This article is about the specific polity Saint Domingue (France) and therefore only includes events related to its territory and not to its possessions or colonies. If you are interested in the possession, this is the link to the article about the nation which includes all possessions as well as all the different incarnations of the nation.
If you are looking for the page with the statistics about this polity you can find it here:All Statistics
The French colonized the western portion of the island of Hispaniola from 1660. It was a predecessor of modern-day Haiti, but had different borders.
Establishment
January 1661: The English appointed a Frenchman Jeremie Deschamps as Governor who proclaimed the King of France, set up French colours, and defeated several English attempts to reclaim the island.
Chronology
Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation
Were a series of wars in Europe (and the overseas possessions of European countries) the 16th, 17th and early 18th that started after the Protestant Reformation. Although the immediate causes of the wars were religious, the motives were complex and also included territorial ambitions.
1.1.Nine Years' War
Was a conflict between France and the Grand Alliance, a coalition including the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch Republic, England, Spain, and Savoy. It is considered the first war that saw fighting globally because battles occured in Europe, America, Africa and India.
1.1.1.Peace of Ryswick
Were a series of treaties that ended the Nine Years' War.
October 1697: In 1697 France and Spain settled their hostilities on the island by way of the Treaty of Ryswick, which divided Hispaniola between them. France received the western third and subsequently named it Saint-Domingue, the French equivalent of Santo Domingo, the Spanish colony on Hispaniola.
Were a series of conflicts between France and several European monarchies between 1792 and 1815. They encompass first the French Revolutionary Wars against the newly declared French Republic and from 1803 onwards the Napoleonic Wars against First Consul and later Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. They include the Coalition Wars as a subset: seven wars waged by various military alliances of great European powers, known as Coalitions, against Revolutionary France - later the First French Empire - and its allies.
2.1.Haitian Revolution
Was the succesful insurrection by self-liberated slaves of the colony of Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti) against French rule leading to the creation of the independent country of Haiti, the first independent nation of Latin America and the Caribbean.
August 1791: The signal to begin the revolt was given by Dutty Boukman, a high priest of vodou and leader of the Maroon slaves, and Cecile Fatiman during a religious ceremony at Bois Caïman on the night of 14 August. Within the next ten days, slaves had taken control of the entire Northern Province in an unprecedented slave revolt.
October 1791: In the south, beginning in September, thirteen thousand slaves and rebels led by Romaine-la-Prophétesse, based in Trou Coffy, took supplies from and burned plantations and freed slaves and occupied (and burned) the area's two major cities, Léogâne and Jacmel.
April 1792: A coalition of whites and conservative free blacks and forces under French commissaire nationale Edmond de Saint-Léger put down the Trou Coffy uprising in the south.
September 1793: About 600 British soldiers from Jamaica landed at Jérémie.
September 1793: On 22 September 1793, Mole St. Nicolas, the main French naval base in Saint-Domingue, surrendered to the Royal Navy peacefully. Everywhere the British went, they restored slavery, which made them hated by the mass of common people.
June 1794: In 1794, General Whyte, a British military leader, captured Port-au-Prince during the military occupation of Great Britain in Haiti. This event was part of the larger conflict between Britain and France during the French Revolutionary Wars.
January 1795: The French stormed and retook Tiburon in a surprise attack.
November 1803: The Haitian rebels finally managed to decisively defeat the French troops at the Battle of Vertières on 18 November 1803, leading the first ever group of enslaved peoples to successfully create an independent state through a slave revolt.
2.1.1.War of Knives
Was a civil war from June 1799 to July 1800 between the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture, a black ex-slave who controlled the north of Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti), and his adversary André Rigaud, a mixed-race free person of color who controlled the south.
June 1799: Rigaud struck first; after slaughtering many whites in South Province to secure his rear, on June 16-18, 1799, Rigaud sent 4,000 troops to seize the southern border towns of Petit-Goâve and Grand-Goâve.
March 1800: Toussaint Louverture, a former slave who became a leader of the Haitian Revolution, took control of the town of Jacmel.
September 1800: By August, 1800, Toussaint Louverture was ruler of all Saint-Domingue.
2.1.2.Invasion of Santo Domingo
Was the Haitian invasion of the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, which occupied the eastern half of the island of Hispanola.
January 1801: In December 1800, Toussaint ordered an invasion of the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, which occupied the eastern half of the island of Hispanola. Although Spain had technically ceded Santo Domingo to France in the 1795 Peace of Basel, the colony was still controlled by a Spanish administration at the time.
2.1.3.Saint-Domingue expedition
Was the unsuccesful invasion of Haiti, a rebellious French colony, ordered by Napoleon.
May 1802: Louverture, a former slave who led the Haitian Revolution, agreed to surrender to French forces. At this point France controlled the whole Island of Hispaniola.
2.2.War of the First Coalition
Were a series of wars between the Kingdom of France (later the French Republic) and several European Monarchies. The French Revolution had deteriorated the relations of France with the other European countries, that tried several times to invade France in order to crash the revolutionary government.
2.2.1.War of the Pyrenees
Was the Pyrenean front of the First Coalition's war against the First French Republic.
July 1795: The Peace of Basel ends the War of the Pyrenees on July 22, 1795 In the treaty, it was established that France returned the occupied territories to Spain. Spain, in compensation for the recovery of the territories of the Pyrenees, ceded to revolutionary France the eastern part of Santo Domingo. The French already controlled the western part of the island, Santo Domingo, since the signing of the Treaty of Rijswijk in 1697.
2.3.French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars - Theatre of war in the overseas colonies
The theatre of war in the overseas colonies during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
February 1805: On 25 February 1805, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the leader of the First Empire of Haiti, led 30,000 troops to capture Santiago, a city in present-day Dominican Republic.
March 1805: Three frigates and two French brigantines arrived in Santo Domingo. Dessalines abandoned the siege of Santo Domingo and retreated to Haiti.
2.4.Spanish Restoration in Santo Domingo
Was an Anglo-Spanish military expedition that restored Santo Domingo to Spain.
November 1808: Battle of Palo Hincado.
July 1809: The Siege of Santo Domingo of 1808 was a military conflict between French forces led by General Marie-Louis Ferrand and Spanish forces led by Juan Sánchez Ramírez. The siege resulted in the surrender of Santo Domingo to the French, who then controlled the territory until 1809 when it was transferred to Spanish America.
January 1802: From 1801 to 1867, the successive constitutions of Haiti claimed national sovereignty over adjacent islands, including Navassa Island.
Disestablishment
July 1809: The Siege of Santo Domingo of 1808 was a military conflict between French forces led by General Marie-Louis Ferrand and Spanish forces led by Juan Sánchez Ramírez. The siege resulted in the surrender of Santo Domingo to the French, who then controlled the territory until 1809 when it was transferred to Spanish America.
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Saint Domingue (France)
