1904-01-01: (Haiti Celebrates Its Centennial, One Hundred Years of Independence Marred by Violence, Civil Strife, and the Unveiling of the Roosevelt Corollar…

1904-01-01: (Haiti Celebrates Its Centennial, One Hundred Years of Independence Marred by Violence, Civil Strife, and the Unveiling of the Roosevelt Corollary, Which Made the United States the Self-Appointed Policeman of the Caribbean): On January 1, 1904, Haiti celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of Dessalines’s proclamation of independence at Gonaïves. The centennial was marred by political violence and civil strife that mocked the occasion. In the same year, the United States unveiled the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which asserted the right of the United States to intervene militarily in any Latin American or Caribbean nation that failed to maintain political order or service its debts. The Corollary was aimed broadly at the region, but Haiti, with its chronic political instability and mounting foreign debt, was an obvious target. The national football team was also established in 1904, a modest marker of institutional development in a nation whose institutions were otherwise crumbling. Haiti was one hundred years old. It had survived the indemnity, the coups, the failed invasions, the earthquakes, and the diplomatic quarantine. It had not thrived. And the next century would bring the U.S. Marines.