History19.45° N · 72.69° W
The first free Black republic.
In 1804, people who had been enslaved won their freedom and founded a nation, the second independent country in the Americas. Haiti’s story is one of courage against long odds. Scroll the timeline, or pick a year, to follow it across the map.
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1400s
Ayiti
Ayiti, the land of mountains
The Taíno people called their island Ayiti, often translated “land of high mountains.” They lived in chiefdoms across the island long before Europeans arrived. Haiti would take back their name at independence.
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1492
Môle Saint-Nicolas
Columbus lands
On December 6, 1492, Christopher Columbus landed at Môle Saint-Nicolas on the island’s northwest tip. Within a generation, the Taíno population had collapsed under forced labor, violence and disease.
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1697
Cap-Français
Saint-Domingue
The Treaty of Ryswick gave France the western third of the island. As Saint-Domingue, it became the richest colony in the world, built on sugar, coffee and the forced labor of hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans.
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1791
Plaine du Nord
The uprising
In August 1791, enslaved men and women on the plantations of the Northern Plain rose up. It was the start of the only revolution in history in which enslaved people overthrew slavery and founded their own state.
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1801
Ennery
Toussaint Louverture
A formerly enslaved coachman became the revolution’s great general and governor of the colony. In 1801 he issued a constitution that abolished slavery for good. Captured by the French in 1802, he died in prison in France in 1803.
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1803
Vertières
The Battle of Vertières
On November 18, 1803, the revolutionary army defeated Napoleon’s forces near Cap-Français. The French withdrew from the colony weeks later.
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1804
Gonaïves
Independence
On January 1, 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed independence at Gonaïves and gave the nation its Taíno name: Haiti. Haitians still celebrate every New Year’s Day with soup joumou, the squash soup once kept from the enslaved.
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1805
Milot
The Citadelle
King Henri Christophe built the Citadelle Laferrière on a mountaintop above Milot to defend the new nation. It is the largest fortress in the Americas and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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1825
Port-au-Prince
The price of recognition
In 1825, under threat of warships, France demanded 150 million francs (later cut to 90 million) for recognizing Haiti’s independence, as payment for lost “property.” Haiti paid it, and the loans taken to pay it, for well over a century.
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1915
Port-au-Prince
Occupation
The United States occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934, taking control of its finances and customs.
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1957
Port-au-Prince
The years of leaving
Under the Duvalier dictatorships (1957–1986), many Haitians fled. The first large communities formed in New York, Montréal and Miami, followed by those who crossed the sea by boat to South Florida.
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1987
Ayiti
Kreyòl, an official language
The 1987 constitution made Haitian Creole, the language every Haitian speaks, an official language alongside French.
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2010
Léogâne
The earthquake
On January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck near Léogâne, west of Port-au-Prince. Estimates of the dead range from about 100,000 to more than 300,000. Days later, the United States granted Haitians already there Temporary Protected Status.
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2016
Les Anglais
Hurricane Matthew
In October 2016, a Category 4 hurricane tore across the southern peninsula, around Les Anglais, Jérémie and Les Cayes, destroying homes and harvests.
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2021
Nippes
A year of shocks
In July 2021, President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated. In August, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the south near Nippes, killing more than 2,000 people.
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2026
Port-au-Prince
Today
Armed groups control most of Port-au-Prince, more than a million people are displaced, and in the United States, Haitians have lost Temporary Protected Status. Haiti’s story is still being written, and its people keep hoping.
L’union fait la force.Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica; UNESCO World Heritage Centre; Constitution of Haiti (1987), Art. 5; USGS earthquake reports (2010, 2021); The New York Times, “The Ransom” (2022); Council on Foreign Relations.