1. Colombus and the Europeans came to Haiti, bringing disease, death and misery.
2. Outside forces have stopped Haiti from advancing. After wining their independence with France, Haiti thought it was free, but it has never been a smooth ride for them. They had a civil war between groups of slave owners but the world never helped. The French lost their wealthiest colony at the time after the war. The French and the Americans are holding a grudge the island for their loss and will not help the country.
3. Not long after exploiting the land for sugar cane production the Spanish found larger population in Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia with richer soils and silver mines. They turned their attention to those places.
4. Columbus first set foot on the heavily forested island of Hispaniola, the mountainous nation has shed both topsoil and blood—first to the Spanish, who planted sugar, then to the French, who cut down the forests to make room for lucrative coffee, indigo, and tobacco.
5. French pirates and French traders gradually took over the western 1/3 of the island (Haiti). The French escalated the slave trade so that by 1785 there were 700,000 slaves in what would become Haiti, and only 30,000 slaves in what would become Dominican Republic. The French eventually dominated the whole island.
6. Out of Haiti’s 22 presidents from 1843 to 1915, 21 were assassinated or driven out of office. Presidents governed in order to enrich themselves and their followers. In 1957 Papa Doc Duvalier became the most notorious dictator of Haiti, terrorizing his people with secret police, torture, and killings. He or his son “Baby Doc” controlled the government until 1986.
7. With ongoing exploration and settlement the Native Indian population was decimated. Inferior weapons and ability to fight off new germs like smallpox reduced the population to 3000 natives. These original landowners had little chance other than to die out or be assimilated into the new population. The island was repopulated with African slaves who were imported to provide cheap labor to harvest sugar cane.
1 comment:
Jane, I'd hoped you would have had 10 pieces of information from your independent research. You have 7. Additionally, the writing is not yours. You've copied your work from the writings of others. This is not good at all, Jane. Write it in your own words, even though they may not be as good as the professional's words.
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