HAITI

Haiti

Haiti

Introduction

The Republic of Haiti is located in the Caribbean and occupies one third of the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic occupying the other two thirds. Haiti was once called the jewel of the Antilles; however, the people of Haiti suffer from social downsizing, economic despair, and political chaos. The Haitian governments have never been up to their job. One after another, the governments of Haiti have not contributed to improving the living conditions of the people. The primary needs of all countries fall within social, economic, and political categories, and the approach to solving any specific mix of these problems is unique to each nation. This study identifies the general challenges that keep Haiti from progressing and suggests areas of possible solutions, both from the application of empowerment and leadership theory. The aim of this paper is to talk about variegated reasons that have contributed in making the Haiti as one of the poorest countries of the world and the social development in this country.

How the French Jewel Empire Became the Poorest Country of the World

Haiti was originally inhabited by the Arawak Amerindians who were wiped out by Spanish settlers within a brief time during the post-Columbian period. Spain and France fought over the area until Spain ceded what is now known as Haiti to France. Large numbers of African slaves were brought to Haiti and it became a major trading source for cane and wood. Haiti's environmental resources were stripped and the area has never fully recovered from the devastation.

When Columbus landed on the Spanish in 1492 an estimated half a million inhabited the island natives, the Tainos. In 1519 there were only about 11,000. Spain had to import slave labor, but soon found places in the Americas of interest.

Spanish negligence led to the French occupation of the western third of the island to the late seventeenth century. The intensive cultivation of sugar cane, accompanied by a savage deforestation and loss of soil fertility, Haiti became the most productive colony of France in 1785. By then, the slave population totaled 700,000 people, 85% of the total, compared with 30,000 in the part of the island remained Spanish.

The story of Haiti is heavy and depressing. Haiti was a country in slavery for 300 years. Haiti became an independent state only after a bloody war between former slaves led by Jean Jacques Dessalines and the French army of Napoleon in 1803. Some countries on earth, including the Vatican, France, England, and the United States among them, did not want to recognize the sovereignty of the new Republic of Haiti. The US did not recognize Haiti because of the importance of the slave trade to the South at the time. It would take six decades for the U.S. to acknowledge Haiti's independence.

The Vatican delayed establishing a diocese in Haiti until 1860. That delayed the establishment of a formal school system, since Catholic religious orders usually provided the framework for education systems in colonial ...