France made Haiti pay 150 million francs in 1825 to compensate its former slaveholders, and Haitians paid on the debt until 1947

Haiti declared independence from France in 1804. On 17 April 1825 King Charles X issued an ordinance recognising Haiti in exchange for 150 million francs, payable in five yearly instalments^†. Fourteen French warships backed the demand, and Haiti agreed under threat of blockade, invasion and isolation. The money was compensation to the former French colonists for their lost property, which included the people they had enslaved. Haiti also had to give French trade a 50 percent discount. The first instalment was about six times Haiti's yearly revenue^†, so Haiti borrowed from French banks to pay it. In 1838 France cut the sum to 90 million francs. The Council on Foreign Relations reports that for the next 122 years as much as 80 percent of Haiti's annual revenue went to the debt. Haiti finished paying the interest on its loans in 1947. In 2003 President Jean-Bertrand Aristide demanded that France pay back more than $21 billion; he was removed in a coup in February 2004, and the interim government dropped the demand^†. In August 2010 a petition asked France for about $17 billion; France rejected it the next day and listed the aid it was giving Haiti. In 2025 France and Haiti set up a joint commission to study the debt^†. No money has been repaid.