[Jourgenz]

I find the History around the Hatian revolution fascinating. I have read a few books about the Haitian revolution. It was impressive how they managed to defeat the French Colonists. After their first revolt Napolean sent one of his Generals back with 58,000 men. At the time one of the best armies in the world. And the Hatians defeated them and continued their revolution. Off course what happened afterwards is another story. But they did not get much support from the International Community. Back then there was no NGOs, UN or Bill Clinton. There is a good book about the revolution by a Cuban-French author called "The kingdom of this world" or "El Reino de ese Mundo". I can recommend it.

Some people think the Haitians got their independence to early. There could be some truth to that. They got indpendence at a time where a lot of colonies where making a lot of money. So the rest of the Caribbean got scared of the same thing happening there. In Cuba for instance they changed policy so more and more labour where either poor Spanish farmers or very cheap labour from China. I have also read that the French where more ruthless than both the British and Spanish. And there where 10 workers for each French Colonist. French Saint Domingue was one of the richest colonies in the world at the time.

Have others on the Forum read about the history of the Haitian Revolution? And dont you think a revolution would have happened sooner rather than later than it did when you think about the way the French ruled the colony? Is their independence 200 years ago the cause for a lot of the problems Haiti has today?