Ouest Lwès | |
|---|---|
 Taïno Beach, Grand-Goâve | |
 Ouest in Haiti | |
| Country |  Haiti |
| Capital | Port-au-Prince |
| Région | South-Central |
| Symbole | Boat, tower, queen bee |
| Government | |
| • Type | Departmental Council |
| Area | |
| 4,982.56 km2 (1,923.78 sq mi) | |
| Population (2015)[1] | |
| 4,029,705 | |
| • Density | 808.762/km2 (2,094.68/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 3,397,404 |
| • Rural | 632,301 |
| Time zone | UTC-05:00 (EST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-04:00 (EDT) |
| ISO 3166 code | HT-OU |
| HDI (2022) | 0.582[2] medium ·1st |
Ouest (French,pronounced[wɛst]ⓘ) orLwès (Haitian Creole; both meaning "West") is one of the tendepartments of Haiti. It is located in south-central Haiti, linking the Great-North and theTiburon Peninsula.
It is the jurisdictional seat of the national capital, the city ofPort-au-Prince.
It has an area of 4,982.56 square kilometres (1,923.78 sq mi) and a population of 4,029,705 (2015 estimate), making it both the largest department by area and the most populated department in Haiti.
The department was part of theXaragua kasika under the leadership of Anacaona.
There are many native settlements in the department notably aroundAkaya,Azuei Lake,Yaguana, theisland of Guanabo andGoava. It is understood that the Azuei Plaine region was used as a hunting ground for the natives.
The island of Gonave is the last point of refuge for the Taino natives.
One of the only Spanish settlements in the area was a destroyed Spanish town called Santa-Maria-de-la-Paz-Verdadera, the actual city ofTabarre.
The earliest French settlement in the area was a hospital named Morne L'Hopital. In the second half of the 18th century, the French wanted to build a new colonial capital outside the troubled North. One of the suggestions was Petit-Goâve but later they chose the region of l'Hopital building which would become the City ofPort-au-Prince.
In 1793 the city fell to the British troops where they built the Fort-National until Toussaint gained it back for the French government.
Manymaroon troops controlled the mountain around Port-au-Prince mainlyRomaine-la-Prophetesse andLamour Dérance and Cangé.
Around 1772,Romaine-la-Prophétesse acquired a plantation named Trou Coffy in the department (likely in what is nowFondwa), becoming a prominent coffee grower and trader.[3] In 1791 and 1792, during the earlyHaitian Revolution, Romaine led some thirteen thousand slaves and rebels in freeing slaves from and burning the provinces plantations and briefly controlling two major cities,Léogâne andJacmel.[4][5][6][7]Ogé and Chavannes organized more than 300 blacks the Suisses to rebel against their so-called master. Caradeux the rough slave master in the region orderer their execution inOmòl.In 1791, Pétion, Pinchinnat, Beauvais, and more rebelled against the French authority and reclaimed their civil rights. After the Battles of Pernier,Croix-des-Bouquets, andMirebalais they gained a Concordat, although the slaves did not gain anything.
In Arcahaie, on May 18, 1803, the generals of the North and West and Maroons met for a Congress and choseJean-Jacques Dessalines as commander of theArmée Indigènes and chose theHaiti Flag designed byCatherine Flon.
According toThomas Madiou's recount of the Haitian Revolution, the fight forPort-au-Prince is one of the most important fights. After Gabart gained control ofSt-Marc, the entireArtibonite region was under the control ofDessalines and theArmée Indigène. In the south, only the major port town ofLes Cayes was still under French control. In the north,Cap-Haitian andMole-St-Nicolas are still under French control.Rochambeau anticipated that the next step forDessalines would be the conquer of Port-au-Prince, so he moved the capital of the colony back toCap-Francois which would be harder for the British Navy to put under blockade versus Port-au-Prince located in theGulf of Gonave. LeavingPetite-Rivière-de-l'Artibonite on September 15, the general stopped in St-Marc byGabart and was inArcahaie byPétion on September 17. The same night forCroix-des-Bouquets where he camped by Frère. Pétion continued to march towardP-au-P and was by habitation Drouillard the next day. The French general of Croix-des-Bouquets Lux left the arrondissement to go help the French troops in P-au-P, he passed by Damien, Sarthe and the convoy was attacked by the Indigènes. By September 23,Cangé leftLéogane, marched toward Port-au-Prince, and attacked the Fort-Bizoton inCarrefour, Gabart was at the St-Joseph gate and Dessalines camped in Turgeau a neighborhood located east of the city. The city of Port-au-Prince is officially sieged by the Armée Indigénes. The very next day Pétion was located in the habitation Philippeaux and started bombarding the French troops. By October 5, anaide-de-camp ofLavalette brought a letter to Dessalines with the terms of their capitulation. Dessalines accepted with an exchange of prisoners andadjuvant-general Bonnet came back to the Haitians and gave the French 4 days to leave the city. Thus on September 9 Port-au-Prince was freed from the French troops and Dessalines enter the city proudly with Pétion on his right and Gabart on his left.
Pétion,Germain Frère andYayou are signatories of theHaitian Declaration of Independence.Ouest was part of the Second Military Division of the West with Pétion as commander.
Pétion build the twin fortsJacques and Alexandre on the order of Dessalines.
On October 17, 1806, coming fromDessalinesville,Emperor Jacques 1st was ambushed and assassinated plunging the country into a civil war. His body was buried in St-Anne Cemetery. On January 2, 1904, he received state funerals and later on his body was moved to the Autel de la Patrie in Champs-de-Mars along withPétion's body.
On January 1, 1807, only three years after theHaitian Declaration of Independence, the northern troops fought the western troops in the Sibert Battle, where Pétion almost died.Cabaret was the de facto border between the two states.
UnderJean-Pierre Boyer, fearing the return of the French boat, he ordered the construction of a city in the heights like Toussaint withEnnery, Dessalines withDessalines and Christophe withMilot and naming it after his mentorPétionville.
Being the political center of the country, most of Haiti's political instability and economical fight happen in the Port-au-Prince area since 1749 until today.
The department is bordered to the north byArtibonite andCentre and theMattheux mountain chain, the west by the Gulf of Gonave, the south by the Sud-Est department and theLa Selle Mountain Chain, and theDominican Republic to the east through the province ofIndependencia.
It is the second largest department in Haiti afterArtibonite.Gonâve Island is also part of the Ouest department. The department's stretch of coastline lies entirely in theGulf of Gonâve.
A part majority of the department lies in thePlaine-de-Cul-de-Sac which continues to the Dominican Rep. as theHayo de Enriquillo. Two other plains that lie in the region are the Plain of Arcahaie-Cabaret and thePlain of Léoganes.
The Golfe is more than 500 km in length from Mole-Saint-Nicolas to Abricots and it consists of more than a dozen bays and harbors. The Bay of Port-au-Prince is the largest in the country and one of the biggest in the Caribbean harboring many islands, cays, and reefs. The island of Gonave is the largestsatellite island on Hispaniola being the size ofSingapore.
The largest lake in the country is a salty lake in a depression in the plain of the same name, Azuei Lake. A smaller lake lies next to it Caiman Lake. Both lakes form a national park harboringflamingos andcaimans.
The hills of Port-au-Prince consist of a mountain from theMassif de la Selle-Cordillera Meridional, where one can find multiple forests such as Foret-des-Pins and Parc-la-Visite.
The most important rivers in the department are Blanche River, Froide River, Monance River, and Bois-de-Chène Ravine.
The earthquake activities in the area are a result of theEnriquillo-Plantain-Garden fault going fromJamaica to theDominican Rep passing through theXaragua Peninsula and theGonave Microplate. Two well-documented earthquakes happen in the area.
On 12 January 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck in the department, the largest in Haiti in two centuries.[8] In thePort-au-Prince Arrondissement, many areas suffered damage.[9] In theLéogâne Arrondissement, the city ofLéogâne suffered 80-90% destruction.[10] Other places[which?] in Léogâne were also affected.
Ouest is the wealthiest department in Haiti, with economic poles in different sectors.
Ouest's tourism sector touches on different branches such as leisure tourism in the Cotes-des-Arcadins,eco-tourism with Park Azuei-Caiman and Park La Selle, historical tourism with the countless historical monuments especially theNational Museum, and cultural tourism.
For many years, agriculture was a part of the economy of the department, with the Arcahaie plain being a center forplantain, the Cul-de-Sac and Léogane being known for largesugar-cane plantations mostly for the production ofrum, and the hills ofKenscoff cultivating different vegetables. Unfortunately, over-construction and the ever-expansion of the city, those areas see their fertile land now covered with asphalt and concrete.[11]
Much of Haiti's road network extends out of Ouest.
The bay harbors many ports of sizable capacity owned or operated by the state or private parties.
Haiti's largest airport, theToussaint Louverture Airport, is located inDelmas.
The Department of Ouest is subdivided into fivearrondissements, which are further subdivided into twentycommunes.
(with 2009 Population Estimates in parentheses)[12]
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