Haiti

From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

Haiti is a country on a Caribbean island called Hispanola. The capital city of Haiti is Port-au-Prince.

It has a tropical climate, and is called in French "La Perle des Antilles" (The pearl of the Antilles), because of its natural beauty. It is very mountainous, but is no longer covered with forests, as it once was. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Haiti is divided into ten departements. There are two official languages, French and Haitian creole, or "Kweyol". The main religion is Roman Catholic, however Voodoo, derived from African folk beliefs in Benin, is still widely practised also. There are many holidays; the largest and most important is the Mardi Gras.

[edit] History

The native Arawak Amerindians - who lived in the island of Hispaniola when it was discovered by Columbus - were brutally killed by Spanish conquistadors within twenty-five years.

In the early 17th century, the French established a colony on Hispaniola, and in 1697, Spain sold to the French the western third of the island, Haiti. The French colony, based on forestry and sugar-related industries, became one of the wealthiest in the Caribbean, but only through bringing many African slaves and destroying much of the environment.

In the late 18th century, Haiti's nearly half million slaves revolted under Toussaint L'Ouverture, and after a hard and bloody struggle, became the first black republic to declare its independence in 1804. Today there are many historic monuments remembering this; one of the largest is La Citadelle Laferriere.

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Countries and territories in the Caribbean (West Indies)
Antigua and Barbuda | Bahamas | Barbados | Cuba | Dominica | Dominican Republic | Grenada | Haiti | Jamaica | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Saint Lucia | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Trinidad and Tobago
Governed by other countries: Anguilla | Aruba | British Virgin Islands | Cayman Islands | Guadeloupe | Martinique | Montserrat | Navassa Island | Netherlands Antilles | Puerto Rico | Turks and Caicos Islands | U.S. Virgin Islands