1912-08-12: (The Haitian American Sugar Company Established, American Capital Penetrating the Haitian Economy in the Pattern That Would Culminate in Full Mil…

1912-08-12: (The Haitian American Sugar Company Established, American Capital Penetrating the Haitian Economy in the Pattern That Would Culminate in Full Military Occupation Three Years Later): On August 12, 1912, the Haitian American Sugar Company (HASCO) was established, marking the formal entry of American corporate capital into the Haitian sugar industry. HASCO represented the vanguard of American economic penetration that would culminate in the military occupation of 1915. American businessmen were drawn to Haiti by the same resource that had drawn French colonists three centuries earlier: the capacity of Haitian land and Haitian labor to produce sugar. The difference was that the French had enslaved the labor force directly, while the Americans would use debt, dependency, and ultimately military occupation to achieve similar results. HASCO would operate for decades, its presence a constant reminder that foreign capital had never stopped viewing Haiti as a source of agricultural wealth to be extracted.