Haitian Engagement Diamond Fashion Rings 68

Haitian Engagement Diamond Fashion Rings.

By Samina Aamir. 

A Brief History of Haiti

Haiti is a Francophone nation occupying the western portion of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. Its capital is Port-au-Prince.

Spanish Discovery

Christopher Columbus first discovered Hispaniola in 1492. Following this, the Spanish endeavoured to bring Spanish civilisation to the island, mainly via the process of wiping out the native Taino population and replacing them with Spaniards. The native Taino where decimated by massacre, starvation and disease, to the extent that a population in excess of over 400,000 was almost completely wiped out by the 1530s.

French Colonisation

The Spanish failed to establish their rule over the west of Hispaniola however, and by 1606 had abandoned the area. From 1630, English, Dutch and French pirates began using the Isle of Tortuga, off the north western coast of Hispaniola, as a base for their larcenous activities before expanding onto the nearby coast and founding the city of Hospital. For many years, the area became infamous as a den of thieves, murderers and prostitutes, and generally given a wide berth by honest merchantmen.

The Spanish attempted to retake the land that they 

had abandoned, but were repulsed, and under the Treaty of Ryswick, the Spanish relinquished their claims over Western Hispaniola to the French. The French established settlements in Ester and Gonaives. The French colonial administration was for a while content to allow the French flibustiers (pirates) to remain in Hospital, viewing them as useful deterrent for English encroachments in the area, but by 1707, began to view them as a liability. The French governor Choiseul-Beaupre forced the Hospital for which the settlement was named to close and most of the inhabitants either left or became farmers. The area was renamed Port-au-Prince (Port of the Le Prince) after a French ship that sailed into the bay to protect the area in 1706. By 1749, Port au Prince was established as the capital of the colony of Saint-Domingue.