…Napoleonic Wars – (well, partially)
"With three major revolutions in America, France, and Haiti, it was a time of change and upheaval. The American Revolution had been declared in 1776, the French Revolution in 1789, and the lesser-known Haitian Revolution in 1804 – the first successful slave revolt in history. Since that last revolution is not as well-known as the other two, it might be good to explain briefly that the island of Haiti was a French colony in the Caribbean, which was a center of the African slave trade, until the momentous events of this revolution.
The revolt actually began in 1791 – only two years after the Storming of the Bastille, when France was in the midst of its own revolution, focused exclusively on events at home. The more that France's troops were kept at home to fight in the French Revolution, the less that they could be sent overseas to maintain their control of Haiti. Thus, France's iron grip on Haiti was lost, and the slave population of that island managed a successful revolt against the French. When Haiti declared independence in 1804, the French Revolution had ended, but the mother country was now busily fighting the Napoleonic Wars, and the chaos in Europe continued. The French had more important things on their mind than reestablishing control of distant Haiti at this point, and so Haiti's freedom was basically assured…"
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Amicalement
Armand
returns to Flintloque to paint an Ogre.
