Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
United States because it would place a potential European
enemy in relative proximity.
Between 1849 and 1915, the United States Navy sent warships
to Haiti on twenty-six occasions to extract debt payments
from reluctant Haitian governments and to prevent the British,
French, and Germans from gaining a greater foothold. After
the fall of President An toine Simon in 1910, six Haitian leaders
seized power during the next four years, four of whom were
killed in office. In December 1914, following news of additional
caco revolts, a United States ship entered Port-au-Prince,
removed US$500,000 from the Haitian Bank, a sum that the
United States claimed it was due, and deposited it in the
National City Bank of New York. This action was regarded as a
significant affront by Haitians.
The event that caused the United States Marines to invade
Haiti occurred on July 27, 1915. Seeing that his downfall was
imminent, President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam ordered the killing
of 167 political prisoners in the national penitentiary and
then sought refuge in the French embassy. However, an irate
crowd stormed the embassy, dragged Guillaume Sam out,
pulled him apart, and then paraded parts of him through the
streets. The next day, the United States deployed 330 marines
aboard the USS Washington to protect its citizens, stabilize the
Haitian government, and secure United States financial interests.
The United States Marines remained in Haiti for the next
nineteen years.
The marines took rapid control of Haiti. They imposed martial
law, disbanded the Haitian army, installed Philippe Sudre
Dartiguenave, a mulatto from an elite family, in the presidency,
and then appointed lesser officials.
On September 15, 1915, the marines announced complete
political and administrative control of Haiti. A treaty, the Haitian-American
Convention, decreed that United States citizens
would collect customs and oversee all government outlays,
approve all debt requests, advise the treasury, direct public
works and health programs, and launch an agricultural training
campaign. Article 10 decreed that the United States would
create and head a new constabulary. Not surprisingly, Haitians
resented this treaty, which was originally to be in force for ten
years but which, in March 1917, was extended for another ten
years.
The marines also changed the Haitian constitution. After
the Haitian congress refused the first draft proposed, the
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