1916-00-00: (The United States Creates the Haitian National Guard, Disbanding the Haitian Army That Had Participated in Twenty Uprisings Between 1908 and 191…

1916-00-00: (The United States Creates the Haitian National Guard, Disbanding the Haitian Army That Had Participated in Twenty Uprisings Between 1908 and 1915 and Replacing It With a Force Trained and Officered by Americans): In 1916, the United States created the Haitian National Guard, initially called the Gendarmerie d’Haïti and renamed the Garde d’Haïti in 1928. The American occupiers disbanded the existing Haitian army, which had participated in twenty uprisings between 1908 and 1915, and replaced it with a force trained, armed, and officered by U.S. military personnel. The National Guard crushed the Cacos Rebellion, enforced the corvée labor system, and maintained the order that the occupation required. When the Marines withdrew in 1934, the Guard became the core of Haiti’s armed forces, renamed the Armée d’Haïti in 1947. The institution that the Americans had created as a tool of colonial control became the instrument through which every subsequent Haitian strongman would seize power. From Magloire to Duvalier to Cédras, the military interventions that defined post-occupation Haitian politics were carried out by an army that the United States had built.