How American bankers and Marines seized control of Haiti for nearly two decades

History · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In 1915, US Marines invaded Haiti to secure financial interests for the National City Bank. What began as a mission to protect debt repayments evolved into a nineteen-year military regime, where American officials rewrote the national constitution and enforced their authority through a US-created gendarmerie and forced labor.

The occupation was driven by the desire of American businesses to dominate Haiti’s economy and prevent European, specifically German, influence. By 1910, German nationals held significant economic power in Haiti, owning utilities and financing local political factions. Fearing this presence near the Panama Canal, the Wilson administration, heavily influenced by National City Bank lobbyist Roger Leslie Farnham, sought to control Haiti’s customs houses—the nation's primary revenue source. In 1914, Marines even seized US$500,000 in gold from the national bank to leverage the Haitian government.

The invasion on July 28, 1915, followed the lynching of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam. Under the guise of restoring order, the US established a military regime. The occupation was formalized by the 1915 Haitian-American Convention, which granted the US economic and security oversight. US officials effectively ruled the country, with Marine commanders serving as administrators and financial advisors holding veto power over all governmental decisions. To ensure compliance, the US dissolved the Haitian legislature in 1917 after it refused to approve a new constitution.

The resulting 1918 constitution, supervised by Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, overturned a ban on foreign land ownership that had existed since Haiti's 1804 independence. This period was marked by intense resistance, notably the Caco wars. Thousands of Haitians, including up to 40,000 rebels in a 1918 uprising, fought the occupation. The US employed a corvée system of forced labor for infrastructure, causing widespread death. The occupation finally concluded on August 1, 1934, following a disengagement agreement, leaving behind a legacy of deep political and economic restructuring.

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