Xenophobia and Economic Decline
The Haitian Case, 1820-1843
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8870461 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert K Lacerte (Whitworth University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1981 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 499-515 |
| Publication date | 1981-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Americas A Quarterly Review of Latin American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-1615 • E-ISSN: 1533-6247 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/980837 |
| OpenAlex | W2333219992 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 4 |
The international situation in which the early Haitian republic found itself between 1820 and 1843 aggravated its internal problems and precipitated its economic decline. The economic structure of the new country had been weakened by the destruction of the colonial sugar plantations during the war of liberation against France (1791-1804). It proved impossible to resurrect these in the republican era, because of the lack of capital and the unwillingness of the ex-slaves to return to plantation life. They wanted property of their own, and this insistence forced successive governments to distribute land to them. Only Henri Christophe, who ruled the North as a kingdom (1806-1820), succeeded in maintaining the old system through forced labor; an experiment which died with him. Dramatic as these changes were, however, they were not sufficient to prevent the resurgence of a new economy based on coffee; a crop which was well suited to peasant cultivation. The shift towards coffee exports had begun in the last years of the colonial era and accelerated in the years after 1804. An economy of smallholders engaged in the cultivation of coffee and provisions existing alongside the remaining plantations could have provided a modest foundation for economic growth. Alexandre Pétion, the first president of Haiti (1806-1818), had envisioned this possibility and it was one of the reasons which he gave for carrying out the first land reform in Latin America. Haiti was a major exporter of coffee in the first half of the nineteenth century, and there were a number of foreign merchants already present in the country to purchase the crop. Instead of economic prosperity, the years after 1820 witnessed an economic decline which made the first black nation virtually ungovernable after 1843 save by the rule of caudillos
Ancient history · Capital (architecture · Colonialism · Development economics · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Latin Americans · Peasant · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Xenophobia · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Cuban History and Society · History · Law
Jean-Jacques Dessalines et les défis économiques au lendemain de l’indépendance
Intolerance, xenophobia and cross-border supermarket groups’ operations in South Africa
The Metropolitan Connection
Immigrés guadeloupéens et martiniquais en Haïti dans le regard des consuls français (1848-1900)
Accidental socialism
Savages in the midst’
The Haitian Political Situation and its Effect on the Dominican Republic
What the Haitian Revolution Might Tell Us about Development, Security, and the Politics of Race
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,19 |
| Citation span | 1984 - 2025 (42) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |