards à la Constitution des États-Unis. La charte de 1816 a toutefois remplacé la présidence élue par la présidence à vie.
La règle largement dominante de laisser-faire de Pétion ne constituait pas une discrimination directe contre les Noirs, mais elle promouvait une élite mulâtre bien implantée bénéficiant de politiques telles que la restauration des terres confisquées par Dessalines et le remboursement en espèces des cultures perdues au cours de la dernière année de l'empereur règle. Malgré l'égalitarisme de la distribution des terres, le gouvernement et la politique de la république sont restés l'apanage de l'élite, notamment parce que le contrôle du commerce est venu remplacer la production de produits de base en tant que centre du pouvoir économique en Haïti. Pétion était un dirigeant bienfaisant et il était aimé par le peuple, qui l'appelait "Papa Bon Coeur" (Père Bon Coeur). Mais Pétion n'était ni un véritable homme d'État ni un visionnaire. Certains ont affirmé que son impact sur les pays d'Amérique du Sud, par son soutien aux rebelles tels que Simón Bolívar Palacios et Francisco de Miranda, était plus fort et plus positif que son impact sur son propre pays appauvri.
Bien que Christophe ait cherché à se réconcilier après la mort de Pétion, l’élite méridionale a rejeté l’idée de se soumettre à un chef noir. Le président à vie étant décédé sans nommer de successeur, le Sénat de la république a choisi le secrétaire de mulâtre de Pétion et commandant de la garde présidentielle, le général Jean-Pierre Boyer, pour occuper ce poste. Dans le nord, le roi Henry se suicide en octobre 1820, après avoir subi un grave accident vasculaire cérébral qui lui fait perdre le contrôle de l'armée, sa principale source d'énergie. Le royaume, qui avait été gouverné par une clique encore plus étroite que la république, était laissé à maturité. Boyer l'a revendiqué le 26 octobre à Cap Haïtien à la tête de 20 000 soldats. Haïti était à nouveau une seule nation.
Boyer shared Pétion's conciliatory approach to governance, but he lacked his stature as a leader. The length of Boyer's rule (1818-43) reflected his political acumen, but he accomplished little. Boyer took advantage of internecine conflict in Santo Domingo by invading and securing the Spanish part of Hispaniola in 1822. He succeeded where Toussaint and Dessalines had failed. Occupation of the territory, however, proved unproductive for the Haitians, and ultimately it sparked a Dominican rebellion.
Boyer faced drastically diminished productivity as a result of Pétion's economic policies. Most Haitians had fallen into comfortable isolation on their small plots of land, content to eke out a quiet living after years of turmoil and duress. Boyer enacted a Rural Code (Code Rural), designed to force yeomen into large-scale production of export crops. The nation, however, lacked the wherewithal, the enthusiasm, and the discipline to enforce the code.
Boyer perceived that France's continued refusal to settle claims remaining from the revolution and to recognize its former colony's independence constituted the gravest threat to Haitian integrity. His solution to the problem--payment in return for recognition--secured Haiti from French aggression, but it emptied the treasury and mortgaged the country's future to French banks, which eagerly provided the balance of the hefty first installment. The indemnity was later reduced in 1838 from 150 million francs to 60 million francs. By that time, however, the damage to Haiti had been done.
As the Haitian economy stagnated under Boyer, Haitian society ossified. The lines separating mulattoes and blacks sharpened, despite Boyer's efforts to appoint blacks to responsible positions in government. The overwhelming rate of illiteracy among even well-to-do blacks foiled Boyer's intentions. Still, his government effected no substantial improvements in the limited educational system that Pétion had established. The exclusivity of the social structure thus perpetuated itself. Many blacks found no avenues in the bureaucracy for social mobility, and they turned to careers in the military, where literacy was not a requirement.
As Pétion's successor, Boyer held the title of president-for- life. The length and relative placidity of his rule represented a period of respite for most Haitians after the violence and disorder that had characterized the emergence of their nation. Pressures gradually built up, however, as various groups, especially young mulattoes, began to chafe at the seemingly deliberate maintenance of the political and social status quo.
In the late 1830s, legislative opposition to Boyer clustered around Hérard Dumesle, a mulatto poet and liberal political thinker. Dumesle and his followers decried the anemic state of the nation's economy and its concomitant dependence on imported goods. They also disdained the continued elite adherence to French culture and urged Haitians to forge their own national identity. Their grievances against Boyer's government included corruption, nepotism, suppression of free expression, and rule by executive fiat. Banding together in a fraternity, they christened their organization the Society for the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The group of young mulattoes called for an end to Boyer's rule and for the establishment of a provisional government.
The government expelled Dumesle and his followers from the legislature and made no effort to address their grievances. The perceived intransigence of the Boyer government triggered violent clashes in the south near Les Cayes. Forces under the command of Charles Rivière-Hérard, a cousin of Dumesle, swept through the southern peninsula toward the capital. Boyer received word on February 11, 1843, that most of his army units had joined the rebels. A victim of what was later known as the Revolution of 1843, Boyer sailed to Jamaica. Rivière-Hérard replaced him in the established tradition of military rule.
Boyer a partagé l’approche conciliatrice de Pétion en matière de gouvernance, mais il n’a pas perdu son statut de leader. La longueur du règne de Boyer (1818-1843) reflétait son sens politique, mais il accomplit peu. Boyer profita du conflit interne à Saint-Domingue pour envahir et sécuriser la partie espagnole d'Hispaniola en 1822. Il réussit là où Toussaint et Dessalines avaient échoué. L’occupation du territoire s’est toutefois révélée infructueuse pour les Haïtiens et a finalement déclenché une rébellion dominicaine.
La politique économique de Pétion a entraîné une baisse considérable de la productivité de Boyer. La plupart des Haïtiens étaient tombés dans un isolement confortable sur leurs petites parcelles, se contentant de vivre tranquillement après des années de tourment et de contrainte. Boyer a promulgué un Code Rural (Code Rural), conçu pour forcer les jeunes à la production à grande échelle de cultures d'exportation. Cependant, la nation manquait de moyens, d’enthousiasme et de discipline pour appliquer le code.
Boyer s'aperçut que le refus persistant de la France de régler les revendications qui restaient de la révolution et de reconnaître l'indépendance de son ancienne colonie constituait la menace la plus grave pour l'intégrité haïtienne. Sa solution au problème - paiement en contrepartie de la reconnaissance - a permis à Haïti de résister à l'agression française, mais elle a vidé le trésor public et hypothéqué l'avenir du pays aux banques françaises, qui ont fourni avec enthousiasme le solde du premier versement. L'indemnité a ensuite été réduite en 1838 de 150 millions à 60 millions de francs. À cette époque, toutefois, les dégâts subis par Haïti avaient été causés.
Alors que l’économie haïtienne stagnait sous Boyer, la société haïtienne s’ossifiait. Les lignes séparant mulâtres et noirs se sont creusées, en dépit des efforts déployés par Boyer pour nommer des noirs à des postes de responsabilité au sein du gouvernement. Le taux d'analphabétisme écrasant parmi les Noirs, même les plus nantis, a contrecarré les intentions de Boyer. Néanmoins, son gouvernement n’a apporté aucune amélioration substantielle au système d’éducation limité que Pétion avait mis en place. L'exclusivité de la structure sociale s'est donc perpétuée. De nombreux Noirs n’ont trouvé aucun moyen de mobilité sociale dans la bureaucratie et se sont tournés vers des carrières dans l’armée, où l’alphabétisation n’était pas une nécessité.
En tant que successeur de Pétion, Boyer détient le titre de président à vie. La longueur et la relative placidité de son règne représentaient une période de répit pour la plupart des Haïtiens après la violence et le désordre qui avaient caractérisé l’émergence de leur nation. Les pressions se sont toutefois progressivement intensifiées, à mesure que divers groupes, en particulier les jeunes mulâtres, commençaient à s'émouvoir du maintien apparemment délibéré du statu quo politique et social.
À la fin des années 1830, l’opposition législative à Boyer s’organise autour de Hérard Dumesle, poète mulâtre et penseur politique libéral. Dumesle et ses partisans ont décrié l'état anémique de l'économie nationale et sa dépendance concomitante aux produits importés. Ils ont également dédaigné l'adhésion continue de l'élite à la culture française et ont exhorté les Haïtiens à se forger une identité nationale. Leurs griefs contre le gouvernement de Boyer comprenaient la corruption, le népotisme, la répression de la liberté d'expression et le règne du pouvoir exécutif. Réunis dans une fraternité, ils ont baptisé leur organisation la Société pour les droits de l'homme et du citoyen. Le groupe de jeunes mulâtres a appelé à la fin du règne de Boyer et à la mise en place d'un gouvernement provisoire.
Le gouvernement a expulsé Dumesle et ses partisans de la législature et n’a fait aucun effort pour répondre à leurs griefs. L'intransigeance perçue du gouvernement Boyer a déclenché de violents affrontements dans le sud, près de Les Cayes. Les forces sous le commandement de Charles Rivière-Hérard, un cousin de Dumesle, ont balayé la péninsule méridionale en direction de la capitale. Le 11 février 1843, Boyer apprit que la plupart de ses unités de l'armée avaient rejoint les rebelles. Victime de ce qu'on appellera plus tard la révolution de 1843, Boyer s'embarqua pour la Jamaïque. Rivière-Hérard l'a remplacé dans la tradition établie du pouvoir militaire.
Leyburn (a major historian of Haiti) summarizes this chaotic era in Haitian history. "Of the twenty-two heads of state between 1843 and 1915, only one served out his prescribed term of office, three died while serving, one was blown up with his palace, one presumably poisoned, one hacked to pieces by a mob, one resigned. The other fourteen were deposed by revolution after incumbencies ranging in length from three months to twelve years." During this wide gulf between the 1843 revolution and occupation by the United States in 1915, Haiti's leadership became the most valuable prize in an unprincipled competition among strongmen. The overthrow of a government usually degenerated into a business venture, with foreign merchants--frequently Germans--initially funding a rebellion in the expectation of a substantial return after its success. The weakness of Haitian governments of the period and the potential profits to be gained from supporting a corrupt leader made such investments attractive.
Rivière-Hérard enjoyed only a brief tenure as president. It was restive and rebellious Dominicans, rather than Haitians, who struck one of the more telling blows against this leader. Nationalist forces led by Juan Pablo Duarte seized control of Santo Domingo on February 27, 1844. Unprofessional and undisciplined Haitian forces in the east, unprepared for a significant uprising, capitulated to the rebels. In March Rivière-Hérard attempted to reimpose his authority, but the Dominicans put up stiff opposition. Soon after Rivière-Hérard crossed the border, domestic turmoil exploded again.
Discontent among black rural cultivators, which had flared up periodically under Boyer, re-emerged in 1844 and led to greater change. Bands of ragged piquets (a term derived from the word for the pikes they brandished), under the leadership of a black, former army officer named Louis Jean-Jacques Acaau, rampaged through the south. The piquets who were capable of articulating a political position demanded an end to mulatto rule and the election of a black president. Their demands were eventually met but not by the defeated Rivière-Hérard, who returned home to a country where he enjoyed little support and wielded no effective power. In May 1844, his ouster by several rebel groups brought to power Philippe Guerrier, an aged black officer who had been a member of the peerage under Christophe's kingdom.
Guerrier's installation by a mulatto-dominated establishment represented the formal beginning of politique de doublure; a succession of short-lived black leaders was chosen after Guerrier in an effort to appease the piquets and to avoid renewed unrest in the countryside. During this period, two exceptions to the pattern of abbreviated rule were Faustin Soulouque (1847-59) and Fabre Nicolas Geffrard (1859-67). Soulouque, a black general of no particular distinction, was considered just another understudy when he was tapped by the legislature as a compromise between competing factions. Once in office, however, he displayed a Machiavellian taste for power. He purged the military high command, established a secret police force--known as the zinglins--to keep dissenters in line, and eliminated mulatto opponents. In August 1849, he grandiosely proclaimed himself as Haiti's second emperor, Faustin I.
Soulouque, like Boyer, enjoyed a comparatively long period of power that yielded little of value to his country. Whereas Boyer's rule had been marked by torpor and neglect, Soulouque's was distinguished by violence, repression, and rampant corruption. Soulouque's expansive ambitions led him to mount several invasions of the Dominican Republic. The Dominicans turned back his first foray in 1849 before he reached Santo Domingo. Another invasion in 1850 proved even less successful. Failed campaigns in 1855 and in 1856 fueled mounting discontent among the military; a revolt led by Geffrard, who had led a contingent in the Dominican campaign, forced the emperor out of power in 1859.
Geffrard, a dark-skinned mulatto, restored the old order of elite rule. After the turmoil of Soulouque's regime, Geffrard's rule seemed comparatively tranquil and even somewhat progressive. Geffrard produced a new constitution based largely on Pétion's 1816 document, improved transportation, and expanded education (although the system still favored the upper classes). Geffrard also signed a concordat with the Vatican in 1860 that expanded the presence of the Roman Catholic Church and its preponderantly foreign-born clergy in Haiti, particularly through the establishment of parochial schools. The move ended a period of ill will between Haiti and the church that had begun during the revolutionary period.
Intrigue and discontent among the elite and the piquets beset Geffrard throughout his rule. In 1867 General Sylvain Salnave--a light-skinned mulatto who received considerable support from blacks in the north and in the capital- -forced Geffrard from office. The overthrow profoundly unsettled the country, and Salnave's end came quickly. Rural rebellion among anti-Salnavist peasants who called themselves cacos (a term of unknown derivation) triggered renewed unrest among the piquets in the south. After several military successes, Salnave's forces weakened, and the leader fled Port-au-Prince. Caco forces captured him, however, near the Dominican border, where they tried and executed him on January 15, 1870. Successive leaders claimed control of most of the country and then regularly confirmed their rule ex post facto through a vote by the legislature, but none succeeded in establishing effective authority over the entire country.
Rebellion, intrigue, and conspiracy continued to be commonplace even under the rule of Louis Lysius Félicité Salomon (1879-88), of the National Party (Parti National--PN), the most notable and effective president of the late nineteenth century. During one seven-year term and the beginning of a second, Salomon revived agriculture to a limited degree, attracted some foreign capital, established a national bank, linked Haiti to the outside world through the telegraph, and made minor improvements in the education system. Salomon, the scion of a prominent black family, had spent many years in France after being expelled by Riviére- Hérard. Salomon's support among the rural masses, along with his energetic efforts to contain elite-instigated plots, kept him in power longer than the strongmen who preceded and followed him. Still, Salomon yielded--after years of conflict with forces led by the Liberal Party (Parti Liberal--LP), and other disgruntled, power-hungry elite elements.
Political forces during the late nineteenth century polarized around the Liberal and the National parties. Mulattoes dominated the Liberal ranks, while blacks dominated the National Party; both parties were nonideological in nature. The parties competed on the battlefield, in the legislature, within the ranks of the military, and in the more refined but limited circles of the literati. The more populist Nationalists marched under the banner of their party slogan, "the greatest good for the greatest number," while the blatantly elitist Liberals proclaimed their preference for "government by the most competent."
Haitian politics remained unstable. From the fall of Salomon until occupation by the United States in 1915, eleven men held the title of president. Their tenures in office ranged from six and one-half years in the case of Florvil Hyppolite (1889-96) to only months--especially between 1912 and 1915, the turbulent period that preceded the United States occupation--in the case of seven others.
Although domestic unrest helped pave the way for intervention by the United States, geostrategic concerns also influenced events. The United States had periodically entertained the notion of annexing Hispaniola, but the divisive issue of slavery deterred the nation from acting. Until 1862 the United States refused to recognize Haiti's independence because the free, black, island nation symbolized opposition to slavery. President Ulysses S. Grant proposed annexation of the Dominican Republic in 1870, but the United States Senate rejected the idea. By the late nineteenth century, the growth of United States power and the prospect of a transoceanic canal in either Nicaragua or Panama had increased attention given to the Caribbean. Annexation faded as a policy option, but Washington persistently pursued efforts to secure naval stations throughout the region. The United States favored the Môle Saint-Nicolas as an outpost, but Haiti refused to cede territory to a foreign power.
The French and the British still claimed interests in Haiti, but it was the Germans' activity on the island that concerned the United States most. The small German community in Haiti (approximately 200 in 1910) wielded a disproportionate amount of economic power. Germans controlled about 80 percent 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 in the north. The Germans, as did the French, aiming to collect the nation's customs receipts to cover Haiti's outstanding debts to European creditors, also sought control of the nearly insolvent National Bank of Haiti. This kind of arrangement was known technically as a customs receivership.
Officials in Washington were especially concerned about Germany's aggressive employment of military might. In December 1897, a German commodore in charge of two warships demanded and received an indemnity from the Haitian government for a German national who had been deported from the island after a legal dispute. Another German warship intervened in a Haitian uprising in September 1902. It forced the captain of a rebel gunboat (that had waylaid a German merchant ship) to resort to blowing up his ship--and himself--to avoid being seized.
Reports reached Washington that Berlin was considering setting up a coaling station at the Môle Saint-Nicolas to serve the German naval fleet. This potential strategic encroachment resonated through the White House, at a time when the Monroe Doctrine (a policy that opposed European intervention in the Western Hemisphere) and the Roosevelt Corollary (whereby the United States assumed the responsibility for direct intervention in Latin American nations in order to check the influence of European powers) strongly shaped United States foreign policy, and when war on a previously unknown scale had broken out in Europe. The administration of President Woodrow Wilson accordingly began contingency planning for an occupation of Haiti.
Escalating instability in Haiti all but invited foreign intervention. The country's most productive president of the early twentieth century, Cincinnatus Leconte, had died in a freak explosion in the National Palace (Palais National) in August 1912. Five more contenders claimed the country's leadership over the next three years. General Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, who had helped to bring Leconte to power, took the oath of office in March 1915. Like every other Haitian president of the period, he faced active rebellion to his rule. His leading opponent, Rosalvo Bobo, reputedly hostile toward the United States, represented to Washington a barrier to expanded commercial and strategic ties. A pretext for intervention came on July 27, 1915, when Guillaume Sam executed 167 political prisoners. Popular outrage provoked mob violence in the streets of Port-au-Prince. A throng of incensed citizens sought out Guillaume Sam at his sanctuary in the French embassy and literally tore him to pieces. The spectacle of an exultant rabble parading through the streets of the capital bearing the dismembered corpse of their former president shocked decision makers in the United States and spurred them to swift action. The first sailors and marines landed in Port-au-Prince on July 28. Within six weeks, representatives from the United States controlled Haitian customs houses and administrative institutions. For the next nineteen years, Haiti's powerful neighbor to the north guided and governed the country.
Leyburn (un historien majeur d’Haïti) résume cette période chaotique de l’histoire haïtienne. "Sur les vingt-deux chefs d’Etat entre 1843 et 1915, un seul a rempli son mandat, trois sont décédés en servant, un a été fait exploser avec son palais, un vraisemblablement empoisonné, un déchiqueté par une foule, un Les quatorze autres ont été destitués par révolution après des mandats d’une durée allant de trois mois à douze ans. " Au cours de ce grand fossé entre la révolution de 1843 et l'occupation par les États-Unis en 1915, la direction d'Haïti est devenue le prix le plus précieux d'une concurrence sans principes entre hommes forts. Le renversement d'un gouvernement a généralement dégénéré en une affaire commerciale. Des marchands étrangers - souvent des Allemands - finançaient initialement une rébellion dans l'espoir d'un retour substantiel après son succès. La faiblesse des gouvernements haïtiens de cette période et les bénéfices potentiels à obtenir du soutien d’un dirigeant corrompu ont rendu de tels investissements attrayants.
Rivière-Hérard n'a eu qu'un bref mandat de président. Ce sont les Dominicains agités et rebelles, plutôt que les Haïtiens, qui ont porté l’un des coups les plus révélateurs à ce dirigeant. Les forces nationalistes dirigées par Juan Pablo Duarte ont pris le contrôle de Saint-Domingue le 27 février 1844. Des forces haïtiennes non professionnelles et indisciplinées à l'est, non préparées à un soulèvement significatif, ont capitulé devant les rebelles. En mars, Rivière-Hérard tenta de réimposer son autorité, mais les dominicains opposèrent une vive opposition. Peu après le passage de Rivière-Hérard, la tourmente intérieure a de nouveau explosé.
Le mécontentement parmi les cultivateurs ruraux noirs, qui avaient périodiquement éclaté sous Boyer, est réapparu en 1844 et a conduit à un plus grand changement. Des bandes de piquets en lambeaux (terme dérivé du mot qui désigne les piques qu’elles ont brandi), sous la direction d’un ancien officier de l’armée noire, Louis Jean-Jacques Acaau, se sont déchaînées dans le sud. Les piquets capables d'articuler une position politique ont exigé la fin du règne du mulâtre et l'élection d'un président noir. Rivière-Hérard, vaincu, rentre chez lui dans un pays où il ne bénéficie que de peu de soutien et ne dispose d'aucun pouvoir effectif. En mai 1844, son éviction par plusieurs groupes rebelles porta au pouvoir Philippe Guerrier, un ancien officier noir membre de la pairie du royaume de Christophe.
L'installation de Guerrier par un établissement à dominance mulâtre représente le début formel de la politique de doublure; une succession de dirigeants noirs de courte durée fut choisie après Guerrier dans le but d'apaiser les piquets et d'éviter de nouveaux troubles dans les campagnes. Au cours de cette période, Faustin Soulouque (1847-1859) et Fabre Nicolas Geffrard (1859-1867) faisaient exception à la règle de la règle abrégée. Soulouque, un général noir sans distinction particulière, était considéré comme un simple doublon quand il fut exploité par le législateur comme un compromis entre des factions rivales. Une fois en poste, cependant, il manifesta un goût machiavélique pour le pouvoir. Il a purgé le haut commandement militaire, établi une force de police secrète - connue sous le nom de zinglins - pour maintenir les dissidents en ligne et éliminé les opposants au mulâtre. En août 1849, il s'est proclamé grandiose comme le deuxième empereur d'Haïti, Faustin Ier.
Soulouque, comme Boyer, a bénéficié d’une période de pouvoir relativement longue qui n’a guère profité à son pays. Alors que le règne de Boyer avait été marqué par la torpeur et la négligence, celui de Soulouque se distinguait par la violence, la répression et la corruption galopante. Les ambitions expansives de Soulouque l'ont amené à monter plusieurs invasions de la République dominicaine. Les Dominicains ont fait demi-tour en 1849 avant d’arriver à Saint-Domingue. Une autre invasion en 1850 a eu encore moins de succès. Les campagnes ratées en 1855 et en 1856 ont alimenté le mécontentement croissant des militaires; une révolte dirigée par Geffrard, qui avait dirigé un contingent dans la campagne dominicaine, contraint l'empereur à quitter le pouvoir en 1859.
Geffrard, un mulâtre à la peau sombre, a rétabli l’ancien ordre de gouvernement élite. Après la tourmente du régime de Soulouque, le gouvernement de Geffrard semblait relativement tranquille et même quelque peu progressif. Geffrard a élaboré une nouvelle constitution basée en grande partie sur le document de 1816 de Pétion, sur l'amélioration des transports et sur le développement de l'éducation (même si le système privilégiait encore les classes supérieures). Geffrard a également signé un accord avec le Vatican en 1860, qui étend la présence de l’Église catholique romaine et de son clergé principalement étranger à Haïti, notamment par la création d’écoles paroissiales. Le mouvement a mis fin à une période de mauvaise volonté entre Haïti et l’église commencée pendant la période révolutionnaire.
L’intrigue et le mécontentement parmi l’élite et les piquets assaillent Geffrard tout au long de son règne. En 1867, le général Sylvain Salnave - un mulâtre à la peau claire qui reçut un soutien considérable de la part des Noirs du nord et de Geffrard, au pouvoir capitaliste. Le renversement a profondément bouleversé le pays et la fin de Salnave a été rapide. La rébellion rurale parmi les paysans anti-salnavistes qui se faisaient appeler cacos (terme de dérivation inconnue) a provoqué une nouvelle agitation parmi les piquets du sud. Après plusieurs succès militaires, les forces de Salnave s'affaiblissent et le chef s'enfuit de Port-au-Prince. Les forces de Caco l'ont toutefois capturé près de la frontière dominicaine, où ils l'ont jugé et exécuté le 15 janvier 1870. Les dirigeants qui se sont succédé ont revendiqué le contrôle de la plus grande partie du pays, puis ont régulièrement confirmé leur règne ex post par un vote de l'assemblée législative. aucun n'a réussi à établir une autorité effective sur l'ensemble du pays.
La rébellion, l'intrigue et le complot continuaient d'être monnaie courante, même sous le règne de Louis Lysius Félicité Salomon (1879-1888), du Parti national (Parti national - PN), président le plus remarquable et le plus efficace de la fin du XIXe siècle. siècle. Au cours d'un mandat de sept ans et du début d'un second mandat, Salomon a relancé l'agriculture dans une mesure limitée, attiré des capitaux étrangers, créé une banque nationale, relié le monde extérieur à Haïti par le biais du télégraphe et apporté des améliorations mineures au système éducatif. Salomon, le descendant d'une éminente famille noire, avait passé de nombreuses années en France après avoir été expulsé par Riviére-Hérard. Le soutien de Salomon parmi les masses rurales, ainsi que ses efforts énergiques pour contenir les complots suscités par l'élite, le maintinrent au pouvoir plus longtemps que les hommes forts qui le précédaient et le suivaient. Malgré tout, Salomon a cédé - après des années de conflit avec des forces dirigées par le Parti libéral (Parti libéral - LP) et d’autres éléments d’élite mécontents et assoiffés de pouvoir.
Les forces politiques à la fin du XIXe siècle se sont polarisées autour des partis libéral et national. Les mulâtres dominaient les rangs des libéraux, tandis que les noirs dominaient le parti national; les deux parties étaient de nature non idéologique. Les partis se sont affrontés sur le champ de bataille, à l'Assemblée législative, dans les rangs de l'armée et dans les cercles plus raffinés mais plus restreints des lettrés. Les nationalistes les plus populistes ont défilé sous le slogan de leur parti, "le plus grand bien pour le plus grand nombre", tandis que les libéraux manifestement élitistes ont proclamé leur préférence pour un "gouvernement des plus compétents".
La politique haïtienne est restée instable. Depuis la chute de Salomon jusqu'à l'occupation par les États-Unis en 1915, onze hommes ont occupé le titre de président. Florvil Hyppolite (1889-96) n’a occupé ses fonctions que six mois et demi, surtout entre 1912 et 1915, période agitée qui a précédé l’occupation américaine, avec sept mois de retard. autres.
Bien que les troubles intérieurs aient ouvert la voie à une intervention des États-Unis, les préoccupations géostratégiques ont également influencé les événements. Les États-Unis avaient périodiquement envisagé d’annexer Hispaniola, mais la question controversée de l’esclavage dissuadait la nation d’agir. Jusqu'en 1862, les États-Unis refusèrent de reconnaître l'indépendance d'Haïti car ce pays insulaire libre et noir symbolisait l'opposition à l'esclavage. Le président Ulysses S. Grant a proposé l'annexion de la République dominicaine en 1870, mais le Sénat des États-Unis a rejeté cette idée. À la fin du dix-neuvième siècle, la montée en puissance des États-Unis et la perspective d'un canal transocéanique au Nicaragua ou au Panama avaient accru l'attention portée aux Caraïbes. L'annexion s'est estompée en tant qu'option politique, mais Washington a poursuivi ses efforts pour sécuriser les stations navales de la région. Les États-Unis ont préféré le Môle Saint-Nicolas comme avant-poste, mais Haïti a refusé de céder le territoire à une puissance étrangère.
Les Français et les Britanniques ont toujours revendiqué des intérêts en Haïti, mais ce sont les activités des Allemands sur l'île qui ont le plus inquiété les États-Unis. La petite communauté allemande en Haïti (environ 200 personnes en 1910) détenait un pouvoir économique disproportionné. Les Allemands contrôlaient environ 80% du commerce international du pays; ils possédaient et exploitaient également des services publics à Cap Haïtien et à Port-au-Prince, le quai principal et un tramway dans la capitale, ainsi qu'un chemin de fer au nord. Les Allemands, à l'instar des Français, cherchant à recouvrer les recettes douanières du pays pour couvrir les dettes non acquittées par Haïti vis-à-vis des créanciers européens, ont également cherché à prendre le contrôle de la presque insolvable Banque nationale d'Haïti. Ce type d’arrangement était techniquement connu sous le nom de séquestre douanier.
Les responsables à Washington étaient particulièrement préoccupés par l'emploi agressif de la puissance militaire par l'Allemagne. En décembre 1897, un commodore allemand chargé de deux navires de guerre réclame et reçoit une indemnité du gouvernement haïtien pour un ressortissant allemand qui a été expulsé de l'île à la suite d'un litige. Un autre navire de guerre allemand est intervenu lors d'un soulèvement haïtien en septembre 1902. Il a contraint le capitaine d'une canonnière rebelle (qui avait fait échouer un navire de commerce allemand) à faire exploser son navire - et lui-même - pour ne pas être saisi.
Des rapports parvenus à Washington selon lesquels Berlin envisageait de créer une station de charbon au Môle Saint-Nicolas pour desservir la flotte navale allemande. Cette intrusion stratégique potentielle a résonné à travers la Maison Blanche, à un moment où la doctrine Monroe (une politique opposant une intervention européenne à l’intervention européenne dans l’hémisphère occidental) et le corollaire Roosevelt (aux États-Unis assumant la responsabilité de l’intervention directe dans les nations latino-américaines pour vérifier l’influence des puissances européennes) ont fortement façonné la politique étrangère des États-Unis et lorsqu’une guerre d’une ampleur inconnue avait éclaté en Europe. L’administration du président Woodrow Wilson a donc commencé à préparer des plans d’urgence pour une occupation d’Haïti.
L’instabilité grandissante en Haïti invitait presque l’intervention étrangère. Le président du pays le plus productif du début du XXe siècle, Cincinnatus Leconte, était décédé dans une explosion anormale au Palais national (Palais National) en août 1912. Cinq autres candidats revendiquaient le leadership du pays au cours des trois prochaines années. Le général Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, qui avait contribué à amener Leconte au pouvoir, prêta serment en mars 1915. Comme tout autre président haïtien de cette période, il dut faire face à une rébellion active. Son principal adversaire, Rosalvo Bobo, réputé hostile aux États-Unis, représentait à Washington un obstacle à l’élargissement des liens commerciaux et stratégiques. Un prétexte d'intervention est venu le 27 juillet 1915, lorsque Guillaume Sam a exécuté 167 prisonniers politiques. L’indignation populaire a provoqué la violence de la foule dans les rues de Port-au-Prince. Une foule de citoyens furieux a cherché Guillaume Sam dans son sanctuaire à l’ambassade de France et l’a littéralement mis en pièces. Le spectacle d'une populace exultante défilant dans les rues de la capitale avec le corps démembré de leur ancien président a choqué les décideurs américains et les a incités à agir rapidement. Les premiers marins et marines ont débarqué à Port-au-Prince le 28 juillet. En l'espace de six semaines, des représentants des États-Unis contrôlaient les bureaux de douane et les institutions administratives d'Haïti. Pendant les dix-neuf prochaines années, le puissant voisin d'Haïti au nord a guidé et gouverné le pays.
Representatives from the United States wielded veto power over all governmental decisions in Haiti, and Marine Corps commanders served as administrators in the provinces. Local institutions, however, continued to be run by Haitians, as was required under policies put in place during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. In line with these policies, Admiral William Caperton, the initial commander of United States forces, instructed Bobo to refrain from offering himself to the legislature as a presidential candidate. Philippe Sudre Dartiguenave, the mulatto president of the Senate, agreed to accept the presidency of Haiti after several other candidates had refused on principle.
With a figurehead installed in the National Palace and other institutions maintained in form if not in function, Caperton declared martial law, a condition that persisted until 1929. A treaty passed by the Haitian legislature in November 1915 granted further authority to the United States. The treaty allowed Washington to assume complete control of Haiti's finances, and it gave the United States sole authority over the appointment of advisers and receivers. The treaty also gave the United States responsibility for establishing and running public-health and public-works programs and for supervising routine governmental affairs. The treaty also established the Gendarmerie d'Haïti (Haitian Constabulary), a step later replicated in the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. The Gendarmerie was Haiti's first professional military force, and it was eventually to play an important political role in the country. In 1917 President Dartiguenave dissolved the legislature after its members refused to approve a constitution purportedly authored by United States assistant secretary of the navy Franklin D. Roosevelt. A referendum subsequently approved the new constitution (by a vote of 98,225 to 768), however, in 1918. Generally a liberal document, the constitution allowed foreigners to purchase land. Dessalines had forbidden land ownership by foreigners, and since 1804 most Haitians had viewed foreign ownership as anathema.
The occupation by the United States had several effects on Haiti. An early period of unrest culminated in a 1918 rebellion by up to 40,000 former cacos and other disgruntled people. The scale of the uprising overwhelmed the Gendarmerie, but marine reinforcements helped put down the revolt at the estimated cost of 2,000 Haitian lives. Thereafter, order prevailed to a degree that most Haitians had never witnessed. The order, however, was imposed largely by white foreigners with deep-seated racial prejudices and a disdain for the notion of self-determination by inhabitants of less-developed nations. These attitudes particularly dismayed the mulatto elite, who had heretofore believed in their innate superiority over the black masses. The whites from North America, however, did not distinguish among Haitians, regardless of their skin tone, level of education, or sophistication. This intolerance caused indignation, resentment, and eventually a racial pride that was reflected in the work of a new generation of Haitian historians, ethnologists, writers, artists, and others, many of whom later became active in politics and government. Still, as Haitians united in their reaction to the racism of the occupying forces, the mulatto elite managed to dominate the country's bureaucracy and to strengthen its role in national affairs.
The occupation had several positive aspects. It greatly improved Haiti's infrastructure. Roads were improved and expanded. Almost all roads, however, led to Port-au-Prince, resulting in a gradual concentration of economic activity in the capital. Bridges went up throughout the country; a telephone system began to function; several towns gained access to clean water; and a construction boom (in some cases employing forced labor) helped restore wharves, lighthouses, schools, and hospitals. Public health improved, partially because of United States-directed campaigns against malaria and yaws (a crippling disease caused by a spirochete). Sound fiscal management kept Haiti current on its foreign-debt payments at a time when default among Latin American nations was common. By that time, United States banks were Haiti's main creditors, an important incentive for Haiti to make timely payments.
In 1922 Louis Borno replaced Dartiguenave, who was forced out of office for temporizing over the approval of a debtconsolidation loan. Borno ruled without the benefit of a legislature (dissolved in 1917 under Dartiguenave) until elections were again permitted in 1930. The legislature, after several ballots, elected mulatto Sténio Vincent to the presidency.
The occupation of Haiti continued after World War I, despite the embarrassment that it caused Woodrow Wilson at the Paris peace conference in 1919 and the scrutiny of a congressional inquiry in 1922. By 1930 President Herbert Hoover had become concerned about the effects of the occupation, particularly after a December 1929 incident in Les Cayes in which marines killed at least ten Haitian peasants during a march to protest local economic conditions. Hoover appointed two commissions to study the situation. A former governor general of the Philippines, W. Cameron Forbes, headed the more prominent of the two. The Forbes Commission praised the material improvements that the United States administration had wrought, but it criticized the exclusion of Haitians from positions of real authority in the government and the constabulary, which had come to be known as the Garde d'Haïti. In more general terms, the commission further asserted that "the social forces that created [instability] still remain--poverty, ignorance, and the lack of a tradition or desire for orderly free government."
The Hoover administration did not implement fully the recommendations of the Forbes Commission, but United States withdrawal was well under way by 1932, when Hoover lost the presidency to Roosevelt, the presumed author of the most recent Haitian constitution. On a visit to Cap Haïtien in July 1934, Roosevelt reaffirmed an August 1933 disengagement agreement. The last contingent of marines departed in mid-August, after a formal transfer of authority to the Garde. As in other countries occupied by the United States in the early twentieth century, the local military was often the only cohesive and effective institution left in the wake of withdrawal.
Des représentants des États-Unis disposaient d'un droit de veto sur toutes les décisions gouvernementales en Haïti, et les commandants du Corps des marines exerçaient les fonctions d'administrateur dans les provinces. Les institutions locales, cependant, ont continué à être dirigées par des Haïtiens, comme l'exigeaient les politiques mises en place sous la présidence de Woodrow Wilson. Conformément à ces politiques, l'amiral William Caperton, le commandant initial des forces américaines, a demandé à Bobo de s'abstenir de se porter candidat à la législature en tant que candidat à la présidence. Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave, le président du mulâtre du Sénat, a accepté la présidence haïtienne après que plusieurs autres candidats eurent refusé par principe.
Avec une figure de proue installée dans le palais national et d'autres institutions conservées en forme sinon en fonction, Caperton proclama la loi martiale, une condition qui perdura jusqu'en 1929. Un traité passé par la législature haïtienne en novembre 1915 accorda une autorité supplémentaire aux États-Unis. États. Le traité permettait à Washington d’assumer le contrôle complet des finances d’Haïti et accordait aux États-Unis le pouvoir exclusif de nommer des conseillers et des récepteurs. Le traité donnait également aux États-Unis la responsabilité d'établir et de gérer des programmes de santé publique et de travaux publics et de superviser les affaires courantes du gouvernement. Le traité a également établi la Gendarmerie d'Haïti (Constabulary haïtienne), une étape reproduite plus tard en République dominicaine et au Nicaragua. La gendarmerie a été la première force militaire professionnelle d'Haïti à jouer un rôle politique important dans le pays. En 1917, le président Dartiguenave a dissous la législature après que ses membres eurent refusé d'approuver une constitution prétendument rédigée par le secrétaire adjoint de la marine des États-Unis, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Un référendum a ensuite approuvé la nouvelle constitution (par un vote de 98 225 contre 768), cependant, en 1918. En règle générale, ce document libéral autorisait les étrangers à acheter des terres. Dessalines avait interdit à des étrangers la propriété de terres et, depuis 1804, la plupart des Haïtiens considéraient la propriété étrangère comme un anathème.
L’occupation par les États-Unis a eu plusieurs effets sur Haïti. Une première période de troubles a culminé dans la rébellion de 1918 de près de 40 000 anciens cacos et autres personnes mécontentes. L'ampleur du soulèvement a submergé la gendarmerie, mais des renforts maritimes ont contribué à endiguer la révolte au coût estimé à 2 000 vies haïtiennes. Par la suite, l’ordre a prévalu à un degré auquel la plupart des Haïtiens n’avaient jamais assisté. L’ordre, cependant, a été imposé en grande partie par des étrangers de race blanche, avec des préjugés raciaux profondément enracinés et un mépris pour la notion d’autodétermination des habitants de pays moins développés. Ces attitudes ont particulièrement décontenancé l'élite mulâtre, qui jusqu'alors avait cru en sa supériorité innée sur les masses noires. Les Blancs d'Amérique du Nord, toutefois, ne faisaient pas de distinction entre les Haïtiens, quels que soient leur couleur de peau, leur niveau d'éducation ou leur niveau de sophistication. Cette intolérance a provoqué indignation, ressentiment et finalement une fierté raciale qui se sont reflétées dans les travaux d'une nouvelle génération d'historiens, d'ethnologues, d'ethnologues, d'écrivains, d'artistes et d'autres artistes haïtiens, dont beaucoup sont par la suite devenus actifs dans la politique et le gouvernement. Néanmoins, alors que les Haïtiens étaient unis dans leur réaction au racisme des forces d’occupation, l’élite mulâtre a réussi à dominer la bureaucratie du pays et à renforcer son rôle dans les affaires nationales.
L’occupation comportait plusieurs aspects positifs. Cela a grandement amélioré l'infrastructure d'Haïti. Les routes ont été améliorées et élargies. Cependant, presque toutes les routes ont conduit à Port-au-Prince, ce qui a entraîné une concentration progressive de l'activité économique dans la capitale. Des ponts ont été construits dans tout le pays. un système téléphonique a commencé à fonctionner; plusieurs villes ont eu accès à de l'eau potable; et un boom de la construction (dans certains cas, du travail forcé) ont contribué à la restauration des quais, des phares, des écoles et des hôpitaux. La santé publique s'est améliorée, en partie grâce aux campagnes menées par les États-Unis contre le paludisme et le pian (une maladie invalidante provoquée par un spirochète). Une gestion budgétaire saine a tenu Haïti au courant de ses paiements en dette extérieure à un moment où les défaillances des pays d'Amérique latine étaient courantes. À ce moment-là, les banques des États-Unis étaient les principaux créanciers d'Haïti, ce qui l'incitait fortement à effectuer ses paiements en temps voulu.
En 1922, Louis Borno a remplacé Dartiguenave, qui a été contraint de quitter ses fonctions pour avoir tardé à l’approbation d’un prêt sur consolidation de la dette. Borno a statué sans le bénéfice d'une législature (dissoute en 1917 sous Dartiguenave) jusqu'à ce que les élections soient à nouveau autorisées en 1930. La législature, après plusieurs scrutins, a élu le mulâtre Sténio Vincent à la présidence.
L’occupation d’Haïti se poursuivit après la Première Guerre mondiale, malgré l’embarras causé à Woodrow Wilson lors de la conférence de paix de Paris en 1919 et le contrôle d’une enquête du Congrès en 1922. En 1930, le président Herbert Hoover s’inquiétait des conséquences de l'occupation, en particulier après un incident survenu aux Cayes en décembre 1929 dans lequel des marines ont tué au moins dix paysans haïtiens au cours d'une marche pour protester contre les conditions économiques locales. Hoover a nommé deux commissions pour étudier la situation. W. Cameron Forbes, ancien gouverneur général des Philippines, était à la tête du plus important des deux. La Commission Forbes a loué les améliorations matérielles apportées par l'administration américaine, mais elle a critiqué l'exclusion des Haïtiens des postes de véritable autorité au sein du gouvernement et de la police, connus sous le nom de Garde d'Haïti. De manière plus générale, la commission a également affirmé que "les forces sociales qui ont créé [l'instabilité] demeurent - la pauvreté, l'ignorance et le manque de tradition ou de désir d'un gouvernement libre et ordonné".
L’administration Hoover n’a pas pleinement appliqué les recommandations de la Commission Forbes, mais le retrait des États-Unis était déjà bien amorcé en 1932, lorsque Hoover a perdu la présidence au profit de Roosevelt, l’auteur présumé de la plus récente constitution haïtienne. Lors d'une visite à Cap Haïtien en juillet 1934, Roosevelt réaffirma un accord de désengagement signé en août 1933. Le dernier contingent de marines est parti à la mi-août, après le transfert officiel de son autorité à la Garde. Comme dans d'autres pays occupés par les États-Unis au début du XXe siècle, l'armée locale était souvent la seule institution cohérente et efficace qui subsistait après le retrait.
The Garde was a new kind of military institution in Haiti. It was a force manned overwhelmingly by blacks, with a United States- trained black commander, Colonel Démosthènes Pétrus Calixte. Most of the Garde's officers, however, were mulattoes. The Garde was a national organization; it departed from the regionalism that had characterized most of Haiti's previous armies. In theory, its charge was apolitical--to maintain internal order, while supporting a popularly elected government. The Garde initially adhered to this role.
President Vincent took advantage of the comparative national stability, which was being maintained by a professionalized military, to gain absolute power. A plebiscite permitted the transfer of all authority in economic matters from the legislature to the executive, but Vincent was not content with this expansion of his power. In 1935 he forced through the legislature a new constitution, which was also approved by plebiscite. The constitution praised Vincent, and it granted the executive sweeping powers to dissolve the legislature at will, to reorganize the judiciary, to appoint ten of twenty-one senators (and to recommend the remaining eleven to the lower house), and to rule by decree when the legislature was not in session. Although Vincent implemented some improvements in infrastructure and services, he brutally repressed his opposition, censored the press, and governed largely to benefit himself and a clique of merchants and corrupt military officers.
Under Calixte the majority of Garde personnel had adhered to the doctrine of political nonintervention that their Marine Corps trainers had stressed. Over time, however, Vincent and Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina sought to buy adherents among the ranks. Trujillo, determined to expand his influence over all of Hispaniola, in October 1937 ordered the indiscriminate butchery by the Dominican army of an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Haitians on the Dominican side of the Massacre River. Some observers claim that Trujillo supported an abortive coup attempt by young Garde officers in December 1937. Vincent dismissed Calixte as commander and sent him abroad, where he eventually accepted a commission in the Dominican military as a reward for his efforts while on Trujillo's payroll. The attempted coup led Vincent to purge the officer corps of all members suspected of disloyalty, marking the end of the apolitical military.
In 1941 Vincent showed every intention of standing for a third term as president, but after almost a decade of disengagement, the United States made it known that it would oppose such an extension. Vincent accommodated the Roosevelt administration and handed power over to Elie Lescot.
Lescot was a mulatto who had served in numerous government posts. He was competent and forceful, and many considered him a sterling candidate for the presidency, despite his elitist background. Like the majority of previous Haitian presidents, however, he failed to live up to his potential. His tenure paralleled that of Vincent in many ways. Lescot declared himself commander in chief of the military, and power resided in a clique that ruled with the tacit support of the Garde. He repressed his opponents, censored the press, and compelled the legislature to grant him extensive powers. He handled all budget matters without legislative sanction and filled legislative vacancies without calling elections. Lescot commonly said that Haiti's declared state-of-war against the Axis powers during World War II justified his repressive actions. Haiti, however, played no role in the war except for supplying the United States with raw materials and serving as a base for a United States Coast Guard detachment.
Aside from his authoritarian tendencies, Lescot had another flaw: his relationship with Trujillo. While serving as Haitian ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Lescot fell under the sway of Trujillo's influence and wealth. In fact, it was Trujillo's money that reportedly bought most of the legislative votes that brought Lescot to power. Their clandestine association persisted until 1943, when the two leaders parted ways for unknown reasons. Trujillo later made public all his correspondence with the Haitian leader. The move undermined Lescot's already dubious popular support.
In January 1946, events came to a head when Lescot jailed the Marxist editors of a journal called La Ruche (The Beehive). This action precipitated student strikes and protests by government workers, teachers, and shopkeepers in the capital and provincial cities. In addition, Lescot's mulatto-dominated rule had alienated the predominantly black Garde. His position became untenable, and he resigned on January 11. Radio announcements declared that the Garde had assumed power, which it would administer through a three-member junta.
The Revolution of 1946 was a novel development in Haiti's history, insofar as the Garde assumed power as an institution, not as the instrument of a particular commander. The members of the junta, known as the Military Executive Committee (Comité Exécutif Militaire), were Garde commander Colonel Franck Lavaud, Major Antoine Levelt, and Major Paul E. Magloire, commander of the Presidential Guard. All three understood Haiti's traditional way of exercising power, but they lacked a thorough understanding of what would be required to make the transition to an elected civilian government. Upon taking power, the junta pledged to hold free elections. The junta also explored other options, but public clamor, which included public demonstrations in support of potential candidates, eventually forced the officers to make good on their promise.
Haiti elected its National Assembly in May 1946. The Assembly set August 16, 1946, as the date on which it would select a president. The leading candidates for the office--all of whom were black--were Dumarsais Estimé, a former school teacher, assembly member, and cabinet minister under Vincent; Félix d'Orléans Juste Constant, leader of the Haitian Communist Party (Parti Communiste d'Haïti--PCH); and former Garde commander Calixte, who stood as the candidate of a progressive coalition that included the Worker Peasant Movement (Mouvement Ouvrier Paysan--MOP). MOP chose to endorse Calixte, instead of a candidate from its own ranks, because the party's leader, Daniel Fignolé, was only twenty-six years old--too young to stand for the nation's highest office. Estimé, politically the most moderate of the three, drew support from the black population in the north, as well as from the emerging black middle class. The leaders of the military, who would not countenance the election of Juste Constant and who reacted warily to the populist Fignolé, also considered Estimé the safest candidate. After two rounds of polling, legislators gave Estimé the presidency.
Estimé's election represented a break with Haiti's political tradition. Although he was reputed to have received support from commanders of the Garde, Estimé was a civilian. Of humble origins, he was passionately anti-elitist and therefore generally antimulatto. He demonstrated, at least initially, a genuine concern for the welfare of the people. Operating under a new constitution that went into effect in November 1946, Estimé proposed, but never secured passage of, Haiti's first social- security legislation. He did, however, expand the school system, encourage the establishment of rural cooperatives, raise the salaries of civil servants, and increase the representation of middle-class and lower-class blacks in the public sector. He also attempted to gain the favor of the Garde--renamed the Haitian Army (Armée d'Haïti) in March 1947--by promoting Lavaud to brigadier general and by seeking United States military assistance.
Estimé eventually fell victim to two of the time-honored pitfalls of Haitian rule: elite intrigue and personal ambition. The elite had a number of grievances against Estimé. Not only had he largely excluded them from the often lucrative levers of government, but he also enacted the country's first income tax, fostered the growth of labor unions, and suggested that voodoo be considered as a religion equivalent to Roman Catholicism--a notion that the Europeanized elite abhorred. Lacking direct influence in Haitian affairs, the elite resorted to clandestine lobbying among the officer corps. Their efforts, in combination with deteriorating domestic conditions, led to a coup in May 1950.
To be sure, Estimé had hastened his own demise in several ways. His nationalization of the Standard Fruit banana concession sharply reduced the firm's revenues. He alienated workers by requiring them to invest between 10 percent and 15 percent of their salaries in national-defense bonds. The president sealed his fate by attempting to manipulate the constitution in order to extend his term in office. Seizing on this action and the popular unrest it engendered, the army forced the president to resign on May 10, 1950. The same junta that had assumed power after the fall of Lescot reinstalled itself. An army escort conducted Estimé from the National Palace and into exile in Jamaica. The events of May 1946 made an impression upon the deposed minister of labor, François Duvalier. The lesson that Duvalier drew from Estimé's ouster was that the military could not be trusted. It was a lesson that he would act upon when he gained power.
The power balance within the junta shifted between 1946 and 1950. Lavaud was the preeminent member at the time of the first coup, but Magloire, now a colonel, dominated after Estimé's overthrow. When Haiti announced that its first direct elections (all men twenty-one or over were allowed to vote) would be held on October 8, 1950, Magloire resigned from the junta and declared himself a candidate for president. In contrast to the chaotic political climate of 1946, the campaign of 1950 proceeded under the implicit understanding that only a strong candidate backed by both the army and the elite would be able to take power. Facing only token opposition, Magloire won the election and assumed office on December 6.
Magloire restored the elite to prominence. The business community and the government benefited from favorable economic conditions until Hurricane Hazel hit the island in 1954. Haiti made some improvements on its infrastructure, but most of these were financed largely by foreign loans. By Haitian standards, Magloire's rule was firm, but not harsh: he jailed political opponents, including Fignolé, and shut down their presses when their protests grew too strident, but he allowed labor unions to function, although they were not permitted to strike. It was in the arena of corruption, however, that Magloire overstepped traditional bounds. The president controlled the sisal, cement, and soap monopolies. He and other officials built imposing mansions. The injection of international hurricane relief funds into an already corrupt system boosted graft to levels that disillusioned all Haitians. To make matters worse, Magloire followed in the footsteps of many previous presidents by disputing the termination date of his stay in office. Politicians, labor leaders, and their followers flocked to the streets in May 1956 to protest Magloire's failure to step down. Although Magloire declared martial law, a general strike essentially shut down Port-au-Prince. Again like many before him, Magloire fled to Jamaica, leaving the army with the task of restoring order.
The period between the fall of Magloire and the election of Duvalier in September 1957 was a chaotic one, even by Haitian standards. Three provisional presidents held office during this interval; one resigned and the army deposed the other two, Franck Sylvain and Fignolé. Duvalier is said to have engaged actively in the behind-the-scenes intrigue that helped him to emerge as the presidential candidate that the military favored. The military went on to guide the campaign and the elections in a way that gave Duvalier every possible advantage. Most political actors perceived Duvalier--a medical doctor who had served as a rural administrator of a United States-funded anti-yaws campaign before entering the cabinet under Estimé--as an honest and fairly unassuming leader without a strong ideological motivation or program. When elections were finally organized, this time under terms of universal suffrage (both men and women now had the vote), Duvalier, a black, painted himself as the legitimate heir to Estimé. This approach was enhanced by the fact that Duvalier's only viable opponent, Louis Déjoie, was a mulatto and the scion of a prominent family. 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.
François Duvalier like many Haitian leaders, produced a constitution to solidify his power. In 1961 he proceeded to violate the provisions of that constitution, which had gone into effect in 1957. He replaced the bicameral legislature with a unicameral body and decreed presidential and legislative elections. Despite a 1957 prohibition against presidential reelection, Duvalier ran for office and won with an official tally of 1,320,748 votes to zero. Not content with this sham display of democracy, he went on in 1964 to declare himself president for life. For Duvalier, the move was a matter of political tradition; seven heads of state before him had claimed the same title.
An ill-conceived coup attempt in July 1958 spurred Duvalier to act on his conviction that Haiti's independent military threatened the security of his presidency. In December the president sacked the armed forces chief of staff and replaced him with a more reliable officer. This action helped him to expand a Presidential Palace army unit into the Presidential Guard. The Guard became the elite corps of the Haitian army, and its sole purpose was to maintain Duvalier's power. After having established his own power base within the military, Duvalier dismissed the entire general staff and replaced aging Marinetrained officers with younger men who owed their positions, and presumably their loyalty, to Duvalier.
Duvalier also blunted the power of the army through a rural militia formally named the Volunteers for National Security (Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale--VSN), but more commonly referred to as the tonton makouts (derived from the Creole term for a mythological bogeyman). In 1961, only two years afterDuvalier had established the group, the tonton makouts had more than twice the power of the army. Over time, the group gained even more power. While the Presidential Guard secured Duvalier against his enemies in the capital, the tonton makouts expanded his authority into rural areas. The tonton makouts never became a true militia, but they were more than a mere secret police force. The group's pervasive influence throughout the countryside bolstered recruitment, mobilization, and patronage for the regime.
After Duvalier had displaced the established military with his own security force, he employed corruption and intimidation to create his own elite. Corruption--in the form of government rake-offs of industries, bribery, extortion of domestic businesses, and stolen government funds--enriched the dictator's closest supporters. Most of these supporters held sufficient power to enable them to intimidate the members of the old elite who were gradually co-opted or eliminated (the luckier ones were allowed to emigrate).
Duvalier was an astute observer of Haitian life and a student of his country's history. Although he had been reared in Port-au- Prince, his medical experiences in the provinces had acquainted him with the everyday concerns of the people, their predisposition toward paternalistic authority (his patients referred to him as "Papa Doc," a sobriquet that he relished and often applied to himself), the ease with which their allegiance could be bought, and the central role of voodoo in their lives. Duvalier exploited all of these points, especially voodoo. He studied voodoo practices and beliefs and was rumored to be a houngan. He related effectively to houngan and bokò (voodoo sorcerers) throughout the country and incorporated many of them into his intelligence network and the ranks of the tonton makouts. His public recognition of voodoo and its practitioners and his private adherence to voodoo ritual, combined with his reputed practice of magic and sorcery, enhanced his popular persona among the common people (who hesitated to trifle with a leader who had such dark forces at his command) and served as a peculiar form of legitimization of his rapacious and ignoble rule.
Duvalier weathered a series of foreign-policy crises early in his tenure that ultimately enhanced his power and contributed to his megalomaniacal conviction that he was, in his words, the "personification of the Haitian fatherland." Duvalier's repressive and authoritarian rule seriously disturbed United States president John F. Kennedy. The Kennedy administration registered particular concern over allegations that Duvalier had blatantly misappropriated aid money and that he intended to employ a Marine Corps mission to Haiti not to train the regular army but to strengthen the tonton makouts. Washington acted on these charges and suspended aid in mid-1962. Duvalier refused to accept United States demands for strict accounting procedures as a precondition of aid renewal. Duvalier, claiming to be motivated by nationalism, renounced all aid from Washington. At that time, aid from the United States constituted a substantial portion of the Haitian national budget. The move had little direct impact on the Haitian people because most of the aid had been siphoned off by Duvalierist cronies anyway. Renouncing the aid, however, allowed the incipient dictator to portray himself as a principled and lonely opponent of domination by a great power. Duvalier continued to receive multilateral contributions. After Kennedy's death in November 1963, pressure on Duvalier eased, and the United States adopted a policy of grudging acceptance of the Haitian regime because of the country's strategic location near communist Cuba.
A more tense and confrontational situation developed in April 1963 between Duvalier and Dominican Republic president Juan Bosch Gaviño. Duvalier and Bosch were confirmed adversaries; the Dominican president provided asylum and direct support to Haitian exiles who plotted against the Duvalier regime. Duvalier ordered the Presidential Guard to occupy the Dominican chancery in Pétionville in an effort to apprehend an army officer believed to have been involved in an unsuccessful attempt to kidnap the dictator's son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, and daughter, Simone Duvalier. The Dominican Republic reacted with outrage and indignation. Bosch publicly threatened to invade Haiti, and he ordered army units to the frontier. Although observers throughout the world anticipated military action that would lead to Duvalier's downfall, they saw events turn in the Haitian tyrant's favor. Dominican military commanders, who found Bosch's political leanings too far to the left, expressed little support for an invasion of Haiti. Bosch, because he could not count on his military, decided to let go of his dream to overthrow the neighboring dictatorship. Instead, he allowed the matter to be settled by emissaries of the Organization of American States (OAS).
Resistant to both domestic and foreign challenges, Duvalier entrenched his rule through terror (an estimated 30,000 Haitians were killed for political reasons during his tenure), emigration (which removed the more activist elements of the population along with thousands of purely economic migrants), and limited patronage. At the time of his death in 1971, François Duvalier designated his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, as Haiti's new leader. To the Haitian elite, who still dominated the economy, the continuation of Duvalierism without "Papa Doc" offered financial gain and a possibility for recapturing some of the political influence lost under the dictatorship.
The first few years after Jean-Claude Duvalier's installation as Haiti's ninth president-for-life were a largely uneventful extension of his father's rule. Jean-Claude was a feckless, dissolute nineteen-year-old, who had been raised in an extremely isolated environment and who had never expressed any interest in politics or Haitian affairs. He initially resented the dynastic arrangement that had made him Haiti's leader, and he was content to leave substantive and administrative matters in the hands of his mother, Simone Ovid Duvalier, while he attended ceremonial functions and lived as a playboy.
By neglecting his role in government, Jean-Claude squandered a considerable amount of domestic and foreign goodwill and facilitated the dominance of Haitian affairs by a clique of hard- line Duvalierist cronies who later became known as the dinosaurs. The public displayed more affection toward Jean-Claude than they had displayed for his more formidable father. Foreign officials and observers also seemed more tolerant toward "Baby Doc," in areas such as human-rights monitoring, and foreign countries were more generous to him with economic assistance. The United States restored its aid program for Haiti in 1971.
Jean-Claude limited his interest in government to various fraudulent schemes and to outright misappropriations of funds. Much of the Duvaliers' wealth, which amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars over the years, came from the Régie du Tabac (Tobacco Administration). Duvalier used this "nonfiscal account," established decades earlier under Estimé, as a tobacco monopoly, but he later expanded it to include the proceeds from other government enterprises and used it as a slush fund for which no balance sheets were ever kept.
Jean-Claude's kleptocracy, along with his failure to back with actions his rhetoric endorsing economic and public-health reform, left the regime vulnerable to unanticipated crises that were exacerbated by endemic poverty, including the African Swine Fever (ASF) epidemic and the widely publicized outbreak of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in the 1980s. A highly contagious and fatal disease, ASF plagued pigs in the Dominican Republic in mid-1978. The United States feared that the disease would spread to North America and pressured Jean-Claude to slaughter the entire population of Haitian pigs and to replace them with animals supplied by the United States and international agencies. The Haitian government complied with this demand, but it failed to take note of the rancor that this policy produced among the peasantry. Black Haitian pigs were not only a form of "savings account" for peasants because they could be sold for cash when necessary, but they were also a breed of livestock well-suited to the rural environment because they required neither special care nor special feed. The replacement pigs required both. Peasants deeply resented this intrusion into their lives.
Initial reporting on the AIDS outbreak in Haiti implied that the country might have been a source for the human immune deficiency virus. This rumor, which turned out to be false, hurt the nation's tourism industry, which had grown during Jean-Claude Duvalier's tenure. Already minimal, public services deteriorated as Jean- Claude and his ruling clique continued to misappropriate funds from the national treasury.
Jean-Claude miscalculated the ramifications of his May 1980 wedding to Michèle Bennett, a mulatto divorcée with a disreputable background. (François Duvalier had jailed her father, Ernest Bennett, for bad debts and other shady financial dealings.) Although Jean-Claude himself was light-skinned, his father's legacy of support for the black middle class and antipathy toward the established mulatto elite had enhanced the appeal of Duvalierism among the black majority of the population. By marrying a mulatto, Jean-Claude appeared to be abandoning the informal bond that his father had labored to establish. The marriage also estranged the old-line Duvalierists in the government from the younger technocrats whom Jean-Claude had appointed. The Duvalierists' spiritual leader, Jean-Claude's mother, Simone, was eventually expelled from Haiti, reportedly at the request of Michèle, Jean-Claude's wife.
The extravagance of the couple's wedding, which cost an estimated US$3 million, further alienated the people. Popular discontent intensified in response to increased corruption among the Duvaliers and the Bennetts, as well as the repulsive nature of the Bennetts' dealings, which included selling Haitian cadavers to foreign medical schools and trafficking in narcotics. Increased political repression added to the volatility of the situation. By the mid-1980s, most Haitians felt hopeless, as economic conditions worsened and hunger and malnutrition spread.
Widespread discontent began in March 1983, when Pope John Paul II visited Haiti. The pontiff declared that "Something must change here." He went on to call for a more equitable distribution of income, a more egalitarian social structure, more concern among the elite for the well-being of the masses, and increased popular participation in public life. This message revitalized both laymen and clergy, and it contributed to increased popular mobilization and to expanded political and social activism.
A revolt began in the provinces two years later. The city of Gonaïves was the first to have street demonstrations and raids on food-distribution warehouses. From October 1985 to January 1986, the protests spread to six other cities, including Cap Haïtien. By the end of that month, Haitians in the south had revolted. The most significant rioting there broke out in Les Cayes.
Jean-Claude responded with a 10 percent cut in staple food prices, the closing of independent radio stations, a cabinet reshuffle, and a crackdown by police and army units, but these moves failed to dampen the momentumof the popular uprising against the dynastic dictatorship. Jean-Claude's wife and advisers, intent on maintaining their profitable grip on power, urged him to put down the rebellion and to remain in office.
A plot to remove him had been well under way, however, long before the demonstrations began. The conspirators' efforts were not connected to the popular revolt, but violence in the streets prompted Jean-Claude's opponents to act. The leaders of the plot were Lieutenant General Henri Namphy and Colonel Williams Regala. Both had privately expressed misgivings about the excesses of the regime. They and other officers saw the armed forces as the single remaining cohesive institution in the country. They viewed the army as the only vehicle for an orderly transition from Duvalierism to another form of government.
In January 1986, the unrest in Haiti alarmed United States president Ronald Reagan. The Reagan administration began to pressure Duvalier to renounce his rule and to leave Haiti. Representatives appointed by Jamaican prime minister Edward Seaga served as intermediaries who carried out the negotiations. The United States rejected a request to provide asylum for Duvalier, but offered to assist with the dictator's departure. Duvalier had initially accepted on January 30, 1986. The White House actually announced his departure prematurely. At the last minute, however, Jean-Claude decided to remain in Haiti. His decision provoked increased violence in the streets.
The United States Department of State announced a cutback in aid to Haiti on January 31. This action had both symbolic and real effect: it distanced Washington from the Duvalier regime, and it denied the regime a significant source of income. By this time, the rioting had spread to Port-au-Prince.
At this point, the military conspirators took direct action. Namphy, Regala, and others confronted the Duvaliers and demanded their departure. Left with no bases of support, Jean-Claude consented. After hastily naming a National Council of Government (Conseil National de Gouvernement--CNG) made up of Namphy, Regala, and three civilians, Jean-Claude and Michèle Duvalier departed from Haiti on February 7, 1986. They left behind them a country economically ravaged by their avarice, a country bereft of functional political institutions and devoid of any tradition of peaceful self-rule. Although the end of the Duvalier era provoked much popular rejoicing, the transitional period initiated under the CNG did not lead to any significant improvement in the lives of most Haitians. Although most citizens expressed a desire for democracy, they had no firm grasp of what the word meant or of how it might be achieved.
Henri Namphy was a Haitian general and political figure who served as President of Haiti's interim ruling body, the National Council of Government, from February 7, 1986 to February 7, 1988. He served again as President of Haiti from June 20, 1988 until his deposition on September 17, 1988 in the September 1988 Haitian coup d'état.
Following the fall of the government headed by President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier, who fled the country with his family in 1986, Lieutenant General Namphy became president of the interim governing council, made up of six civilian and military members, which promised elections and democratic reforms. His regime was given the moniker “duvalierism without Duvalier”.
Namphy, who enjoyed a reputation for being honest and apolitical, had trouble in his early weeks in power; Haitians ceased their celebrations over the departure of Duvalier and started rioting and looting. In March 1986, as violence swept the capital, Port-au-Prince, the popular justice minister resigned from the ruling council and Namphy dismissed three other members who had close ties with the Duvalier regime. The new council had two other members apart from Namphy. The council had difficulty in exerting its authority because of frequent strikes and demonstrations.
An election held in October, 1987 for a constituent assembly to prepare a draft constitution reflected a lack of public interest in determining the country's political future. The first attempt at elections, in November 1987, ended when some three dozen voters were massacred.
Leslie François Saint Roc Manigat was a Haitian politician who was elected as President of Haiti in a tightly controlled military held election in January 1988. He served as President for only a few months, from February 1988 to June 1988, before being ousted by the military. Manigat dismissed Namphy as army commander and Namphy overthrew him on June 20 in the June 1988 Haitian coup.
Namphy organized a coup and overthrew Manigat on June 20. Namphy remained in power until September 17, 1988, when he was deposed by a group of young officers organized by General Prosper Avril.
Matthieu Prosper Avril is a Haitian political figure who was President of Haiti from 1988 to 1990. A trusted member of François Duvalier's Presidential Guard and adviser to Jean-Claude Duvalier, Lt. Gen. Avril led the September 1988 Haitian coup d'état against a transition military government installed after Jean-Claude Duvalier's 1986 overthrow. He was President until March 1990, in a period which according to Amnesty International was "marred by serious human rights violations".
Abraham enlisted in the Haitian army as a young man. He rose to the rank of lieutenant general and became one of the few military members in the inner circle of President Jean-Claude Duvalier. Abraham supported the 1986 coup against Duvalier, and served as foreign minister for the first time under Henri Namphy from 1987 to 1988. He became acting President of Haiti on March 10, 1990 after street protests forced President Prosper Avril into exile. He gave up power three days later, becoming the only military leader in Haiti during the twentieth century to give up power voluntarily
Ertha Pascal-Trouillot was born on Aug. 13, 1943, in the well-to-do suburb of Petionville. Her father, Thimbles, was an iron worker and died when she was young. Her mother Louise (née Dumornay) was a seamstress and embroiderer. Pascal-Trouillot was the ninth of ten children. When she was 10 years old, she and one of her brothers went to the Lycée François Duvalier and met her future husband, Ernst Trouillot, who was 21 years her senior. When she was in university, she wanted to pursue a career in science but her mentor convinced her to pursue it in law and later in politics. In 1971, she received her law degree from the École de Droit des Gonaïves in Port-au-Prince, becoming the country's first woman lawyer. Ertha Pascal-Trouillot was a judge in many federal courts during the years 1975 to 1988 before she finally became the first woman justice in the Supreme Court of Haiti. Mrs. Pascal-Trouillot became a lower-court judge in 1980 during the Duvalier dictatorship. While serving as Chief Justice she became the country's provisional president on March 13th 1990, and was made responsible to organize a general election. It was to her credit that she could bring about violence-free elections which brought Jean Bertrand Aristide to the post of president with a 67% win.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was born into poverty in Port-Salut, Sud on 15 July 1953. His father died three months after Aristide was born, and he later moved to Port-au-Prince with his mother. At age five, Aristide started school with priests of the Salesian order. He was educated at the Collège Notre-Dame in Cap-Haïtien, graduating with honors in 1974. He then took a course of novitiate studies in La Vega, Dominican Republic, before returning to Haiti to study philosophy at the Grand Séminaire Notre Dame and psychology at the State University of Haiti. After completing his post-graduate studies in 1979, Aristide travelled in Europe, studying in Italy, Greece and in the Palestinian town of Beit Jala at the Cremisan Monastery. He returned to Haiti in 1982 for his ordination as a Salesian priest and was appointed curate of a small parish in Port-au-Prince.
Between 1957 and 1986, Haiti was ruled by François "Papa Doc" and Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. The misery endured by Haiti's poor made a deep impression on Aristide and he became an outspoken critic of Duvalierism. Aristide denounced Duvalier's regime in manye of his earliest sermons. This did not go unnoticed by the regime's top echelons. Under pressure, the provincial delegate of the Salesian Order sent Aristide into three years of exile in Montreal. By 1985, as popular opposition to Duvalier's regime grew, Aristide was back preaching in Haiti. His Easter Week sermon, "A call to holiness", delivered at the cathedral of Port-au-Prince and later broadcast throughout Haiti, proclaimed: "The path of those Haitians who reject the regime is the path of righteousness and love."
Aristide became a leading figure in the Ti Legliz movement, whose name means "little church" in Kreyòl. In September 1985, he was appointed to St. Jean Bosco church, in a poor neighborhood in Port-au-Prince. Struck by the absence of young people in the church, Aristide began to organize youth, sponsoring weekly youth Masses. He founded an orphanage for urban street children in 1986 called Lafanmi Selavi [Family is Life]. As Aristide became a leading voice for Haiti's dispossessed, he became a target for attack. He survived at least four assassination attempts. The most widely publicized attempt, the St. Jean Bosco massacre, occurred on 11 September 1988, when over one hundred armed Tontons Macoute wearing red armbands forced their way into St. Jean Bosco as Aristide began Sunday Mass. As army troops and police stood by, the men fired machine guns at the congregation and attacked fleeing parishioners with machetes. Aristide's church was burned to the ground. Thirteen people are reported to have been killed, and 77 wounded. Aristide survived and went into hiding.
Subsequently, Salesian officials ordered Aristide to leave Haiti, but tens of thousands of Haitians protested, blocking his access to the airport. In December 1988, Aristide was expelled from his Salesian order. A statement prepared by the Salesians called the priest's political activities an "incitement to hatred and violence", out of line with his role as a clergyman. In 1994, Aristide left priesthood, ending years of tension with the church over his criticism of its hierarchy and his espousal of liberation theology.
Following the violence at the aborted national election of 1987, the 1990 election was approached with caution. Aristide announced his candidacy for the presidency. Following a six-week campaign, during which he dubbed his followers the "Front National pour le Changement et la Démocratie" (National Front for Change and Democracy, or FNCD), Aristide was elected president in 1990 with 67% of the vote in what is generally recognized as the first honest election in Haitian history.
A coup attempt against Aristide had taken place on 6 January, even before his inauguration, when Roger Lafontant, a Tonton Macoute leader under Duvalier, seized the provisional president Ertha Pascal-Trouillot and declared himself president. After large numbers of Aristide supporters filled the streets in protest and Lafontant attempted to declare martial law, the army crushed the incipient coup. However, just eight months into his presidency he was overthrown by a bloody military coup.
During Aristide's short-lived first period in office, he attempted to carry out substantial reforms. He sought to bring the military under Presidential control, retiring the commander in chief of the army Hérard Abraham, initiated investigations of human rights violations, and brought to trial several Tontons Macoute who had not fled the country. He also banned the emigration of many well known Haitians until their bank accounts had been examined. His relationship with the National Assembly soon deteriorated, and he attempted repeatedly to bypass it on judicial, Cabinet and ambassadorial appointments. His nomination of his close friend and political ally, René Préval, as prime minister, provoked severe criticism from political opponents overlooked, and the National Assembly threatened a no-confidence vote against Préval in August 1991. This led to a crowd of at least 2000 at the National Palace, which threatened violence; together with Aristide's failure to explicitly reject mob violence this permitted the junta which would topple him to accuse him of human rights violations.
In September 1991 the army performed a coup against him (1991 Haitian coup d'état), led by army general Raoul Cédras, who had been promoted by Aristide in June to commander in chief of the army. Aristide was deposed on 29 September 1991, and after several days sent into exile, his life only saved by the intervention of U.S., French and Venezuelan diplomats. In accordance with the requirements of article 149 of the Haitian Constitution, Superior Court justice Joseph Nérette was installed as président provisoire to serve until elections were held within 90 days of Aristide's resignation. However, real power was held by army commander Raoul Cédras. The elections were scheduled, but were cancelled under pressure from the United States government. Aristide and other sources claim that both the coup and the election cancellation were the result of pressure from the American government. High-ranking members of the Haitian National Intelligence Service (SIN), which had been set up and financed in the 1980s by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as part of the war on drugs, were involved in the coup, and were reportedly still receiving funding and training from the CIA for intelligence-gathering activities at the time of the coup, but this funding reportedly ended after the coup. The New York Times said that "No evidence suggests that the C.I.A backed the coup or intentionally undermined President Aristide." However, press reports about possible CIA involvement in Haitian politics before the coup sparked congressional hearings in the United States.
A campaign of terror against Aristide supporters was started by Emmanuel Constant after Aristide was forced out. In 1993, Constant, who had been on the CIA's payroll as an informant since 1992, organized the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haïti (FRAPH), which targeted and killed Aristide supporters.
Aristide spent his exile first in Venezuela and then in the United States, working to develop international support. A United Nations trade embargo during Aristide's exile, intended to force the coup leaders to step down, was a strong blow to Haiti's already weak economy. President George H.W. Bush granted an exemption from the embargo to many U.S. companies doing business in Haiti, and president Bill Clinton extended this exemption.
In addition to this trade with the United States, the coup regime was supported by massive profits from the drug trade thanks to the Haitian military's affiliation with the Cali Cartel; Aristide publicly stated that his own pursuit of arresting drug dealers was one event that prompted the coup by drug-affiliated military officials Raul Cedras and Michel Francois (a claim echoed by his former secretary of State Patrick Elie). Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan) expressed concern that the only U.S. government agency to publicly recognize the Haitian junta's role in drug trafficking was the DEA, and that, despite a wealth of evidence provided by the DEA proving the junta's drug connections, the Clinton administration downplayed this factor rather than use it as a hedge against the junta (as the U.S. government had done against Manuel Noriega). Nairn in particular alleged that the CIA's connections to these drug traffickers in the junta not only dated to the creation of SIN, but were ongoing during and after the coup. Nairn's claims are confirmed in part by revelations of Emmanuel Constant regarding the ties of his FRAPH organization to the CIA before and during the coup.
Following massive peaceful public pro-Aristide demonstrations by Haitian expats (estimated over 250,000 people at a demonstration in New York City) urging Bill Clinton to deliver on his election promise to return Aristide to Haiti, U.S. and international pressure (including United Nations Security Council Resolution 940 on 31 July 1994), persuaded the military regime to back down and U.S. troops were deployed in the country by President Bill Clinton. On 15 October 1994, the Clinton administration returned Aristide to Haiti to complete his term in office.
In late 1996, Aristide broke from the OPL over what he called its "distance from the people" and created a new political party, the Fanmi Lavalas. The OPL, holding the majority in the Sénat and the Chambre des Députés, renamed itself the Organisation du Peuple en Lutte, maintaining the OPL acronym.
Fanmi Lavalas won the 2000 legislative election in May, but a handful of Senate seats were allocated to Lavalas candidates that critics claimed should have had second-round runoffs (as the votes of some smaller parties were eliminated in final vote counts, which had also been done in earlier elections). Critics argue that FL had not achieved a first-round majority for this handful of senate seats. Critics also charge that Fanmi Lavalas controlled the Provisional Election Commission which made the decision, but their criticism is of a vote count technique used prior in Haiti history. Aristide then was elected later that year in the 2000 presidential election, an election boycotted by most opposition political parties, now organised into the Convergence Démocratique. Although the U.S. government claimed that the election turnout was hardly over 10%, international observers saw turnout of around 50%, and at the time, CNN reported a turnout of 60% with over 92% voting for Aristide. The Bush administration in the U.S. and Haitian expatriate opposition leaders in Florida would use the criticism over the election to argue for an embargo on international aid to the Haitian government.
Aristide called for France, the former colonizer of the country, to pay $21 billion in restitution to Haiti for the 90 million gold francs supplied to France by Haiti in restitution for French property that was misappropriated in the Haitian rebellion, over the period from 1825 to 1947.
Between early 2001 and 2004 rightwing ex-army paramilitary groups conducted a violent insurgency murdering dozens of Lavalas activists, officials, and civilians. Based in the Dominican Republic, these groups formed ties with narco criminals in the port city of Gonaives and among elite led opposition groups in Port-au-Prince. In February 2004, the killing of gang leader Amiot Metayer was used to spark violent attacks on police in Gonaives. Amiot's brother, Buteur Metayer, blamed Aristide for the assassination, and used this as an argument given in order to support the right-wing paramilitary group known as the National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Haiti. The paramilitary campaign was headed by ex-army/police chief and convicted narco trafficker Guy Philippe and former FRAPH death squad founder Louis Jodel Chamblain. The rebels soon took control of the North, and eventually laid siege to, and then invaded, the capital. Under disputed circumstances, Aristide was flown out of the country by the U.S. with help from Canada and France on 28 February 2004.
After Aristide was removed from Haiti, looters raided his villa.[49] Most barricades were lifted the day after Aristide left as the shooting had stopped; order was maintained by Haitian police, along with armed rebels and local vigilante groups.[50] Almost immediately after the Aristide family were transported from Haiti, the prime minister of Jamaica, P. J. Patterson, dispatched a member of parliament, Sharon Hay-Webster, to the Central African Republic. The leadership of that country agreed that Aristide and his family could go to Jamaica. The Aristide family were in the island for several months until the Jamaican government gained acceptance by the Republic of South Africa for the family to relocate there.
Aristide later stated that France and the U.S. had a role in what he termed "a kidnapping" that took him from Haiti to South Africa via the Central African Republic. However, authorities said his temporary asylum there had been negotiated by the United States, France and Gabon.
Alexandre was raised by his uncle, Martial Célestin. Trained as a lawyer, he worked for a law firm in Port-au-Prince for 25 years before being appointed to the Supreme Court in 1992. President Aristide later appointed him as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 2002.
He served as provisional president of Haiti from 2004 to 2006 after Aristide relinquished the presidency. Following this, Alexandre, as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and therefore next in the presidential line of succession, assumed the office of president. During Alexandre's acting presidency the country was beset with extrajudicial executions and dysfunctionality of the justice system.Alexandre left office on May 14, 2006, when René Préval, winner of the February 2006 presidential election, was sworn in as president.
In 1996, Préval was elected as president for a five-year term, with 88% of the popular vote. Upon his 1996 inauguration, Préval became the second democratically elected head of state in the country's 191-year history as an independent nation. In 2001, he became the first elected (and second overall) President of Haiti to leave office as a result of the natural expiration of an uninterrupted term.
As president, Préval instituted a number of economic reforms, most notably the privatization of various government companies. By the end of Préval's term, unemployment rates had fallen. Préval also instituted a program of agrarian reform in Haiti's countryside.[6] His presidency, however, was also marked by fierce political clashes with a parliament dominated by opposition party members (OPL) and an increasingly vocal Fanmi Lavalas which opposed the structural adjustment and privatization program of Préval's government. Préval was a strong supporter of investigations and trials related to human rights violations committed by military and police personnel. He dissolved the parliament in 1999 and ruled by decree for the duration of the final year of his presidency.
This history of Haiti is being developed by the Senior Engineer of AscenTrust, LLC. to shed some light on the plight of the Haitian poverty stricken majority.