Haiti was a poor country even before the earthquake, and since the quake hit them, it made them even poorer.
Haiti was controlled bay France, and there was a big slave revolt, and 150,000 people died, that was a very very big loss.
Another reason is because they were also attacked by H.I.V (aids). And aids can kill, so people started dying.
Also after independence, haiti was struggling with corruption, and that was very hard for them to go through.
Haiti also had to pay to a foriegn country for its liberty, they had to pay 60m francs in gold, and Haiti coudnt afford that, so they had to pay the debt slowly.
Also Haitians started cutting down tress, using them as charcoal, and almost 98 percent of the country's forests were gone, that leaves 2 percent of forests.
Before the 1960's, haiti was exporting coffee, and then the coffee prices around the world fell so low that they had find something else to plant. So people started to plant corn, peanuts and bannanas to feed their family, until some person came up and tought them how to make charcoal, and then there started to be loss of trees, no forests, no water or food, all because of the charcoal.
Soil erosion had killed all the mangroves, and coral reefs. And for people to fish for food, they needed to go far away, but they didnt have enough money for boats.
Haiti never had much resources, they didnt have much to plant, so how would they live, they had to find a way to live and they had to find something to plant.
The united states also took over them, and they were also racist to the Haitians, and that brought up alot of problems.
Haiti also had to go through the civil war, and many people started dying because of that, and then people started having less families, and less people that can plant resources.