United States occupation of Haiti

United States occupation of Haiti. , The United States occupation of Haiti began on July 28, 1915 when 330 US Marines landed at Port-au-Prince on the authority of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to safeguard the interests of U.S. corporations. It ended on August 1, 1934 after Franklin D. Roosevelt reaffirmed an August 1933 disengagement agreement. The last contingent of U.S. Marines departed on August 15, 1934 after a formal transfer of authority to the Garde. , , Between 1911 and 1915, a series of political assassinations and forced exiles saw the presidency of Haiti change six times. Various revolutionary armies carried out this series of coups. Each was formed by cacos, or peasant brigands from the mountains of the north along the porous Dominican border, who were enlisted by rival political factions under the promises of money, which would be paid after a successful revolution, and the opportunity to plunder , , American President Woodrow Wilson sent 330 U.S. Marines to Port au-Prince on July 28, 1915. The specific order from the Secretary of the Navy to the invasion commander, Admiral William Deville Bundy; was to “protect American and foreign" interests. An additional motivation was to replace the Haitian constitution which prohibited foreign ownership of land. However, to avoid public criticism the occupation was labeled as a mission to "re-establish peace and order…[and] has nothing to do with any diplomatic negotiations of the past or the future" as disclosed by Rear Admiral Caperton. , On November 17, 1915, US. Marines captured Fort Riviere, a stronghold of the Cacos rebels. , Opposition to the Occupation began immediately after the Marines entered Haiti in 1915. The rebels (called "cacos" by the U.S. Marines) vehemently tried to resist American control of Haiti. In response, the Haitian and American governments began a vigorous campaign to disband the rebel armies. Perhaps the best-known account of this skirmishing came from Marine Major Smedley Butler, awarded a Medal of Honor for his exploits, who went on to serve as commanding officer of the Haitian Gendarmerie. (He later expressed his disapproval of the U.S intervention in his book War Is a Racket.) Racial attitudes towards the Haitian people by the American occupation forces were blatant and arguably widespread. The NAACP secretary Herbert Seligman in the July 10th, 1920 NATION, wrote: "Military camps have been built throughout the island. The property of Haitians has been taken for military use, Haitians carrying a gun were for a time shot on sight. Machine guns have been turned on crowds of unarmed natives and United States marines have by accounts, which several of them gave me in casual conversation, not troubled to investigate how many were killed or wounded.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt was not immune to such attitudes, as exemplified during a visit to Haiti; he was amused by a traveling companion’s remark about the Haitian minister of agriculture. , , On a visit to Cap-Haitien in July 1934, Roosevelt reaffirmed an August 1933 disengagement agreement.The last contingent of U.S. Marines departed on August 15, 1934 after a formal transfer of authority to the Garde. The U.S. retained influence of Haitian external finances until 1947. , , (Caption) , CPT. Smedley Butler, SGT. Ross Iams and PVT. Samuel Gross entering Fort Rivière during the battle in 1915.