Haiti became the world's first black-led republic and the first independent Caribbean state when it threw off French colonial control and slavery in a series of wars in the early 19th century.

海地是世界上第一个黑人领导的共和国，也是加勒比海岛国中第一个独立的国家。在20世纪早期为了摆脱法国的殖民统治和奴役进行了一系列的斗争。

However, decades of poverty, environmental degradation, violence, instability and dictatorship have left it as the poorest nation in the Americas.

然而，数十年的贫穷、环境恶化、暴力、动荡和独裁使得这个国家成了美洲最贫穷的国家。

A mostly mountainous country with a tropical climate, Haiti's location, history and culture - epitomised by voodoo - once made it a potential tourist hot spot, but instability and violence, especially since the 1980s, have severely dented that prospect.

一个有着热带气候的多山国家，海地的地理位置、历史和伏都教的文化使得这个国家一度成为大有潜力的旅游胜地，但是动荡和暴力，尤其是20世纪80年代以后，严重削弱了这种前景。