1915–1930: The Occupation as Geopolitical Event

1915–1930: (The Occupation as Geopolitical Event and Aberration in Revolutionary Sovereignty — Dartiguenave Named President After the 1915 Invasion Serving Overseen by the US Military During the Most Violent Years, Ousted by 1922 When He Protested the Moving of Haitian Money to US Banks and Replaced by Louis Borno Alongside US Major General John H. Russell as High Commissioner, the Borno-Russell Government Overseeing Ignoring and Denying the Violence of the Occupation, Historian Raphael Dalleo Characterizing the Occupation as an Aberration in the Teleology of Revolutionary Sovereignty, the Corvée System Revived Under Major Smedley Butler as a Modern Form of Forced Labor Recalling Both French Colonial Slavery and Emperor Henry Christophe’s Nation-Building, Butler Writing to Future President Roosevelt That It Would Not Do to Ask Too Many Questions About How We Do This Work, Armed Combat Between Cacos and US Marines Leading to Over 2,250 Haitian Deaths in the First Decade): The furrow of the occupation in the lives of young Haitians was pleated along physical, emotional, psychological, and spatial lines. After President Sam’s assassination and the 1915 invasion, Phillippe Dartiguenave was named president, serving overseen by the US military during some of the most violent years. By 1922 he was frustrated with his weakened position and protested the moving of Haitian money to US banks; the US government ousted him and appointed Louis Borno alongside Major General John H. Russell as high commissioner. As historian Raphael Dalleo has asserted, the foreign governance was an aberration in the teleology of revolutionary sovereignty in which new ways of imagining, being, and relating to the nation emerged. Under Major Smedley Butler, the US military revived the corvée system — a modern Haitian law recalling both French colonial forced labor and Emperor Henry Christophe’s use of it to build the Citadelle. Conscription was indiscriminate, and Butler wrote to future president Roosevelt, then assistant secretary of the Navy: “It would not do to ask too many questions about how we do this work.” People went out of their way to avoid the streets, walking long distances in the mountains and across unoccupied roads. The brutality swelled the ranks of antioccupation movements including the cacos under Charlemagne Péralte and Benoît Batraville, who drew combat strategies from Dessalines. Armed combat between cacos and US Marines led to over 2,250 Haitian deaths in the first decade — many in armed combat, others at the hands of overzealous, predatory, and careless acts of the marines.