For Haiti, this debt did not signify the beginning of freedom, but the end of hope. By 1900, it was spending 80% of its national budget on repayments. To manage the original reparations, further loans were taken out-mostly from the United States, Germany and France. Instead of developing its potential, this deformed state produced a parade of nefarious leaders, most of whom gave up the insurmountable task of trying to fix the country and looted it instead.