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Haiti became the first and only nation to pay reparations to its former masters and their descendants for generations. According to a New York Times analysis of thousands of pages of archival documents, it shipped the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars to France, setting off a cycle of perpetual debt that sapped Haiti’s ability to build a nation for more than 100 years. Yet to this day, that history is not taught in French schools, and many of the country’s most prominent aristocratic families are unaware that their ancestors kept collecting payments from Haiti’s poorest people — long after the end of slavery. Mr. Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected president after decades of dictatorship, wanted France to do far more than acknowledge its past. He wanted restitution. “What beautiful schools, universities and hospitals we will be able to build for our children!” he told the crowd. “How much food we will have in abundance!” The consequences were immediate, and lasting. In interviews, a dozen French and Haitian political figures recounted how a worried France worked quickly and doggedly to stifle Mr. Aristide’s call for reparations before siding with his opponents and collaborating with the United States to remove him from power.