Haiti

The only state in history created by a successful revolt of enslaved people, and punished for it for two centuries. Saint-Domingue was the richest colony in the world, producing much of Europe's sugar and coffee with an enslaved population worked to death at a rate that required constant importation. The revolution began in 1791, produced Toussaint Louverture, defeated Spanish, British and finally Napoleonic armies, and declared independence on 1 January 1804 under Dessalines. France recognised it in 1825 only in exchange for an indemnity of a hundred and fifty million francs, compensation to slaveholders for their lost property, enforced by warships; Haiti paid the resulting debt until 1947, and it consumed a large share of government revenue for over a century. The United States refused recognition until 1862 and occupied the country from 1915 to 1934. The Duvaliers ruled through the Tontons Macoutes from 1957 to 1986. An earthquake in January 2010 killed well over a hundred thousand people, and a cholera epidemic introduced by UN peacekeepers killed around ten thousand more. Gang control of Port-au-Prince has since displaced hundreds of thousands. Kreyol is spoken by everyone and French by a minority. The country has about eleven million people and shares its island with the Dominican Republic. It is the poorest country in the Americas by income per head. Deforestation has removed the great majority of its tree cover, worsening flooding. The Citadelle Laferriere, built after independence against a French return that never came, is a World Heritage site. Haitian art and vodou both draw directly on West African traditions.

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