# Haiti–Jamaica relations

Haiti and Jamaica have bilateral relations. Both nations have honorary consulates in their respective capitals. Jamaica's official language was English as well as the national language like Creole, while Haiti's both official languages are French and Haitian Creole, both countries are rooted as the two "Black states" by African diaspora.
Before Cristóbal Colón on his voyage to the Americas, the Taíno were the original inhabitants of Hispaniola, including the area that is now Haiti. The vast majority of people in both Haiti and Jamaica are of African descent, and are widely considered "Black nations". Both Haitians and Jamaicans have deep roots in Africa, with their cultures and identities shaped by the experiences of the African diaspora. In Jamaica, which also inhabited at their height, are thought to have numbered some 60,000 people, grouped into around 200 villages headed by caciques (chiefs). Columbus had discovered the island of Hispaniola on 5 December 1492 during his first voyage, two years later, he discovered Jamaica and both claimed it for Spain until both the British and the French capture the islands from Spanish control which forced Spain to relocate in Cuba for the Spanish Empire. The Taíno population declined rapidly after the arrival of Spanish Europeans due to disease, enslavement, hard labor and warfare from 1492 to the 17th century during the Taíno genocide. Both Port Royal and Tortuga are home to English and French pirates during the Golden Age of Piracy were prominent havens for the buccaneers while serving as their bases for operations and for sharing their loot and found the supplies of treasure of which Tortuga and Port Royal provided safe harbors, opportunities to sell looted cargo, and were within easy reach of major shipping routes. They were both instrumental in the buccaneering era and the rise of piracy in the Caribbean. The British captured Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655, and the French acquired Saint Domingue in 1697. The British brought hundreds of thousands of African slaves to Jamaica, where the sugar industry was labor-intensive. By the 18th century, thousands of slaves were imported to Jamaica to work on the profitable sugar plantations, while the French colony of Saint-Domingue was one of the most profitable French colonies, heavily reliant on enslaved labor for sugar production. French owners imported almost 800,000 Africans to the colony including Martinique. The transatlantic slave trade was a system where European powers, including Britain and France, transported enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to work in the Americas. The Seven Years' War engaged a naval battle of Cap-Français by the British in 1757. After the American Revolution in 1783 which led the British evacuate New York once it became an American colony back in 1664, the French Revolution had begun in 1789, as the British in Jamaica were deeply concerned about the revolution and its potential impact on their own slave population, leading to paranoia and measures to suppress any potential unrest. The Haitian Revolution led by Toussaint Louverture had a profound impact on France, ultimately leading to the loss of its most valuable colony and the sale of the Louisiana Territory to the United States by Napoleon. With Napoleon's attempts to reconquer Saint Domingue and reimpose slavery further fueled the revolution against the black rebels and ultimately led to the establishment of a new free black nation which finally declared Saint Domingue independent on 1 January 1804 after the revolt began in 1791 which led the achievement of famous victory for the black rebels at the Battle of Vertières in 1803. Saint Domingue changed its name to Ayiti meaning (Land of High Mountains), Haiti became the world's first and oldest free black led republic in the New World, the first country to abolish slavery, the first Caribbean nation, the first in the Greater Antilles and the first in Latin America as a whole, which also became the second oldest independent nation in the Western Hemisphere after the United States. The Haitian Revolution had a profound impact on the history of both Haiti and the Caribbean region, including Jamaica, and its legacy continues to be felt today. From 1915 until 1934, the United States occupation of Haiti reinstituted the practice of forced labor under the corvée system especially in the cities of Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haïtien. The young American trained doctor and future dictator François Duvalier (Papa Doc) who was interested of black nationalism when he took power on 22 October 1957 after his election on 22 September in the same year as President of Haiti with the beginning of the Duvalier era until it was disbanded in February 1986. On 6 August 1962, Jamaica had finally gained independence from the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of Jamaica which led thousands of British Jamaicans including Indian Jamaicans to immigrate, live and work in Britain as part of the commonwealth. In 1964, Papa Doc had won the constitutional referendum which declared him as Président à Vie d'Haïti (meaning President for Life of Haiti) as he changed both the flag and coat of arms from blue and red to black and red, as the black shared the same ties to mother africa which continues until his son Jean-Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc) are overthrown on 7 February 1986 by the protesters for the uprising against Baby Doc and his secret police, the Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale (Tonton Macoutes) who wore a blue denim uniform with sunglasses and machetes who are named as a Vodou monster for carried out political murders, beatings, silencing dissenters and intimidation that has created by Baby Doc's father Papa Doc back in 1959. The nightmare was over for millions of Haitians where they celebrate the downfall of Duvalier as he fled to France on the U.S. Air Force flight which ended the 28 year dictatorship and the democracy of Haiti was born which had ratified the Constitution in 1987.
Since Haiti's independence in 1804, Jamaica has been a frequent destination for exiled former Haitian leaders and politicians, starting with the 3rd president, Charles Rivière-Hérard.
In January 2007, Haitian President René Préval made a four-day working visit to Jamaica. At a press conference, Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller announced that a Joint Jamaica/Haiti Commission would be convened later that year.
The two countries share a maritime boundary.