Port-au-Prince

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Port-au-Prince, (Pòtoprens in Kréyòl), population 1,277,000 (2006), is the capital and largest city of Haiti. Growth, especially in crowded slums in nearby plains and hillsides, has raised the population of the Port-au-Prince area to between 2.5 and 3 million people. It is located on a bay of the Gulf of La Gonave, at 18°32′N 72°20′W. The city's layout is somewhat similar to that of an amphitheatre; commercial districts are near the water, while residential neighbourhoods are located on the hills above.

Contents 1 History 1.1 The region before the founding of Port-au-Prince 1.2 Colonial history 1.3 Recent history 2 Economy 3 Transportation 4 Demographics 5 Education 6 Culture 7 Tourism 8 References

[edit] History

[edit] The region before the founding of Port-au-Prince

Before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, the region that would eventually become Port-au-Prince was not the site of any permanent human settlement. At the end of the 15th century, the region was under the control of an Amerindian ruler by the name of Bohechio, and he, like his predecessors, feared settling too close to the coast -- such settlements would have proven to be tempting targets for the Caribes, who lived in neighbouring islands. Instead, the region served as a hunting ground.

With the arrival of the Spaniards, the Amerindians were forced to become a protectorate, and Bohechio, childless at death, was succeeded by his sister, Anacaona. The new leader tried to maintain cordial relations with the Spaniards, but this proved to be difficult, as the latter came to insist upon larger and larger tributes. Eventually, the Spanish colonial administration decided to rule directly, and in 1503, Nicolas Ovando, then governor, set about to put an end to the régime headed by Anacaona. He invited her and other tribal leaders to a feast, and when the Amerindians had drunk a good deal of wine -- the Spaniards did not drink -- he ordered most of the guests killed. Anacaona, however, was spared, though only to hang her publicly some time later. Through violence and disease, the Spanish settlers decimated the native population; Hispaniola lost a million inhabitants from 1492 - 1507.^{[citation needed]}

Direct Spanish rule over the area once established, Ovando founded a settlement not long from the coast (west of L'Etang Saumâtre), the ironically-named Santa Maria de la Paz Verdadera, which would be abandoned several years later. Not long thereafter, Ovando founded Santa Maria del Puerto. The latter was first burned by French explorers in 1535, then again, in 1592 by the English. These assaults proved to be too much for the Spanish colonial administration, and in 1606, it decided to abandon the region.

For more than 50 years, the area that is today Port-au-Prince saw its population drop off drastically. Finally, some buccaneers began to use it as a base, and Dutch merchants began to frequent it in search of leather, as game was abundant there. Around 1650, French pirates, or flibustiers, running out of room on the Île de la Tortue began to arrive on the coast, and established a colony at Trou-Borded. As the colony grew, they set up a hospital not far from the coast, on the heights Turgeau. This led to the region being known as Hôpital.

Although there had been no real Spanish presence in Hôpital for well over 50 years, Spain retained its formal claim to the territory, and the growing presence of the French flibustiers on ostensibly Spanish lands provoked the Spanish crown to dispatch Castillian soldiers to Hôpital to retake it. The mission proved to be a disaster for the Spanish, as they were outnumbered and outgunned, and in 1697, the Spanish government signed the treaty of Ryswick, renouncing any claims to Hôpital. Around this time, the French also established bases on Ester (part of Petite-Rivière) and Gonaïves.

Ester was a rich village, inhabited by merchants, equipped with straight streets; it was here that the governor lived. On the other hand, the surrounding region, Petite-Rivière, was quite poor. Following a great fire in 1711, Ester was abandoned.Yet the French presence in the region continued to grow, and not long thereafter, a new city in the south was founded -- Léogane.

While the first French presence in Hôpital, the region that was later to contain Port-au-Prince was that of the flibustiers, as the region became a real French colony, the colonial administration began to worry about the continual presence of these pirates -- the flibustiers. While useful in repelling Englishmen intent on encroaching on French territory, they were relatively independent, unresponsive to the orders from the colonial administration and, a potential threat to the colonial government. Therefore, in the winter of 1707, Choiseul-Beaupré, the governor of the region sought to get rid of what he saw as a threat. He insisted upon control of the hospital, and the flibustiers refused, considering this humiliating. They proceeded to close the hospital, rather than cede control of it to the governor, and many of them became habitans, farmers -- the first stable European inhabitants in the region.

Though the elimination of the flibustiers as a group from Hôpital reinforced the authority of the colonial administration, it made the region a tastier target for the English. In order to protect the area, a captain named de Saint-André sailed into the bay in a ship named Le Prince, just below the hospital. De Saint-André named the area Port-du-Prince, though the port and the surrounding region continued to be known as Hôpital. (The ilots in the bay were already known as îlots du Prince)

The English did not trouble the area, and various nobles sought land grants from the French crown in Hôpital; the first noble to control Hôpital was Sieur Joseph Randot. Upon his death in 1737, Sieur Pierre Morel gained control over part of the region, with Gatien Bretton des Chapelles acquiring another portion thereof.

By this time, the colonial administration was convinced that a capital needed to be chosen, in order better to control the French portion of Santo-Domingo. For a time, Petit-Goâve and Léogane vied for this honor, but they were both eventually ruled out. First of all, they were not centrally located. Petit-Goâve's climate was too malarial and Léogane's topography made it difficult to mount a defence of it. A new city had to be built -- Port-au-Prince.

[edit] Colonial history

In 1770, Port-au-Prince replaced Cap-Français (the modern Cap-Haïtien) as capital of the colony of Saint-Domingue, and in 1804 it became the capital of newly-independent Haïti. Before Haïtian independence it was captured by British troops on June 4, 1794. During the French and Haïtian Revolutions, it was known as Port-Républicain, before being renamed Port-au-Prince by Jacques I, emperor of Haïti. When Haïti was divided between a kingdom in the north and a republic in the south, Port-au-Prince was the capital of the republic, under the leadership of Alexandre Pétion. Henri Christophe renamed the city Port-aux-Crimes after the assassination of Jean-Jacques Dessalines at Pont Larnage, (now known as Pont-Rouge, and located north of the city.)

[edit] Recent history

The population of the country is rapidly growing every year, despite the abject poverty.

[edit] Economy

The city currently exports coffee and sugar, and has, in the past, exported other goods, such as shoes and baseballs. Port-au-Prince has food-processing plants and soap, textile, and cement factories. The city also relies on the tourism industry and construction companies to move its economy. Port-au-Prince is a popular destination for cruise ships and tourist spots are constantly being upgraded.

Though unemployment is very high in Port-au-Prince, it would be more accurate to say that people are underemployed. Walking down the streets of Port-au-Prince a person cannot help but recognize the extremely high levels of activity, especially among people selling goods and services right off the streets. In Simon Fass's research book, Political Economy in Haïti: The Drama of Survival, he argues that in fact virtually no one is unemployed in Port-au-Prince's slums, because they would be unable to survive if they were.

[edit] Transportation

All of the major transportation systems in Haiti are located near or run through the capital. Haiti has two main highways that run from one end of the country to the other. The northern highway, Route Nationale #1 (National Highway One), originates in Port-au-Prince, winding through the coastal towns of Montrouis and Gonaïves, before reaching its terminus at the northern port Cap-Haïtien. The southern highway, Route Nationale #2, links Port-au-Prince with Les Cayes via Miragoâne and Jacmel. Maintenance for these roads lapsed after the 1991 coup, prompting the World Bank to loan USD 50 million designated for road repairs. The project was canceled in January 1999, however, after auditors revealed corruption. Haiti also has a third major highway, the Route Nationale #3, which connects Port-au-Prince to Cap-Haitien via the towns of Mirebalais and Hinche. This route links the capital and Le Cap to the central plateau; however, due to its poor condition, it sees limited use.

The most common form of public transportation in Haiti is the use of brightly painted pickup trucks as taxis called "tap-taps" They are named this because when a passenger needs to be let off they use their coin money to tap the side of the vehicle and the driver usually stops. Most tap-taps are fairly priced at around 1-3 goudes per ride within a city. The catch to the price is that the driver will often fill a truck to maximum capacity, which is nearly 20-30 people.

The port at Port-au-Prince has more registered shipping than any of the over dozen ports in the country. The port's facilities include cranes, large berths, and warehouses, but these facilities are in universally poor shape. The port is underused, possibly due to the substantially high port fees compared to ports in the Dominican Republic.

Port-au-Prince International Airport, which opened in 1965 (as François Duvalier International Airport), is located 10 km north of the city. It is Haiti's only jetway, and as such, handles the vast majority of the country's international flights. Air Haïti and a handful of major airlines from Europe, the Caribbean, and the Americas serve the airport.

[edit] Demographics

The population of the city of Port-au-Prince is more than 2 million. The vast majority of the population is of black African descent, but a prominent mulatto minority controls most of the city's businesses.^{[citation needed]} There are sizeable numbers of Hispanic residents and business-owners as well small numbers of whites (mostly foreign-born, temporary residents) and people of Middle Eastern (particularly Syrian and Lebanese) ancestry. As with most North American cities, many of the city's inhabitants are concentrated in densely populated slums such as La Saline, located directly north of downtown west of Delmas, Bel-Air, located directly northeast of downtown and east of Delmas, Martissant, located directly southwest of downtown, and the poorest, most-dangerous, and worst of them, Cite-Soleil, located directly north of La Saline. In fact, downtown is almost completely engulfed in its own slums. There are however, many comfortable living quarters in the city, especially in the Southeastern portion of the city around the School of Sacred Heart, and going towards Petionville. Petionville is a wealthy upper class suburb of Port-au-Prince located Southeast of the city. Petionville is known for its plush mansions on the hills overlooking Port-au-Prince from the Southeast, but it too, has begun to receive an inundation of migrants from the countryside where farmland is eroding into desert and many people come to the city to search for jobs. The government cannot accommodate the flood of migrants into the city. Hence, there are shantytowns erecting even in Petionville, as well as in nearby cities like Carrefour, and Delmas. There are a ring of suburbs that radiate out from the center of Port-au-Prince. Petionville is located southeast of the city, Delmas is located directly south of the airport and north of the city, and Carrefour which is quite poor, especially when compared with the other two suburbs is located Southwest of Port-au-Prince. Most of the few mulattos the city has are concentrated within the more wealthy areas of Port-au-Prince and its suburbs, as are the small upper and middle classes of Port-au-Prince. In addition, many of the Kompa bands, Kompa being a music style very popular throughout Haiti are from Port-au-Prince and its suburbs.

[edit] Education

Influential international schools in Port-au-Prince include Union School [1], founded in 1919, and Quisqueya Christian School [2], founded in 1974. Both schools offer an American-style pre-college education. French-speaking students can attend the Lycée Français, located in Bourdon.

The Haïtian Group of Research and Pedagogical Activities (GHRAP) has set up several community centers for basic education. UNESCO’s office at Port-au-Prince has taken a number of initiates in upgrading the educational facilities in Port-au-Prince.

See also

University of Haïti

[edit] Culture

The culture of the city lies in the center around the National Palace. The national palace was one of the early structures of the city but was destroyed and then rebuilt in 1918. Cultural aspects are Caribbean in nature.

[edit] Tourism

Port-au-Prince has managed to maintain a tourism industry despite political instability. The Pétionville area of Port-au-Prince is affluent and is generally the most common place for tourists to visit and stay. The Hotel Oloffson, located in a 19th century gingerbread mansion, was once the private home of two former Haïtian presidents and is a popular hub for tourist activity in the central city. The Cathedrale de Port-au-Prince is of architectural interest and attracts foreign visitors. The Musée d'Art Haïtien du Collège St. Pierre contains some of the country's most talented art and the Musée Nationale is a historical museum featuring King Henri Christophe's suicide pistol and a rusty anchor that museum operators claim was salvaged from the Santa Maria ship. Other notable cultural sites include the Notre-Dame Cathedral (a colonial cathedral), the National Archives, the National Library, and the National Museum.

[edit] References

• Malik, Boulos A. (2001). Haiti: The Economy. In Helen Chapin Metz (Ed.), Dominican Republic and Haiti country studies, pp. 363-410. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
• Port-au-Prince au cours des ans : la ville coloniale 1743-1789 2ème édition. Georges Corvington. Imprimerie Henri Deschamps. Port-au-Prince, Haïti. 1975.
• Mathurin, Augustin. Bi-centenaire de la fondation de Port-au-Prince: 1749-1949. Exposition Internationale... Port-au-Prince : Imprimerie des Antilles, 1976; p. 17)