Treaty of Ryswick as early as 1697, Haiti was transformed into a plantation economy, complete with colonial social and political structures. The Haitian economy was established specifically to serve external markets and not to satisfy domestic economic demands. Sugar, coffee, cotton, indigo, and cocoa-all products incapable of sustaining a balanced local economy-became the primary agricultural commodities of Haiti because they fetched a profitable price for the colonialists on international markets. The slave trade was also a very profitable enterprise on and off the islands of the region. The entire economy was designed for international trade on behalf of France, as demonstrated by the fact that in 1789, for instance, nearly 500 ships of trade were registered entering and leaving the colony's ports (Bellegarde-Smith, 1990, p. 34).
In the course of French colonization of Haiti, there were about 30,000 whites and over 500,000 slaves on the island. At the apex of the Haitian socioeconomic pyramid were the white plantation owners, known as the "grands blanc," who represented a sharply divided social system between the very rich and the very poor. To maintain a thriving export market on behalf of the grands blanc, a complex militaristic political system was superimposed on an already authoritarian local government administration. This military apparatus was the genesis of what later became known as "caudillism"-a network of military chieftains with unchecked power from any legal governmental institutions. Caudillism became a central feature of Haitian's political life, and it has had a semi-permanent impact on contemporary politics in Haiti.
Haiti was racked by civil disturbances, riots, and even foreign invasions by the Spanish and British before the French occupation eventually came to an end. Finally, in December 1803, Haiti declared independence from France. But the social upheavals did not stop. Conflicts between th...