So, what made it so prosperous? Why, those age-old addictive substances, sugar and coffee, and the European socialites who were beginning to consume them by the bucketload with their shiny, new coffeehouse culture.Īt that time, no less than half of the sugar and coffee consumed by Europeans was sourced from the island. By 1780, two thirds of France’s investments were based in Saint Domingue. Since the French took it over with the Treaty of Rijswijk in 1697 - the result of the Nine Years’ War between France and the Grand Alliance, with Spain ceding the territory - it became the most economically important asset among the country’s colonies. Saint Domingue was the French portion of the Carribean island of Hispaniola, which was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Haiti Before the Revolution Saint Domingue Notions of exceptionalism keep us from studying this historic moment, something that must change if we are to better understand the world in which we live today. Unfortunately, though, this story has been lost to most people outside of Haiti.
#Battle slaves jamaica free#
Of course, this is a ludicrous and racist notion, but at the time, the ability of Haitian slaves to rise up against the injustices they faced and break free from bondage was the true revolution - one that played just as much of a role in reshaping the world as any other 18th century social upheaval. Most Whites thought that Blacks were simply too savage and too stupid to run things on their own. Its success challenged notions of race at the time.
The Haitian Revolution, though, was led and executed by slaves, and it sought to create a society that was truly equal. They purported to be driven by ideals that all people were equal and deserving of freedom, yet both ignored stark inequalities in their own social orders - slavery persisted in America while the new French ruling elite continued to ignore the French working class, a group known as the sans-culottes. However, while the American and French Revolutions represented a historic shift in world politics, they were, perhaps, still not the most revolutionary movements of the time. With it, the République Française was created. In 1789, it was the people of France that overthrew their monarchy one that had been in power for centuries, shaking the foundations of the Western world.
And thus, the United States of America was born. The end of the 18th century was a period of great change around the world.īy 1776, Britain’s colonies in America - fueled by revolutionary rhetoric and Enlightenment thought that challenged the existing ideas about government and power - revolted and overthrew what many considered to be the most powerful nation in the world.
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