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in the 1600's, France claimed territory on the island of Hispaniola. France names it new colony Saint-Domingue. The French brought black Africans to Saint-Domingue to work as slaves.
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Saint-Domingue was Europe's main source of tropical produce. By the late 1780’s, it had a slave population of about half a million. Which was about eight times the number of free colonists.
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Because of the French Revolution in 1789 it helped inspire the Haitian Revolution. Saint-Domingue’s white population began a movement for self-government. Also Free trade between the nations.
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Then free blacks launched a civil war in Saint-Domingue’s southern in 1791. The free blacks were people with english and african ancestry. Free blacks were the ones who started the revolution.
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1792 French troops were sent to Saint-Domingue to stop the revolution Many French soldiers died from tropical fevers. The French troops could not defeat the slaves in the mountains, but the slaves could not capture the French towns either.
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The British and the Spanish, who were at war with the French, invaded Saint-Domingue. The British, Spanish, and French tried to recruit the slaves as paid soldiers. To keep control of Saint-Domingue, the new republic in France abolished slavery.
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After the slave revolution, France became dependent on an army of former slaves. Louverture was a slave who became the leading general in the French army in Saint-Domingue. He had got the British and Spanish forces that had invaded the colony out.
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Former slaves who wanted to become independent went against Louverture. Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in France in 1799. He became the head of the french army.
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In 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte defeated André Rigaud. A mixed-race general and rival, for control of the southern part Haiti. Saint-Domingue was now under control by Napoleon Bonaparte.
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The Haitians defeated the French army in 1803. Then made Saint-Domingue the independent country of Haiti on Jan. 1, 1804. In 1820, Jean-Pierre Boyer reunited Haiti.
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Now haiti is a struggling, religious, Independent country. Haiti is still recovering from all the wars and conflicts. Haiti is still filled with hope.
