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Why Haiti Is So Dangerous And The Dominican Republic Is Thriving
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Mar 31, 2025
Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Two countries that share an island, and little else. Because while Haiti has been making international headlines of late surrounding its current anarchy, the Dominican Republic is an otherwise pretty wealthy and stable country that makes for a lovely tropical vacation. So why are these two countries so incredibly different? Let's find out!
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You could say that Haiti has been an unlucky country in recent decades
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But while some luck is involved, the current state of Haiti can be tracked back to the long
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incredibly sad history of how the country got its start. But what's perhaps more remarkable in all of this is that Haiti shares its island with the
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Dominican Republic, an otherwise pretty safe, wealthy, and stable country. Here's why Haiti is in such a bad state, and the Dominican Republic is actually pretty good
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Welcome to Geography by Jeff. Today we're off to the Caribbean to look at the island of Hispaniola
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the home of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. While the two countries share a relatively small island
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their current situations could not be more different. Haiti has descended into what can only be described as an anarchic state
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whereas the Dominican Republic is actually pretty safe. And we're going to explore why that might be in today's episode
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But before we get to the video, if you enjoy my channel, be sure to check out my podcast, Geography is Everything
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Each week, we tackle a different subject and explore it through the lens of geography
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Despite sharing the same island, Haiti and the Dominican Republic are very different from each
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other in almost every way. And many of these differences today stem from the two countries
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split colonial history. You see, the island of Hispaniola was first landed on by Christopher
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Columbus in 1492. In fact, Columbus would actually set foot on what is today the northwest coast of
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Haiti. And because Columbus was funded by the Spanish monarchy, he would claim the entire island
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for Spain, despite there already being a number of indigenous peoples living on the island
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Despite being claimed by Spain, the Spanish colonial efforts would never really focus on
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the island of Hispaniola. Instead, Spain would treat it more as a backwater outpost to resupply
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Spain's more lucrative colonies in Central and South America. And because of this, a smaller
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unofficial French outpost would take up on the western half of the island, which Spain had
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largely ignored. After French colonizers had success growing tobacco on their side of the island
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many more French settlers began moving in, creating conflict with the Spanish who claimed
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the island to be theirs. In 1697, as part of the Treaty of Ricewife, which ended the Nine Years
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War in Europe Hispaniola was officially split between France on the western part of the island and Spain on the east From this point on the two halves of Hispaniola would drift farther and farther apart You see in the early 1700s France was a far wealthier colonizer than Spain
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and because of this, France imported hundreds of thousands of slaves to the island of Hispaniola
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over the course of just a few decades. By 1788, Haiti's population consisted of about 25,000 French citizens
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22,000 free multiracial peoples, and over 700,000 slaves. By contrast, in the colony that would become the Dominican Republic, there were approximately 38,000 Spanish citizens, 38,000 free multiracial peoples, and fewer than 15,000 slaves
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And this disparity in the amount of slaves would directly lead to Haiti becoming one of the wealthiest colonies in the world, and the wealthiest colony in the French colonial empire
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By 1800, Haiti accounted for fully half of France's foreign profit due to its sugar plantations, which were only so profitable because of the slave labor involved
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In the early 1800s, after many bloody battles, the enslaved Haitians would win their freedom
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But while victorious and now free, the repercussions would last well into today
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Haiti, being a former slave colony that revolted and won its freedom, would be ostracized by both European and American government and business interests
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who didn't want a former slave colony to succeed and give ideas to other regions around the world
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American President Thomas Jefferson, for example, would outright refuse to recognize the new country
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In order to eventually gain recognition, Haiti would agree to pay France 150 million francs
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a debt that it was never able to fully repay, but would irreparably damage the economic prospects of the new country
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On the other side of the island, the Spanish colony would remain relatively benign through much of this period
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And because it wasn't really managed all that much by Spain, the newly independent Haiti would actually take over the entire island of Hispaniola
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from 1822 to 1844. And during this rule, Haiti would tax the Dominican side of the island heavily in order to repay its French debt
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This would inevitably lead to a second war for independence on the island, only this time from Haiti
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By 1856, the Dominican Republic was its own country, and the two halves of the island were finally settled
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Haiti and the Dominican Republic are the product of two separate colonies and the way they manage their respective colonies
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And because of these separate histories, we can largely see the reason for why the two countries are the way they are today But before we get to how all this played out over the coming decades if you enjoying this video hit that subscribe button More geography videos are just a single click away
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While much of what we're talking about in this video has to do with history and politics
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it can't be understated that the two countries are not the same in terms of geography
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despite sharing a singular island. And this has played into the already stark differences
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between the two. You see, Haiti exists on the western side of the island, and the Dominican
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Republic is on the eastern side, and separating the two is a series of mountain ranges that
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effectively split the country in half geographically. On the eastern Dominican side, storms
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blow in from the east bringing rain and precipitation to create lush and verdant tropical forests
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But because of the mountain range, Haiti exists in somewhat of a rain shadow wherein much of
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that rain and precipitation doesn't actually make it over to them. This means that Haiti
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is actually quite dry relative to its island neighbor. And this has had a huge detrimental effect on the land itself
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When it was a French slave colony, France embarked on a massive deforestation plan
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in order to ship lumber back on the various slave ships that brought over Africans. And because Haiti is much drier
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it simply hasn't been able to regrow its forests in the same way that the Dominican side can
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At the same time, Haiti is the unlucky home of the Enrique Lo Fault
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which caused numerous large earthquakes during the mid-1800s and was the cause of the 2010 and 2021 earthquakes
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that struck the major population centers of Haiti. The Dominican Republic does host its own fault
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but that specific fault has been much less active and runs through a region of the Dominican Republic
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that has far fewer people. There's no single event that you can point to
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as to why Haiti has devolved into such a mess today. Unfortunately, it really has been a consistent
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and oddly well-timed number of natural and human-made catastrophes that have been building to this point
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In the early 1900s, due to owning great sums of money to France, Germany, and the United States
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the country was ill-equipped to provide basic services to its citizens. And because of this
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frequent rebellions and governmental coups would occur. So much so that the United States
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in order to protect its business interests, would occupy Haiti beginning in 1915
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under a quasi-military dictatorship. And while the U.S. occupation would bring infrastructure
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and a centralized form of government to the city of Port-au-Prince, it would do so using forced labor by Haitians the U would eventually leave in 1934 but that would just set off a series of ruthless dictatorships Then in 2010 the country was struck by a 7
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earthquake near Port-au-Prince. And because of wild mismanagement by previous rulers, the country was ill-prepared to deal with such a large earthquake. Buildings came crumbling down
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and an estimated 300,000 Haitians are thought to have perished. Despite international aid from the
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U.S. and many other countries, Haiti would struggle to rebuild. In July 2021, the last elected president
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of Haiti was assassinated. This would be followed shortly after yet another devastating earthquake
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that would hit the southwest part of the country. With two major catastrophes so close to one
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another, the country sunk into its current state where there is no elected president
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no functioning parliament, and a barely functioning court system. In fact, much of Haiti today
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is run by various gangs. Today, the two countries really couldn't be more different from each other's in terms of stability and wealth
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And while the Dominican Republic has had its own dealings with dictatorships in the past, its end result has been much different
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The Dominican Republic has been able to diversify its economy and bring in a lot more money than its neighbor
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As of 2022, the Dominican Republic had a GDP of about $255 billion
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Meanwhile, Haiti had a GDP of about $34 billion. That's an incredible difference
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And while you might think that it's due to the population of each, it really isn't
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Again, as of 2022, the Dominican Republic was home to approximately 10.7 million people
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and Haiti was home to 11.3 million people. By most economic measures, the two countries should have a fairly similar GDP
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But Haiti has never been able to cobble together a functioning government in the same way that
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the Dominican Republic has. And this has led to new economies springing up in the Dominican Republic, such as a vast
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tourism industry that has simply never really materialized in Haiti. Haiti and the Dominican
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Republic share an island today, and that's about the only similarity between the two of them
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Haiti, at this point, is not a functioning state, whereas you could go to the Dominican Republic
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and have a pretty nice trip. Hopefully, Haiti will get there someday too. I hope you enjoyed
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learning about Haiti and the Dominican Republic and why they're so different. If you did
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please subscribe to my channel. And if you want to watch more of my videos, you can do so here
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