Haiti Research - Assignment Example

Later on, the Haitians had an election and Duvalier rose to power as their president but unluckily, he turned out to be a great dictator an a ruthless leader (Cerda et al. 4). His reign was characterized by massive killings, embezzlement of funds, and corruption in every sector of the government. Due to this kind of leadership, the citizen suffered a lot as they became poorer with time. Development projects could not start, nor continue, since the government of Haiti could not afford the finances required.

Unfortunately, in the year 2010, a high magnitude earthquake struck the country and led to massive destruction of property, death of many people and left a great number of Haitians homeless (Cerda et al. 7). This research paper shows the relationship between what happened during the early days in Haiti, and the aftermath of the great earthquake, connecting it to the current situation of this country. Haiti and France had a settlement deal in 1928, which demanded Haiti to repay a large amount of money to the French Government (Cerda et al. 11). Haiti was a very poor country by then and could not afford the money as demanded.

The France however demanded that it had to be repaid this money it in order for it to identify the country’s independence, which it had attained in the year 1804 (Cruise 2). Additionally, the French government required Haiti to compensate it since it had lost a very important slavery colony, and most of their soldiers had died in the wars. Haiti government found trouble repaying this large amount of money (which amounted to 150 million francs) as it had no finances left (Cerda et al. 6). Fortunately, the France Government reduced the amount to 60 million francs, which had to be repaid in a period of thirty years.

Boyer, who was the president of Haiti by then, made a very large first payment to France in order for them to recognize Haiti’s independence (Cruise 5). The payment led to economic problems in Haiti during