ABSTRACT
The beginnings of underdevelopment in Haiti lay in the era of French colonization during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. At the end of the seventeenth century, the French gained control over the western third of Hispaniola from Spain. They renamed the territory Saint-Domingue, and like the Spanish before them, saw enormous possibilities for wealth in agricultural production for export. The slave revolution ended colonialism and slavery and gained Haiti its independence. The French implemented a system of indentured service on the plantations by using French nationals as their principal source of labor. The planter class tried to lessen its dependence on the French merchant bourgeoisie by engaging in illegal trading with the United States, and at times, rebelling against the monopolistic policies of the French government. The recourse of the French planters to the British demonstrated their inability to rule in the colony without foreign military support.
