Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
lated country in the hemisphere. Most Haitians continue to be
small peasant farmers. Intense class stratification persists
despite the growth of intermediary classes since the 1950s, significant
out-migration, and a phenomenal rate of urban
growth centered on Port-au-Prince, a metropolitan area of
around 2 million people. Despite a high rate of rural outmigration,
the rural population continues to expand. Demographic
pressures exert acute stress on the country's natural
resource base.
By international standards, the majority of Haitians are very
poor. This alarming level of poverty reflects the poor distribution
of national wealth, the precipitous decline of agriculture
in the past few decades, acute land scarcity, a highly degraded
environment, weak institutions of government, and prolonged
political and economic crisis since the mid-1980s. Efforts in the
1990s to decentralize and democratize the state have yet to
make a palpable difference in the daily lives of most people.
In the late 1990s, even the most remote rural areas of the
country have significant contact with the outside world. This
contact is the result of the growth of influence of foreign missionaries
and nongovernmental agencies since the 1950s, significant
out-migration since the 1970s, rapid growth of Creolelanguage
radio programs and stations since the early 1980s,
turbulent political struggles since the mid-1980s, and international
political and military intervention in Haiti in the mid-
1990s (see Multinational Security Assistance, ch. 10).
Geography
Haiti occupies the mountainous western third of Hispaniola
(La I si a Espanola), the second largest island of the Greater
Antilles. The island is divided between Haiti and the Dominican
Republic (see fig. 1). The two countries share a 388-kilometer
border established in a series of treaties, the most recent
being the 1936 Protocol of Revision of the Frontier Treaty of
1929. Haiti's eastern border runs along mountain ranges and
the Pedernales River in the south and the Massacre River in the
north. The Atlantic Ocean borders Haiti to the north, and the
Caribbean Sea borders it on the west and south. The Windward
Passage separates Haiti from Cuba. Haiti's close neighbors also
include Jamaica and Puerto Rico.
Haiti occupies an area of about 27,750 square kilometers,
about the size of Maryland. Two large peninsulas in the north
and south dominate Haiti's mainland. The country has around
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