How Did The French Revolution Affect Haiti

en a problem since Haiti became and independent nation. Because of Haiti’s rough economic start as a free nation and foreign and internal factors, Haiti was not properly set up to industrialize and be able to join a competitive free market without damage being done to the local industries that support Haiti. Before Haiti became a free, independent nation, it was sugar and coffee producing powerhouse owned by the French that relied on slave labor. By period of the French Revolution, plantations in Haiti produced more than half of all the coffee produced around the world and 40% of the sugar for France and Britain, making it a profitable colony for France. Also during this time, the population of slaves in Haiti was between 500 and 700 thousand, heavily outnumbering whites and freed blacks. Due to
President Thomas Jefferson, who was opposed to Haitian independence and frightened that the success of the revolution there would spark a similar uprising in the United States, abolished trade with Haiti, along with other world leaders in France and Spain. These policies along with an unstable government prevented Haiti from developing a system of trade with other nations and industrializing with the rest of the world. Haiti developed into a self-sustaining agricultural nation. In the 20th century, high levels of political corruption and instability along with recurrent natural disasters and underdeveloped industry have kept foreign investors away from Haiti. According to the Corruptions Percentage Index, Haiti has a score of 22, with 0 being highly corrupt and 100 being very clean. Wherever money that is earned from foreign investment lined the pockets of government officials, not back into Haiti. Haiti is a tropical island that sits on colliding tectonic plates, making it more susceptible to natural disasters like the devastating earthquake in 2010 that ruined Haitian industries and government, also frightening