The earliest known inhabitants of Haiti reached the island about 2600 BC, using huge dugout canoes that allowed them to ride the current from South America and the southern tip of the Lesser Antilles north and west into the Greater Antilles. They were primarily nomadic hunter-gatherers who used stone tools and who left little behind for archaeologists to examine. A second group often referred to as the Salanoids or ancient Arawaks, reached Hispaniola about 250 BC. The group, easily traced because of their distinctive ceramics, spread throughout the Antilles.
A third migration, from Venezuela, swept through the Antilles about 2000 years ago, and by AD 700 occupied Haiti and most of the surrounding islands. This society's complex hierarchical structure allowed for specialization in fishing, worship, art and farming Cassava and sweet potato. They called themselves the Taino (friendly people), and an estimated 400,000 of them lived on Hispanola when Italian adventurer Christopher Columbus got off the ship to greet them. Folks on another island had told Columbus that there was gold to be found there, and the anxious Italian set off in the night to find it, accidentally dashing the Santa María to pieces on one of Hispaniola's famed coral reefs.
A third migration, from Venezuela, swept through the Antilles about 2000 years ago, and by AD 700 occupied Haiti and most of the surrounding islands. This society's complex hierarchical structure allowed for specialization in fishing, worship, art and farming Cassava and sweet potato. They called themselves the Taino (friendly people), and an estimated 400,000 of them lived on Hispanola when Italian adventurer Christopher Columbus got off the ship to greet them. Folks on another island had told Columbus that there was gold to be found there, and the anxious Italian set off in the night to find it, accidentally dashing the Santa María to pieces on one of Hispaniola's famed coral reefs.
The Tainos sent boats to rescue the Spanish sailors, and Columbus decided that it was God's will (it was Christmas) that the ship less crew set up a fort, La Villa de Navidad, on the site of present-day Cap-Haïtien. Although most Tainos died during the next 25 years at the hands of Spanish slave drivers (or Spanish viruses), their contributions to the world - barbecue, tobacco, canoe and hammock are all Taino words - live on.
By 1519, the gold mines were empty and the Tainos all but extinct, so the Spanish came up with a new racket - importing Africans as slave labor and growing sugarcane. By 1568, more than 20,000 slaves were doing the Spaniards' work for them. As the 1600s began, the French, Spanish and English were at each other's throats, but the Spanish citizens on the western end of Hispaniola continued trading with the crown's enemies despite the king's displeasure. The troops were sent in and those treasonous areas depopulated. The French traders shrugged and moved into the empty towns, further frustrating Spain's ambitions.
Between 1669 and 1679, a hurricane, a smallpox epidemic and an outright war between France and Spain convinced Spanish colonists that there would have to be a compromise, and they agreed to let the French settlements grow, but only on the western third of the island. Spain established a border in 1731, amended in a treaty with France in 1777, creating the territory of Saint-Domingue.
Mulattos, the children of white masters and African slaves, were technically free but treated as second-class citizens by the white minority. Their call for equality was echoed in the slave community, who made up the vast majority of the population. The Spanish on the other side of the island supported the slaves' call for independence, presumably so they could take advantage of the upcoming civil war to reclaim the western part of the island for Spain. The French were not amused.
Then, at the May 1803 Congress of Arcahaie, rebel leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines grabbed the French tricolor flag of blue, white and red, and tore the white out of it, declaring that he would rip the white man out of the country. Dessalines flew the new flag over victory after victory while his tactical genius and bloodthirsty methods became legendary. On January 1, 1804, Dessalines declared independence for Haiti. It was the first black-led republic in the modern world.
The republic didn't last long. Dessalines soon crowned himself emperor, ratified a constitution that gave him absolute power and began patrolling the countryside exterminating those white persons foolish enough to stay on his side of the island. The European powers took note of the pogrom and isolated the new country economically. This only solidified Dessalines' position as leader. However, when he imposed a military decree that forced many blacks back onto the plantation he was ambushed and assassinated.
A civil war between rivals for the presidential power vacuum, President Henri Christophe (he'd been unanimously elected by the assembly, but denied Dessalines' dictatorial powers, so he rejected the post) and General Alexandre Pétion immediately ensued. Christophe declared himself king over the northern province, and proved a fairly capable dictator. He established a stable currency, built several palaces, including the Citadelle - at that time quite the engineering marvel - and appointed several dukes, duchesses, barons and princes to complete his European-style fairy tale.
Pétion was elected president in the south, his powers severely curtailed by the democratic laws he had championed. In 1808, frustrated, he suspended the senate. While Christophe struggled to keep the plantation system intact, Pétion divided the land into small subsistence plots for blacks, earning the nickname 'Papa Bon-Coeur' (Papa Good-Heart), although he held back the lion's share of the land for himself and his mulatto supporters. He also started the first school in Port-au-Prince, Lycée Pétion, as well as providing asylum for revolutionary leader Simón Bolívar.
As popular as Pétion's policies were, however, they strangled foreign investment, destroyed the plantation system (the basis of Haiti's economy) and created a two-tiered society of subsistance-farming blacks and middle-class mulattos that remains a source of tension today.
When Pétion died in 1818, Jean-Pierre Boyer succeeded him as president for life. Christophe was assassinated soon after, and Boyer quickly reunified the country. Taking advantage of a civil war in Santo Domingo, Boyer annexed the rest of Hispaniola in 1821 (the eastern end of the island stayed under Haitian control until 1849, when it declared independence as the Dominican Republic). Boyer used public money freely, went into debt with hated France and eventually fled the country. Of the 22 heads of state that followed between 1843 and 1915, only one served out his entire term; the rest were assassinated or forced into exile.
Haiti's proximity to the strategically important Windward Passage, which separates it from Cuba, became more important after the opening of the Panama Canal turned the channel into a major shipping lane. When Haitian President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam was killed by an angry mob in 1915, the USA saw the opportunity for absolute military control of the passage...er.to help stabilize Haiti in accordance with the Monroe Doctrine. US troops seized Haiti's gold deposits, revamped the constitution and disbanded the army, replacing it with a US police force. US troops also implemented several public works; building hospitals, clinics and roads, but the use of forced prison labor to do it didn't win them any popularity points with the locals.
The Cacos Rebellions against the US occupation climaxed with a revolt led by Charlemagne Pérault in the north and Benoît Batraville in the south; US reinforcements brutally quashed the rebellion. Thousands died. The Americans were dealing directly with the mulatto upper classes, and the defeated blacks began looking to the philosophy of Noirisme (roughly, 'Blackism') inspired in part by the 1928 book Ainsi para l'oncle (Thus Spoke the Uncle) by Jean-Price Mars. By taking pride in Haitian culture and reclaiming the much-maligned Vodou religion, the black population found inspiration for semi-peaceful resistance and a champion of their own cultural identity, popular rabble-rouser Dr François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier.