I'm not sure why you're talking about Cuba. But since you bring Cuba up the fact that the Cuban economy is doing better than the Haitian one and quality of life

I'm not sure why you're talking about Cuba. But since you bring Cuba up the fact that the Cuban economy is doing better than the Haitian one and quality of life is better in Cuba than in Haiti, despite the American trade embargo on them for the entirely of the late 20th century, is evidence against the proposition that Haiti's contemporary problems are primarily a result of the 19th century French impositions. > As for DR, I think its still debatable. From the 30s to the early 60s, DR was under a dictatorship that was fairly brutal. After that, a democratically elected president was couped with US support, then essentially a man described as a puppet for the previous dictator was put into power for another 12 years. Perhaps the relative stability + having a ruler with US approval is enough to explain the relative success. Haiti was also ruled by brutal dictators in the mid-20th century, and was receiving aid from the United States for much of this time. So this can't in and of itself be an explanatory factor for why Haiti is so much worse off than the Dominican Republic.