Haiti, a small island nation, is located in the beautiful Caribbean Sea. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola, which was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Within 25 years of this discovery, the Spanish completely wiped out the population of Arawak Amerindians, called the Taino Indians, who were the original inhabitants of the island. France later took possession of the western part of the island, which today constitutes Haiti. For over 100 years, the French colony imported African slaves to work on the lucrative forestry and sugar industries until, after a long struggle, the slaves won independence from France in 1804, the first republic to do so. Next year, Haitians will celebrate two hundred years of freedom from colonial rule.

Mountains cover three-quarters of Haiti. In Taino, the land is called Ayiti, which means "place of high mountains." The climate is mostly tropical, with some semiarid areas. The majority of its citizens lives in rural areas and depends on small-scale subsistence agriculture to survive. French and Creole are the official languages.