Who colonized Haiti?

France first colonized the western third of the island of Hispaniola that became Haiti. Unlike the Spanish, who ruled what became the Dominican Republic in the east, the French denuded the land, cutting down nearly all the trees for timber. French colonizers also wiped out the indigenous Taino people and brought in hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans to work on sugar and coffee plantations under brutal conditions. The enslaved people revolted and pushed out the French in 1804. But in its settlement with France, Haiti had to pay 150 million francs in reparations for the loss of slaves—an impossible sum, 10 times what the U.S. had just paid Napoleon for the Louisiana Purchase. Haitians borrowed from French banks and spent a century toiling not to build infrastructure but to pay that debt. In 1915, fearing that the Germans would take Haiti over to establish a Caribbean base, President Woodrow Wilson sent in troops to protect U.S. business interests. The U.S. occupied the country until 1934.