However, the country was saddled with a huge debt to its former colonial power and this served to significantly cripple its economic progress because the young country had to pay large sums of money to the France every year (Butler, 1935). Immediately after its independence, the country was labeled a failed nation by Western powers who could not believe that a black country could actually govern itself, an idea that was further spread by America before the occupation (Butler, 1935). This notion was also spread through the media in order to garner support for the occupation and allow American forces to gain support at home for their occupation of Haiti, based on the need to provide effective governance structures to the country (Philogene, 2015 ). Although this was on the surface the mission of the occupation, the real function performed by the occupying forces was to protect American interests within the nation. However, the idea that America was occupying Haiti to provide real solutions to a country plagued by ineffective self-government was the primary reason given to the public and used to gain public support for the American occupation of Haiti.