Haiti — map and facts

About Haiti

Haiti occupies the western third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, sharing the island with the Dominican Republic to the east. The capital is Port-au-Prince, a sprawling city of over two million people that serves as the country's political, economic, and cultural centre. With a total population of approximately 11.5 million, Haiti is the most densely populated country in the Caribbean and one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere. It is a republic, though political instability has been chronic: since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, the country has struggled with gang violence, displacement, and a severe humanitarian crisis. French and Haitian Creole are both official languages. Haiti holds unique historical distinction as the first Black-led republic in the world and the first Caribbean nation to gain independence, achieved through a successful slave revolution in 1804. The economy relies heavily on remittances from the diaspora, small-scale agriculture, and limited manufacturing.

Geography and Landscape

Haiti covers approximately 27,750 square kilometres and is a predominantly mountainous country. The Massif du Nord runs along the northern border, while the Chaîne des Matheux and the Massif de la Selle dominate the central and southern regions. Pic la Selle, rising to 2,674 metres, is the country's highest point and sits near the Dominican border. The Artibonite River, the longest river in the Caribbean, flows westward across the central plateau and into the Gulf of Gonâve, forming the country's most important agricultural valley. The Gulf of Gonâve lies between Haiti's two peninsulas — the northern and southern — and contains the island of Gonâve. The Tiburon Peninsula extends far to the southwest. Coastal areas offer flat plains suitable for agriculture, though deforestation has been severe, affecting more than 98 percent of the original forest cover and contributing to erosion, flooding, and vulnerability to natural disasters. The climate is tropical, with a rainy season from April to June and again from October to November.

History

Hispaniola was inhabited by the Taíno people when Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492 and established the first European settlement in the Americas at La Navidad. Spanish colonisation devastated the indigenous population through disease and forced labour. France gained control of the western third of the island through the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, naming it Saint-Domingue, which became one of the wealthiest colonies in the world, producing sugar and coffee through the labour of hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans. The Haitian Revolution began in 1791 under leaders including Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines. After defeating French, British, and Spanish forces, independence was declared on 1 January 1804, and the country was renamed Haiti. France forced Haiti to pay 150 million francs in reparations for lost colonial property, a debt that burdened the country until 1947. The twentieth century brought the US occupation of 1915–1934 and the brutal Duvalier dictatorships from 1957 to 1986. A catastrophic earthquake in January 2010 killed over 200,000 people.