Chiefdom Of Haiti

Haiti
Haiti, formally known as the Republic of Haiti, is a Caribbean nation ruled by Michel Martelly. Christopher Columbus discovered Haiti in 1492 during his first voyage to the New World. It was inhabited by the Taíno, or Arawakan people. Columbus quickly claimed the island and named it La Isla Española, or "the Spanish island". The name was later Latinized to "Hispaniola".
Before the arrival of Columbus, Arawak migrants had already been arriving from the Orinoco delta in South America. They were organized into cacicazgos or chiefdoms. Each chiefdom lead by cacique or chief. They called the island Quisqueya, meaning "mother of all lands", and Ayiti, meaning "land of high mountains". By the time Columbus arrived, there were five chiefdoms:
It was built from the remains of his wrecked ship, the Santa Maria, during his first voyage in 1492. When he returned in 1493, he found the town had been destroyed and all of its settlers killed. After the loss of his first settlement, he continued east and founded a new settlement called La Isabela.
After the arrival of the Europeans in the 1500s, the population of La Hispaniola was near extinction. Many hypothesize that the depopulation was due to Old World diseases that the natives had no immunity to. Only a few Taínos were able to survive and set up villages. Spanish interest began to grow in Hispaniola due to the growing deposits of gold and silver were found in Mexico and South America. The population of Hispaniola began to grow at a slow pace thereafter.
The Spanish started arriving in 1502, building a colony at Yaguana. In less than a century, their colony had been burnt down three times. First in 1543 by French pirates, again by a 110 man party from a 4 ship English squadron on May 27, 1592, and the last time by the Spanish themselves. The reason for the last burning was because of trade. After the Spanish banned trade to the Netherlands, Spanish American colonists began trading with them. These colonists lived on the remote coasts of Hispaniola. In 1605, when Spain found out, they decided to force their inhabitants closer to the capital of the country and away from the coasts where the illegal
Haiti became a successful French colony. From forestry and sugar, Haiti became one of the richest countries in the Caribbean. African slaves were brought there to work on sugar, tobacco and coffee plantations. A slave uprising led to Haitian independence in 1804. Haiti was the first black republic to declare independence.
Haiti has had political violence for most of its history. Haiti went through a series of occupations by the U.S. , and been ruled by dictators François “Papa Doc” Duvalier and “Baby Doc,” his son. During that time, an 30,000 Haitians were killed for being rebels against the Duvalier rule. The country had a few months of democratic rule with President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was overthrown in a sudden seizure of the government that led to help by the United Nations. Their help still continues today. In 2008 Haiti was hit by four tropical storms, which severely damaged the roads, farms, and other means of travel and agriculture. Then on January 12th, 2010 a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti. The earthquake was classified as the worst over the last 200