Central America · Conquest and the Spanish colonial era
Haiti
1791–1804
Saint-Domingue, France's fabulously wealthy sugar-and-coffee colony on western Hispaniola, was worked by an enormous enslaved population. Per Encyclopaedia Britannica, "by 1789... the estimated population of Saint-Domingue... was 556,000 and included roughly 500,000 African slaves, 32,000 European colonists, and 24,000 affranchis" (free people of color).
- Existed
- 1791–1804
- Shown on the map
- 1792–1802
- Peak area
- 32k km²
- Region
- Central America
Overview
Saint-Domingue, France's fabulously wealthy sugar-and-coffee colony on western Hispaniola, was worked by an enormous enslaved population. Per Encyclopaedia Britannica, "by 1789... the estimated population of Saint-Domingue... was 556,000 and included roughly 500,000 African slaves, 32,000 European colonists, and 24,000 affranchis" (free people of color). In August 1791 a massive slave uprising erupted in the northern plains, igniting the Haitian Revolution — the only large-scale slave revolt in history to found an independent state. Toussaint Louverture, a freedman and gifted general, rose to lead the insurgents, adroitly maneuvering among France, Spain, and Britain, and by 1801 controlled the whole island; he promulgated a constitution and named himself governor-for-life while nominally remaining under France.
Decline and legacy
Napoleon Bonaparte dispatched a large expedition (1801–1803) under his brother-in-law General Charles Leclerc to restore French control and, ultimately, slavery. Toussaint was seized by treachery and deported to France, where he died in prison in April 1803. His lieutenant Jean-Jacques Dessalines took command; aided by yellow fever that ravaged the French army (which lost tens of thousands of men) and by the resumption of the Anglo-French war, the revolutionaries crushed the French at the Battle of Vertières (18 November 1803). Dessalines proclaimed independence on 1 January 1804, restoring an indigenous Taíno-derived name, "Haiti."
Common questions
- What was Haiti?
- Saint-Domingue, France's fabulously wealthy sugar-and-coffee colony on western Hispaniola, was worked by an enormous enslaved population. Per Encyclopaedia Britannica, "by 1789... the estimated population of Saint-Domingue... was 556,000 and included roughly 500,000 African slaves, 32,000 European colonists, and 24,000 affranchis" (free people of color).
- When did Haiti exist?
- Haiti existed 1791–1804. On this map it is drawn 1792–1802.
- How large was Haiti?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Haiti covered about 32,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
- How did Haiti end?
- Napoleon Bonaparte dispatched a large expedition (1801–1803) under his brother-in-law General Charles Leclerc to restore French control and, ultimately, slavery. Toussaint was seized by treachery and deported to France, where he died in prison in April 1803.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity and for the key figures and events as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, EBSCO Research Starters and academic sources. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Haiti en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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