POLI 319 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Saint-Domingue, Yellow Fever, Comprador
13 May 2018
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POLI319: Friday March 2nd, 2018
Haiti and Jamaica: Race, Class etc.
Haiti Key Facts
- Often ranked as the poorest country in the world (high levels of corruption)
The Myth of Haitian isolation
- Haiti has long been portrayed as the prototypically immiserated Third World country
- Unable to life itself out of poverty, natural disasters (earthquake)
- US govt. assessment
- Creation of the west from the moment of colonization to the present Paul Farmer
- its poverty today stands in stark disparity in its economic value when France colonized
them, harsh punitive approach to Haiti in subsequent years and after violent independence
- One of the reasons why Haiti is so poor now
- France forced Haiti to pay reparations until 1947, France would systematically extort money
from them to compensate slave owner whom lost their property i.e. slaves
- one of the reasons Haiti is so poor today is because of the systematic plunder of its resources
since it gained independence
Social Order, Race and Class
- French brought in slaves and created a pyramid (white land owners art top, mixed race in the
middle and melatos, vast majority enslaved indentured Africans at the very bottom)
- Lifespan was on avg. a few years because of the conditions, had to be replaced by more
Africans
Revolt and Independence
- Haitian case: slaves revolted and won, overthrew French, burned down plantations, killed
whites and
- Defeated the French
- Haiti gained de facto independence in 1796 but was not recognized internationally
- 1901: Napoleon sent in a force but the force was decimated; yellow fever killed many of them
off slave owners trained in guerrilla tactics able to fight from the hills
Historical Role of the US-19th Century
- For US slaves were empowered by the resistance of Haiti
- Haiti used to be an economic powerhouse and the continued until independence
- Haiti’s abject poverty and is opposed to the historical wealth of Haiti
- US frightened by successful revolt; delayed formal recognition of Haiti for 58 years (did not
give Haiti the recognition as an independent country because it annoyed them)
Post-Revolutionary Ruling Elites
- Comprador elite: political and economic elites (thin upper crust) who acted as intermediaries
for foreign economic interests on the island that they lived
- willing to do international business on terms that benefitted the foreign interests as long as they
got a cut (remained in power, remained economically elite)
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