Haiti, Post Independence era (cont.)

In mid-Sept. 1994, with US troops prepared to enter Haiti by force for Operation Uphold democracy president Bill Clinton dispatched a negotiating team led by former president Jimmy Carter to persuade the authorities to step aside and allow for the return of constitutional rule. With intervening troops already airborne , cedras and other top leaders agreed to step down.
Aristide won in the election on June, 1995 from his political party Lavalas Political Organisation. Later one his ally, Rene preval, became the president in 1996. Later both of them formed separate po. parties.The split between the two led to a political deadlock.In the election of 2000 Aristide again became the President. But the deadlock resulted in a coup d'etat and Aristide was asked to step down by the opposition.
The 2004 coup d'etat and Aristide's ouster
Anti-Aristide protests in Jan. 2004, led to violent clashes in Port-au-Prince,causing several deaths. In Feb. a revolt broke out in the city of Gonaives, which was soon under rebel control. The rebellion began to spread and Cap- Haitien, Haiti's second largest city, was captured.A mediation team offered a plan of continueing by Aristide till the end of his term which was not accepted by the opposition.
On feb. 2004, a rebellion contingent marched towards Port-au-Prince, and Aristide departed from Haiti. He actually went to Bangui, capital of Central African republic where he stayed as asylum. The Govt.was taken over by Supreme court under chief Boniface Alexadre.
At the petition by Alexadre the UNsecurity council intervened A strength of force of 7,000 from Argentina,Chile, Jordan, Morocco, Nepal, Peru, Philipines, Spain,Sri lanka, and Uruguay,Rene Preval won. but in 2008, there were demonstration against rising of food prices.

Haiti,Post Independence (cont.)

From Feb. 7,1986-when the 29 years dictatorship of the Duvalier family ended--until 1991,Haiti was ruled by a series of provisional Govt. In March 1987, a constitution was ratified that provides for an elected bicameral parliament, an elected president that serves as head of state , and a prime minister, cabinet, ministers, and a supreme court appointed by the president with parliament's consent. The Haitian conetitution also provides for political decentrlisation through the election of mayors and administrative bodies responsible for local govt.

1991-1994--An Interrupted Trnsition

In Dec. 1990, Jean Bertrand Aristide, a charismatic Roman Catholic priest, won 67% of the vote in presidential election that international observers deemed largely free and fair. Aristide took office on Feb. 1991, but was overthrown that Sept. in a violent coup led by dissatisfied elements of the army and supported by many of the country's economic elite. Following the coup , Aristide began a 3-year exile in the US. Several thousands Haitians may had been killed during the de facto military rule. The coup contributed to a large-scale exodus of Haitians by boat. The US Coast Guard rescued a total of 41,342 Haitians at sea during 1991 and 1992, morethan the number of rescued boat people from the previous 10 years combined.

From Oct. 1991, to Sept. 1994 an unconstitutional military de facto regime governed Haiti. Various OAS and UN initiatives to end the plolitical crisis through the peaceful restoration of the constitutionally 1993, failed.When the military refused to uphold its end of the agreements, the defacto authorties refused to allow a return to constitutional govt. even though the economy was collapsing and the country's infrastructure deterioratedfailed from neglect.

Haiti, Post Independence era (continued)

King Henry's palace,Sansouci

Two separate regimes- north and south- emerged after independence but were unified in 1820. Two years later, Haiti occupied Santo Domingo , the eastern, Spanish-Speaking part of Hispaniola. In 1844, however, Santo Domingo broke away from Haiti and became the Dominican Republic. With 22 changes of government from 1843 to 1915, Haiti experienced numerous periods of intense political and economic disorder, prompting the US military interventionof 1915 , Following a 19-year occupation, US military forces were withdrawn in 1934, and Haiti regained sovereign rule.

Haiti, post independence era

By Jan.1804, local forces defeated an army sent by Napoleon Bonapare,established independence from France, and renamed the area Haiti. The impending defeat of the French in Haiti was widely credited with contributing to Napoleon's decision to sell the Louisiana territory

to the United States in 1803. Haiti is the World's oldest black republic and the second oldest

republic in the wester Hemisphere, after the Unit

ed States. Although Haiti actively assisted the independence movements of many Latin American States , the independent nation of the former slaves was excluded from the hemisphere's first regional meeting of independent nations, in Panama in 1826, and did not receive U.S. diplomatic recognition until 1862.

Haiti, freedomom struggle

The rebellion of Haiti was not a simple black versus white affair. Instead the political matrix was as follows :
_______________________________

Political affiliation

Racial-Ethnic group...Royalist.....Republican

Blacks............................xxxx...........xxxx

Mulattoes..................../////..........xxxx

Whites........................XXXX.........xxxxx

-------------------------------------------

The political changes taking place in Franceat the time of the French Revolution brought change for the colonies. the National Assembly decreed that the Mulattoes of the colonies who owned land and pid taxes would have the rights of citizens including the right to vote. The colonial Administrators in Haiti refused to grant those rights to mulattoes and the mulattoes rebelled in 1790. The French put down the mulatto rebellion using black volunteers.

In 1791 a vclique of black leaders including some maroons initiated a slve rebellion . Along the north coast the slaves massacredall the whites they encountered . But the whites of the city of Cap Francais were able to defeat the slave rebels. The death toll was ten thousand blacks and two thousands whites. A thousands plantations had been had been destroyed in the uprising.

Some leaders emerged from the chaos. The background of one of the very few black Haitian leaders could read and write . When Toussaint heard of the slave rebellion he arranged for the evacuation of his master's family from hiti. He then joined the rebellion.

Francois-dominique Toussaint Louverture

In april 1793 Repulican french forces with the aid of thousands of black recruits to the republican cause were promised their freedom. In Aug. of 1793 the republican french administrator of Haiti abolished slavery.

In 1802 Napoleon Bonaparte sent 16 to 20 thousands troops under the command of his brother-in-law to take controlaway from Toussaint.These forces with the aid of white andmulatto forces wore down Toussaint army and two of his lieutenants with their troops switched sides,Toussaint surrendered and was later taken to France where he was imprisoned and later he died.

On jan., 1, 1804 Haiti declared independence from France and Dessalines declared himself Emperor of Haiti.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines

Haiti, Code Noir

One of the cruelest law that ever enforced by any colonialist country for governing their colony. To regularize slavery, in 1685 Louis XIV enacted the Code Noir, which accorded certain human rights to slaves and respohsibilities to the master, who was obliged to feed , clothe, and provide for the general well-being of their slaves. The Code Noir also sanctioned corporal punishment , allowing masters to employ brutal methods to install in their slaves the necessarydocility,while ignoring provisions intendedto regulate the administration of punishments. A passage from Henry Christophe's personal secretary, who lived more than half his life as a slave, describes the crimes perpetrated against the slaves of Saint-Domingue by their French masters.

Code Noir

Alexandre Dumas

"Have they not hung up men with heads downward, drowned them in sacks,crucified them on planks, burried them alive,cushed them in mortars ? Have they not forced thgem to eat shit ? and having fled them with the lash, have they not cast them alive to be devoured by worms, or onto anthills, or lashed them to stakes in the swamp to be devoured by mosquitoes ? Have they not thrown them into boiling cauldrons of cane syrup ? Have they not put men and women inside barrels studded with spikes and rolled them down mountainsides into the abues ? Have they not consigned these miserable blacks to man-eating dogs until the later, sated by human flesh, left the mangled victims to be finihed off with bayonet and poniard ?"

Haiti, Colonial Era

Treaty of Ryswick and slave colony

French and Spain settled hostilities on the island by the treaty of Ryswick 0f 1897, which divided Hispaniola between them. France received the western third and subsequently named it Saint Domingue. Many French colonist soon arrived and established plantations in Saint- Dominigue

due to high profit potential. From 1713 to 1787, approximately 30,000 colonists, emigrated from Bordeaux,France to the wetern part of the island. By about 1790, Saint-Domingue had greatly overshadowed its eastern counterpart in terms of wealth and population. It quickly became the richest, French colony in the New World due to the immense profits from the sugar, coffee and indigo industies. The labor and knowledge of thousands of enslaved Africans made it possible, who brought skills and technology for indigo production to the island. The French-enacted Code-Noir (Black Code), prepared by Colbert and ratified by Louis VI, established rigid rules on slave treatment and permissible freedom. It had been described as one of the most brutally efficient slave colonies there ever was - a third of new arrivals died within a few years.

The Haitian Revolution

Jean jacques Dessalines of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti.

The French Revolution contributed to social upheavals in Saint- Domingue, starting on the northern plans in 1791. In 1792 the French government sent three commissioners with troops to try to reestablish control. They began to build an alliance with gens de couleur, who were looking for their rights. In 1793, France and Great Britain went to war , and British troops invaded Saint-Domingue. The execution of Louis XVI heightened tensions in the colony. To build an alliance with the gens de couleur and slaves, the French commissioners Southonax an polverel abolished slavery in the colony. Six months later, the national convention endorsed abolition and extended it to all of the French colonies.

Toussaint L'Ouverture, a former slave and leader in the slave revolt who rose in importance as a military commander becauseof his many skills, achieved peace in Saint-Domingue after year of war against both external invaders and internal dissension. He had established a disciplined, flexible army and drove out both the Spaniards and the British invaders who threatened the colony. he restored stability and prosperity by daring measures, including inviting the return of planters and insisting that freed men work on plantations to renew revenues for the island . He also renewed trading ties with great britain and the United States.