One Island - Two Countries: Why Is One So Much Richer?

#Haiti #DominicanRepublic #Geography #Economy Haiti and the Dominican Republic share one island, the same sun, the same sea and the same hurricanes. They have about the same number of people. Yet today the average person in the Dominican Republic produces about five times as much as the average Haitian. And 250 years ago, the rich side of this island was the west: the most valuable colony on Earth. This is the economic history of Hispaniola told through its map: Haiti vs Dominican Republic, from the rain that falls on the east and the dry mountains of the west, to Columbus, Santo Domingo and the Taíno, and the French colony that produced around two fifths of the world's sugar, built on slavery. Why is Haiti poor if it was once the richest colony in the world? We follow the 1791 revolution that created the first free Black republic, and the 150 million francs France demanded for Haiti's freedom, a debt that took nearly sixty years to pay off. Then the two halves split for good: small farms and bare hills, charcoal and erosion, Trujillo and the Duvaliers, and the 1967 logging ban you can still see from space, with forest on one side of the border and brown hills on the other. Then the Dominican Republic's free trade zones, Punta Cana and fifty years of growth, next to Haiti's earthquake, coups and gangs. Finally, the honest answer: it isn't about better or worse people, but rain, debt and rulers. It's the story of two countries, one border and why the gap between them was never inevitable. Subscribe for one country at a time and what its map has to do with its money. 0:00 One island, two worlds 0:57 Where the rain falls 1:39 The first city in the Americas 2:32 The richest colony on Earth 3:31 The revolution 4:03 The bill for freedom 4:47 Small farms, bare hills 5:27 The other side 5:54 Two dictators 6:40 The trees 7:25 The Dominican take-off 8:06 Haiti's long storm 8:49 The scorecard