Same Island, Same Start. Why Is Haiti 5x Poorer?

Haiti and the Dominican Republic share one island, the same sun, the same hurricanes and almost the same number of people. In 1960 they were equally poor. Today the average Dominican produces more than five times as much as the average Haitian. So what happened? We follow the story on the map: a French sugar empire built on slavery, a 150-million-franc bill from France, a mountain range that steals Haiti's rain, two dictators, a border you can see from space, and two very different roads since 1960. ⏱ CHAPTERS 0:00 One island, two outcomes 1:11 One island, cut in two 2:36 The mountain that steals the rain 4:07 The bill from France 5:54 The east goes its own way 7:16 Two dictators 8:38 The border you can see from space 10:01 Two roads since 1960 11:45 Same island, different choices 💬 Which mattered most: the land, the past, or the choices? Tell me in the comments. SOURCES • Jaramillo & Sancak, "Why Has the Grass Been Greener on One Side of Hispaniola?", IMF Staff Papers 56(2), 2009 • World Bank, World Development Indicators (GDP per capita, population, remittances) • FAO; Library of Congress country studies (climate of Hispaniola) • Hedges et al., PNAS 2018 (Haiti's primary forest); Dominican Republic National Forest Inventory 2021 • The New York Times, "The Ransom" (2022), on the 1825 indemnity • ONE, Encuesta Nacional de Inmigrantes 2017; IOM displacement figures; Dominican Ministry of Tourism 2024 Credits: Music: Epidemic Sound. Elevation: Mapzen / AWS Terrain Tiles. Night lights: NASA Black Marble. Borders: Natural Earth. #Haiti #DominicanRepublic #Geography