190041,269tons
190151,077”
190244,913”
190346,029”
190450,744”
190538,240”
190662,975”
190750,564”
190848,933”
190952,972”
1910exports44,139”
1911”37,282”
1912”32,557”
1913”31,665”
1914”47,251”
1915”49,107”
1916”55,000”[70]

SANTO DOMINGO

Haiti is divided into two unequal parts, the republic of Haiti (République d’Haiti), comprising 10,204 square miles, and the republic of Santo Domingo (República Dominicana), with an area of 19,325 square miles. It is one of the four large islands of the West Indies and lies between 17 degrees 37 minutes and 20 degrees north latitude and 68 degrees 20 minutes and 74 degrees 28 minutes west longitude. Its length from east to west is about 407 miles and its greatest width is 160 miles. The total population is 2,737,700.

The surface of the island is exceedingly mountainous, three distinct ranges traversing it from east to west. The loftiest peak, Loma Tina, near the city of Santo Domingo, reaches a height of 10,300 feet. The extensive intervening valleys are fertile and watered by numerous rivers, none of which, however, are deep enough to be navigable.

The climate is hot and humid. An average temperature for the month of January would be about 75.4 degrees Fahrenheit, for July 84 degrees, and for the year 79.2 degrees. There are no active volcanoes, but great damage is done from time to time by earthquakes and hurricanes. The yearly rainfall is abundant, averaging about 120 inches. In San Pedro de Macoris, however, where the greater part of the sugar crop of the island is grown, the annual precipitation is in the neighborhood of 60 inches. As this is not sufficient for the needs of the growing cane, the planters have to do a certain amount of irrigating, and the water for this purpose is obtained from artesian wells.

The soil of the sugar-growing territory is of porous limestone formation, which shows evidence of disturbances and upheavals due to volcanic agency. Overlying this is a deposit of decomposed vegetable matter from three to twelve inches in thickness, and there are areas where a rich black or red soil, varying from one to two feet in depth, is found.

On December 5, 1492, Columbus sighted the northern coast of Haiti and found safe anchorage there. The newly discovered island was named Española, which was afterward latinized to Hispaniola. Later still, the settlement founded by the Spaniards in the southern part under the name of Santo Domingo gave its name to the entire island. When Columbus set foot on its shores, Haiti had 2,000,000 inhabitants, who were governed by five caciques, each holding both religious and political sway over the separate kingdoms. At the outset the newcomers were received with welcome and honor, but it was not long before their tyranny caused a rupture between them and the natives. A war of extermination followed, and by 1506 the entire island had fallen into the hands of the invaders.

Left in possession of a depopulated country, the Spaniards restocked it with African negro slaves. Meanwhile the interior of the island had been explored, settlements had been established, mines opened up and progress made in agriculture. In 1506 sugar was brought in and its cultivation soon assumed important proportions. About 1625 the French and English began to give trouble to Spain in the western archipelago, and a few years later a number of Englishmen and Frenchmen, who had been expelled from St. Kitts by the Spaniards, took refuge on Tortuga island and became famous under the name of Buccaneers. They succeeded in establishing themselves in a part of Haiti, and in 1697 their right of possession was acknowledged and the territory occupied by them was ceded by Spain to France by the treaty of Ryswick. The new colony was called Saint Dominique, and it entered immediately into an era of prosperity in which the expansion of the sugar industry was the principal factor. When the French revolution broke out, the exportations of sugar amounted to 80,000 tons, and this large production necessitated the employment of a great number of slaves. The whites were few and the unequal proportion led to disaster. The population consisted of whites, free colored people (most of whom were mulattoes) and negro slaves. The mulattoes demanded the same civil rights as the white people and these privileges were accorded them in 1791. Incensed beyond measure, the whites clamored loudly for a reversal of this decree and finally obtained it. On August 23, 1791, a violent insurrection of the blacks broke out; the plantation slaves were joined by the mulattoes and a massacre of the whites followed. Those who escaped the slaughter fled, leaving all their possessions behind; the sugar plantations were destroyed and the entire sugar industry came to an abrupt end.

In 1793 Saint Dominique was attacked by England and Spain, whereupon the French government, in order to conciliate the blacks and retain its dominion over the colony, proclaimed all the slaves free. By the terms of the Peace of Bâle in 1795, the whole island passed into the hands of the French.