-
France owes 30 billion € to Haïti
Two centuries ago, in 1825, the French state imposed a tribute on Haiti to compensate slave owners for their loss of property. This debt, which the fragile Haitian state had to struggle to repay until the 1950s, heavily crippled the country’s development, and it is, today, one of the poorest in the world. All the regimes France has experienced during this period – monarchies, empires and republics – continued to collect these sums, which were paid to the Caisse des Dépôts bank in due form. All of these facts are well-documented and are contested by no one.
(Enphasis added.)