the Americas are continents so vast in resources and natural wealth many wonder
why there was such a different development among the North American
countries namely the United States and Canada to the rest of the subcontinent
such as Mexico and Central America the Caribbean in South America although each
American country is in different stages of development
we can safely say that the Americas have one of the worst continental
inequalities on one hand we have the North American powers which account for
82 percent of the two continents wealth was barely a third of the population but
towards Latin America there are many serious and critical situations that
requires more attention ad and Venezuela hold the title for the poorest countries
in America 80 is an exception because it is substantially less developed than the
rest of its Latin American neighbors and this is heavily contrasted with its
direct neighbor the Dominican Republic lately serious social issues have hit
the country there has been a wave of unprecedented demonstrations but these
demonstrations are only the tip of the iceberg of a country that is
structurally shattered the wydad haiti turned out to be much poorer and
underdeveloped and the rest of Latin America
what went wrong and with the current people of Haiti demanding reforms is
this perhaps the beginning of a revolution let's begin
to understand Haiti's history we need to go back to the time of the European
conquest when Christopher Columbus : quote discovered America in 1492 he
first arrived at a couple of islands in the Caribbean it is presumed that this
island was a first territory in the region claimed by the Spanish and it is
the same island that is currently shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic
the Spaniards conquered the island and divided it into five territories in 1501
the Spaniards began to import slave labour from Africa to carry out the
colonization of America they imported slaves due to the fact that the islands
natives were practically extinct by then when Spain arrived in Hispaniola there
were an estimated 250,000 natives but the combination of diseases and
mistreatment caused the population to shrink to just about 14,000 natives more
than 96 percent of the islands population had been exterminated the
Spanish Alan Rosen importance as it was initially an essential Island to
undertake the colonization of the Americas but over time the importance of
the island declined other conquered territories in the region were more
profitable and/or interesting to the crown and Madrid besides that Hispaniola
became a favorite destination of the Pirates of the Caribbean Spanish British
and Dutch Pirates began to occupy the north and the west of the island the
Spanish crown had ordered all the inhabitants to move to Santo Domingo
east of the island to avoid these pirates in 1665 the French colonization
began to show its effects on the island and in the Treaty of 1697 Madrid seated
a third of the islands of France which today is known as Haiti the French
colony then became one of the richest of the West Indies and in the world due to
its strategic placement which imposed a strong French presence in the region it
was given the name the pearl of the antes because of the immense wealth it
possessed since there was a port of entry and exit for most goods to and
from Europe Haiti was the second country of the Americas after the u.s. to free
itself from European powers after defeating the Spanish and French in a
long war that began in 1788 the Haitian Patriots declared their independence on
the 1st of January 1804 Haiti became the second nation on the continent to
declare its emancipation therefore Haiti was a torch of light and hope for the
rest of the Latin American nations it II would then occupy the rest of the
Hispaniola Island invading what is now the Dominican Republic
more than 22 years after being expelled by the Dominicans
they returned to Spain's possession after only obtaining that independence
for five years but interestingly the Dominicans do not celebrate their
independence from Spain but from the Haitians during more than 22 years of
the Haitian occupation after the departure of the French it is believed
that more than 6,000 French targets were executed by Haiti as well as a
persecution of the Spanish settlers that were still present to the east of the
island the western region of the island was much richer than the east but over
the decades this began to reverse many years later by around 1820 France
returned to the Caribbean and threatened to invade Haiti if it doesn't pay a fine
for its independence the Haitian leader at the time Jean Pierre Bowie who is
also half French had agreed to pay the fine was around 150,000 francs which
represented between ten to fifteen times the income of the entire Haitian
government the ridiculous debt was almost impossible to pay for hundreds of
years and there were constant negotiations between the French and
Haitian government many scholars agree that it was this debt that condemned
Haiti to poverty the impact was so massive that it's a Haiti more than 180
years to pay back this debt and the debt had only been paid by 1940 at the time
almost most other countries refused to recognize Haiti as a sovereign nation as
they still had slaves at the time the animosity of the Dominican Republic
towards Haiti began since the Haitian invasion of the eastern side of the
island with the support of the Dominican Republic it would have been possible for
these two countries together to confront France unfortunately this was not the
case and Haiti was virtually condemned to poverty by friends but in reality it
is a mistake to think that this debt was the only factor to hades poverty in fact
the Dominican Republic and Haiti were not so different at the beginning of the
1940s the true transformation of the Dominican Republic into a Caribbean
power only began in the 1950s and 60s as you can see in this graph the GDP per
capita of the Dominican Republic was only two hundred and four dollars in
1960 and Haiti was at $70 the difference at this point in time was already more
than double but as you will see over time the Dominican economy was enriched
abruptly while its neighbor practically stalled so in 2017 the Dominican
Republic had a GDP per capita $7,000 while Haiti barely had a GDP per
capita of $700 the lowest GDP per capita in the Americas and one of the lowest
worldwide this basically means that the Dominican Republic became 10 times
richer than Haiti in a period of only 70 years Joaquin Balaguer a Dominican
politician came to power in the Republic although he had a questionable past with
Trujillo who was a brutal Dominican dictator he managed to redeem himself
with these following actions he had stimulated economic growth through
various financial programs and developed infrastructure such as schools hospitals
roads and other public buildings throughout the country Joaquin had also
ordered the Dominican army to protect the trees so that they would not be cut
down it is speculated that this decision was influenced by the rapid rate of
deforestation that occurs in Haiti when he was not improving the Dominican
Republic Joaquin had many of his opponents imprisoned or murdered but if
we ignore his brutality and the tyrannical alliance that he had with
Trujillo Malaga was undoubtedly a man who turned the Dominican economy around
just next to Haiti the already much poorer Dominican Republic was under a
dictatorship during this period from saw Duvalier was not in a great state of
health and his son was about to take power his son jean-claude maintained his
father's secret service army and made Haiti his playground despite building
more than 12,000 schools the Haitian dictator used Haiti as a personal source
of wealth he controlled the banks and used the money in his free time he also
condoned the mass selling of drugs throughout the country he lived as a
prince of the Caribbean while 90% of the Haitian population lived in tragic
poverty so when he was removed from power through a coup he left with most
of the money he stole leaving the Haitian economy weak and fragile after
the coup Haiti was transformed through many violent protests with a military
regime from a dictatorship to a democracy the first democratically
elected president Aristide was overthrown by a group of soldiers only 7
months after having taken office these soldiers were widely suspected to be US
backed and it led to a dictatorship that would last for three years then as the
Cold War ended the u.s. decided to discontinue their support for the
Haitian dictatorship and our state would return to power in 1994 however he was
again overthrown in 2004 thanks to a military intervention carried out by the
US Canada Brazil and Chile due to the economic
collapse of the country after this Rene Preval who occupied the presidency
between 1996 and 2001 would again assumed power in 2006 he has been the
only Haitian president that has finished his term and was considered to be a
significant politician before his passing later
Michel Martelly would assume power the only elected president to succeed
another democratically elected president is five years of presidency were
disastrous plagued with corruption and theft along with the dissolutions of
many social policies and the loss of women's rights it must also be mentioned
that his mandate was strongly marked by the 2010 Haiti earthquake which
devastated the country an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale
killed more than a quarter million people officially more than three
hundred and sixty five thousand people perished and it left more than two
million people homeless it became one of the worst human tragedies in history the
earthquake had caused billions of dollars in damages a seven percent
contraction of the country's GDP and a four percent reduction of their
population in just under a week to this day Haiti has not recovered from the
devastating earthquake that took place nine years ago even the governmental
palace has not yet been rebuilt after nine years Haiti's terrible
infrastructure had contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of
people if an earthquake of 8.5 or greater would have occurred it could
have potentially decimated the country the international community reacted
quickly Cuba sent hundreds of doctors who managed to tend to almost 40% of the
victims just after the disaster the u.s. also intervened with more than 20,000
soldiers to give humanitarian aid but governments in the region such as
Venezuela and Cuba categorized this as an invasion the combination of various
economic political social and even natural factors has placed Haiti as the
poorest country in the Americas and unlike Venezuela which had the resources
to succeed and was shattered by a tyrannical government Haiti has been
touched by a series of unfortunate situations that have condemned it to be
the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere
today the Haitian government led by Giovanna Louise is under fire for the
protests that have already left several dead and hundreds wounded the population
protests the poor social and economic conditions in the country this
socio-economic situation is not entirely the fault of the current administration
but it's has been dragging for decades due to bad
governing corruption natural disasters dictatorships and military interventions
the current president Muys was elected with 55% of the vote but only 18% of the
population voted which shows that four out of five Haitians refused to
participate in the presidential elections this would mean that president
Muys had only received the votes of 9% of all registered voters making him the
president with the worst legitimacy in the Americas just after Maduro in
Venezuela the protests against the president are the results of decades of
economic exploitation intervention corruption debts nepotism disasters and
lakhs of investments in education and health there is no magic recipe to
transform Haiti overnight there's not even a single culprits but the
culmination of several factors several guilty countries including Haiti itself
the situation in Haiti is certainly worrying it is a country that has been
the victim of bad circumstances and we don't give it the aid it deserves when
more than 85 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day the crisis
in Venezuela should not blind us from a country that is also falling apart
within the same region but what do you think the international community should
do to further aid Haiti to develop do you think that in this case the French
colonization was a main trigger for these circumstances or was it a lack of
investments made during the 20th century so I hope you liked this video and don't
forget to Like and subscribe for more content every week see you next time