The Effect the Haitian Revolution had on the French Revolution - Essay Example

The Effect the Haitian Revolution had on the French Revolution The Effect the Haitian Revolution had on the French Revolution The Haitian revolution existed during the year 1791-1804. This revolution had a very great impact to the French revolution. The revolution happened due to political reasons. The Haitian revolution happened the same time as the American Revolution took place. The Haitian revolution was so important and was a revolution meant for the slaves. It was the first revolution that the slaves had succeed and had shock very many white forces. The revolutions main leader was Toussaint Louverture. The revolution mostly took place at Saint –Dominigue which was a French colony. It was not an easy revolution and it took most of the lives before the end of it. The results of the revolution are that the revolution led to Haiti becoming a republic and also played a big impact in the eradication of slavery in Haiti1. The revolution came to an end during the year 1804 and Haiti achieved its independent on 1st January, 1804. Saint Dominigue was a great colony that had attracted the French. It had a lot of profits and wealth which made the French to have much interest on this colony since it brought much profits to them. Saint- Dominigue produced most of the coffee and the sugar that was used in France and in Britain2. When the Haitian revolution went through they took over this colony and so all the privileges and the profit profits that the French made were withdrawn. This was a great hit to France and was one of the effects of Haitian revolution to the French revolution. All the slaves who were working in these sugar and coffee plantations stopped working. The Haitian revolution had affected the French revolution in a very big way. They had ashamed. The French colonialists by that defeat and this made the French colonizers to be termed to be weak among other great colonizers like the British and the Americans. This led to these other colonizers to spark some interest on Haiti since they knew that this colony had a lot of profits since it had very important commodities which would be used for exports. On 4th February, 1794 the French declared the abolishment of slaves. The Haitian revolutionist had chosen to back up the British when Britain had declared war on the French. This was a way to show that Haiti was loyal to the British. This was a threat to the French since Haiti had become a challenge. This happened in the year 1802. In the revolt that the Haitian revolution had imposed to the French had caused much mayhem to them. Most of the plantations that belonged to the French were destroyed and many of the whites were also killed in the process. The defeat of French was very important to them and so they had to succumb to the humiliation of defeat. It had not happened before so it was not an easy task but the glory of the Haitian revolts had grown to be noticed in all the regions and the blacks felt proud of this. When the Haitian leader, Toussaint had declared to support the British and Spain to fight the French it was another revolution from the Haiti towards the French and with all the damage they had caused to the people of Haiti it was like revenge. Toussaint was promoted to hold important positions like the governor. And thereafter became the head of a semi-independent San Domingo. In the year 1802 Toussaint was deceived by the troops sent by napoleon and he was captured and later on died in a French prison. The Haitian revolution had a lot of impacts and the other countries feared that the other countries that held slaves hostage would experience such a revolt like the one that happened in Haiti. The Haitian revolution encouraged other slaves to fight for their freedom from the whites. This changes ere were felt mostly in Jamaica and Venezuela and the United States. The gaining of independence for the people of Haiti brought very many other changes to the region. They allowed the slaves who came from other countries to hide in their country. The constitution of Haiti explained very well that when any black slave stepped his or her foot in Haiti he or she was considered to be Haitian and therefore the constitution of Haiti protected all the blacks. A lot of slaves came from different regions came to reside in Haiti where they were free to be citizens. The Haitian revolution had helped so much to protect many slaves. They had also kept some fear to the white people and showed them that they were capable of doing things on their own3. These were good positive changes that would help the many blacks and slaves to be treated with respect by the whites. Because of the rivalry between Haiti and France, Haiti went on opposing the French even after they had attained independence. It was just the spirit of revenge that made Haiti to retreat towards France. The violence that they had caused in their country and the destroying of their plantations and the exploiting of Haiti had made the Haitians to retreat and hate the French nation so much. They had imposed very many rules and treated them with brutality when they were in charge and this was the attitude that came up due to all the sufferings the Haitians had gone through before they attained their independence. Even after their independence the Haitians still had the fear that they would be invaded by other forces from the outside. The troops of France still remained in Hispaniola and their intention was to convince Britain and Spain to exploit Haiti when it comes to diplomatic and commercial ways. The French tried so much to convince Spain and Britain that they Haiti was a threat to them since they would insight slaves from the other countries to revolt against them. Dessalines ordered the slaughtering of the French residents in 1804. He had before vowed to protect them but he thought otherwise due to the pain that was inflicted by the French revolution to them. The Blacks and the Mulattoes followed the orders and did so in the name of revenge. Over 4000 were killed. Due to his braveness in ruling the Haiti people he was crowned Emperor Jacques 1 of Haiti on 8th October 1804. 20th may 1805 the first constitution which was known as the Dessalines ratifies. Its main aim was to bring national unity to Haiti. This constitution was very unique and it stated that all Haiti people were black. The constitution also dwells much on slavery and states that slavery should be completely and permanently abolished. The constitution also stated that all Haitians were equal. The people of Haiti were also allowed to own land as per the constitution. The Haitian constitution played a major role in the restoration of Haiti. The other effect that the French revolution had caused to the people of Haiti was destruction of infrastructure. Most of the roads were destroyed and were not passable. The infrastructure that was used in the sugar and coffee plantations was destroyed in the process o4f revolution. This had destroyed the economy of Haiti in a big way and after their independence they had a long way to go and they had to invest heavily to revive their economy. Their plantations were destroyed in the process of the two revolutions and this was a great hit to the Haitians since before it was their economic stronghold. Most of the people in Haiti depended wholly on these plantations. Many of the skilled people in Haiti were also killed in the process of the revolution. Most of them were pronounced dead or went hiding because of the slavery. Most of the workers refused to work on other people’s plantations since they still had fear the invading of the French again. They also had that notion that the neighboring communities were hostile and were still interested with Haiti. Defeating of the French troops by the Haiti slaves was a big shame to the French revolts. Haiti was taken to be a minor country full of blacks and slaves and so in the eyes of other nations it was a great achievement bearing in mind that Haiti became one of the first countries to attain its independence in the western region. It wasn’t an easy task for them since many deaths had occurred in the process but what mattered is that they achieved they most fundamental thing that each country desired to have and that is independence. It was a great glory to the people of Haiti. Haiti had to stand out strong and face the many challenges that came after the revolution. Not only the economic factors but they had also to work on the political factors. They had to work hard to stabilize their political structure in order to be able to fight with the invaders would try terrorize their peace. When Haiti attained its independence the country was very much broke and a lot had to be done5. These are the effects that the French had left to them. The management structure of agriculture had been destroyed and there were very many changes. Since most of the workers were slaves and they were forced to work before now that they had the freedom to do what they wanted and so they now preferred to have their own lands and work on themselves. The other effect that the revolution had caused is that the other neighboring communities found it difficult to associate with Haiti since it was termed to be a slave nation and since they had fought slavery and won the battle against the stopping of slave trade. Countries such as the United States, Britain, Spain and France depended largely depended on the slaves as workforce to undertake their duties in their companies in order to build their economy and Haiti’s revolution had somehow managed to affect that since it had secured some of these slaves. This affected them in a great way and the relationship of Haiti and these countries in the international community had created a big impact. These countries were acting in a hostile manner towards Haiti. Since the constitution of Haiti had discouraged the slave trade, most of the sources of revenue went down as a result Dessalines, the first ruler of Haiti was very interested with the welfares of Haiti and he came in strongly to fight the French, since he was a slave himself and went through all the challenges that the French had brought to them. He was willing to Haiti to rebuild their nation. He had so much hatred for the French. He did tear the French flag that was there before that was being used when the French troops were in power. He implemented it by coming up with two stripes a blue and white one and the white symbolized that the white had been taken away out of Haiti. His hate for the French did not take him far since he only ruled for a short period of only two years and a half. He tried so much to create a good military army incase France did strike his country again. Napoleon sent 5200 poles to St Dominigue which was now Haiti. 4000 of the people that had been sent suffered yellow fever and died. Only 400 remained in Haiti. The rest flew back to France. Napoleon was so much interested in Haiti. He wanted to get Saint Domingue. That’s why he had to send the poles to represent him. The poles had respected the orders of Napoleon and had gone to saint Domingue to do the duties that they had been directed to do by Napoleon the French’s leader back then. It was not their wish to be in Haiti in the first place. It is said that the reasons why Dessalines ruled for a short period of time is that because it was not easy to build the agricultural sector of Haiti. His hatred for the French was too much and also played and played a big part for him to lose his seat. He always made decisions blindly and was so insecure that the French would strike for another time. He was always cautious about the invasion of the French for another second time. He dwelled on this factor and forgot other important issues that he was supposed to handle like agriculture which was the backbone of Haiti. 6This is the reason that agriculture did not work in Haiti when he was ruling. In 1904 which was his first year as a ruler he killed all the French citizens in his country and spared just a few priests and doctors. It is said that he killed approximately 20000 French citizens through the mode of slaughtering. In his thoughts he presumed that the killing of this French people would create a good image of his country in the world. After sometime he realized that the economy of Haiti was not in a good condition. He decided to use the French system of plantation to revive the sugar industry. It became so hard since there were no slaves that would work freely like it used to be before the revolution. Dessalines was very wrong since he would try and copy the system of France. When he realized that the leader of France, Napoleon was to be crowned emperor he too wanted to be crowned without any sole reason. He was crowned on 8th October, 1804 and given the title Jacques 1, emperor. Dessalines had changed very much and his behavior did not match with what he was when fighting for the independence of Haiti. He had turned to be cruel and made unwise decisions based on his personal interests. In another instance Dessalines invaded Santo Damingo. He wanted to secure the capital city but was unable since the French troops had invaded and so he had to withdraw. From that time hatred began between these two nations. The behavior of this ruler of Haiti had become a big problem to the citizens of Haiti and there was so much rejection that was coming from the south. He travelled to the south to address the problem but he received his fate. He was assassinated on 17th October, 1806. Things were not working well in Haiti. There were so many rivalries and the civil war began shortly after three years of independence. All this events tore Haiti into pieces.7 The French government was just silent and kept distance and let Haiti lay its foundation. The Haiti people fought within themselves for a long time until 1987 when they got their new constitution. Reference List David, G. The World of the Haitian Revolution, Indiana University Press. Copyright, New York,2000 David, P. Haitian Revolutionary Studies, Indiana University Press, New York. Cambridge University Press. Copyright, 1997. Jeremy, D. You are all free: The Haitian Revolution and Abolition of Slave Trade, 2006 Patrick, E. The Haitian Revolution and Its Effects, (Heinemann. Copyright, New York, 2003. Thomas, O. The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804, Tennessee Press. Copyright, New York, 2002 Read More