Haiti - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Overview

Haiti officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola

Hispaniola

Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...

, in the Greater Antillean

Greater Antilles

The Greater Antilles are one of three island groups in the Caribbean. Comprising Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola , and Puerto Rico, the Greater Antilles constitute almost 90% of the land mass of the entire West Indies.-Greater Antilles in context :The islands of the Caribbean Sea, collectively known as...

archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

. Ayiti (land of high mountains) was the indigenous Taíno

Taíno people

The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is thought that the seafaring Taínos are relatives of the Arawak people of South America...

or Amerindian name for the island. The country's highest point is Pic la Selle

Pic la Selle

Pic la Selle , also called Morne La Selle, is the highest peak in Haiti with a height of 2,680 meters above sea level. The mountain is part of the Chaîne de la Selle mountain range. It is located in the Ouest administrative department....

, at 2680 metres (8,793 ft). The total area of Haiti is 27750 square kilometres (10,714 sq mi) and its capital is Port-au-Prince

Port-au-Prince

Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....

.

Unanswered Questions

Does anyone know how Haiti was going to fix their economy before the quake?

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Timeline

1492 Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

1791 Beginning of the Haitian Slave Revolution in Saint-Domingue.

1794 British troops capture Port-au-Prince in Haiti.

1804 French rule ends in Haiti. Haiti becomes the first black republic and second independent country on the American Continent after the U.S.

1806 Former leader of the Haitian Revolution, Emperor Jacques I of Haiti is assassinated after an oppressive rule.

1844 The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti.

1844 One of the most important battles of the Dominican War of Independence from Haiti takes place near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.

1935 Hurricane floods Haiti, killing over 2,000 people.

1986 Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.

1988 The St Jean Bosco massacre takes place in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

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