Haiti occupies the western third of Hispaniola, sharing the island with the Dominican Republic along a 376-kilometer border. The country covers 27,750 square kilometers, making it slightly smaller than Belgium. Two peninsulas define the landmass: the northern peninsula extending toward Cuba across the Windward Passage, and the southern Tiburon Peninsula creating the Gulf of Gonâve between them. Gonâve Island sits in this gulf, covering 689 square kilometers as Haiti's largest offshore territory. The terrain rises sharply from coastal plains to two primary mountain ranges. The Massif du Nord dominates the north, while the Massif de la Selle extends through the south, culminating at Pic la Selle, which reaches 2,680 meters and stands as the highest point in Haiti. The Artibonite River, at 320 kilometers, drains the central plateau and represents the longest river on Hispaniola.
Haiti declared independence on January 1, 1804, becoming the first Black republic and the second independent nation in the Americas after the United States. The Haitian Revolution began in August 1791 with a Vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman in the northern plains, where enslaved people coordinated the uprising that would end French colonial rule. Dutty Boukman, a Vodou priest, and Cécile Fatiman, a Vodou priestess, led this ceremony. The revolution lasted thirteen years. Toussaint Louverture commanded revolutionary forces until French troops captured him in 1802 and imprisoned him in France, where he died in 1803. Jean-Jacques Dessalines then led forces to final victory at the Battle of Vertières in November 1803, proclaimed independence, and became Haiti's first ruler, taking the title of emperor. The revolution killed approximately 100,000 enslaved people, 24,000 French soldiers, and 12,000 white colonists. Haiti's existence as a free Black nation in a world of slavery and colonialism shaped its subsequent isolation and the indemnity France imposed in 1825, demanding 150 million francs in exchange for recognition, a debt Haiti paid until 1947.
Henri Christophe, who declared himself king of northern Haiti in 1811, constructed the Citadelle Laferrière between 1805 and 1820 on the summit of Bonnet a L'Eveque mountain, 900 meters above sea level near Cap-Haïtien. The fortress required the labor of 20,000 workers, many of whom died during construction. The structure measures 108 meters long, rises to heights of 40 meters at its tallest walls, and contains space for 5,000 soldiers with provisions for a one-year siege. Christophe also built Sans-Souci Palace in the town of Milot as his royal residence, modeled after European palaces. UNESCO designated both structures, along with the surrounding Ramiers fortifications, as a World Heritage Site in 1982. The Citadelle remains the largest fortress in the Americas. The 1842 earthquake damaged Sans-Souci severely, leaving it partially ruined, but the Citadelle survived with minimal damage.
The United States occupied Haiti from July 1915 to August 1934, deploying Marines after the assassination of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam. American forces took control of Haiti's customs houses, treasury, and police force. The occupation built 1,700 kilometers of roads and improved some infrastructure but ruled through martial law, censored the press, and reinstated forced labor systems. Charlemagne Péralte led a guerrilla resistance movement called the Cacos Rebellion from 1918 to 1920, with fighting that killed approximately 2,000 Haitians before Marines assassinated Péralte in November 1919. The occupation ended in 1934 under President Franklin Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy, though the United States maintained financial control until 1947.
François Duvalier, known as Papa Doc, governed Haiti from 1957 until his death in 1971, establishing a dictatorship enforced by the Tonton Macoutes, a paramilitary force that killed an estimated 30,000 to 60,000 Haitians. His son Jean-Claude Duvalier, known as Baby Doc, succeeded him and ruled from 1971 to 1986, when popular uprisings forced him into exile. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a Catholic priest, won Haiti's first democratic election in December 1990 with 67 percent of votes but served only seven months before a military coup removed him in September 1991. International intervention restored him to power in 1994, but constitutional term limits prevented immediate re-election. He won again in 2000 but left office in 2004 amid a rebellion and pressure from the United States and France. Jovenel Moïse, elected president in 2016, was assassinated in his private residence in Port-au-Prince on July 7, 2021, by a group of foreign mercenaries, primarily Colombian nationals. Haiti has not held elections since, leaving the country without elected officials as of 2024.