![]() ![]() Owing to how labor-intensive those plantations were at the time, the French landowners in Saint-Domingue began mass importing thousands and thousands of African slaves.įrance would rake in a fortune from those sugarcane plantations on its part of Hispaniola. By the end of the 17th century, the French settlers had started turning their side of the island into massive plantations of sugarcane and coffee. In mid-1660s, French colonists founded the Port-de Paix settlement in the northwestern part (Saint-Domingue) of the island. Image: Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue becomes France’s wealthiest overseas colonyĬontrol of the western part of Hispaniola gradually began to move into the hands of the French as the gold mines got depleted. The eastern part, Santo Domingo, was held by Spain. Saint-Domingue was the western part of the island of Hispaniola. Many of those slaves arrived from the slave coast of West Africa, while the rest were simply transferred from other Caribbean islands. Several tens of thousands of black slaves were brought to Hispaniola to shore up the depleting human capital. Therefore, the European settlers did what every European power was good at the time: slavery. Such was the devastation unleashed (directly or indirectly) by the Europeans on Hispaniola that by the early 17th century, there were hardly any natives on the island. In the decades that followed, not only did the natives of the island suffer and die as a result of diseases brought forth by the European settlers, the natives were enslaved and sent to work in the mines under terrible conditions. Ultimately, the island came to be called Hispaniola in English. The explorer called the island La Isla Española (“The Spanish Island”) in honor of the Spanish monarchs that backed his expedition to the New World. How did France begin its colonial rule of Haiti?įamed Italian navigator and explorer Christopher Columbus is credited with being the first-known European for setting eyes on Haiti in December 1492. What exactly triggered the Haitian Revolution? Who were the leaders? And what did the revolution accomplish?īelow, World History Edu explores the root causes, outcome and major effects of the Haitian Revolution. The Haitian Revolution, which was anything but a simple affair, sent shockwaves throughout the world.Īnd even to this day, the successful insurrection, which is known in French as révolution haïtienne, continues to serve as a potent inspiration in the struggle against racism, oppression, and all forms of neo-colonialism across the world. It was the first time in all of history that blacks were able to challenge the prevailing stereotypes about their race being inferior and lacking the capacity to rule themselves. The revolt, which lasted until 1804, came to be known as the Haitian Revolution, the first successful slave uprising that culminated in the overthrow of French and European control and then the birth of the world’s first black republic. ![]() ![]() ![]() Having grown tired of over three centuries of the worst form of oppression, social hierarchy and brutal enslavement, black African slaves in the prosperous French colony of Saint-Domingue began a brutal revolt against the white plantation class and slave owners in 1791. Haitian Revolution: the only slave uprising that resulted in the birth of the world’s first black republic ![]()
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