1907-1914: Haiti the Great Power
In 1907, the government changed in Haiti. Despite the overwhelming success of his government, Garay lost the presidential election to Tandrede Bonheur, leader of the Liberal party. Bonheur was an academic from Port-au-Prince and the first French-speaking Haitian president since the end of the Boyer dictatorship. The liberals had returned to power on Bonheurs' promise to guarantee rights and liberties to all Haitian citizens. Garay, however, did not go without a fight, and remained leader of the Social Democratic Party. Bonheur quickly moved to guarantee Haitian liberties and freedoms following the abolition of censorship under Garay.
The Bonheur government succeeded in reforming Haitian laws to guarantee certain liberties and freedoms for all of its peoples. For the first time in Haitian history, freedom of speech was now guaranteed. Speech and the presses had been censored ever since the end of the Boyer dictatorship. Back during his life, Jacinto Albizu, Haiti's eternal president, had heavily used censorship to maintain his "perfectly broken system." Now it was a thing of the past. Haiti's economic progress was also notable. The Haitian economy had grown by 10% in just 10 months, growing from £100 million in January to more than £110 million in October.
Haitian economic growth was so blindingly fast that by December, Haiti was the world's fifth largest economy, having passed the British Republic. However, this was more because of the Communards' failure than because of Haiti's success. Wales had seceded from Britain, reducing the size of the British economy.
The Haitian miracle seemed set to continue as it had begun, with explosive Haitian economic growth showing no sign sign of slowing. In 1908 Haiti. remained as the world's fifth largest economy. However, the resources that fueled Haitian economic boom came from Africa, and clearly the scramble for Africa was about to end. France and Britain had essentially successfully blocked Haiti from expanding into the Congo, and taken most of the resource-rich Congo for themselves, with Haiti left with territories further south in Zambezi, Katanga, and Angola. This was terrible news for Haiti with its ambitions on becoming the world's number one economic power. Haiti depended on imports of lead, dyes, iron, and coal from Africa, and above all else, Haiti still needed to secure a supply of sulfur.
In October 1908, the British let the Welsh go. Independent Wales itself now fell into a Civil War. Its victory was consumed by warring factions of Welsh nationalists, who argued about how best to proceed. Prussia also increasingly dissolved into disaster, with different factions of the Prussian army fighting one another for power while minor states splintered off from Prussia and became independent. Poland became not yet lost again, with Congress Poland also breaking away from the collapsing Prussian state. Meanwhile, Haitian GDP had now increased to more than £122 million an increase of 20% in just 20 months.
Amid explosive economic growth, Haiti also had accompanying explosive political debates. The Bonheur government fell in October 1908, having lasted just 21 months, and president Garay had returned to power. It was a stunning reversal of political fortunes. After ending censorship, Bonheur had discovered that he owed more to censorship than he had realized, and was no longer able to contain popular support for the Social Democratic Party. Garay returned to power, promising further economic growth for Haiti.
Economic progress in Haiti from 1907 to 1914 was mainly built around the expansion of coal mines, lead mines, iron mines, and dye plantations in Africa. Steel mills, tool and dies, chemical plants, and other factories were built in Port-au-Prince. Power plants were built in Santo Domingo. The new century also saw an expansion in Haitian education. Universities were built in Africa, funded by private industrialists who had made their fortune on the continent. Three additional state-funded universities were built in Cap Haitien, and the existing arts Academy in Port-au-Prince was also greatly expanded. Textile mills and glassworks followed, but shortages of raw materials, including sulfur, hounded Haiti at every turn. Fortunately with staggering effort by the Garay government, commodity prices were brought down. Seemingly unending shortages of wood, coal, dyes, and other raw materials were eventually solved.
Haiti's existing electronics factories, which existed mainly to provide telephones for big businesses and the Haitian bureaucracy, also began to produce radios in 1909. There was massive interest in this new technology in Haiti. Soon virtually every home in Haiti had a radio, and Haiti had one of the world's first public broadcasting stations. The Haitian standard of living was now by far the highest in the world: people in Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo lived in steel-framed urban homes heated and lit by electrical heating, drank coffee and tea imported from Africa, smoked locally made Haitian cigars, ate candy and processed food made with locally sourced Haitian sugar, fish, fruit, meat and vegetables, and now listened to the news on Port-au-Prince manufactured radios, in addition to traditional Haitian newspapers from which censorship had just been removed. The one thing Haiti did not have was automobiles, because Haiti had no supply of oil. Road locomotives were sometimes seen on Haitian streets instead. These coal-burning, smoke-belching, steam-pumping machines were used only by the wealthy, as the Haitian metropolitan railway - commissioned almost a decade ago - remained more than large enough for the Haitian public and industrial freight and had not been expanded in years.
The scramble for Africa well and truly ended at the end of 1909. By winter of the year, the lines were more or less drawn. All of Africa had been claimed by the great powers. However, Haiti still needed more raw materials. The Garay government made a fateful decision. They decided to turn Haiti's colonial enterprise to Papua New Guinea and the island of Sulawesi, also called Celebes by the Europeans. Papua New Guinea was an attractive target because it had a supply of sulfur: something that Haiti had struggled to source from the international markets. However, this decision by the Garay government would have consequences.
In March 1910, Haiti past the East India Company in GDP. Haitian GDP now stood at £140 million. Haiti was the fourth largest economy in the world, and Haitian growth still showed no signs of stopping.
The Netherlands was brought into the Haitian customs union in September 1910, with the Haitians hoping that this would provide oil from Friesland into the Haitian market. However, due to Dutch mismanagement of the Friesland railroad and ports, no oil was actually exported to the Haitian market, even though there were oil rigs functioning in Friesland.
In 1911, the consequences of Garay's decision to colonize Papua New Guinea would come back to haunt him. War broke out between Haiti and the Papuan natives. The Haitian public was shocked and disappointed with the Garay government, as they had prided themselves on settling colonization in Africa relatively peacefully. Haiti had never previously fought a war, excepting the Haitian war of independence against the French, and Haiti's self-image as a purely peaceful and benevolent colonial power was shattered at home.
The war proved much harder than expected, with many different twists and turns, including the commanding general of the Haitian army in Haiti abruptly dying and a new Army general having to be assigned. Haitian progress was slow and casualties were high, with Haiti barely winning its first battle against the Papuans, and after several more embarrassing defeats at the hands of the natives, the Haitian army was doubled in size. Progress was slowly made in New Guinea.
The Papuans finally surrendered after years of warfare, but Haitian national pride had taken a knock. The victory had been surprisingly hard-fought.
The debacle in Papua New Guinea marked the end of the Garay government. As the fallout from the war engulfed the Haitian political scene, new leadership was found. President Mario Bayo, a former soldier and head of the Communist Party, was brought into power in 1912. Despite the debacle of the war, Bayo inherited the legacy of Garay's economic success. The Haitian economy now stood at £180 million, 80% growth in just a little over five years. Bayo would not prove to be a very successful leader, as he attempted to confront escalating Haitian worker shortages by bringing in Open Immigration policies, an attempt that ended in a bruising policy defeat. Bayo vowed to try again later, in the name of international solidarity between the peoples and workers of the world.
Haiti now controlled a substantial empire in the Pacific Ocean, including New Guinea, Celebes, and colonies on the tip of the Northern Island of New Zealand, in Eastern Micronesia, and in southern Australia. The independent Australian nation of New South Wales coincidentally used the same color as Haiti on the map, but there was no affiliation between the two governments.
At the end of the year 1914, Haitian GDP now stood at £200 million. Haiti was still the world's fourth largest economy. The Haitian economy had doubled in size from £100 million in just under eight years. Economists now confidently predicted Haiti would exceed Qing China, a country with more than 30 times Haiti's population, in GDP within a few years. Haitians began to believe for the first time that they actually could do it; they really could become the world's foremost economic power.
((Okay! Thanks for joining me for this update. Let me briefly explain what happened here. I was not able to recover my old saves from the 1900 to 1906. Unfortunately, there was some sort of problem with the steam cloud. I still don't know exactly what it was, but those saves were corrupted. I replayed the game from 1900 to 1906 and I'm now using only local saves. Almost exactly the same things happened as during my previous playthrough. The only difference was that I had to offer Portugal an obligation to get them to join the Haitian sphere, and they used that obligation to force me into a defensive pact, so I now have a defensive pact with Portugal. That's about it. The game has gotten faster. This only took me about an hour and a half to play for 8 years, whereas it was previously 3 hours for 6 years.))
