The Failure of the American Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934

   

Might Did Not Make It Right

Part 1

by Marie-Josée Mont-Reynaud,  March 2002  

The author, age 15, in rural Haiti, learning from  and with the youth of Mon Bouton

    American Marines entered Haiti in 1915 in order to maintain peace and help stabilize the Haitian government.  They occupied Haiti until 1934, controlling the Republic through a puppet Haitian government. This Occupation failed to achieve its goal of building a democratic government that would last after its forces departed. This paper ascribes this failure to the predominantly military character of the occupation, which undermined the sovereignty of the Haitian Republic and the development of democracy.

 

    Many American officials involved in the Occupation believed their efforts were to aid in the peaceful governance of the country because Haitians were deemed incapable of such. American attitudes toward Haitians were typically paternalistic, claiming, for example “these people had never heard of democracy and couldn’t have comprehended it had they heard.”^[1]

 

    This paper maintains that Haitians did not want foreign intervention; Americans were in Haiti because they wanted to be there, not because they had been invited, and they remained there only by military force. The will of the Haitian people was not expressed because Haitian political sovereignty was constrained by the American military. This survey of the literature shows that military force was used to impose a democracy by undemocratic means. Elections under the Occupation were rigged; a treaty was passed by force; martial law was declared; military tribunals were held; the press was censored; the Haitian Senate was dissolved; the constitution was changed by an unconstitutional plebiscite, and opposition was violently repressed. 

    These procedures reveal the ideology of the Occupation forces that "Might could Make Right" in Haiti.

(Part 2, in forthcoming Blog post)