history spain & france

Haitian debt and foreign loans

Haiti borrowed money to pay France for independence in 1825, and the debt and interest drained money needed for economic development.

Sustenance farming

Farming enough food for yourself and your family, which helped many Haitians survive without producing crops for sale.

Recognition of the nation of Haiti

France recognized Haiti’s independence in 1825 but demanded a huge payment in return, placing Haiti in debt.

U.S. Occupation of Haiti

The U.S. controlled much of Haiti’s government and finances from 1915 to 1934, limiting Haitian independence and causing resentment.

Cahiers de doléances

Lists of complaints about unfair taxes, inequality, and the government that showed growing anger before the French Revolution.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

A document declaring liberty, equality, and citizens’ rights that challenged absolute monarchy and traditional class privileges.

The Enlightenment

An intellectual movement emphasizing reason, freedom, and natural rights that inspired people to question absolute monarchy and demand equality.

Calling of the Estates

Louis XVI called representatives of the three estates to meet in 1789, revealing conflicts over taxation and representation that helped begin the Revolution.

Versailles

The royal palace where Louis XVI lived, symbolizing royal wealth and the gap between the monarchy and ordinary people.

King Louis XVI

The king of France when the Revolution began, whose financial problems and failure to resolve political conflicts weakened the monarchy.

American Revolution

The American colonies’ struggle for independence from Britain, which inspired French revolutionaries with ideas of liberty and representative government.

Tennis Court Oath

The Third Estate promised not to separate until France had a constitution, directly challenging the king’s authority.

National Assembly

Representatives of the Third Estate who claimed to represent the French people and began creating a new political system.

Storming of the Bastille

A crowd attacked a royal prison in Paris on July 14, 1789, making it a symbol of rebellion against royal power.

Jean Paul Marat / The Death of Marat

Marat was a radical journalist assassinated in 1793, and his death turned him into a martyr for many revolutionaries.

Women’s March to Versailles

Thousands of women marched to Versailles in 1789 over bread shortages and high prices, forcing the royal family to move to Paris.

First French Constitution and Legislative Assembly

The Constitution of 1791 limited the king’s power, and the Legislative Assembly made laws under the new constitutional monarchy.

National Convention and the First French Republic

The National Convention replaced the Legislative Assembly in 1792 and ended the monarchy by establishing a republic.

Jacobins

A radical political club that supported major revolutionary changes and helped lead the Revolution’s more radical phase.

Maximilien Robespierre

A radical revolutionary leader associated with the Jacobins who became a leading figure during the Reign of Terror.

Reign of Terror

A period from 1793 to 1794 when the revolutionary government executed many supposed enemies, showing how the Revolution led to political violence and repression.

The guillotine

A machine used for executions that became a symbol of revolutionary executions, especially during the Reign of Terror.

The Directory

A five man government that ruled France from 1795 to 1799, replacing radical rule but struggling with corruption and instability.

Coup d’état

A sudden seizure of government power, such as Napoleon’s overthrow of the Directory in 1799.

Napoleon

A French military general who overthrew the Directory, ended its rule, and eventually became emperor of France.

The Consulate

The government established after Napoleon’s 1799 coup that made him First Consul and concentrated power in his hands.

Jacques Necker

A French finance minister whose dismissal in 1789 increased public fear and anger before the storming of the Bastille.

Island of Hispaniola

A Caribbean island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic that was shaped by Spanish colonization and the Haitian Revolution.

Taínos

The Indigenous people of Hispaniola who were encountered by Christopher Columbus when he arrived in the Americas.

Christopher Columbus

An Italian explorer sailing for Spain who began European colonization of the Americas.

Bartolomé de las Casas

A Spanish priest who criticized the mistreatment of Indigenous peoples by Spanish colonizers.

Guacanagarí

A Taíno chief who helped Columbus after the Santa María wrecked.

Anacaona

A Taíno leader who became a symbol of Indigenous resistance to Spanish colonization.

Cacique

A Taíno chief who served as the political leader of an Indigenous community.

Enriquillo’s Rebellion

An Indigenous revolt against Spanish rule that demonstrated early resistance to colonization.

Gold

A valuable resource sought by Spain to gain wealth and expand its power through colonization.

Sugar (supply and demand)

A crop grown mainly for profit that created huge demand for enslaved African labor on plantations.

Treaty of Ryswick

A 1697 treaty in which Spain recognized French control of western Hispaniola, which became Haiti.

Santo Domingo

The Spanish colony in eastern Hispaniola that eventually became the Dominican Republic.

Saint Domingue

The French colony in western Hispaniola that became Haiti and was one of the world’s richest sugar

The Industrial Revolution

The growth of industry and factories that increased demand for sugar and raw materials.

The transatlantic slave trade

The forced transportation of Africans across the Atlantic that supplied enslaved labor for plantations.

White planters

Wealthy plantation owners who controlled much of Saint

Overseers

Plantation supervisors who managed workers and enforced enslaved labor.

Affranchis / mixed race populations

Free people of color in Saint-Domingue who sought greater rights and equality before the revolution

Sugar plantations (“Hell”)

Large sugar farms where enslaved people endured extremely harsh and dangerous working conditions.

The French Revolution

The 1789 revolution in France that promoted liberty and equality and inspired people in Saint Domingue to demand rights and freedom.

Vodou

A religion combining West African traditions with other influences that helped unite some enslaved Africans during the Haitian Revolution.

Bois Caïman ceremony

A Vodou ceremony held in 1791 that is traditionally associated with the beginning of the Haitian Revolution.

Boukman Dutty

An enslaved leader and Vodou priest who helped organize the early uprising against slavery in Saint-Domingue.

Toussaint Louverture

A formerly enslaved revolutionary leader who became a major military and political figure in the Haitian Revolution.

Sonthonax

A French commissioner who abolished slavery in Saint Domingue in 1793.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines

A revolutionary leader who declared Haiti’s independence in 1804 and became its first ruler.

Napoleon Bonaparte

The French emperor who tried to restore French control and slavery in Saint-Domingue.

1804

The year Haiti gained independence from France, creating the first independent Black republic and the second independent nation in the Americas.