# The twentieth century response  
The new century would reify Euro-American views of Africa and Haiti while challenging earlier arguments of Haitian intellectuals. For the Haitian Republic, the occupation of the country by the United States Marines in 1915 was the greatest blow to its pride. After more than a century of successfully protecting its independence from foreign encroachers, Haitian politics had collapsed to such an extent that its sovereignty would become absorbed in the expanding monolith of the United States empire. It was in this maelstrom of violence, abuse and wounded national honour that a younger generation of Haitian writers found a new way forward through Africa. The African heritage resuscitated in these years was promoted actively by members of Haiti's intellectual class, composed of younger elites and members of a rising black middle class. They were principally men who envisioned Africa differently from their forebears.