After the revolution (1791), Napoleon sent an Army of 60,000 Europeans (French and Polish) to reconquer Haiti, that Army was defeated. The shock of this loss and the shock of the subsequent defeat cannot be overstated,

France humiliated, and the United States panicked by this huge slave revolt-imposed trade blockades and sanction's on Haiti

Haiti (1825) was compelled to pay France reparations (equivalent of 32 billion in 2022) for the loss of the slaves... this was an extreme national debt.

Haiti of course had no immediate ability to pay the debt, after decades of isolation. The first payments required taking further loans from French banks and American banks causing the debt to only increase, these loans were backed by giving control over natural resources and monopolies to foreign entities.

(This is a pattern well known and understood today)

Haiti is simply the first country in the world to enter the debt-trap spiral, and of course the longest to be in a debt trap spiral. A wholesale transfer of wealth from Haiti to the USA/France.

The result of all of this is that Haiti entered the modern world with very small and weak governments, with very low infrastructure, and educational support, with most of what ever remained of an economy controlled by foreigners and foreign interests.

It is difficult to see how any nation in this situation, can turn it around.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti_indemnity_controversy#In...