The bag of Haiti by France

The Haitian revolution was, in doubt, one of the most interesting and epic events in modern history.Spread between 1791 and 1804, this moment was of course fundamental for the country itself, but also had global repercussions analyzed today.First of all, the Haitian revolution led to the creation of the first free black state of the American continent.However, this event was completely ignored by academic historians and other "authorized" narrators of the new continent, and the rest to a certain extent having regard to its importance, because these stories were always told from the point of view of the conqueror and the colonist, always with the European Cruise-Paternalist perspective.

We talk about it little but the Atlantic Ocean was at the heart of these dramatic movements of populations because it was around 13 million Africans who were transported to the Americas between the XVI and the 19th centuries to be reduced to it in what will remainprobably as the most important and the most serious transfer of population in universal history.Almost half of these Africans were intended for the Caribbean and it is no less than 40.000 new slaves per year who reached Haiti in the years immediately preceded the revolution.According to recent research, 20% of Haitian slaves were newcomers around the 1790s, a significant figure which makes it possible to revisit the Haitian revolution to the glow of the deep influence of the central African context (with its traditions and its political operations)On the history of this nation.Even more than the American and French revolutions, the Haitian revolution and its black Jacobins have placed at the center of the debate of absolutely crucial questions as if the human being had the right to have rights.As it was indeed in Haiti that humans were considered - and treated - as livestock, it is in Haiti that the defense of the rights of these humans and universal values were of vital importance and an acuity of a completely differentdimension that in the United States and France.

The birth of a nation state

Anyway, the history of the Haitian revolution - which is an integral part of the era of revolutions - was a major political moment in the history of the world which gave universalism its letters of nobility, but which allowedalso to transform what was the most profitable colony of the world into a nation challenging slavery at a time when it crushed the American continent.In this context, the French attitude was odious against the people of Haiti forced to compensate the colonizing country and the former slave owners for their "losses" suffered.Having declared his independence in 1804, Haiti underwent in the restoration of intense pressures and threats of military expeditions emanating from Louis XVIII then of Charles X aiming to force him, if necessary by force, to pay France for repairs whoseAmount was arbitrarily set at 150 million francs of the time, 10 times the sum representing the sale by Napoleon of Louisiana in 1803!Haitian President Boyer had no choice but to comply with this looting in good standing and had to sign a treaty in 1825, having under the windows of his palace a French squadron rich in 400 cannons ready to open fire on the cityin case of refusal.This sum of 150 million francs was nothing less than extortion because it represented 10 times the annual Haitian budget of the time.Moreover, the first 30 million paid under Boyer were borrowed, before the country declared bankrupt under the weight of such a colossal debt.

This was renegotiated at 90 million in 1838 under the "Treaty of Friendship", a friendship, the best proof of which was the 12 war vessels dispatched by France to force the Haitians hand.It was not until 1947 that the settlement of this illegitimate debt, accompanied by interest, was consumed with a global sum ultimately twice as important as that which had been agreed.From the top of its unworthy attitude towards Haiti, France can boast of being one of the most voracious colonial powers, and also the most arrogant for having demanded compensation from its former colony reduced in slavery while thecommon sense and that morality would have supposed the opposite.As a purpose, this tax was a permanent ball pulling down the economy and Haitian development, over the decades and centuries.It had devastating effects on the education system, health and the infrastructure of this country which could obviously not be recipient of investments which could have benefited from the population.

The triumphant narration of the history of this period has only just begun to be nuanced and the perspective of the economic implications of slavery reveals multiple and aberrant abuse.Haiti must be at the heart of the debates, and priority on the issue of repairs to damage to the enslaved colonies.

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(*) Michel Santi is macro-economist, specialist in financial markets and central banks. Il est fondateur et directeur général d'Art Trading & Finance.He has just published "Armchair 37" prefaced by Edgar Morin.He is also the author of a new work: "The will of a disillusioned economist".Its Facebook page and its Twitter thread.

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