18°33N 72°20W, pop (2000e) 859 000. Seaport capital of Haiti; on the Gulf of Gonâve, W coast of Hispaniola I; commercial and processing centre at W end of the fertile Plaine du Cul-de-Sac; airport; archbishopric; university (1944); coffee, sugar; 18th-c cathedral.
Port-au-Prince, (Pòtoprens in Kréyòl), population 1,277,000 (2006), is the capital and largest city of Haiti. Growth, especially in crowded slums in nearby plains and hillsides, has raised the population of the Port-au-Prince area to between 2.5 and 3 million people.
History
The region before the founding of Port-au-Prince
Before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, the region that would eventually become Port-au-Prince was not the site of any permanent human settlement.
With the arrival of the Spaniards, the Amerindians were forced to become a protectorate, and Bohechio, childless at death, was succeeded by his sister, Anacaona.
Direct Spanish rule over the area once established, Ovando founded a settlement not long from the coast (west of L'Etang Saumâtre), the ironically-named Santa Maria de la Paz Verdadera, which would be abandoned several years later.
For more than 50 years, the area that is today Port-au-Prince saw its population drop off drastically.
Although there had been no real Spanish presence in Hôpital for well over 50 years, Spain retained its formal claim to the territory, and the growing presence of the French flibustiers on ostensibly Spanish lands provoked the Spanish crown to dispatch Castillian soldiers to Hôpital to retake it.
Ester was a rich village, inhabited by merchants, equipped with straight streets; Following a great fire in 1711, Ester was abandoned.Yet the French presence in the region continued to grow, and not long thereafter, a new city in the south was founded -- Léogane.
While the first French presence in Hôpital, the region that was later to contain Port-au-Prince was that of the flibustiers, as the region became a real French colony, the colonial administration began to worry about the continual presence of these pirates -- the flibustiers.
Though the elimination of the flibustiers as a group from Hôpital reinforced the authority of the colonial administration, it made the region a tastier target for the English. De Saint-André named the area Port-du-Prince, though the port and the surrounding region continued to be known as Hôpital. (The ilots in the bay were already known as îlots du Prince)
The English did not trouble the area, and various nobles sought land grants from the French crown in Hôpital;
By this time, the colonial administration was convinced that a capital needed to be chosen, in order better to control the French portion of Santo-Domingo. A new city had to be built -- Port-au-Prince.
Colonial history
In 1770, Port-au-Prince replaced Cap-Français (the modern Cap-Haïtien) as capital of the colony of Saint-Domingue, and in 1804 it became the capital of newly-independent Haïti. During the French and Haïtian Revolutions, it was known as Port-Républicain, before being renamed Port-au-Prince by Jacques I, emperor of Haïti. When Haïti was divided between a kingdom in the north and a republic in the south, Port-au-Prince was the capital of the republic, under the leadership of Alexandre Pétion. Henri Christophe renamed the city Port-aux-Crimes after the assassination of Jean-Jacques Dessalines at Pont Larnage, (now known as Pont-Rouge, and located north of the city.)
Recent history
The population of the country is rapidly growing every year, despite the abject poverty.
Economy
The city currently exports coffee and sugar, and has, in the past, exported other goods, such as shoes and baseballs. Port-au-Prince has food-processing plants and soap, textile, and cement factories. Port-au-Prince is a popular destination for cruise ships and tourist spots are constantly being upgraded.
Though unemployment is very high in Port-au-Prince, it would be more accurate to say that people are underemployed. Walking down the streets of Port-au-Prince a person cannot help but recognize the extremely high levels of activity, especially among people selling goods and services right off the streets. In Simon Fass's research book, Political Economy in Haïti: The Drama of Survival, he argues that in fact virtually no one is unemployed in Port-au-Prince's slums, because they would be unable to survive if they were.
Transportation
All of the major transportation systems in Haiti are located near or run through the capital. The northern highway, Route Nationale #1 (National Highway One), originates in Port-au-Prince, winding through the coastal towns of Montrouis and Gonaïves, before reaching its terminus at the northern port Cap-Haïtien. The southern highway, Route Nationale #2, links Port-au-Prince with Les Cayes via Miragoâne and Jacmel. Haiti also has a third major highway, the Route Nationale #3, which connects Port-au-Prince to Cap-Haitien via the towns of Mirebalais and Hinche.
The most common form of public transportation in Haiti is the use of brightly painted pickup trucks as taxis called "tap-taps" They are named this because when a passenger needs to be let off they use their coin money to tap the side of the vehicle and the driver usually stops.
The port at Port-au-Prince has more registered shipping than any of the over dozen ports in the country.
Port-au-Prince International Airport, which opened in 1965 (as François Duvalier International Airport), is located 10 km north of the city.
Demographics
The population of the city of Port-au-Prince is more than 2 million. The vast majority of the population is of black African descent, but a prominent mulatto minority controls most of the city's businesses. As with most North American cities, many of the city's inhabitants are concentrated in densely populated slums such as La Saline, located directly north of downtown west of Delmas, Bel-Air, located directly northeast of downtown and east of Delmas, Martissant, located directly southwest of downtown, and the poorest, most-dangerous, and worst of them, Cite-Soleil, located directly north of La Saline. There are however, many comfortable living quarters in the city, especially in the Southeastern portion of the city around the School of Sacred Heart, and going towards Petionville. Petionville is a wealthy upper class suburb of Port-au-Prince located Southeast of the city. Petionville is known for its plush mansions on the hills overlooking Port-au-Prince from the Southeast, but it too, has begun to receive an inundation of migrants from the countryside where farmland is eroding into desert and many people come to the city to search for jobs. There are a ring of suburbs that radiate out from the center of Port-au-Prince. Petionville is located southeast of the city, Delmas is located directly south of the airport and north of the city, and Carrefour which is quite poor, especially when compared with the other two suburbs is located Southwest of Port-au-Prince. Most of the few mulattos the city has are concentrated within the more wealthy areas of Port-au-Prince and its suburbs, as are the small upper and middle classes of Port-au-Prince. In addition, many of the Kompa bands, Kompa being a music style very popular throughout Haiti are from Port-au-Prince and its suburbs.
Education
Influential international schools in Port-au-Prince include Union School , founded in 1919, and Quisqueya Christian School , founded in 1974.
The Haïtian Group of Research and Pedagogical Activities (GHRAP) has set up several community centers for basic education. UNESCO’s office at Port-au-Prince has taken a number of initiates in upgrading the educational facilities in Port-au-Prince.
See also University of HaïtiCulture
The culture of the city lies in the center around the National Palace. The national palace was one of the early structures of the city but was destroyed and then rebuilt in 1918.
Tourism
Port-au-Prince has managed to maintain a tourism industry despite political instability. The Pétionville area of Port-au-Prince is affluent and is generally the most common place for tourists to visit and stay. The Hotel Oloffson, located in a 19th century gingerbread mansion, was once the private home of two former Haïtian presidents and is a popular hub for tourist activity in the central city. The Cathedrale de Port-au-Prince is of architectural interest and attracts foreign visitors.
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