Plundered and corrupted for 200 years, Haiti was doomed to end in anarchy | Kenan Malik

Successive foreign governments plunged it into unpayable debt and left its citizens in penury

In December 1914, the USS Machias dropped anchor in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Eight US marines disembarked, sauntered to the Banque National de la Republique d'Haiti (BNRH), removed $500,000 worth of gold belonging to the Haitian government - $15m in today's money - packed it in wooden crates to carry back to the ship and thence to New York, where it was deposited in the vaults of the investment bank, Hallgarten & Co.

The BNRH was Haiti's central bank. It was also a foreign private corporation. Originally set up in 1880 through a concession granted to a French bank, pressure from America brought in US investors. By 1920, the BNRH was wholly owned by the American National City Bank. Haiti's central bank it may have been but the Haitian government was charged for every transaction and the eye-popping profits spirited off to Paris or New York.

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