1492
Christopher Columbus lands and claims the island of Hispaniola for Spain. The Spanish build the New World's first settlement at La Navidad on Haiti's north coast.
Christopher Columbus shows up and in Eddie izzard explained fashioned claimed this Island for spain for it is free of any inhabitants.
"Excuse me, but we fucking live here" infact they where named the "The Taino Indian (or Arawak)", and they called the island
"Ayti, or Hayti (mountainous). Initially hospitable toward the Spaniards, these natives responded violently to the newcomers' intolerance and abuse. When Columbus returned to Hispaniola on his second voyage in 1493, he found that Navidad had been razed and its inhabitants, slain. But the Old World's interest in expansion and its drive to spread Roman Catholicism were not easily deterred; Columbus established a second settlement, Isabela, farther to the east."
The Taino's thought as good host you should welcome the strange men with weapons disease and a funny language. Soon realized these men came here to claim, settle and exploit and the natives killed them. Columbus returns years later to the surprise the ship he left where all dead, so he said fuck this im going to the other end of the island (Dominica republic) and settle there. And this time we will just take over immediately.
In typical fashion of colonoliosim, "screw the natives there is money to make!" over time the spanish wiped at the indigeonous culture from east to west until on 150 lived.
The Taino Indian population of Santo Domingo fared poorly under colonial rule. The exact size of the island's indigenous population in 1492 has never been determined, but observers at the time produced estimates that ranged from several thousand to several million. ...According to all accounts, however, there were hundreds of thousands of indigenous people on the island. By 1550 only 150 Indians lived on the island. Forced labor, abuse, diseases against which the Indians had no immunity, and the growth of the mestizo (mixed European and Indian) population all contributed to the elimination of the Taino and their culture.
Sir Francis Drake of England led one of the most famous forays against the port of Santo Domingo in 1586, just two years before he played a key role in the English navy's defeat of the Spanish Armadain 1586 the island was used strategically as a gateway to the Caribbean and with the battle of England and Spain. England kicked their ass at that port, the Spanish deserted it. The English really didn't wanted but realized, "Hey we can use this island as part of the slave trading triangle and make money." and let the french maintain their control of the northwest part of the island because the really didn't care to foray into the whole islands and the left over Spanish made a living becoming pirates in buccaneers but where relegated to the north part of the island. French wanted to make money to, so they got into the slave business.
with money to be made they need production speed and you know what those colonist and slave masters say. There is no production like free production, and with that mantra exploited the hell out of some imported labor that would also be sent to the North American colonies. 60 percent of the worlds coffee and 40 percent of the worlds sugar from now a country cant get a dime once their resources where depleted due to artificial sweeteners more exploitation of other countries and deforestation of the island.
"By the mid-eighteenth century, a territory largely neglected under Spanish rule had become the richest and most coveted colony in the Western Hemisphere. By the eve of the French Revolution, Saint-Domingue produced about 60 percent of the world's coffee and about 40 percent of the sugar imported by France and Britain. Saint-Domingue played a pivotal role in the French economy, accounting for almost two-thirds of French commercial interests abroad and about 40 percent of foreign trade. The system that provided such largess to the mother country, such luxury to planters, and so many jobs in France had a fatal flaw, however. That flaw was slavery."
now for another non commercial break i present Immortal technique and his writing elocution by himself named "Poverty of Philosophy"
Today Haiti's culture and its predominant religion (voodoo) stem from the fact that the majority of slaves in SaintDomingue were brought from Africa. (The slave population totalled at least 500,000, and perhaps as many as 700,000, by 1791.) Only a few of the slaves had been born and raised on the island. The slaveholding system in Saint-Domingue was particularly cruel and abusive, and few slaves (especially males) lived long enough to reproduce...
Conflict and resentment permeated the society of SaintDomingue . Beginning in 1758, the white landowners, or grands blancs, discriminated against the affranchis through legislation. Statutes forbade gens de couleur from taking up certain professions, marrying whites, wearing European clothing, carrying swords or firearms in public, or attending social functions where whites were present. The restrictions eventually became so detailed that they essentially defined a caste system. However, regulations did not restrict the affranchis' purchase of land, and some eventually accumulated substantial holdings. Others accumulated wealth through another activity permitted to affranchis by the grands blancs--in the words of historian C.L.R. James, "The privilege of lending money to white men." The mounting debt of the white planters to the gens de couleur provided further motivation for racial discrimination."
As the Africans where brought in for free labor, over time where given faux rights in exchange for staying and their place and where treated like shit by the ruling class of society. Through time the black community where able to save money and accumulate land because they came to quickly understand land is power, land is money, we need land. Bout as much as possible and begin to want a little respect and civil right, but the french government saw that as extreme militant and dangerous to "Society".
Violent conflicts between white colonists and black slaves were common in Saint-Domingue. Bands of runaway slaves, known as maroons (marrons), entrenched themselves in bastions in the colony's mountains and forests, from which they harried white-owned plantations both to secure provisions and weaponry and to avenge themselves against the inhabitants. As their numbers grew, these bands, sometimes consisting of thousands of people, began to carry out hit-and-run attacks throughout the colony...Although challenged and vexed by the maroons' actions, colonial authorities effectively repelled the attacks, especially with help from the gens de couleur, who were probably forced into cooperating. The arrangement that enabled the whites and the landed gens de couleur to preserve the stability of the slaveholding system was unstable. In an economic sense, the system worked for both groups. The gens de couleur, however, had aspirations beyond the accumulation of goods.
Slaves bounced off the plantations especially after seeing that gens de couleur had the same skin color but sold out so to accumulate assets. There are probably many modern day comparisons that you can make to that system of oppression, so ill continue but I think rims, louie this fendi that, shit like that. A time continued the gens de couleur realized they where being played, because they had money but what do you really have without freedom. SO they asked for equal rights,and of course that is to much to ask for so they said screw you France we are asking now but we will take it.
The National Assembly in Paris required the white Colonial Assembly to grant suffrage to the landed and tax-paying gens de couleur. (The white colonists had had a history of ignoring French efforts to improve the lot of the black and the mulatto populations.) The Assembly refused, leading to the first mulatto rebellion in Saint-Domingue. The rebellion, led by Vincent Ogé in 1790, failed when the white militia reinforced itself with a corps of black volunteers. (The white elite was constantly prepared to use racial tension between blacks and mulattoes to advantage.)
As the dominant power issued orders to decease in their actions and repay the slaves and the white elite said, NO! To distract the oppressed they encouraged black on brown crime so to not be directly involved and have limited loses.
A slave rebellion of 1791 finally toppled the colony. Launched in August of that year, the revolt represented the culmination of a protracted conspiracy among black leaders. According to accounts of the rebellion that have been told through the years, François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture helped plot the uprising....he carnage that the slaves wreaked in northern settlements, such as Acul, Limbé, Flaville, and Le Normand, revealed the simmering fury of an oppressed people.....Accounts of the rebellion describe widespread torching of property, fields, factories, and anything else that belonged to, or served, slaveholders. The inferno is said to have burned almost continuously for months.
As the oppressed minority realized their strength in organization and working together wreaked havoc on their oppressors. Burning, and destroying they let people know that they where there. And they where not going to take it anymore.
the slave rebellion at Cap Français set in motion events that culminated in the Haitian Revolution.
Social historian James G. Leyburn has said of Toussaint Louverture that "what he did is more easily told than what he was.".... Born sometime between 1743 and 1746 in Saint-Domingue, Toussaint ...served as a house servant and coachman, Toussaint received the tutelage that helped him become one of the few literate black revolutionary leaders.Upon hearing of the slave uprising, Toussaint took pains to secure safe expatriation of his master's family. It was only then that he joined Biassou's forces, where his intelligence, skill in strategic and tactical planning (based partly on his reading of works by Julius Caesar and others), and innate leadership ability brought him quickly to prominence.
While being forced to work, Toussaint Louverture used his time to learn how to read and educate himself. When time came he had the knowledge and the experience to understand it as wisdom an commanded the untrained force against a world power.
Toussaint, who had taken up the Spanish banner in February 1793, came to command his own forces...By the year's end, Toussaint had cut a swath through the north, had swung south to Gonaïves, and effectively controlled north-central Saint- Domingue....Some historians believe that Spain and Britain had reached an informal arrangement to divide the French colony between them-- Britain to take the south and Spain, the north. British forces landed at Jérémie and Môle Saint-Nicolas (the Môle). They besieged Port-au-Prince (or Port Républicain, as it was known under the Republic) and took it in June 1794. The Spanish had launched a two-pronged offensive from the east. French forces checked Spanish progress toward Port-au-Prince in the south, but the Spanish pushed rapidly through the north, most of which they occupied by 1794....The British in particular fell victim to tropical disease, which thinned their ranks far more quickly than combat against the French. Southern forces led by Rigaud and northern forces led by another mulatto commander, Villatte, also forestalled a complete victory by the foreign forces. These uncertain conditions positioned Toussaint's centrally located forces as the key to victory or defeat. On May 6, 1794, Toussaint made a decision that sealed the fate of a nation.
The British where the lead country involved in the slave trade and tried to cut a deal in the beginning with the Spanish to split the island north/south. With that agreement would together try to run the french out, who have already declared freedom for the slaves but not independence. As time went on Toussaint continue to compile victories against enemy troops and the British got sick and decided to basically quit the battle for this island. The french if wanting to save face and not face defeat where about to be surrounded decided they would offer the best deal.
Toussaint pledged his support to France. Confirmation of the National Assembly's decision on February 4, 1794, to abolish slavery appears to have been the strongest influence over Toussaint's actions. Although the Spanish had promised emancipation, they showed no signs of keeping their word in the territories that they controlled, and the British had reinstated slavery in the areas they occupied...In March 1796, Toussaint rescued the French commander, General Etienne-Maynard Laveaux, from a mulatto-led effort to depose him as the primary colonial authority. To express his gratitude, Laveaux appointed Toussaint lieutenant governor of Saint-Domingue. With this much power over the affairs of his homeland, Toussaint was in a position to gain more. Toussaint distrusted the intentions of all foreign parties--as well as those of the mulattoes--regarding the future of slavery; he believed that only black leadership could assure the continuation of an autonomous Saint-Domingue. He set out to consolidate his political and military positions, and he undercut the positions of the French and the resentful gens de couleur.once the treaty was signed with the french, toussaint went hard at his former allies and used this to gather political power. He knew that every island around him and mainland colonies had slaves and where continuing the exploiting, disgusting act of slavery. I cant even due justice with my description of the rest of Toussaints actions that led to the first black independent nation in the Western Hemisphere.
A new group of French commissioners appointed Toussaint commander in chief of all French forces on the island. From this position of strength, he resolved to move quickly and decisively to establish an autonomous state under black rule. He expelled Sonthonax, the leading French commissioner, who had proclaimed the abolition of slavery, and concluded an agreement to end hostilities with Britain. He sought to secure Rigaud's allegiance and thus to incorporate the majority of mulattoes into his national project, but his plan was thwarted by the French, who saw in Rigaud their last opportunity to retain dominion over the colony...Once again, racial animosity drove events in Saint-Domingue, as Toussaint's predominantly black forces clashed with Rigaud's mulatto army. Foreign intrigue and manipulation prevailed on both sides of the conflict. Toussaint, in correspondence with United States president John Adams, pledged that in exchange for support he would deny the French the use of Saint-Domingue as a base for operations in North America. Adams, the leader of an independent, but still insecure, nation, found the arrangement desirable and dispatched arms and ships that greatly aided black forces in what is sometimes referred to as the War of the Castes. Rigaud, with his forces and ambitions crushed, fled the colony in late 1800.
to secure independence he knew he would have to get rid of the french, because they would want to maintain control of the island for strategic purposes and exploitation. As a result, the now commander in chief Toussaint removed french forces by decree, but as an extra assurance of power. CIC Toussaint in correspondence with the President of the Slave holding United States of America. Agreed to provide military in support with the assurance that a french free island of Hispanola would not be able to be used against the US by the French in future conflict. In one more display of power the french supported Rigaud forces tried to get froggy, leaped, and got crushed! About two years later in 1802 Napoleon Bonaparte wanted the island back for pride and strategic purpose in north America so sent a large force to invade the island and capture Toussaint who they locked up and let die in a dungeon. Shortly after evading in 1803 France resumed their war with Britain and focused their forces on that and where run off of the island.
On January 1, 1804, Haiti proclaimed its independence. Through this action, it became the second independent state in the Western Hemisphere and the first free black republic in the world. Haiti's uniqueness attracted much attention and symbolized the aspirations of enslaved and exploited peoples around the globe. Nonetheless, Haitians made no overt effort to inspire, to support, or to aid slave rebellions similar to their own because they feared that the great powers would take renewed action against them. For the sake of national survival, nonintervention became a Haitian credo.I need to go to work i will continue to explain the Haitian slave rebellion this afternoon until then,
the Devil Pat Robertson.
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