SaintDomingue

Saint-Domingue was the French colonial name for the western portion of the island of Hispaniola, roughly corresponding to modern-day Haiti. From the mid-17th century until 1804, it developed into one of the Caribbean's most productive and wealthiest economies, driven by plantation agriculture based on enslaved labor. The colony produced large quantities of sugar, coffee, and indigo for export to Europe and the Americas. Its population was highly stratified, dominated by enslaved Africans and their descendants, with a minority of free people of color and European settlers. The legal framework, notably the Code Noir of 1685, regulated slavery and race relations and formalized slaveholding while offering limited rights to free people of color.

European settlement and the slave system produced brutal social conditions and frequent resistance. In 1791 a large enslaved uprising began in Saint-Domingue and expanded into a wider revolution against colonial rule. The French revolutionary government emancipated enslaved people in 1794, though displaced by the events of war and the direction of the Haitian struggle. In 1802, a French expedition under General Leclerc sought to reassert control and re-imposed slavery; Toussaint L'Ouverture was captured but the revolt continued. In 1804, Toussaint's successor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, declared the independence of Saint-Domingue as Haiti, and the western portion of Hispaniola became a sovereign state.

The independence of Saint-Domingue had a profound impact on the Atlantic world, contributing to abolitionist movements and reshaping Caribbean geopolitics. The new nation faced ongoing challenges, including debt obligations to France and the long-term economic and political repercussions of its plantation-era system. The eastern part of Hispaniola remained under Spanish rule and later became the Dominican Republic.