Beautiful Waterfalls in Haiti
History of Haiti Early History Haiti has a uniquely tragic history. Natural disasters, poverty, racial discord, and political instability have plagued the small country throughout its history. Before the arrival of Europeans, Arawak (also known as Taino) and Carib Indians inhabited the island of Hispaniola. Although researchers debate the total pre-Columbian population (estimates range from 60,000 to 600,000), the detrimental impact of colonization is well documented. Disease and brutal labor practices nearly annihilated the Indian population within 50 years of Columbus’s arrival.
Spain ceded the western third of the island of Hispaniola to France in 1697. French authorities quelled the island’s buccaneer activity and focused on agricultural growth. Soon, French adventurers began to settle the colony, turning the French portion of the island, renamed Saint- Domingue, into a coffee- and sugar-producing juggernaut. By the 1780s, nearly 40 percent of all the sugar imported by Britain and France and 60 percent of the world’s coffee came from the small colony. For a brief time, Saint-Domingue annually produced more exportable wealth than all of continental North America.
As the indigenous population dwindled, African slave labor became vital to Saint-Domingue’s economic development. Slaves arrived by the tens of thousands as coffee and sugar production boomed. Under French colonial rule, nearly 800,000 slaves arrived from Africa, accounting for a third of the entire Atlantic slave trade. Many died from disease and the harsh conditions of the sugar and coffee plantations. Statistics show that there was a complete turnover in the slave population every 20 years. Despite these losses, by 1789 slaves outnumbered the free population four-to-one⎯452,000 slaves in a population of 520,000. . . continue reading
Haiti's Landmarks
Haiti has many particularly well known structures that are historically and culturally significant to the country, and also some of mother nature own distinguish touch, which Haiti is not short of. From the Citadelle Laferriè in Cap-Haitien, to the Iron Market in Port-au-Prince. Here are the Landmarks of Haiti; landmarks which proudly set the country apart, and reaffirms loudly once again, that Haiti is a country worth visiting, especially after numerous studies released by the prominent Vanderbilt University and the United Nations among others, ranked Haiti as one of the top safest countries in the entire American continent. Crime rate in Haiti as of 2013 is equal to that of the city of Long Beach, California. Yes, Haiti's crime rate is significantly lower than that of Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. As Haiti continues to tremendously tackle the insecurity that has long damaged Its reputation, we invite you to rediscover the long lost Pearl of the Antilles. . . Click HERE