The city of Port-au-Prince is on theGulf of Gonâve: the bay on which the city lies, which acts as a natural harbor, has sustained economic activity since the civilizations of theTaíno. It was first incorporated underFrench colonial rule in 1749. The city's layout is similar to that of anamphitheater; commercial districts are near the water, while residential neighborhoods are located on the hills above. Its population is difficult to ascertain due to the rapid growth ofslums in the hillsides above the city; however, recent estimates place the metropolitan area's population at around 3.7 million, nearly a third of the country's national population.[11] The city was catastrophically affected by amassive earthquake in 2010,[12] with large numbers of structures damaged or destroyed.Haiti's government estimated the death toll to be 230,000.[13]Gang violence is extensive, andkidnappings,massacres, andgang rapes are common occurrences, often with the complicity of police officers and politicians.[14]
Port-au-Prince literally means "Prince's Port", but it is unclear which prince was the honoree.A theory is that the place is named afterLe Prince, a ship captained by de Saint-André which arrived in the area in 1706.However, the islets in the bay had already been known asles îlets du Prince as early as 1680, predating the ship's arrival.[15]Furthermore, the port and the surrounding region continued to be known asHôpital, named after thefilibusters' hospital.[16]
French colonial commissionerÉtienne Polverel named the cityPort-Républicain on 23 September 1793 "in order that the inhabitants be kept continually in mind of the obligations which theFrench Revolution imposed on them". It was later renamed back to Port-au-Prince byJacques I, Emperor of Haiti.[17]
When Haiti 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 ofAlexandre Pétion.Henri Christophe renamed the cityPort-aux-Crimes after the assassination of Jacques I at Pont Larnage (now known as Pont-Rouge, and located north of the city).[citation needed]
The Port-au-Prince area was part of the Xaragua chiefdom with the capital city, Yaguana being in Léoganes. There were multipleTaino settlements in the area such as Bohoma and Guahaba. It is understood that most of the plain area was used as hunting grounds.TheBahoruco mountain range in the north-east of Port-au-Prince was the scene of a Taino rebellion led byEnriquillo resulting in a treaty with the Spanish.
Prior to the arrival ofChristopher Columbus, the island ofHispaniola was inhabited by the Taíno people, who arrived in approximately 2600 BC in large dugoutcanoes. They are believed to come primarily from what is now easternVenezuela. By the time Columbus arrived in 1492 AD, the region was under the control of Bohechio, Taínocacique (chief) Xaragua.[18] He, like his predecessors, feared settling too close to the coast; such settlements would have proven to be tempting targets for theCaribs, who lived on neighboring islands. Instead, the region served as a hunting ground. The population of the region was approximately 400,000 at the time, but the Taínos were gone within 30 years of the arrival of the Spaniards.[19]
With the arrival of the Spaniards, the Amerindians were forced to accept aprotectorate, and Bohechio, childless at death, was succeeded by his sister,Anacaona, wife of the caciqueCaonabo. The Spanish insisted on larger tributes.[20] 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.[citation needed] 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 on that occasion), he ordered most of the guests killed. Anacaona was spared, only to be hanged publicly some time later. Through violence, introduced diseases and murders, the Spanish settlers decimated the native population.[citation needed]
Direct Spanish rule over the area having been established, Ovando founded a settlement not far from the coast (west ofEtang Saumâtre), ironically namedSanta Maria de la Paz Verdadera, which would be abandoned several years later. Not long thereafter, Ovando foundedSanta 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.[citation needed]
For more than 50 years, the area that is today Port-au-Prince saw its population drop off drastically, when somebuccaneers 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, Frenchflibustiers, running out of room on theÎle 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 Turgeau heights. This led to the region being known asHôpital.
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 Frenchflibustiers on ostensibly Spanish lands provoked the Spanish crown to dispatch Castilian 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 theTreaty of Ryswick, renouncing any claims to Hôpital. Around this time, the French also established bases at Ester (part ofPetite Rivière) andGonaïves Haiti is bordered to the east by the Dominican Republic, which covers the rest of Hispaniola, to the south and west by the Caribbean, and to the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Cuba lies some 50 miles (80 km) west of Haiti's northern peninsula, across the Windward Passage, a strait connecting the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Jamaica is some 120 miles (190 km) west of the southern peninsula, across the Jamaica Channel, and Great Inagua Island (of The Bahamas) lies roughly 70 miles (110 km) to the north. Haiti claims sovereignty over Navassa (Navase) Island, an uninhabited U.S.-administered islet about 35 miles (55 km) to the west in the Jamaica Channel.
Ester was a rich village, inhabited by merchants, and 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 soon afterward, a new city was founded to the south,Léogâne.
Colonial mansion in Port-au-Prince, 18th century
While the first French presence in Hôpital, the region later to contain Port-au-Prince was that of theflibustiers; as the region became a real French colony, the colonial administration began to worry about the continual presence of these pirates. While useful in repelling foreignpirates, they were relatively independent, unresponsive to orders from the colonial administration, and a potential threat to it. 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, but theflibustiers refused, considering that humiliating. They proceeded to close the hospital rather than cede control of it to the governor, and many of them becamehabitans (farmers) the first long-term European inhabitants in the region.
Although the elimination of theflibustiers as a group from Hôpital reinforced the authority of the colonial administration, it also made the region a more attractive target for maraudingbuccaneers. In order to protect the area, in 1706, a captain named de Saint-André sailed into the bay just below the hospital, in a ship namedLe Prince. It is said that M. de Saint-André named the areaPort-au-Prince (meaning "Port of the Prince"), but the port and the surrounding region continued to be known asHôpital (the islets in the bay had already been known asles îlets du Prince as early as 1680).
Pirates eventually refrained from troubling 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 of it.
By then, the colonial administration was convinced that a capital needed to be chosen, in order to better control the French portion of Hispaniola (Saint-Domingue). For a time,Petit-Goâve andLéogâne vied for this honor, but both were eventually ruled out for various reasons. Neither was centrally located. Petit-Goâve's climate caused it to be toomalarial, and Léogane's topography made it difficult to defend. Thus, in 1749, a new city was built, Port-au-Prince The Place du Champ-de-Mars—the site of a number of historically notable structures in the centre of the city—was hit hard by the 2010 earthquake. The National Palace (rebuilt in 1918) collapsed. Other notable landmarks include the Cathedral of Notre Dame and the adjacent colonial cathedral, both of which also collapsed in the 2010 earthquake, and the National Archives, National Library, and National Museum.
In 1804, it became the capital of newly independent Haïti. WhenJean-Jacques Dessalines was assassinated in 1806, Port-au-Prince became the capital of themulatto-dominated south (Cap-Haïtien was the capital of theblack-dominated north). It was re-established as the capital of all of Haiti when the country was unified again in 1820 Port-au-Prince was the centre of the political and intellectual life of the country and is the seat of theState University of Haiti (established in 1920). A traditionally picturesque site has been the brash and bustling Iron Market, with its mostly female vendors. Recreation for the privileged centres around European-style social clubs, but the house of the local voodoo priest is still the heart of the urban poor community.
Most of the Haitian elite (nearly all mulatto or nonblacks) live in the suburb of Pétionville in the 1,000–1,500-foot- (300–450-metre-) high hills southeast of Port-au-Prince. Haiti's small but politically important Black middle class is also concentrated around Port-au-Prince. Squalor and neglect surround most of the Black urban working class even more than it does the subsistence farmer, and constant migration from the countryside continues to exacerbate their misery. Slums such as Cité Soleil are among the largest and most deprived in the Americas. Pop. (2009 est.) city, 875,978; metropolitan area, 2,296,386.[21]
ThePresidential Palace (National Palace) on 13 January 2010, the day after the2010 earthquake, showing the extensive damage to the edifice.Heavily damaged areas of the city
On 12 January 2010, a7.0 earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, devastating the city. Most of the central historic area of the city was destroyed, including Haiti's prizedCathédrale de Port-au-Prince, the capital building,Legislative Palace (the parliament building),Palace of Justice (Supreme Court building), several ministerial buildings, and at least one hospital.[24] The second floor of thePresidential Palace was thrown into the first floor, and the domes skewed at a severe tilt. Theseaport andairport were both damaged, limiting aid shipments. The seaport was severely damaged by the quake[25] and was unable to accept aid shipments for the first week.
The airport's control tower was damaged[26] and the US military had to set up a new control center with generators to prepare the airport for aid flights. Aid was delivered to Port-au-Prince by numerous nations and voluntary groups as part of a global relief effort. On Wednesday 20 January 2010, an aftershock rated at a magnitude of 5.9 caused additional damage.[27] The City Hall (Mairie de Port-au-Prince) and most of the city's other governmentmunicipal buildings were destroyed in the 2010 earthquake.[28] Ralph Youri Chevry was the mayor of the city at the time of the earthquake.[29]
The worst hurricane season experienced by Haiti occurred in2008 when four stormsFay,Gustav,Hanna, andIke negatively impacted Haiti. Nearly 800 people were killed; 22,000 homes were destroyed; 70% of the country's crops were lost, according to reliefweb.org. Then, in 2012,Hurricane Sandy, while not making direct impact, resulted in 75 deaths, $250 million in damage and a resurgence of cholera that was estimated to have infected 5,000 people. In 2016,Hurricane Matthew caused catastrophic damage across Haiti, and over 500 deaths were associated with the storm in Haiti alone, along with at least $3 billion in damage. The storm also caused a massive humanitarian crisis shortly after.[30]
The metropolitan area is subdivided into variouscommunes (districts). There is a ring of districts that radiates out from the commune of Port-au-Prince.Pétion-Ville is an affluent suburban commune located southeast of the city.Delmas is located directly south of the airport and north of the central city, and the rather poor commune ofCarrefour is located southwest of the city.
The commune harbors many low-income slums plagued with poverty and violence in which the most notorious,Cité Soleil, is situated. However, Cité Soleil has been recently split off from Port-au-Prince proper to form a separate commune. TheChamp de Mars area has begun some modern infrastructure development as of recently. The downtown area is the site of several projected modernization efforts in the capital.
Port-au-Prince has aTropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) and relatively constant temperatures throughout the course of the year. Port-au-Prince'swet season runs from March through November with rainfall peaking from April to May and from August to October, with the city experiencing a relative break in rainfall during the months of June and July. The city'sdry season covers the remaining three months. Port-au-Prince generally experiences warm and humid conditions during the dry season and hot and humid conditions during the wet season.
The population of the area was 1,234,742.[33]The majority of the population is ofAfrican descent, but a prominentbiracial minority controls many of the city's businesses.[citation needed] There are sizable numbers ofAsians residents, as well as a number ofEuropeans (both foreign-born and native-born).
Citizens of Arab (particularlySyrian,Lebanese, andIsraeli Arab) ancestry have a large presence in the capital.[citation needed]Arab Haitians (a large number of whom live in Port-au-Prince) are, more often than not, concentrated in financial areas where the majority of them establish businesses. Most of the biracial residents of the city are concentrated within wealthier areas.
Port-au-Prince is one of the nation's largest centers of economy and finance. The capital exports its most widely consumed produce ofcoffee andsugar, and has, in the past, exported other goods, such asshoes andbaseballs. Port-au-Prince has food-processing plants as well assoap, textile andcement factories. Despite political unrest, the city also relies on the tourism industry and construction companies to move its economy. Port-au-Prince was once a popular place for cruises, but has lost nearly all of its tourism, and no longer has cruise ships coming into port.
Unemployment in Port-au-Prince is high, and compounded further by underemployment. Levels of economic activity remain prominent throughout the city, especially among people selling goods and services on the streets. Informal employment is believed to be widespread in Port-au-Prince's slums, as otherwise the population could not survive.[34] Port-au-Prince has several upscale districts in which crime rates are significantly lower than in the city center.[citation needed]
Port-au-Prince has a tourism industry. TheToussaint Louverture International Airport (referred to often as the Port-au-Prince International Airport) is the country's main international gateway for tourists. Tourists often visit the Pétion-Ville area of Port-au-Prince, with other sites of interest includinggingerbread houses.
There are a number of hospitals including le Centre Hospitalier du Sacré-Cœur,[35] Hôpital de l'Université d'État d'Haïti (l'HUEH), Centre Obstetrico Gynécologique Isaïe Jeanty-Léon Audain, Hôpital du Canapé-Vert, Hôpital Français (Asile Français), Hôpital Saint-François de Sales, Hôpital-Maternité Sapiens, Hôpital OFATMA, Clinique de la Santé, Maternité de Christ Roi, Centre Hospitalier Rue Berne and Maternité Mathieu.
After the 2010 earthquake, two hospitals remained that were operational. TheUniversity of Miami in partnership with Project Medishare has created a new hospital,L'Hôpital Bernard Mevs Project Medishare, to provide inpatient and outpatient care for those impacted by the January 2010 earthquake. This hospital is volunteer staffed and provides level 1 trauma care to Port-au-Prince and the surrounding regions.[36]
CDTI (Centre de Diagnostique et de Traitement Intégré) closed in April 2010 when international aid failed to materialize. It had been considered the country's premiere hospital.[37]
The culture of the city lies primarily in the center around the National Palace as well as its surrounding areas. TheNational Museum is located in the grounds of the palace, established in 1938. The National Palace was one of the early structures of the city but was destroyed and then rebuilt in 1918. It was destroyed again by theearthquake on 12 January 2010 which collapsed the center's domed roof.
Another popular destination in the capital is theHotel Oloffson, a 19th-centurygingerbread mansion that was once the private home of two formerHaitian presidents. It has become a popular hub for tourist activity in the central city. TheCathédrale de Port-au-Prince is a famed site of cultural interest and attracts foreign visitors to its Neo-Romantic architectural style.
Port-au-Prince is the only city anywhere in the world to have a main avenue named for American abolitionist heroJohn Brown. Another is named for anotherabolitionist hero, Massachusetts SenatorCharles Sumner.
There is a celebration ofBawon Samdi and Gran Brigi called Fet Gede, which takes place from theDay of the Dead on 1 November through the third day of the month. This occurs in the national cemetery of Haiti. While celebrating, people wear Vodou white cotton clothing and purple headscarves. During the celebration, the cemetery becomes packed with people. Those who are celebrating make sacrifices of food for the spirits (mange lwa) and pour liquor on the gravestones among other festivities.[39]
The mayor of Port-au-Prince is Lucsonne Janvier, who succeeded Ralph Youri Chevry in July 2020.[40] In 2023, Janvier's City Hall employees protested lack of salaries.[41]
The city's separate districts (primarily the districts ofDelmas,Carrefour, andPétion-Ville) are all administered by their own municipal councils. The seat of the state, thePresidential Palace, is located in the Champ de Mars, square plaza of the city. The PNdH (Police Nationale d’Haïti) is the authority governing the enforcement of city laws.[citation needed]
The national police force as of recently, have been increasing in number. However, because of its ailing ineffectiveness and insufficient manpower, a significant number ofUN personnel is present throughout the city as part of thestabilization mission in Haiti.[citation needed]
Port-au-Prince various educational institutions, ranging from smallvocational schools touniversities. Influential international schools in Port-au-Prince includeUnion School,[42] founded in 1919, andQuisqueya Christian School,[43] founded in 1974. Both schools offer an American-style pre-college education. French-speaking students can attend the Lycée Français (Lycée Alexandre Dumas), located in Bourdon. Another school isAnís Zunúzí Bahá'í School north west of Port-au-Prince which opened its doors in 1980[44] which survived the2010 Haiti earthquake[45] and its staff were cooperating in relief efforts and sharing space and support with neighbors.[46]
A clinic was run at the school by a medical team from the United States and Canada.[47] Its classes offered transition fromHaitian Creole to the French language but also a secondary language in English.[48] [[University of Haiti|The [[[[State University of Haiti]]]]]] (Université d'État d'Haïti in French or UEH), is located within the capital along other universities such as theQuisqueya University and theUniversité des Caraïbes. There are many other institutions that observe the Haitian scholastic program. Many of them are religious academies led by foreign missionaries fromFrance orCanada. These includeInstitution Saint-Louis de Gonzague, École Sainte-Rose-de-Lima, École Saint-Jean-Marie Vianney, Institution du Sacré-Coeur, and Collège Anne-Marie Javouhey.
The Ministry of Education is also located in downtown Port-au-Prince at the Palace of Ministries, adjacent to the National Palace in the Champ de Mars plaza.
The Haitian 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.
A 2012 independent study found that the murder rate in Port-au-Prince was 60.9 murders per 100,000 residents in February 2012.[49] In the 22 months after the end of the President Aristide era in 2004, the murder rate for Port-au-Prince reached a high of 219 murders per 100,000 residents per year.[50]
High-crime zones in the Port-au-Prince area includeCroix-des-Bouquets,Cité Soleil,Carrefour,Bel Air, Martissant, the port road (Boulevard La Saline), urban route Nationale 1, the airport road (Boulevard Toussaint-Louverture) and its adjoining connectors to the New ("American") Road via Route Nationale 1. This latter area in particular has been the scene of numerous robberies, carjackings, and murders.[51]
In theBel Air neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, the murder rate reached 50 murders per 100,000 residents at the end of 2011, up from 19 murders per 100,000 residents in 2010.[52]
Lola Castro, Regional Director of the UN World Food Programme, described Port-au-Prince as "one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman."[53]
All of the major transportation systems in Haiti are located near or run through the capital. The northern highway, Route Nationale #1 (National Highway One), originates in Port-au-Prince. The southern highway, Route Nationale #2, also runs through Port-au-Prince. Maintenance for these roads lapsed after the 1991 coup, prompting theWorld Bank to lend US$50 million designated for road repairs. The project was canceled in January 1999, however, after auditors revealed corruption.[citation needed] A third major highway, the Route Nationale #3, was built in successive sections up to the late 2010s, receiving support from theEuropean Union.[54][55] It connects Port-au-Prince to the central plateau andCap-Haïtien. As of 2020, this highway was described as highly used, but also as a focal point of armedrobberies.[56]
Toussaint Louverture International Airport (Maïs Gâté), which opened in 1965 (as François Duvalier International Airport), is north of the city. It is Haiti's major jetway, and as such, handles the vast majority of the country's international flights. Transportation to smaller cities from the major airport is done via smaller aircraft. Companies providing this service includeCaribintair andSunrise Airways.[citation needed]
^Wilson, Samuel M. (1990).Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus. University of Alabama Press. p. 89.ISBN978-0-8173-0462-1.The events of 1494 and early 1495 ultimately precipitated a collective and violent reaction from Indians in the western Vega. Colón took this as an opportunity to subjugate the island brutally and to establish a tribute system through which gold and food could be collected from the Indians in greater quantity.
^Evans Braziel, Jana (2017).Riding with Death, Vodou Art and Urban Ecology in the Streets of Port-au-Prince. University Press of Mississippi. p. 56.ISBN9781496812759.
^"New Events and Updates".Projects & Initiatives; Projects we support; Anis Zunuzi School. Mona Foundation. 2009. Archived fromthe original on 22 January 2010. Retrieved6 February 2010.
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