Haiti History & Why so poor?

Haiti History

1. Before Haiti was discovered, Taino/Arawak Indians were settled in Haiti. They were the original people of Haiti.

1. Haiti was discovered by Christopher Columbus, December 5th, 1492. Colombus declared Haiti as Spain territory. Then Spain killed almost everybody living at Haiti.

2. In 1697, the Spanish gave some of Haiti to France. Haiti was fashioned a new name: Saint Dominigue.

3.  The French brought the first 100 African slaves to Haiti, making them work day and night and treating them harshly. 

4. In Jan. 1, 1804, Haiti declared independence, becoming the first independent black country. 

5. Jean-Jacques Dessalines named the new nation Haiti in 1804. 

Why so poor?

6. To get a good job, you must be well educated. Haitians are rarely educated, not being able to read or write. So they can only get poor-paid jobs, earning one or two dollars a day.

7.Haiti was once the richest colony in the world. Haiti was once called the Jewel of Antilles, due to the fortune they made by exporting sugar, tobacco, coffee, cocoa, cotton and lots more.

8. Haiti chops off lots of trees to make charcoal to export for money, but when hurricanes and storms hit, it destroys the houses and buildings, especially without the trees, which sometimes help stop disasters.

9. One reason Haiti is so poor is because Haiti was forced to stop exporting some of their goods. Haiti used to export coffee until the 1960s when the price of coffee had dropped lower. Haiti couldn't compete with the rest of the coffee exports so they had to stop exporting coffee.

10. Another reason Haiti is so poor is because two-thirds of the citizens earn money farming crops, which could be destroyed easily by a storm or a drought. Which leads to no money.