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Do not fill this in! ===Colonial era=== ====Spanish rule (1492–1625)==== {{Main|Columbian Viceroyalty|New Spain|Captaincy General of Santo Domingo}} [[File:Columbus landing on Hispaniola adj.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|right|[[Artist's impression]] of [[Christopher Columbus]] landing on [[Hispaniola]], engraving by [[Theodor de Bry]]]] Navigator [[Christopher Columbus]] landed in Haiti on 6 December 1492, in an area that he named ''[[Môle-Saint-Nicolas]]'',<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924097691590|title=Columbus the Discoverer |editor=Ober, Frederick Albion |page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924097691590/page/n119 96] |year=1906 |publisher=Harper & Brothers Publishers New York and London |access-date=2 December 2015}}</ref> and claimed the island for the [[Crown of Castile]]. Nineteen days later, his ship the ''[[Santa María (ship)|Santa María]]'' ran aground near the present site of [[Cap-Haïtien]]. Columbus left 39 men on the island, who founded the settlement of [[La Navidad]] on 25 December 1492.<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> Relations with the native peoples, initially good, broke down and the settlers were later killed by the Taíno.<ref name="Bradt10">Clammer, Paul (2016), ''Bradt Travel Guide – Haiti'', p. 10.</ref> The sailors carried endemic Eurasian [[infectious disease]]s, causing [[epidemic]]s that killed a large number of native people.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/What-Became-of-the-Taino.html|title=What Became of the Taíno?|journal=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]|date=October 2011|access-date=16 October 2013|archive-date=7 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207130050/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/What-Became-of-the-Taino.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Koplow |first= David A. |title=Smallpox: The Fight to Eradicate a Global Scourge|url=https://archive.org/details/smallpoxfighttoe00kopl|url-access=registration |year=2004|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24220-3}}</ref> The first recorded [[smallpox]] epidemic in the Americas erupted on Hispaniola in 1507.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/preparedness/bt_public_history_smallpox.shtm |title=History of Smallpox – Smallpox Through the Ages |publisher=Texas Department of State Health Services |access-date=24 July 2013 |archive-date=24 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924141608/https://www.dshs.state.tx.us/preparedness/bt_public_history_smallpox.shtm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Their numbers were further reduced by the harshness of the ''{{lang|es|[[encomienda]]}}'' system, in which the Spanish forced natives to work in gold mines and plantations.<ref>{{cite book|last=Graves |first= Kerry A. |title=Haiti|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8b047XP92i4C&pg=PA22|date=2002|publisher=Capstone|isbn=978-0-7368-1078-4|page=22}}</ref><ref name="Bradt10"/> The Spanish passed the [[Laws of Burgos]] (1512–1513), which forbade the maltreatment of natives, endorsed their [[Proselytism|conversion]] to Catholicism,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://faculty.smu.edu/bakewell/BAKEWELL/texts/burgoslaws.html |title=Laws of Burgos, 1512–1513 |publisher=Faculty.smu.edu |access-date=24 July 2013 |archive-date=6 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190606074822/http://faculty.smu.edu/bakewell/bakewell/texts/burgoslaws.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and gave legal framework to ''{{lang|es|encomiendas}}.'' The natives were brought to these sites to work in specific plantations or industries.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/186567/encomienda |title=Encomienda (Spanish policy) |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |access-date=24 July 2013}}</ref> As the Spanish re-focused their colonization efforts on the greater riches of mainland Central and South America, Hispaniola became reduced largely to a trading and refueling post. As a result [[Piracy in the Caribbean|piracy]] became widespread, encouraged by European powers hostile to Spain such as France (based on [[Tortuga (Haiti)|Île de la Tortue]]) and England.<ref name="Bradt10"/> The Spanish largely abandoned the western third of the island, focusing their colonization effort on the eastern two-thirds.<ref>Knight, Franklin, ''The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism'', 3rd edn, p. 54, New York, Oxford University Press 1990.</ref><ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> The western part of the island was thus gradually settled by French [[buccaneer]]s; among them was Bertrand d'Ogeron, who succeeded in growing [[tobacco]] and recruited many French colonial families from [[Martinique]] and [[Guadeloupe]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ducoin, Jacques.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/849870919|title=Bertrand d'Ogeron, 1613–1676 : fondateur de la colonie de Saint-Domingue et gouverneur des flibustiers|year=2013|isbn=978-2-84833-294-9|location=Brest|oclc=849870919}}</ref> In 1697 [[Kingdom of France|France]] and [[Imperial Spain|Spain]] settled their hostilities on the island by way of the [[Treaty of Ryswick]] of 1697, which divided Hispaniola between them.<ref name="Bradt11">Clammer, Paul (2016), ''Bradt Travel Guide – Haiti'', p. 11.</ref><ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> ====French rule (1625–1804)==== {{Main|Saint-Domingue|French West Indies}} France received the western third and subsequently named it Saint-Domingue, the French equivalent of ''[[Captaincy General of Santo Domingo|Santo Domingo]]'', the Spanish colony on [[Hispaniola]].<ref name="firstcolony">{{cite web |url=http://countrystudies.us/dominican-republic/3.htm |title=Dominican Republic – The first colony |access-date= 19 June 2006 |work=Country Studies |publisher=[[Library of Congress]]; [[Federal Research Division]]}}</ref> The French set about creating sugar and coffee plantations, worked by vast numbers of those enslaved imported from [[Africa]], and Saint-Domingue grew to become their richest colonial possession,<ref name="Bradt11"/><ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> generating 40% of France’s foreign trade and doubling the wealth generation of all of England’s colonies, combined.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Walter E. Kretchik |chapter=1. Haitian Culture and Military Power |date=2016 |language=en |page=6 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |quote=the French colony’s seven thousand plantations to produce 40 percent of France’s foreign trade, nearly double the production of all British colonies combined |title=Eyewitness to Chaos: Personal Accounts of the Intervention in Haiti, 1994}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> The French settlers were outnumbered by enslaved persons by almost 10 to 1.<ref name="Bradt11"/> According to the 1788 Census, Haiti's population consisted of nearly 25,000 Europeans, 22,000 free coloreds and 700,000 Africans in slavery.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Coupeau| first=Steeve|title=The History of Haiti|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=tA-XfYZFNvkC&pg=PA18|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2008|page=18|isbn=978-0-313-34089-5}}</ref> In contrast, by 1763 the white population of [[New France|French Canada]], a far larger territory, had numbered only 65,000.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/QuebecHistory/encyclopedia/ImmigrationHistoryofCanada.htm |title=Immigration History of Canada |publisher=Faculty.marianopolis.edu |access-date=24 July 2013}}</ref> In the north of the island, those enslaved were able to retain many ties to African cultures, religion and language; these ties were continually being renewed by newly imported Africans. Some West Africans in slavery held on to their traditional [[Haitian Vodou|Vodou]] beliefs by secretly syncretizing it with Catholicism.<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> The French enacted the ''[[Code Noir]]'' ("Black Code"), prepared by [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert]] and ratified by [[Louis XIV]], which established rules on slave treatment and permissible freedoms.<ref name="Bradt12">Clammer, Paul (2016), ''Bradt Travel Guide – Haiti'', p. 12.</ref> Saint-Domingue has been described as one of the most brutally efficient slave colonies; at the end of the eighteenth century it was supplying two-thirds of Europe's tropical produce while one-third of newly imported Africans died within a few years.<ref name="Farmer-LROB">{{cite web |last=Farmer |first= Paul | title=Who removed Aristide? |access-date=19 February 2010 |date=15 April 2004 |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n08/farm01_.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080608222428/http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n08/farm01_.html |archive-date=8 June 2008 }}</ref> Many enslaved persons died from diseases such as [[smallpox]] and [[typhoid fever]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kiple |first= Kenneth F. | title = The Caribbean Slave: A Biological History | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=veMLoyrX0BEC| publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 2002 | page = 145 | isbn = 978-0-521-52470-4 }}</ref> They had low [[birth rate]]s,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6K-DocgDY6gC&pg=PA119|title=Sugar Island Slavery in the Age of Enlightenment: The Political Economy of the Caribbean World|author-link1=Arthur Stinchcombe|last=Stinchcombe|first=Arthur L.|date=11 December 1995|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-2200-3|language=en}}</ref> and there is evidence that some women [[abortion|aborted]] fetuses rather than give birth to children within the bonds of [[slavery]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_z17AAAAMAAJ|title=Journal of Haitian Studies|date=2001|publisher=Haitian Studies Association|pages=67|language=en}}</ref> The colony's environment also suffered, as forests were cleared to make way for plantations and the land was overworked so as to extract maximum profit for French plantation owners.<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> [[File:Fire in Saint-Domingo 1791, German copper engraving.jpg|thumb|Saint-Domingue [[Slave rebellion|slave revolt]] in 1791]] As in its [[Louisiana (New France)|Louisiana colony]], the [[New France|French colonial]] government allowed some rights to [[free people of color]] ({{Lang|fr|gens de couleur}}), the [[mixed-race]] descendants of European male colonists and African enslaved females (and later, mixed-race women).<ref name="Bradt11"/> Over time, many were released from slavery and they established a separate [[social class]]. White French [[Creole peoples|Creole]] fathers frequently sent their mixed-race sons to [[France]] for their education. Some men of color were admitted into the military. More of the free people of color lived in the south of the island, near [[Port-au-Prince]], and many intermarried within their community.<ref name="Bradt11"/> They frequently worked as artisans and tradesmen, and began to own some property, including enslaved persons of their own.<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/><ref name="Bradt11"/> The free people of color petitioned the [[New France|colonial]] government to expand their rights.<ref name="Bradt11"/> The brutality of slave life led many people in bondage to escape to mountainous regions, where they set up their own autonomous communities and became known as [[Haitian Maroon|maroons]].<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> One maroon leader, [[François Mackandal]], led a rebellion in the 1750s; however, he was later captured and executed by the French.<ref name="Bradt11"/> ====Haitian Revolution (1791–1804)==== {{Main|Haitian Revolution}} [[File:Général Toussaint Louverture.jpg|thumb|upright|General Toussaint Louverture]] Inspired by the [[French Revolution]] of 1789 and principles of the [[rights of man]], the French settlers and free people of color pressed for greater political freedom and more [[civil rights]].<ref name="Bradt12"/> Tensions between these two groups led to conflict, as a militia of free-coloreds was set up in 1790 by [[Vincent Ogé]], resulting in his capture, torture and execution.<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> Sensing an opportunity, in August 1791 the first slave armies were established in northern Haiti under the leadership of [[Toussaint Louverture]] inspired by the Vodou ''houngan'' (priest) Boukman, and backed by the Spanish in Santo Domingo – soon a full-blown slave rebellion had broken out across the entire colony.<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> In 1792, the [[French First Republic|French]] government sent three commissioners with troops to re-establish control; to build an alliance with the ''[[gens de couleur]]'' and enslaved persons commissioners [[Léger-Félicité Sonthonax]] and [[Étienne Polverel]] abolished slavery in the colony.<ref name="Bradt12"/> Six months later, the [[National Convention]], led by [[Maximilien de Robespierre]] and the [[Jacobin Club|Jacobins]], endorsed [[abolition of slavery timeline|abolition]] and extended it to all the French colonies.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/291/ |title=Decree of the National Convention of 4 February 1794, Abolishing Slavery in all the Colonies |publisher=Chnm.gmu.edu |access-date=24 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110603234817/http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/291/ |archive-date=3 June 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[United States]], which was a new republic itself, oscillated between supporting or not supporting [[Toussaint Louverture]] and the emerging country of Haiti, depending on who was President of the US. Washington, who was a slave holder and isolationist, kept the United States neutral, although private US citizens at times provided aid to French [[Planter (plantation owner)|planters]] trying to put down the revolt. John Adams, a vocal opponent of slavery, fully supported the slave revolt by providing diplomatic recognition, financial support, munitions and warships (including the [[USS Constitution]]) beginning in 1798. This support ended in 1801 when Jefferson, another slave-holding president, took office and recalled the US Navy.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/HaitianRev |title=1784–1800 – The United States and the Haitian Revolution |publisher=History.state.gov |access-date=24 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130920081517/http://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/HaitianRev |archive-date=20 September 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/22/books/poles-in-haiti.html |title=Poles in Haiti |work = [[The New York Times]] |date=22 March 1987 |access-date=24 July 2013 |last=Joseph|first= Raymond A.|author-link=Raymond Joseph}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/john-adams-supports-toussaint-louverture-horrifies-jefferson/ |title=John Adams Supports Toussaint Louverture, Horrifies Jefferson|date=29 March 2017}}</ref> With slavery abolished, Toussaint Louverture pledged allegiance to France, and he fought off the British and Spanish forces who had taken advantage of the situation and invaded Saint-Domingue.<ref name="Latin America's Wars: Volume 1">{{cite book|last1=Scheina|first1=Robert L.|title=Latin America's Wars: Volume 1|date=2003|publisher=Potomac Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution|date=2009|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|page=182}}</ref> The Spanish were later forced to cede their part of the island to France under the terms of the [[Peace of Basel]] in 1795, uniting the island under one government. However, an insurgency against French rule broke out in the east, and in the west there was fighting between Louverture's forces and the free people of color led by [[André Rigaud]] in the [[War of the Knives]] (1799–1800).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/revolution/revolution3.htm |title=The Haitian Revolution of 1791–1803 |first=Bob |last=Corbett |publisher=Webster University}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Smucker|first=Glenn R.|at=Toussaint Louverture|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/httoc.html|title=A Country Study: Haiti|editor=Richard A. Haggerty|publisher=Library of Congress Federal Research Division|date=December 1989}}</ref> The United States' support for the blacks in the war contributed to their victory over the mulattoes.<ref name=YPT/> More than 25,000 whites and free blacks left the island as refugees.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Magazine |first=Smithsonian |title=The History of the United States' First Refugee Crisis |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-united-states-first-refugee-crisis-180957717/ |access-date=10 June 2022 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en|quote=In spite of all this paranoia, however, South Carolina actually lifted its ban on foreign slaves in 1804, and all those who arrived from Saint-Domingue eventually settled there. According to Dessens, many were even welcomed quite warmly. This was especially true for the 8,000 or so of the 25,000 refugees who shared both skin color and a common religion with their American counterparts.}}</ref> [[File:Battle for Palm Tree Hill.jpg|thumb|Battle between [[Polish Legions (Napoleonic period)|Polish troops]] in French service and the [[Haitian Revolution|Haitian rebels]]. The majority of Polish soldiers eventually deserted the French army and fought alongside the Haitians.]] After Louverture created a separatist constitution and proclaimed himself governor-general for life, [[Napoléon Bonaparte]] in 1802 sent an expedition of 20,000 soldiers and as many sailors<ref>{{cite book|last=Frasier |first= Flora|title=Venus of Empire:The Life of Pauline Bonaparte|publisher=John Murray|date=2009}}</ref> under the command of his brother-in-law, [[Charles Leclerc (general, born 1772)|Charles Leclerc]], to reassert French control. The French achieved some victories, but within a few months most of their [[French Army|army]] had died from [[yellow fever]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://entomology.montana.edu/historybug/napoleon/yellow_fever_haiti.htm |title=The Haitian Debacle: Yellow Fever and the Fate of the French |publisher=Montana State University |access-date=24 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207060224/http://entomology.montana.edu/historybug/napoleon/yellow_fever_haiti.htm |archive-date=7 December 2013 }}</ref> Ultimately more than 50,000 French troops died in an attempt to retake the colony, including 18 generals.<ref>{{cite news|author=Adam Hochschild |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/30/CMGKG6F3UV1.DTL |title=Birth of a Nation / Has the bloody 200-year history of Haiti doomed it to more violence? |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=30 May 2004 |access-date=24 July 2013}}</ref> The French managed to capture Louverture, transporting him to France for trial. He was imprisoned at [[Fort de Joux]], where he died in 1803 of exposure and possibly [[tuberculosis]].<ref name="Farmer-LROB" /><ref name="Bradt13">Clammer, Paul (2016), ''Bradt Travel Guide – Haiti'', p. 13.</ref> [[File:Revenge taken by the Black Army for the Cruelties practised on them by the French.png|thumb|Haitians hanging French soldiers]] The enslaved persons, along with free {{Lang|fr|gens de couleur}} and allies, continued their fight for independence, led by generals [[Jean-Jacques Dessalines]], [[Alexandre Pétion]] and [[Henry Christophe]].<ref name="Bradt13"/> The rebels finally managed to decisively defeat the French troops at the [[Battle of Vertières]] on 18 November 1803, establishing the first nation ever to successfully gain independence through a slave revolt.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jackson|first1=Maurice|last2=Bacon|first2=Jacqueline|editor1-last=Jackson |editor1-first=Maurice |editor2-last=Bacon |editor2-first=Jacqueline|chapter=Fever and Fret: The Haitian Revolution and African American Responses|date=2010|title=African Americans and the Haitian Revolution: Selected Essays and Historical Documents|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dZDcAAAAQBAJ&q=African%20American%20and%20the%20Haitian%20Revolution&pg=PT14 |access-date=10 October 2018 |publisher=Routledge |quote=...the momentous struggle that began in 1791 and yielded the first post-colonial independent black nation and the only nation to gain independence through slave rebellion.|isbn=978-1-134-72613-4}}</ref> Under the overall command of Dessalines, the Haitian armies avoided open battle, and instead conducted a successful guerrilla campaign against the Napoleonic forces, working with diseases such as yellow fever to reduce the numbers of French soldiers.<ref>C.L.R. James, ''Black Jacobins'' (London: Seckur & Warburg, 1938)</ref> Later that year France withdrew its remaining 7,000 troops from the island and Napoleon gave up his idea of re-establishing a North American empire, selling [[Louisiana (New France)]] to the [[United States]], in the [[Louisiana Purchase]].<ref name="Bradt13"/> Throughout the revolution, an estimated 20,000 French troops succumbed to yellow fever, while another 37,000 were [[killed in action]],<ref>{{cite web |title=The Haitian Revolution and the Louisiana Purchase |url=https://gazette.com/woodmenedition/jefferson-the-haitian-revolution-and-the-louisiana-purchase-get-out-of-town/article_e5b9a5de-88b2-11ea-9b22-1f1cf7020e1f.amp.html |website=The Gazette}}</ref> exceeding the total French soldiers killed in action across various 19th-century colonial campaigns in Algeria, Mexico, Indochina, Tunisia, and West Africa, which resulted in approximately 10,000 French soldiers killed in action combined.<ref>{{cite book |title=Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015, 4th ed. | isbn=9780786474707 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8urEDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA199|quote=French losses from 1830–51 were 3,336 killed in battle and 92,329 died of wounds or from all other causes. Between 1830 and 1870, 411 French officers were killed and 1,360 were wounded. The toll for the ranks was an estimated 10,000 killed and 35,000 wounded in all French colonial campaigns. A few thousand from this number died in Mexico or Indochina, but the great bulk met their deaths in Algeria. Disease took an even greater toll. One estimate puts total French and Foreign Legion deaths from battle and disease for the entire century at 110,000. | last1=Clodfelter | first1=Micheal | date=23 May 2017 | publisher=McFarland }}</ref> The British sustained 100,000 casualties.<ref name=YPT>{{cite web |title=Haitian Revolution: A YPT Guide|url=https://www.youngpioneertours.com/haitian-revolution-ypt-guide/ |website=Young Pioneer Tours|date=7 March 2020 }}</ref> Additionally, 350,000 ex-enslaved Haitians died.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Colin|last2=Wilson|first2=Damon|title=An End To Murder: Human beings have always been cruel, savage and murderous. Is all that about to change?|date=2015}}</ref> In the process, Dessalines became arguably the most successful military commander in the struggle against Napoleonic France.<ref>Christer Petley, ''White Fury: A Jamaican Slaveholder and the Age of REvolution'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), p. 182.</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page