The Afterlives of Colonialism: The Haitian Debt Crisis

By: Kayla McManus-Viana, Kannu Taylor, and Ahmed El-Halabi

A significant event in both Haitian and global history was the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), which was a successful rebellion of enslaved Africans and Afro-Caribbeans against their French oppressors and resulted in the island of Haiti achieving formal independence in 1804.¹ In this blog post, we will explore the following question: Did the Haitian Revolution provide Haiti with “true” decolonial liberation if it was forced to pay its former colonizer reparations, which kept Haiti locked in a subordinate, “colonial” position for over a century after its “independence”?

Technologies of Colonialism and Coloniality

By technologies of colonialism, we are referring to the tools – physical, scientific, intellectual, cultural, social, etc. – wielded by colonizers to transform the world at global, regional, local, and individual scales. In this blog post, we are specifically concerned with the tool of economic domination/capitalism.

Historical research demonstrates that contemporary “underdevelopment” is in large part the historical product of colonial and continuing economic exploitation of the “underdeveloped” Global South (made up largely of former colonies) by the now “developed,” metropolitan Global North (consisting largely of former colonizers). This exploitative relationship has been an essential part of the structure, development, and maintenance of the global capitalist system as a whole.² In the case of Haiti, though the island was able to break-free of colonialism proper, capitalism and debt were used as a technology of continuing colonial control/power relations (i.e. “coloniality”) by France even after formal colonization ended, which has resulted in the island being viewed as chronically “underdeveloped,” impoverished, and in a perpetual state of crisis.  

The History of the Haitian Debt Crisis

On April 17, 1825, King Charles X decreed that France would recognize Haiti’s independence if and only if the Haitian state compensated the French colonists for their “lost revenues from slavery” – to the tune of 150 million francs (which, for comparison, was around “10 times the amount the U.S. had paid for the Louisiana territory”).³ There was very little room for Haiti to negotiate or resist the imposition of this bill as Baron de Mackau, the individual whom Charles X sent to deliver the ordinance, “arrived in Haiti… accompanied by a squadron of 14 brigs of war carrying more than 500 cannons” (emphasis added).⁴ Under the threat of (yet another) war, the then-Haitian president Jean-Pierre Boyer agreed to pay “in five equal installments … the sum of 150,000,000 francs, destined to indemnify the former colonists.”⁵ Through this action Haiti gained immunity from French military invasion and relief from political and economic isolation – but was saddled with a crippling debt that took 122 years to pay off. Though this debt was eventually settled in 1947, “decades of making regular payments rendered the Haitian government chronically insolvent, helping to create a pervasive climate of instability from which the country still hasn’t recovered.”⁶ 

We argue that through the imposition of unreasonable reparations (part of the technology of economic domination) France was able to maintain a colonial relationship with Haiti, which is directly responsible for Haiti’s current position in the global world order and a continuation of its former “formal” colonial subjugation. 

Interestingly, the weaponization of capitalism and debt was not only utilized by Haiti’s former colonizer but also by the United States. In 1915, the U.S. military invaded Haiti under the guise of “keeping the peace” in America’s “backyard.” In reality, U.S. Marines would remain on the island for almost twenty years (until 1934) protecting the interests of Wall Street, specifically the National City Bank of New York (aka Citibank).⁷ The National City Bank of New York would go on to completely control the National Bank of Haiti and reap significant gains from this endeavor – to such a degree that James Weldon Johnson, a representative from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, argued in 1920, “to understand why the United States landed and has for five years maintained military forces in that country, why some three thousand Haitian men, women, and children have been shot down by American rifles and machine guns, it is necessary, among other things, to know that the National City Bank of New York is very much interested in Haiti.”⁸ Here, Johnson is putting forth the contention – with which contemporary historians agree – that the U.S’s occupation of Haiti was motivated by economic interests more so than any “strategic” military or diplomatic concerns. This argument is further supported by one of Johnson’s contemporaries, Smedley Butler, a former general in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 1933, Butler claimed, “During that period [the U.S. occupation of Haiti], I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism…I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street” (emphasis added).⁹

Conclusion

The histories of Haiti, France, and the United States are intertwined through the shared experience of colonialism and the weaponization of capitalism. The Haitian Revolution, while an incredible achievement in the fight against slavery and colonialism, was met with economic sanctions that would burden the country with a significant and crippling debt for over a century. This debt, along with the subsequent military occupation of Haiti by the United States, was driven by economic interests and resulted in a state of “coloniality” for Haiti.  This history highlights the ways in which colonial powers have used economic systems to maintain control and exploit the resources of colonized nations even after colonialism ends. Moreover, it underscores the importance of understanding the legacies of colonialism and how they continue to shape our world today. Only by acknowledging and grappling with this complex history can we hope to build a more just and equitable future to fully practice decolonization.

Questions from the Desk:

1. So what do you think: Did the Haitian Revolution provide Haiti with “true” decolonial liberation if it was forced to pay its former colonizer reparations?
2. What constitutes “true” decolonial liberation?
   1. What can be done to assist formerly colonized nations finding their place in the current world order? 
   2. What is the role of violence in decolonial liberation?
3. How many of us found out about Haiti’s debt crisis (read: coerced reparations to France) and the US’s intervention through The New York Times exposé published in 2022? How does this relate to “the problem of history”?
4. Where else do we see the continued use of economic systems to maintain control and exploit the resources of (formerly) colonized nations even after “formal” colonization ends? 

---

Footnote Citations

1. Claudia Sutherland, “Haitian Revolution (1791-1804),” BlackPast, July 16, 2007. https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/haitian-revolution-1791-1804/.
2.  Lucile H. Brockway, “The British Empire,” in Science and Colonial Expansion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979).
3. Marlene Daunt, “When France extorted Haiti – the greatest heist in history,” National African American Reparations Committee, June 17, 2022. https://reparationscomm.org/reparations-news/when-france-extorted-haiti-the-greatest-heist-in-history/.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6.  Dan Sperling, “In 1825, Haiti Paid France $21 Billion To Preserve Its Independence — Time For France To Pay It Back,” Forbes, December 6, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2017/12/06/in-1825-haiti-gained-independence-from-france-for-21-billion-its-time-for-france-to-pay-it-back/?sh=24dbd777312b.
7. Peter James Hudson, “The National City Bank of New York and Haiti, 1909–1922,” Radical History Review 115 (Winter 2013): 91-92.
8. Hudson, 92.
9.  David Suggs, “The long legacy of the U.S. occupation of Haiti,” The Washington Post, August 6, 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/08/06/haiti-us-occupation-1915/.