What year was haiti found?

Answer 1

Most Haitians would agree they were not "found" because they were never lost. However, many historians credit Christopher Columbus for claiming the island as rightful property of Spain and renamed the island La Isla Espanola (The Spanish Island) in 1492. The indigenous people who lived in Haiti long before the arrival of Columbus were almost wiped off of the face of the planet due to illnesses brought to the island by Europeans. British and French pirates later settled on the island's coasts. The French West India Company gained control of some of the colonies in the latter half of the 17th century. Spain withdrew from the western part of the island and ceded its rights to France in 1697. Ninety-five percent of the present-day Haitian population is of African descent as a result of slave importation into the country to work the plantations throughout the 16th - 19th centuries. Approximately 5 percent of Haiti's population is composed of mulattoes (mixed African and European ancestry) and a small number of immigrants from the Middle East. Haitian Creole and French are Haiti's official languages. Haitians claimed independent control of their country on January 1, 1804.