[throwaways85989]

And committed a genocide in the process, but it was a truely horrific regime they overthrew and they have been in the "debt for uprising" doghouse ever since. Debt of a country should be generational. If its not paid off within a generation (30 years) it withers

[mindslight]

I wish discussions of sovereign debt would always include the accompanying real dynamics. I have a hard time believing Haitians would have simply paid because they received bills telling them they owed money.

So it wasn't actually "debt" that kept the Haitians poor, but rather had to have been some kind of extortion. Was it France threatening to reinvade? Was it all countries threatening to stop trading? Was it the local elites wanting to improve their own position by enforcing on the people under them? Was it many countries threatening to invade and repossess land if mortgages weren't paid? Taking the focus off this in favor of abstract "debt" is basically giving a free pass to those responsible.

The article does go on to details, and it seems like it was the local elites wanting to improve their own position. So basically the revolution was successful but then terrible leaders came to power, similar to if they had gotten a brutal dictator instead.