External debt of Haiti

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The external debt of Haiti is a notable and controversial national debt which mostly stems from an outstanding 1825 compensation to former slavers of the French colonial empire and later 20th century corruptions.

The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in Europe allowed rebel Haitian slaves to overpower French colonial rule and gain independence in the 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution. The restored French monarchy, supported by European monarchies, sent the 1825 French expedition to Haiti to demand, with military menace, massive compensations: Haiti had to repay the French government and former slaveholders the modern equivalent of US$105 billion, later reduced to US$21 billion for the loss of massively profitable slave-plantation assets and revenues. This price for independence was financed by French banks and the American Citibank, and finally paid off in 1947.

Later, the corrupt Duvalier dynasty added to the country's debts. The Duvaliers are believed to have used the money to expand their power and for their personal enrichment. In the early 21st century, and especially after the devastating earthquake in 2010, the World Bank and some other governments had planned to forgive the debt. Instead, remaining parts of Haiti's debt repayments were postponed. France forgave a more recent loan with a balance of US$77 million, but has refused to consider repaying the independence debt.

These debts are denounced as the root of contemporary Haiti's poverty and a case of odious debt, debt forced upon a population with abusive force. In 2022, The New York Times published a dedicated investigative series on that matter.^[1]