Haiti vs. the Dominican Republic

What you're losing when you kill / expel the wealthy (whomever they are) and expropriate / redistribute property is cultural investment in institutions.

In that people may feel the previous system was unjust, but they nevertheless believed in it. That belief (aka trust) takes generations to build.

Revolutions which violently dislocate institutions don't replace them with alternatives: they start from zero.

This has profound growth consequences when, for example, it takes four+ decades for people to trust the legal system again. Or banking. Or anything.

I can’t be sure how much of this is casual and how much is symptomatic, but I I strongly believe that the main driver of the -current outlook- is culture.

Both Haiti and the Dominican Republic are majority slave- descendants.

Spanish were inclusive with their culture, tending to extend it to slaves, and Dominicans largely see themselves as descendants of Spanish colonists. They idolize the Spanish royalty, and fully embrace Spanish culture and language.

In contrast, the French were exclusive. As a result, harían culture is not particularly French, is much less cohesive, and shows deep cracks from the shattering of culture that was the circumstances of most of its early people.

Hatian farming practices tend towards being consumptive and destructive, lacking the benefit of science and long term thinking.

Often, land farmed by Haitian immigrants where I live is utterly barren within 5 years from extensive herbicide and pesticide use, local water sources contaminated and irrigation systems filled with mud from soil erosion.

Land tended by Dominicans, under the advice of agronimos, flourishes alongside, with less chemical intervention.

Clearly this is a matter of education, but also a result of a cultural resistance to education.

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have tried to caution hatian workers dripping with pesticides that they need to be careful, that those chemicals will harm them, only to be told that “Haitians are immune to pesticides” or that they are not dangerous because they do not feel sick, and the advice is utterly ignored. Same for soil conservation techniques, even though they can clearly see that the technique is working for a farm 50 meters from where they are standing.

Harinas tend to see themselves as descendants of slaves rather than colonists, and deeply distrust any information not from “traditional” sources (ie magic, religion, their parents)

Obviously these sweeping generalizations and are far from universal, but nonetheless there is enough of this that it is hard to imagine a prosperous future for Haiti. The hope I do have comes from the very bright Haitians I have met that are on the complete opposite side of the fence, educated, progressive, and mostly utterly without hope for their country.

This is to say that the drop in trade was ENORMOUS because no other nation at the time wanted to consider what a successful slave revolt might mean for them.

Dominican Republic (and I am Dominican) was a largely abandoned island with no real economic attractions. People fled after one pirate raid. And for a hundred or so years it was largely empty.

One minir nit;

You are very right in pointing out the animosity between the former slaves and their enslavers. It is importa however to note that the leader of the revolution, Touissant was actually a bit more compassionate than the average Haitian at the time. Moreover, he was much more interested and capable of management than almost everyone else. Everyone else was uneducated and more importantly deprived of basic culture.