Haiti Case Study

Introduction
The media in the United Sates is accustomed to portraying Haiti as a failed state without referring to the external influences of other countries on Haiti’s problems including the 1915 to 1934 occupation of Haiti by the United States. Haiti has suffered at the hands of numerous dictators who have robbed the country of its resources, but little is said of the U.S support of some of the dictatorial regimes that have ruled over Haiti and plundered its resources (Maus, 2015). The natural disasters that have wrought havoc in Haiti in the form of hurricanes and floods are solely blamed on Haitians who have decided to destroy their land using destructive agricultural methods. Little is said of the destruction of Haiti’s natural landscape

The author champions the thesis that there are several factors such as the occupation of Haiti, the referendum on the foreign ownership of land, and a backward and savage culture among others that might have contributed to the country’s failure to overcome its problems and become a successful independent state, which, arguably, could be inherently solved and mitigated if good governance

However, the country was laden with a huge debt burden to its former colonial power and this served to cripple its economic progress significantly because the young country had to pay huge monies to France each year (Butler, 1935). Immediately after its independence, the country was branded as a failed nation by western powers who could not believe that a black country could effectively govern itself, which is a notion that was spread further by America leading up to the occupation (Butler, 1935). This notion was also spread through the media in order to drum up support for the occupation and allow the American forces to garner support back home for their occupation of Haiti, which was based on the grounds of providing effective governance structures to the country (Philogene, 2015). Although this was the occupation’s mission on the surface, the real function performed by the occupying forces was to protect American interests within the nation. However, the notion that America was occupying Haiti in order to provide real solutions to a country that was plagued by ineffective self-governance was the main reason provided to the public and used to garner public support for the American occupation of