uage; the other French-speaking areas are all overseas départements, or collectivités, of France. Haiti is the most populous full member-state of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)-bloc. It is the poorest country in the Americas as per the Human Development Index. Political violence has occurred regularly throughout its history, leading to government instability. Most recently, in February 2004, a coup d'état originating in the north of the country forced the resignation and exile of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A provisional government took control with security provided by the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Michel Martelly, the current president, was elected in the Haitian general election, 2011. The island has had a history of destructive earthquakes. A 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on 12 January 2010 and devastated Port-au-Prince. The highest reliable death count was estimated at 220,000.[8] Haitian government estimates were higher.[9] The Presidential palace, Parliament and many other important structures were destroyed, along with countless homes and businesses, leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless. The country has yet to recover from the 2010 earthquake (and subsequent incidents) due to both the severity of the damage Haiti endured in 2010, as well as a government that was ineffective well before the earthquake.[10] United States aid organizations have donated $2 billion. Combined with other international donations, these funds are intended to contribute to the rebuilding of the country.[11] Contents 1 History 1.1 Precolonial and Spanish colonial periods 1.2 17th-century settlement 1.3 Treaty of Ryswick and French colony (1697) 1.4 Revolution (1791) 1.5 Independence and Division (1804) 1.6 Reunification 1.7 United States occupation of Haiti (1915–1934) 1.8 End of US occupation until election of Duvalier (1934–1956) 1.9 Duvalier family dictatorship (1957–1986) 1.10 Aristide's presidency (1990s) 1.11 21st century 1.11.1 2010–2011: Earthquake, cholera, and flooding 2 Geography 2.1 Environment 2.2 Natural disasters 2.2.1 Hurricanes and tropical storms 2.2.2 2010 earthquake 3 Demographics 3.1 Largest cities 3.2 Haitian diaspora 3.3 Languages 3.4 Religion 4 Government 4.1 Departments, arrondissements, and communes 5 Politics 6 Elections 7 Economy 8 Infrastructure 8.1 Roadways 8.2 Water 8.3 Air 8.4 Rail 8.5 Telecommunications 9 Health 10 Education 11 Culture 11.1 Cuisine 12 Sports 13 Notable natives and residents 14 See also 15 Notes 16 External material 16.1 References 16.2 Further reading 17 External links History Main article: History of Haiti See also: 2004 Haitian coup d'état and United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti Precolonial and Spanish colonial periods The island of Hispaniola, of which Haiti occupies the western third, is one of many Caribbean islands inhabited at the time of European arrival by the Taíno Indians, speakers of an Arawakan language. The Taíno name for the entire island was either Ayiti or Kiskeya. In the Taíno societies of the Caribbean Islands, the largest unit of political organization was led by a cacique; the Europeans called these polities caciquedoms or chiefdoms (French caciquat, Spanish cacicazgo). Before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, the island of Hispaniola was divided among five or six long-established caciquedoms.[12][13] The five caciquedoms of Hispaniola at the time of the arrival of Christopher Columbus. The modern country of Haiti spans most of the territory of the caciquedoms of Xaragua (Jaragua in modern Spanish) and Marien. The caciquedoms were tributary kingdoms, with payment consisting of harvests. Taíno cultural artifacts include cave paintings in several locations in the country, which have become national symbols of Haiti and tourist attractions. Modern-day Léogane, a town in the southwest, is at the site of Xaragua's former capital. Christopher Columbus landed at Môle Saint-Nicolas on 5 December 1492, and claimed the island for Spain. Nineteen days later, his ship the Santa María ran aground near the present site of Cap-Haïtien; Columbus was forced to leave behind 39 men, who founded the settlement of La Navidad. Following the destruction of La Navidad by the local indigenous people, Columbus moved to the eastern side of the island and established La Isabela. One of the earliest leaders to fight off Spanish conquest was Queen Anacaona, a princess of Xaragua who married Caonabo, the cacique of Maguana. The couple resisted Spanish rule in vain; she was captured by the Spanish and executed in front of her people. Queen Anacaona is revered in Haiti as one of the country's founders. 1510 Taíno pictograph telling a story of missionaries arriving in Hispaniola The Spanish exploited the island for its gold, and directed its mining by the labor of local Amerindians. Those refusing to work in the mines were killed or sold into slavery. Europeans brought with them infectious diseases that were new to the Caribbean, to which the indigenous population lacked immunity. These new diseases were the chief cause of the dying off of the Taíno,[14] but ill treatment, malnutrition, and a drastic drop in the birthrate as a result of societal disruption also contributed. The first recorded smallpox outbreak in the Americas occurred on Hispaniola in 1507.[15] Epidemics of the disease caused high fatalities among the Taíno. The Spanish passed the Laws of Burgos, 1512–1513, the first nationally codified set of laws governing the behavior of Spanish settlers in America, particularly with regards to native Indians. They forbade the maltreatment of natives, endorsed their conversion to Catholicism,[16] and legalized the colonial practice of creating encomiendas, where Indians were grouped together to work under colonial masters.[17] The Spanish crown found it difficult to enforce these laws in a distant colony. With the decline in the Taíno population, the Spanish governors began importing enslaved Africans as laborers. In 1517, Charles V authorized the draft of slaves. The Taíno people became virtually, but not completely, extinct on the island of Hispaniola. Some who evaded capture fled to the mountains and established independent settlements. Survivors mixed with escaped African slaves (runaways called maroons) and produced a multiracial generation the Spanish called zambos. They used the term mestizo for those children born to native women and European – usually Spanish – men. The later French settlers called people of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry marabou. The children born of unions between African women and European men were called mulâtres. During the French colonial years, some white fathers sent their mixed-race sons to France for educations and passed on social capital in other ways, freeing their slaves mistresses and their children. A class of gens de couleur libre (free people of color) developed on the island. François l'Olonnais was nicknamed "Flail of the Spaniards" and had a reputation for brutality – offering no quarter to Spanish prisoners As a gateway to the Caribbean, Hispaniola became a haven for pirates. The western part of the island was settled by French buccaneers. Among them was Bertrand d'Ogeron, who succeeded in growing tobacco. His success prompted many of the numerous buccaneers and freebooters to turn into settlers. This population did not submit to Spanish royal authority until the year 1660 and caused a number of conflicts. By 1640, the buccaneers of Tortuga were calling themselves the Brethren of the Coast. 17th-century settlement Bertrand d'Orgeron attracted many French colonial families from Martinique and Guadeloupe, such as those of Jean Roy, 1625–1707; Jean Hebert, 1624; Guillaume Barre, 1642. They and others were driven from their lands when more land was needed for the expansion of the sugar plantations, which produced the major commodity crop. From 1670 to 1690, a drop in the tobacco markets significantly reduced the number of settlers on the island. The first windmill for processing sugar was built in 1685. Treaty of Ryswick and French colony (1697) France and Spain settled hostilities on the island by the Treaty of Ryswick of 1697, which divided Hispaniola between them. France received the western third and subsequently named it Saint-Domingue. (The current Santo-Domingo is in the Dominican Republic and was part of the eastern side given to the Spanish through the treaty). Many French colonists soon arrived and established plantations in Saint-Domingue due to high profit potential from agricultural development. They developed large sugar cane plantations, especially, but also devoted land to the cultivation of coffee and indigo. The colonists imported slaves from Africa to work in the labor-intensive cultivation and processing of the commodity crops, and Saint-Domingue became a "slave society," dependent on slavery as the basis of its economy, with the slaveholders comprising the ruling class. By 1789, approximately 40,000 French colonists lived on the western part of the island.[18] In contrast, by 1763 the French population of Canada, a much larger territory, numbered 65,000.[19] There were ten times the number of imported slaves than there were ethnic French. The largest sugar plantations and concentrations of slaves were in the north of the island, associated with the Plaine-du-Nord. By about 1790, Saint-Domingue had overshadowed its eastern counterpart in terms of wealth and population. It became the richest French colony in the New World due to the profits from the sugar, coffee and indigo industries, all based on slave labor. The French-enacted Code Noir ("Black Code"), prepared by Jean-Baptiste Colbert and ratified by Louis XIV, had established rules on slave treatment and permissible freedoms. Saint-Domingue has been described as one of the most brutally efficient slave colonies; one-third of newly imported Africans died within a few years.[20] Under the harsh regime, slaves failed to have children; some women were suspected of abortions and infanticide to keep children from growing up in slavery. Under these conditions, French colonists often took sexual advantage of African women. A population of mixed-race people resulted; in some cases, the French fathers provided for their children, especially boys, including sending them to France for education. They also sometimes freed their slave mistresses and the children, and gradually a class of free people of color (gens libres de couleur) developed, with certain political rights in the colony. They tended to become artisans, shopkeepers and tradesmen, and more often lived in the towns of the southwest, especially Port-au-Prince, the main city. They also lived in Cap-Français in the north, the major colonial city of the region. Generally growing up Catholic and speaking French, the gens du couleur libre became educated, adopted French styles, and struggled to become independent property owners. They developed as a class apart from the black slaves. Especially in the North, the continuing importation of slaves from Africa meant that they kept more distinctly African cultural traditions. Revolution (1791) Main article: Haitian Revolution Burning of the town of Cap-Francais Jean Jacques Dessalines, leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti Inspired by the French Revolution of 1789 and principles of the rights of men, free people of colour and slaves in Saint-Domingue and the French and West Indies pressed for freedom and more civil rights. Most important was the revolution of the slaves in Saint-Domingue, starting in the northern plains in 1791, where Africans greatly outnumbered the whites. They massacred many planters and other whites, and thousands of refugees fled from Saint-Domingue through the next years, settling in United States cities of New York, Philadelphia, Charlestown and New Orleans. In 1792, the French government sent three commissioners with troops to reestablish control. They began to build an alliance with the free people of colour who wanted more civil 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, and refugees continued to leave. That year, 2,000 refugees emigrated to Philadelphia, where they were nearly five percent of the city's population. To build an alliance with the gens de couleur and slaves, the French commissioners Sonthonax and Polverel abolished slavery in the colony. Six months later, the National Convention, led by Robespierre and the Jacobins, endorsed abolition and extended it to all the French colonies.[21] Toussaint Louverture, a former slave and leader in the slave revolt—a man who rose in importance as a military commander because of his many skills—achieved peace in 1794 in Saint-Domingue after years of war against both external invaders and internal dissension. Having established a disciplined, flexible army, Louverture drove out not only the Spanish (from Santo Domingo) but also the British invaders who threatened the colony. He restored stability and prosperity by daring measures. These included inviting planters to return and insisting freed men work on plantations to renew revenues for the island. He also renewed trading ties with Great Britain and the United States. In the uncertain years of revolution, the United States played both sides, with its traders supplying both the French and the rebels.[22] Independence and Division (1804) When the French government changed, new members of the national legislature – lobbied by planters – began to rethink their decisions on colonial slavery. After Toussaint Louverture created a separatist constitution, Napoléon Bonaparte sent an expedition of more than 20,000 men under the command of his brother-in-law, General Charles Leclerc in 1802 to retake the island. Leclerc's mission was to oust Louverture and restore slavery. The French achieved some victories, but within a few months, yellow fever had killed most of the French soldiers.[23] More than 50,000 French troops died in an attempt to retake the colony, including 18 generals.[24] Leclerc invited Toussaint Louverture to a parley, kidnapped him and sent him to France, where he was imprisoned at Fort de Joux. He died there in 1803 of exposure and tuberculosis[20] or malnutrition and pneumonia. Battle between Polish troops in French service and the Haitian rebels. Some Polish soldiers ultimately fought with the Haitian rebels for reasons that are historically disputable.[25][not in citation given] Slaves, along with free gens de couleur and allies continued their fight for independence after the French transported Louverture to France. The native leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines – long an ally and general of Toussaint Louverture, brilliant strategist and soldier – defeated French troops led by Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau, at the Battle of Vertières. In late 1803, France withdrew its remaining 7,000 troops from the island and Napoleon gave up his idea of re-establishing a North American empire. With the war going badly, that year he sold the Louisiana Purchase to the United States. At the end of the double battle for emancipation and independence, former slaves proclaimed the independence of Saint-Domingue on 1 January 1804,[26] declaring the new nation be named "Ayiti", both a Native American and African term, meaning "home or mother of the earth" in the Taíno-Arawak Native American language and "sacred earth or homeland" in the Fon African language, to honor one of the indigenous Taíno names for the island. Haiti is the only contemporary nation born of a slave revolt. Historians have estimated the slave rebellion resulted in the deaths of 100,000 blacks and 24,000 of the 40,000 white colonists, as well as many free people of color.[27] The United States President Thomas Jefferson continued an arms and goods embargo against the new country. Due to the pressure of southern Congressmen, who feared their slaves being encouraged by the revolt, the United States refused to recognize Haiti's new government until 1867. Americans feared potential slave rebellions incited by free blacks and, after 1810, reduced the number of manumissions in the South, which had increased markedly in the first two decades following its own Revolution.[20] In February 2010, the eight-page document containing the official Declaration of Independence, which was believed to have been destroyed or thrown out, was found by a Canadian graduate student from Duke University in Britain's National Archives. Coming as it did soon after the 2010 devastating earthquake, the discovery is seen by many to be providential.[28] The revolution in Saint-Domingue unleashed a massive multiracial exodus: French Créole colonists fled with those slaves they still held, as did numerous free people of color, some of whom were also slaveholders and transported slaves with them.[29] In 1809, nearly 10,000 refugees from Saint-Domingue arrived from Cuba, where they had first fled, to settle en masse in New Orleans.[30] They doubled that city's population and helped preserve its French language and culture for several generations. In addition, the newly arrived slaves added to the city's African and multiracial culture.[31] Dessalines was proclaimed "Emperor for Life" by his troops.[32] He exiled or killed the remaining whites and ruled as a despot.[33] In the continuing competition for power, he was assassinated on 17 October 1806.[26] The country was then divided between a kingdom in the north directed by Henri I; and a republic in the south directed by Alexandre Pétion, an homme de couleur. Henri I is best known for constructing the Citadelle Laferrière, the largest fortress in the Western Hemisphere, to defend the island against the French. Despite opposition from the mulatto populace, Henri Christophe successfully united Northern Haiti for a period of time under a semi-feudal corvée system, establishing a rigid education and economic code aimed at sustainable improvement for all Haitians.[34] In 1815, Simón Bolívar, the South American political leader who was instrumental in Latin America's struggle for independence from Spain, received military and financial assistance from Haiti. Bolívar had fled to Haiti after an attempt had been made on his life in Jamaica, where he had unsuccessfully sought support for his efforts. In 1817, on condition that Bolívar free any enslaved people he encountered in his fight for South American independence, Haitian president Alexandre Pétion provided Bolívar with soldiers, weapons and financial assistance, which were critical in enabling him to liberate the Viceroyalty of New Granada (Now Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela).[35] Reunification Jean-Pierre Boyer, one of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution, and President of Haiti from 1818 to 1843 Beginning in 1821, President Jean Pierre Boyer, also an homme de couleur and successor to Pétion, managed to reunify the two parts of St. Domingue and extend control over the western part of the island.[36] In addition, after Santo Domingo declared its independence from Spain, Boyer sent forces in to take control. Boyer then ruled the entire island.[37] According to Encyclopædia Britannica, "During his presidency, Boyer tried to halt the downward trend of the economy – which had begun with the successful revolt of black slaves against their French masters in the 1790s – by passing the Code Rural. Its provisions sought to tie the peasant labourers to plantation land by denying them the right to leave the land, enter the towns, or start farms or shops of their own and by creating a rural constabulary to enforce the code."[38][39] During Boyer's administration, his government negotiated with Loring D. Dew