• Slavery – As a French colony, Haiti experienced the most brutal form of slavery in the Caribbean – one that permanently affected the people’s ability to develop as an independent country.
• Boycott – After Haiti’s slaves won independence, other nations that continued to use slavery (U.S., Britain and other European countries), refused to recognize or do business with the new country.
• Debt - For 85 years, Haiti’s economic progress was stifled by a massive debt imposed by France as reparations for taking over previously French-owned lands.
• U.S. Occupation - From 1915 to 1938, U.S. Marines occupied Haiti, during which time local development was virtually non-existent.
• Dictators - For many years, brutal dictators (i.e., Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier) enriched themselves at the expense of Haiti’s large peasant population.

 
As a result of these and many other factors, Haiti remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest in the world.