Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Haiti: Historical Setting
yielded less and less. Payments to France emptied the federal
reserves, and the national treasury was chronically in default.
Presidents appealed to foreign countries for loans and help to
stay in power. A new and lucrative business emerged: coupmaking.
German merchants funded rebellions on speculation,
and Haitian mercenaries, known as cacos, carried out the
coups.
Interspersed among these short-lived presidencies were a
few longer-lasting dictatorships in which black leaders were
manipulated by elite mulatto politicians or merchants. Another
phenomenon was a growing rivalry between Liberal (mulatto)
and National (black) parties.
The life of most Haitians was dismal. As late as 1915, more
than 90 percent of the population was illiterate. The average
annual income was only US$20. Not only were people poor, but
tropical diseases such as malaria, hookworm, yaws, and intestinal
infections were endemic, leading to high mortality rates.
The presidency of Charles Riviere-Herard (1843-44) was cut
short because of international and domestic difficulties. In
March 1844, Herard returned from a failed effort to take Santo
Domingo to diminished support. Two months later, bands of
peasants called piquets (a term derived from the stakes they carried
as weapons) overthrew Herard at the behest of an army
officer, Louis Jean-Jacques Acaau, who demanded an end to
mulatto rule.
As property values declined, politics became more lucrative.
Between 1844 and 1849, mulattoes in the Senate, including
Beaubrun Ardouin and his brothers, ruled behind the scenes,
installing a series of black leaders and taking the profit. The
first was the eighty-seven-year-old Philippe Guerrier (1844-45),
who had been a member of the peerage under Christophe. In
short order, he was succeeded by Jean-Louis Pierrot (1845-46)
and Jean-Bap tiste Riche (1846-47).
The fourth mulatto presidential choice, Faustin Soulouque
(1847-59), was a little-known black from the Presidential
Guard, whom the Ardouin brothers had selected. Soulouque
was ambitious and ruthless. After arresting, exiling, and killing
his sponsors, he established a secret police force, the zinglins, to
terrorize adversaries; he used piquets to frighten the merchants
of Port-au-Prince and then executed the piquet leader, who had
become too powerful.
A year after taking office, Soulouque crowned himself
Emperor Faustin I. Perhaps fear of foreigners prompted his
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