Neocolonialism in Haiti

A false dichotomy is often created between formal imperial rule and the more informal (but no less iniquitous) ties of neocolonial control, through which the industrialized world still determines a country’s terms of trade, economic organization, currency values, and regional security in a supposedly postcolonial international system. 

Not long after Dessalines declared independence, French warships descended into the waters outside Post-au-Prince to pressure Haiti into agreeing to pay a huge indemnity for the French properties ‘lost’ in the revolution. In exchange, France promised to finally recognize Haiti’s sovereignty (a promise that conveniently forgets how Haitians had actually won the revolutionary war and arguably owed the French nothing).