Haiti's history of violence and disasters

FILE PHOTO: Haitians made homeless in the 2010 earthquake stand outside their tents on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince January 13, 2011. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/File Photo

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti became Latin America and the Caribbean's first independent state of the colonial era and the first Black-led republic when it threw off French rule in the 19th century.

But it has suffered cycles of violence, invasion and repression for most of its subsequent history, as well as natural disasters including an earthquake in 2010 that killed as many as 300,000 people.