French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that historic injustice was imposed on Haiti when it was forced to pay a colossal indemnity to France in exchange for its independence 200 years ago.

Macron also announced the creation of a joint French-Haitian historical commission to ‘’examine our shared past’’ and assess relations, but did not directly address longstanding Haitian demands for reparations.

France ″subjected the people of Haiti to a heavy financial indemnity, ... This decision placed a price on the freedom of a young nation, which was thus confronted with the unjust force of history from its very inception,’' Macron said in a statement.

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[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Didn't they overthrow them violently? They didn't buy independence .

[–] young_broccoli@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 months ago

Its been a while since I read about Haiti, but if I remember correctly, several years after haiti's revolution the french threatened them with warships demanding payment for the "loss of property" (aka slaves and stolen land) in exange of diplomatic recognition of their country and independence.