After the revolution (1791), Napoleon sent an Army of 60,000 Europeans (French and Polish) to reconquer Haiti, that Army was defeated. The shock of this loss and the shock of the subsequent defeat cannot be overstated,
France humiliated, and the United States panicked by this huge slave revolt-imposed trade blockades and sanction's on Haiti
Haiti (1825) was compelled to pay France reparations (equivalent of 32 billion in 2022) for the loss of the slaves... this was an extreme national debt.
Haiti of course had no immediate ability to pay the debt, after decades of isolation. The first payments required taking further loans from French banks and American banks causing the debt to only increase, these loans were backed by giving control over natural resources and monopolies to foreign entities.
(This is a pattern well known and understood today)
Haiti is simply the first country in the world to enter the debt-trap spiral, and of course the longest to be in a debt trap spiral. A wholesale transfer of wealth from Haiti to the USA/France.
The result of all of this is that Haiti entered the modern world with very small and weak governments, with very low infrastructure, and educational support, with most of what ever remained of an economy controlled by foreigners and foreign interests.
It is difficult to see how any nation in this situation, can turn it around.
Surely the historical context is important in understanding how things came to be? If an export-based economy is cut off from international trade because it isn't recognized as a nation, and also forced to pay off a massive debt, surely that influences the way it develops? Surely it discourages the evolution of sustainable systems and encourages unsustainable ones, similarly to how poverty creates those issues for individuals?
Note that I am not claiming to know anything about Haiti's history, I've listened to the Revolutions podcast series on it and read a bit but I know very little. I am just pointing out that the "this didn't happen until later" doesn't necessarily explain away the impact of the way foreign countries treated Haiti.
If you look at Noah Smith’s substack linked above in another comment he links to another post at the end contesting his somewhat and claiming if you look at the price data differently the divergence is quite manifest before.
Wikipedia is, at best, a starting point for further discovery. The tell is how definitively they summarize things in such a brief space. I'm sure the authors there think they are telling you what is important, but they end up leaving out other things.
If it's important for you to know, dig deeper.
For something more in-depth, but still very accessible, check out Mike Duncan's Revolutions podcast. He does a series on Haiti. He has his own obvious biases, but is much more in-depth than wikipedia, and gives a much better sense of things.
France humiliated, and the United States panicked by this huge slave revolt-imposed trade blockades and sanction's on Haiti
Haiti (1825) was compelled to pay France reparations (equivalent of 32 billion in 2022) for the loss of the slaves... this was an extreme national debt.
Haiti of course had no immediate ability to pay the debt, after decades of isolation. The first payments required taking further loans from French banks and American banks causing the debt to only increase, these loans were backed by giving control over natural resources and monopolies to foreign entities.
(This is a pattern well known and understood today)
Haiti is simply the first country in the world to enter the debt-trap spiral, and of course the longest to be in a debt trap spiral. A wholesale transfer of wealth from Haiti to the USA/France.
The result of all of this is that Haiti entered the modern world with very small and weak governments, with very low infrastructure, and educational support, with most of what ever remained of an economy controlled by foreigners and foreign interests.
It is difficult to see how any nation in this situation, can turn it around.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti_indemnity_controversy#In...