Having attained its independence from France in 1804 through a brutal and costly war, the case for reparations to Haiti was tenable. Shortly thereafter, France would demand that the newly founded Haiti pay the French government and slaveholders 90 million francs for the "theft" of the slaves' own lives (Compensated emancipation) and the land that they had turned into profitable sugar and coffee-producing plantations in order to formally recognize the fledgling nation's independence. This debt was financed by French banks and the American Citibank, and finally paid off in 1947.