Port-au-Prince
(POR-to-PRANS), city (1987 est. pop. 800,000),
Haiti, SW Haiti, on a bay at the end of the Gulf of
Gonaives; 18°32'N 72°20'W. The country's chief
seaport, it exports mainly coffee and sugar. The city has
food-processing plants, soap, textile, and cement industries, and other
light mfg., esp. electronics and sporting goods for export to the U.S.
Has the country's main airport. It was founded in 1749 by Fr. sugar
planters. In 1770 it replaced Cap-Haitien as capital of the Fr.
colony of Saint-Domingue (as Haiti was then called), and in 1804 it
became the capital of newly independent Haiti. The city is laid out
like an amphitheater, with business and commercial quarters along the
water and residences on the hills above. Although Haiti is still
dominantly rural, rural-to-urban migration, driven by rural poverty,
has begun to swell the pop. of Port-au-Prince. Inadequate housing
forces c.½ of the city's residents into squalid
shantytowns. Unemployment and underemployment total at least 50% of
the work force. Landmarks include the Fr.-built quay (1780), the Univ.
of Haiti (est. 1944), the Natl. Palace, the Natl. Mus., and the
Basilica of Notre Dame.
Capital city or county seat is shown by the symbol
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Haiti, SW Haiti, on a bay at the end of the Gulf of
Gonaives; 18°32'N 72°20'W. The country's chief
seaport, it exports mainly coffee and sugar. The city has
food-processing plants, soap, textile, and cement industries, and other
light mfg., esp. electronics and sporting goods for export to the U.S.
Has the country's main airport. It was founded in 1749 by Fr. sugar
planters. In 1770 it replaced Cap-Haitien as capital of the Fr.
colony of Saint-Domingue (as Haiti was then called), and in 1804 it
became the capital of newly independent Haiti. The city is laid out
like an amphitheater, with business and commercial quarters along the
water and residences on the hills above. Although Haiti is still
dominantly rural, rural-to-urban migration, driven by rural poverty,
has begun to swell the pop. of Port-au-Prince. Inadequate housing
forces c.½ of the city's residents into squalid
shantytowns. Unemployment and underemployment total at least 50% of
the work force. Landmarks include the Fr.-built quay (1780), the Univ.
of Haiti (est. 1944), the Natl. Palace, the Natl. Mus., and the
Basilica of Notre Dame.
