Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti (République d’Haïti), formerly founded as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, It occupies the western three-eighths of the island which it shares with the Dominican Republic. To its south-west lies the small island of Navassa Island, which is claimed by Haiti but is disputed as a United States territory under federal administration.
The island was originally inhabited by the indigenous Taíno people, who migrated from South America. The first Europeans arrived on 5 December 1492 during the first voyage of Christopher Columbus. The island was claimed by Spain and named La Española. Competing claims and settlements by the French led to the western portion of the island being ceded to France in 1697, which was subsequently named Saint-Domingue.
During the French Revolution, slaves and free people of color launched the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804). After 12 years of conflict, Napoleon Bonaparte’s forces were defeated by Jean-Jacques Dessalines who declared Haiti’s sovereignty on 1 January 1804 —the first independent nation of Latin America and the Caribbean, the second republic in the Americas, the first country to abolish slavery, and the only state in history established by a successful slave revolt.
After a brief period in which the country was split in two, President Jean-Pierre Boyer united the country and then attempted to bring the whole of Hispaniola under Haitian control, precipitating a long series of wars that ended in the 1870s when Haiti formally recognized the independence of the Dominican Republic.
Political volatility and foreign economic influence in the country prompted the U.S. to occupy the country from 1915 to 1934. In 1956, François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier took power, ushering in a long period of autocratic rule that was continued until 1986. Since 1986 Haiti has been attempting to establish a more democratic political system.
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