Port-au-Prince

Port-au-Prince (Pòtoprens in Kreyòl) is the capital city of Haiti. Haiti is also divided into ten Départements; Port-au-Prince is the capital of the Ouest Département.^[1]

Port-au-Prince (Kreyòl): Pòtoprens
Port-au-Prince from space
Coat of arms
Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince in Haiti
Coordinates: 18°32′21″N 72°20′06″W
Country	Haiti
Département	Ouest
Arrondisement	Port-au-Prince
Founded	1749
Colonial seat	1770
Elevation	98 m (322 ft)
Population  (2007)
• City	1,082,800
• Metro	1,728,100
• Demonym	Port-au-Princien (female Port-au-Princienne)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (Eastern)

Port-au-Prince is Haiti's largest city. According to the country's 2015 census, over 2.6 million people lived there.^[1]

History

Port-au-Prince was built in 1749. At that time, Haiti was a French colony called Saint-Domingue. Before 1770, Cap-Français (now Cap-Haïtien) was the capital of Saint-Domingue. In 1770, Port-au-Prince replaced Cap-Français as the capital of Saint-Domingue.^[2]

In 1804, the people of Haiti won the Haitian Revolution, and Haiti became an independent country.^[3] Port-au-Prince became the capital of this new country. During the French and Haitian Revolutions, it was called Port-Républicain, before Jean-Jacques Dessalines renamed it Port-au-Prince.^[4]

Shortly after it won its independence, Haiti's new leaders divided the country between a kingdom in the north and a republic in the south. Port-au-Prince remained the capital of the republic.^[5]

Port-au-Prince today

Port-au-Prince is the cultural centre of Haiti. The State University of Haiti (L'Université d'État d'Haïti, or UEH, in French);^[6] the Université Quisqueya;^[7] and the Université Caraïbe^[8] are all located in the city.

Port-au-Prince is the nation's largest centre of economy and finance. It has the most important port in the country, where coffee and sugar are exported. Port-au-Prince has soap, textile, and cement factories, and others to process foods.

There is also an international airport about 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) north of the city. It is named Aéroport International Toussaint L'ouverture after national hero Toussaint L'ouverture.^[9]

The city was very badly damaged and more than 100,000 people died in the 2010 Haiti earthquake, which is one of the deadliest earthquakes in history. Due to extreme poverty, the city has still not recovered from the earthquake, and many ruins still remain.

References

1. Institut Haïtien de Statistique et d’Informatique (March 2015). Population Totale, de 18 Ans et Plus: Ménages et Densités Estimés en 2015 (Report) (in French). Ministère de l’Économie et des Finances (MEF), République d’Haïti. pp. 16, 23.
2. Geggus, David (1991). "The Major Port Towns of Saint Domingue in the Later Eighteenth Century". Atlantic Port Cities: Economy, Culture, and Society in the Atlantic World, 1650–1850. University of Tennessee Press. pp. 87-116. ISBN 978-0870496578.
3. Taber, Robert D. (2015). "Navigating Haiti's History: Saint-Domingue and the Haitian Revolution". History Compass. 13 (5): 235–50. doi:10.1111/hic3.12233.
4. "Haiti: Miscellaneous Collections" (PDF). Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The New York Public Library. p. 5. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
5. "The Haitian Revolution". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
6. "Bienvenue". L'Université d'État d'Haïti (in French). Retrieved May 29, 2016.
7. "Bienvenue à l'Université Quisqueya". Université Quisqueya. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
8. "Acceuil". Université Caraïbe. Archived from the original on March 24, 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
9. "Toussaint Louverture Intl". World Aero Data. Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File. 2016. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2016.

Department capitals of Haiti
Cap-Haïtien • Fort-Liberté • Gonaïves • Hinche • Jacmel • Jérémie • Les Cayes • Miragoâne • Port-au-Prince • Port-de-Paix