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 Haiti| Facts & Figures |
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| President: René Préval
(2006) Prime Minister:
Michèle Pierre-Louis Land area: 10,641 sq mi (27,560 sq km);
total area: 10,714 sq mi (27,750 sq km) Population (2009 est.): 9,035,536 (growth
rate: 1.8%); birth rate: 29.1/1000; infant mortality rate: 59.7/1000;
life expectancy: 60.7; density per sq km: 323
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Port-au-Prince, 1,764,000 (metro. area),
1,119,000 (city proper) Monetary unit:
Gourde More Facts & Figures |
GeographyHaiti, in the West Indies, occupies the western
third of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican
Republic. About the size of Maryland, Haiti is two-thirds mountainous,
with the rest of the country marked by great valleys, extensive plateaus,
and small plains.
GovernmentRepublic with an elected government.
HistoryExplored by Columbus on Dec. 6, 1492, Haiti's
native Arawaks fell victim to Spanish rule. In 1697, Haiti became the
French colony of Saint-Dominique, which became a leading sugarcane
producer dependent on slaves. In 1791, an insurrection erupted among the
slave population of 480,000, resulting in a declaration of independence by
Pierre-Dominique Toussaint l'Ouverture in 1801. Napoléon Bonaparte
suppressed the independence movement, but it eventually triumphed in 1804
under Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who gave the new nation the Arawak name
Haiti
. It was the world's first independent black republic.
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