History

The nation of Haiti is located in the Caribbean Sea, within the Greater Antilles chain of islands. It occupies the western portion of a landmass shared with the Dominican Republic. However, the two nations are distinct in language, culture, and history. In the mid-1600s, the Haitian side of the island was colonized by the French, who cultivated vast sugarcane plantations. Consequently, the island became a hub for the trans-Atlantic slave trade, as plantation owners bought and sold people who had been abducted from West Africa. These enslaved people were then put to work in the fields of the French [...]