United States occupation of Haiti

A referendum in Haiti subsequently approved the constitution in 1918 (by a vote of 98,225 to 768). In the constitution, Haiti explicitly allowed foreigners to control Haitian land for the first time since Haiti's creation. As a result of opposing the United States' effort of rewriting its constitution, Haiti would remain without a legislative branch until 1929. The Second Caco War ended with the death of Benoît Batraville in 1920, The NAACP sent civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson, its field secretary, to investigate conditions in Haiti. He published his account in 1920, decrying "the economic corruption, forced labor, press censorship, racial segregation, and wanton violence introduced to Haiti by the US occupation encouraged numerous African Americans to flood the State Department and the offices of Republican Party officials with letters" calling for an end to the abuses and to remove troops. Academic W. E. B. Du Bois, who had Haitian ancestry, demanded a response for the Wilson administration's actions and wrote that US troops "have no designs on the political independence of the island and no desire to exploit it ruthlessly for the take of selfish business interests".

According to Johnson, there was only one reason why the United States occupied Haiti: The Great Depression disastrously affected the prices of Haiti's exports and destroyed the tenuous gains of the previous decade. Under press laws, Borno frequently imprisoned newspaper press that criticized his government. The massacre resulted in international outrage, with Hoover calling on Congress to investigate conditions in Haiti the following day.

Forbes Commission, Borno's resignation

President Hoover appointed two commissions, including one headed by a former US governor of the Philippines William Cameron Forbes. The commission concluded that occupation of Haiti was a failure and that the United States did not "understand the social problems of Haiti". The US retained influence on Haiti's external finances until 1947, as per the 1919 treaty that required an American financial advisor through the life of Haiti's acquired loan.

Effects

Economy

The occupation was costly for the Haitian government; American advisors collected about 5% of Haiti's revenue while the 1915 treaty with the United States limited Haiti's income, resulting with fewer jobs for the government to assign. However, efforts to develop commercial agriculture produced limited results while American agricultural businesses removed the property from thousands of Haitian peasants to produce bananas, sisal and rubber for export, resulting with lower domestic food production. debts were still outstanding and the US financial advisor-general receiver handled the budget until 1941 when three American and three Haitian directors headed by an American manager assumed the role. The mulatto elite also feared the creation of an educated middle class that would potentially lead to the loss of their influence. According to Haitian American academic Michel-Rolph Trouillot, about 5,500 Haitians died in labor camps alone. However, it had the opposite effect, with the image's resemblance to a crucifixion making it an icon of the resistance and establishing Péralte as a martyr.

thumb|alt=Black and white photo of a man standing among bodies lying on the ground|American poses with dead Haitians killed by US Marine machine gun fire on October 11, 1915

Mass killings of civilians were allegedly committed by Marines and the Gendarmerie. Secretary of State Robert Lansing also held racist beliefs, writing that "the African race are devoid of any capacity for political organization."

The Americans inhabited neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince in high-quality housing, in a neighborhood that was called the "millionaires' row." Hans Schmidt recounted a Navy officer's opinion on the matter of segregation: "I can't see why they wouldn't have a better time with their crowd, just as I do with mine." American racial intolerance provoked indignation and resentment, and eventually a racial pride was reflected in the work of a new generation of Haitian historians, ethnologists, writers, artists and others. Many of these later became active in politics and government. The elite Haitians, mostly mixed-race with higher levels of education and capital, continued to dominate the country's bureaucracy and to strengthen its role in national affairs.

Colorism, which had existed since French colonization, became prevalent under U.S. occupation, and racial segregation became common. Among these were ethnologist Jean Price-Mars and François Duvalier, editor of the journal Les Griots (the title referred to traditional African oral historians, the storytellers) and future totalitarian president of Haiti. The racism and violence that occurred during the occupation inspired black nationalism among Haitians and left a powerful impression on the young Duvalier. Furthermore, Bellegarde discusses the powerlessness of Haitian officials in the eyes of the occupation because nothing could be done without the consent of the Americans. However, the main issue that Bellegarde articulates is that the Americans tried to change the education system of Haiti from one that was French based to that of the Americans. Even though Bellegarde was resistant, he had a plan to build a university in Haiti that was based on the American system. He wanted a university with various schools of science, business, art, medicine, law, agriculture, and languages all connected by a common area and library. However, that dream was never realized because of the new direction the Haitian government was forced to take.

Jean Price-Mars associated the reasons behind the occupation to the division between the Haitian elite and the poorer people of the country. He noted that the groups were divided over the practice of Haitian Vodou, with the implication that the elites did not recognize Vodou because they connected it to an evil practice.

21st century

Pezullo writes in his 2006 book Plunging Into Haiti: Clinton, Aristide, and the Defeat of Diplomacy that the racism similar to Jim Crow laws in the United States inspired black nationalism within Haiti and ignited future support for Haitian dictator François Duvalier.

United States occupation of Haiti

Forbes Commission, Borno's resignation

Effects

Economy

21st century

See also

Notes

References

Further reading