# data[].attributes.body
What were the main societies or groups living in Haiti before the arrival of Europeans? The main groups of people living in haiti was the Taíno people, an indigenous Arawak group who called the island "Quisqueya”.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Table of Contents

Haiti has a warm, humid tropical climate characterized by diurnal temperature variations that are greater than the annual variations; temperatures are modified by elevation. Average temperatures range from the high 70s F (about 25 °C) in January and February to the mid-80s F (about 30 °C) in July and August. The village of Kenscoff, at some 4,700 feet (1,430 meters), has an average temperature of about 60 °F (16 °C), whereas Port-au-Prince, at sea level, has an average of 79 °F (26 °C). In winter, frost can occur at high elevations.

Haiti is located on the leeward side of the island, which means that the influence of humid trade winds is not as great as in the Dominican Republic. The more humid districts are found on the northern and eastern slopes of the mountains. Some portions of the island receive less than 28 inches (700 mm) of rainfall per year. The northwestern peninsula and Gonâve Island are particularly dry. Some regions have two rainy seasons, lasting from April to June and from August to October, whereas other regions experience rainfall from May to November. Annual variations of precipitation can cause droughts, widespread crop failures, and famine.

The southern peninsula, which is more vulnerable to hurricanes ( tropical cyclones) than other parts of Haiti, suffered heavy damage from Hurricanes Allen (1980), Gilbert (1988), and Georges (1998). All parts of the country, however, can be hit by tropical storms and hurricanes. During August and September 2008 a series of severe storms that included Hurricanes Hanna and Ike caused widespread damage and the loss of some 800 lives.

Plant and animal life

From the 17th to the 19th century, much of the natural vegetation was destroyed through clearing for agriculture, grazing, and logging. Deforestation accelerated during the 20th century as population increased, and the forests that once covered the country have been reduced to a tiny proportion of the total land area. Patches of virgin forest remain in the Massif de la Selle, which includes tall pines, and in the Massif de la Hotte, where an evergreen forest with giant tree ferns and orchids stands on the slopes of Macaya Peak. Bayahondes (a type of mesquite), cacti, and acacias form thorny woods on the dry plains. The mangrove swamps on the coast have also declined rapidly, as their trees have been overexploited for firewood and for the production of charcoal.

With the retreat of natural vegetation, wildlife has lost its habitat and shelter. Wild boars, guinea fowls, and wild ducks are no longer present, but caimans still inhabit rivers of the southern peninsula, and some flamingos are found on Gonâve Island, where they are often hunted. Little has been done to conserve Haiti's flora and fauna, and few national or regional parks have been established. The lack of conservation measures has been particularly damaging for coral formations and the animal life associated with them.

Ethnic groups and languages

Nearly all of Haiti's population are of African origin (termed Blacks). A small minority of people of mixed European and African descent (called mulattoes) constitute a wealthier elite and account for most of the remainder. There is also a small number of people of European descent. Haiti has differentiated itself ethnically, linguistically, and culturally from other Caribbean and Latin American countries, notably the Spanish-speaking and the English-speaking countries of the region.

Haitian Creole (Kweyol, or Kreyol) and French are the official languages. Creole is normally used in daily life, and French-the second language of perhaps one-tenth of the people-is used in more formal circumstances. However, written Creole is not widely accepted, because the school system retains French as the main language of instruction. Most of the vocabulary of Haitian Creole is derived from French, but in its syntax it is similar to the Creole languages of the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean.

Religion

Haiti has no official religion, and the constitution allows for religious freedom. More than half of the population practices Roman Catholicism, the dominant sect of Christianity, and approximately one-fourth is Protestant or independent Christian. Liberation theology continues to have some influence in religious life, notably in the shantytown areas of Port-au-Prince and other towns. Most Haitian Roman Catholics are also practitioners of Vodou (Voodoo, or Vodun), a religion whose gods ( lwa) are derived from West African religions. However, most of the country's Protestants consider Christianity to be incompatible with Vodou. In addition to the older Protestant denominations established in the early 19th century (Methodists, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians), Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, and Mormons came to Haiti during and after the period (1915-34) when the United States occupied the country.

Settlement patterns

Haiti is densely populated, particularly on the plains, although cultivated plots and settlements are also found on the hills and steep mountains. Some two-fifths of the people live in rural areas, primarily as subsistence farmers or agricultural laborers. Rural population densities are high, which places a strain on the environment and on the well-being of the people. The population is still increasing in the countryside, despite growing migration to the cities. Most farms are very small and are worked by their owners. Rural bourgs (market towns) typically include a Roman Catholic Church, police barracks, a magisterial court, and a general store, all surrounding a central square.

Real urban life is limited to the capital and to five or six large towns. Port-au-Prince-whose metropolitan area grew to include more than 10 times the population of the second city, Cap-Haïtien-was founded in 1749; it became the colonial capital in 1770 because its central location was believed to be more suitable for future development, defense, and commerce than the position of Cap-Français (later Cap-Haïtien) on the north coast. The city retains few buildings from the colonial period and the early 19th century, however, because of fires and war damage. On January 12, 2010, a magnitude-7.0 earthquake shook Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area, causing catastrophic death and injury, extensive population displacement, and severe damage to property and infrastructure.

Wooden "gingerbread-style" houses, most now fallen into disrepair, remain a testimony to Victorian influences in the once-fashionable districts of Bois-Verna and Turgeau. Pétionville, a middle-class suburb in the hills to the west, is now part of the metropolitan area, as are the cities of Carrefour and Delmas. The vast majority of Port-au-Prince residents live on meager incomes, and shantytowns surround the city. The largest shantytown in the capital is Cité Soleil; situated on swampland near the seafront and vulnerable to flooding, Cité Soleil is home to hundreds of thousands of people.

Cap-Haïtien, the original capital of the colony, was founded in 1670. Its neat gridiron street plan encompasses small blocks of old-fashioned houses with courtyards. The city also has large numbers of impoverished or homeless people, but its pace of life is much slower than that of Port-au-Prince. The other major towns are Carrefour and Delmas (within the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area), Gonaïves, Les Cayes, and Jacmel.

Demographic trends

Haiti's population grew dramatically after 1900. Life expectancy, however, has been among the lowest in the world. The rates of birth and infant mortality are high, and about one-third of the population is under 15 years of age.

Every year tens of thousands of Haitians attempt to improve their lots by migrating to other countries, notably Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians live in the Dominican Republic, many of them illegally and under semiclandestine conditions. Dominican government programs allow temporary migrants for agricultural work, primarily bracero (cane-cutting) labor and menial jobs. Many Haitians have also migrated to the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. Since the 1970s, large numbers of Haitians have attempted to enter the United States each year in small and often dangerous boats; the phenomenon decreased with the end of the military regime in 1994 but continued sporadically, particularly during times of political crisis. The U.S. Coast Guard routinely has intercepted such "boat people" and returned them to Haiti; many others were thought to have drowned en route to Florida, which is more than 560 miles (900 km) northwest of Haiti. Exile communities have also been established in The Bahamas, Guadeloupe, and Saint-Martin.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Haiti - Tropical, Humid, Rainy | Britannica

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Haiti - Tropical, Humid, Rainy: Haiti has a warm, humid tropical climate characterized by diurnal temperature variations that are greater than the annual variations; temperatures are modified by elevation. Average temperatures range from the high 70s F (about 25 °C) in January and February to the mid-80s F (about 30 °C) in July and August.

# data[].attributes.headline
How did the land and natural resources shape the way people lived in Haiti before colonization? 

# data[].attributes.subject
How did the land and natural resources shape the way people lived in Haiti before colonization? 

# data[].attributes.body
The indigenous population was largely exterminated. As a result, Africans (primarily from West Africa) were imported as slave labor to produce raw goods for international commerce. Considered France’s richest colony in the eighteenth century, Haiti was known as “the pearl of the Antilles.”

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
HAITI: A Brief History of a Complex Nation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Located in the Caribbean, Haiti (View: A Map of Haiti) occupies the western third of the island of Hispaniola, with the Dominican Republic in the eastern two-thirds. With an area of about 10,714 square miles, Haiti is approximately the size of the state of Maryland. The major cities are: Cap-Haïtien, Jérémie, Les Cayes, Hinche, Gonaïves, and Jacmel. Haiti has two official languages: Haitian Creole and French.

# data[].attributes.headline
What happened when colonizers made contact with Haiti? They took haiti over

# data[].attributes.subject
What happened when colonizers made contact with Haiti? They took haiti over

# data[].attributes.body
Who were the first European groups to arrive in Haiti, and what were their motivations for coming? Christopher columbus was the first to settle. How did the indigenous population react to European arrival, and what changes occurred as a result? a mix of initial curiosity and hospitality What role did the transatlantic slave trade play in shaping the development of Haiti under European rule? Haiti's development under European rule, transformed modern-day Hait into a highly profitable country. What were the main economic activities of the colonizers, and how did they affect the land and people of Haiti? production of sugar, coffee, and other plantation crops it improved/harmed the land

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Haiti,[b] officially the Republic of Haiti,[c][d] is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican Republic.[18][19] Haiti is the third largest country in the Caribbean, and with an estimated population of 11.4 million, is the most populous Caribbean country.[20][21][22] The capital and largest city is Port-au-Prince.

# data[].attributes.headline
How did Haitian society change after colonization? 

# data[].attributes.subject
How did Haitian society change after colonization? 

# data[].attributes.body
More profitable, How did the introduction of European systems, such as slavery, affect the social and economic structure of Haiti? particularly slavery, fundamentally reshaped Haiti's social and economic structure, creating a society deeply stratified by race and class, forced labor, which ultimately led to the Haitian Revolution. In what ways did the Haitian people resist colonization, and what forms did this resistance take? Very violent rebellion, chaos, and a lot to do with slavery What changes occurred in the population of Haiti as a result of colonization and the African slave trade? They went through dramatic changes source

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Since the revolutionaries explicitly proclaimed liberty as their highest ideal, slavery was bound to come into question during the French Revolution. Even before 1789 critics had attacked the slave trade and slavery in the colonies. France had several colonies in the Caribbean in which slavery supported a plantation economy that produced sugar, coffee, and cotton. The most important of these colonies was Saint Domingue (later Haiti), which had 500,000 slaves, 32,000 whites, and 28,000 free blacks (which included both blacks and mulattos). Some free blacks owned slaves; in fact, the free blacks owned one-third of the plantation property and one-quarter of the slaves in Saint Domingue, though they could not hold public office or practice many professions (medicine, for example).

The slave system in the colonies was regulated by a series of royal edicts, the most important of which was promulgated by Louis XIV in 1685. Taken together, the edicts constituted the Code noir, or slave code. This code prescribed a harsh regime of penalties for slaves who resisted their captivity, especially if they tried to harm their masters in any way. Saint Domingue provided extraordinary sources of wealth to the French. To protect their investments, French slaveholders had to learn at least a minimal amount about their slaves. One of the most astute commentators, Médéric-Louis-Elie Moreau de Saint-Méry, wrote a massive two-volume work on life in Saint Domingue in the 1780s. He described many of the features of slave life that worried slaveholders, including voodoo imported from Africa, the presence of many people of mixed race (mulattos), the threat of slaves becoming Maroons (runaways), and the intense fear among slaveholders that their slaves would try to poison them. After the French Revolution broke out, planters looked back on pre-1789 conditions, trying to understand how slavery might have been better organized. Their observations provide yet another contemporary perspective on the plantation and slave system.

The Caribbean colonies were quick to respond to the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789. The white planters of Saint Domingue sent delegates to France to demand representation at the new National Assembly, as did the mulattos. Several prominent deputies in the National Assembly belonged to the Society of the Friends of Blacks, which put forth proposals for the abolition of the slave trade and the amelioration of the lot of slaves in the colonies. When these proposals fell on deaf ears, some deputies sympathetic to blacks turned to arguing that full civil and political rights should be granted to free blacks in the colonies. Before long, radical journalists in Paris began to take up the cause of black slaves, pushing for the abolition of slavery, or at least for a more positive view of the Africans. The pioneering feminist and playwright, Olympe de Gouges, also wrote a pamphlet challenging the colonial pro-slavery lobby to improve the lot of the blacks.

As the agitation in favor of granting rights to free blacks and abolishing the slave trade gathered steam, the colonies became filled with uncertainty and expectations began rising, especially among the free blacks and mulattos. In response, the white planters mounted their own counterattack and even contemplated demanding independence from France. Less is known about the views of the slaves because hardly any of them could read or write, but the royal governor of Saint Domingue expressed concern about the effects of the Revolution on the colony's slaves. In October 1789 he reported that the slaves considered the new revolutionary cockade (a decoration made up of red, white, and blue ribbons worn by supporters of the Revolution) a "signal of the manumission of the whites . . . the blacks all share an idea that struck them spontaneously: that the white slaves kill their masters and now free they govern themselves and regain possession of the land." In other words, the black slaves hoped to follow in the footsteps of their white predecessors, freeing themselves, killing their masters, and taking over the land.

Most deputies feared the effects of the loss of commerce that would result from either the abolition of slavery or the elimination of the slave trade. Fabulous wealth depended on slavery, as did shipbuilding, sugar-refining, and a host of subsidiary industries. Slaveowners and shippers did not intend to give up their prospects without a fight. The U.S. refusal to give up slavery or the slave trade provided added ammunition to support their position.

To quiet the unrest among the powerful white planters, especially in Saint Domingue, the colonial committee of the National Assembly proposed in March 1790 to exempt the colonies from the constitution and to prosecute anyone who attempted to spark uprisings against the slave system. But the steadily increasing agitation threatened the efforts of the National Assembly to mollify the white planters and keep a lid on racial tensions. The March 1790 decree said nothing about the political rights of free blacks, who continued to press their demands both in Paris and back home, but to no avail. In October 1790, 350 mulattos rebelled in Saint Domingue. French army troops cooperated with local planter militias to disperse and arrest them. In February 1791 the mulatto leaders, including James Ogé, were publicly executed. Nevertheless, on 15 May 1791, under renewed pressure from the abbé Grégoire and others, the National Assembly granted political rights to all free blacks and mulattos who were born of free mothers and fathers. Though this proviso limited rights to a few hundred free blacks, the white colonists furiously pledged to resist the application of the law.

Just a few months later, on 22 August 1791, the slaves of Saint Domingue rose up in rebellion, initiating what was to become over the next several years the first successful slave revolt in history. In response, the National Assembly rescinded the rights of free blacks and mulattos on 24 September 1791, prompting them once again to take up arms against the whites. Slaves burned down plantations, murdered their white masters, and even attacked the towns. Fighting continued as the new Legislative Assembly (it replaced the National Assembly in October 1791) considered free black rights again at the end of March 1792. On 28 March, the assembly voted to reinstate the political rights of free blacks and mulattos. Nothing was done about slavery.

In the fall of 1792, as the Revolution in mainland France began to radicalize, the French government sent two agents to Saint Domingue to take charge of the suppression of the slave revolt. In order to gain their freedom, rebel slaves now made pacts with the British and Spanish in the area. The British and Spanish promised freedom to those slaves who would join their armies, even though they had no intention of abolishing slavery in their own colonies. They simply wanted to benefit from France's problems. Faced with the threat of both British and Spanish invasions aimed at taking over the colony with the aid of the rebel slaves, the French government agents abolished slavery in the colony (August-October 1793). Although the National Convention initially denounced this action as part of a conspiracy to aid Great Britain, the Convention eventually voted to abolish slavery in all the French colonies on 4 February 1794. Many mulattos opposed this move because they owned slaves themselves. After more than two years of rebellion, invasion, attack, and counterattack, the economy of Saint Domingue had nearly collapsed. Thousands of whites fled to the United States or back to France.

For all the deputies' good intentions, the situation remained confused in almost all the colonies: some local authorities simply disregarded the decree, others converted slavery into forced labor, others were too busy fighting the British and Spanish to decide one way or the other. Out of the fighting emerged one of the most remarkable figures of the era, Toussaint L'Ouverture, a slave who learned to read and write and in the uprising rose to become the leading general of the slave rebels. Toussaint faced incredible obstacles in creating a coherent resistance. By 1800 the plantations were producing only one-fifth of what they had in 1789. In the zones controlled by Toussaint, army officers or officials took over the big estates and kept the former slaves working under military-style discipline. In 1802, once he had consolidated his hold on power in mainland France, Napoleon Bonaparte reestablished slavery and the slave trade in those colonies still under French control and denied political rights to free blacks. He sent a major expeditionary force to Saint Domingue to enforce his will. It captured Toussaint and sent him back to France, where he died in prison. Nevertheless, the former slaves continued their revolt and in 1804 they established the independent republic of Haiti. The French army limped home after losing thousands to disease and sporadic fighting. A slave rebellion had succeeded.

Americans in the new United States followed the events in Saint Domingue with anxious interest. Since the southern states relied on thousands of slaves to work their plantations, a slave revolt in the world's richest plantation colony was bound to excite their concern. In addition, when white settlers began fleeing Saint Domingue, many of them came to the United States. Newspapers in the United States published letters offering eyewitness accounts (and rumors) about the uprising. The accounts in the Pennsylvania Gazette are excerpted here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Since the revolutionaries explicitly proclaimed liberty as their highest ideal, slavery was bound to come into question during the French Revolution. Even before 1789 critics had attacked the slave trade and slavery in the colonies. France had several colonies in the Caribbean in which slavery supported a plantation economy that produced sugar, coffee, and cotton.

# data[].attributes.headline
What enduring issues still impact Haiti today?

# data[].attributes.subject
What enduring issues still impact Haiti today?

# data[].attributes.body
Food shortage/stability, How can we connect the history of colonization to present-day issues in Haiti? Haiti's struggles today are deeply rooted in its colonial past. In what ways does the legacy of colonization continue to shape the economic and social challenges Haiti faces? instability and poverty. What role does foreign intervention or influence play in Haiti’s modern challenges, and how is this connected to its colonial past? Haiti became of  abolition, self-determination, and racial equality. What kind of economy and social structure existed in Haiti before European contact?

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere by many measures. Some four-fifths of its population lives in absolute poverty, and as much as three-fifths of the population is unemployed or underemployed. Haiti’s limited resource base has been depleted.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hobbled by foreign interventions, political instability, and natural disasters, the former French colony has long suffered from underdevelopment.

# data[].attributes.body
After researching the historical context of pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial Haiti, how would you define the enduring issue that best connects Haiti's past to its present challenges? Slavery connects overworked people, and their still fighting to survive til this day colonization was helpful for a short period of time

What evidence from your research shows the long-lasting impact of colonization on the people and land of Haiti? The ongoing problems from slavery-colonization-fights-food shortage

How can understanding the history of Haiti help us address current issues that the country faces today? By researching ongoing problems and bringing awareness through school projects