Saint-Domingue

Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue
1697–1804
	Flag before the French Revolution Royal Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of France
Status	Colony of France
Capital	Cap-Français (1711–1770); Port-au-Prince (1770–1804); 19°6′0″N 72°20′0″W / 19.10000°N 72.33333°W
Common languages	French, Creole French
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Demonym(s)	Creole
King
• 1697-1715	Louis XIV
• 1715–1774	Louis XV
• 1774-1792	Louis XVI
Governor General
• 1697–1700	Jean Du Casse (first)
• 1803–1804	Jean Jacques Dessalines (last)
History
• Formal French control recognized	1697
• Independence	1 January 1804
Area
• Total	21,550 km2 (8,320 sq mi)
Currency	Saint-Domingue livre
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Captaincy General of Santo Domingo
	Colony of Tortuga
First Empire of Haiti
Today part of	Haiti

Saint-Domingue (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃.dɔ.mɛ̃ɡ]) was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1697 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city on the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer specifically to the Spanish-held Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic. The borders between the two were fluid and changed over time until they were finally solidified in the Dominican War of Independence in 1844.

The French had established themselves on the western portion of the islands of Hispaniola and Tortuga by 1659. In the Treaty of Ryswick of 1697, Spain formally recognized French control of Tortuga Island and the western third of the island of Hispaniola.^[1]^[2] In 1791, slaves and some Creoles took part in a Vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman and planned the Haitian Revolution.^[3] The slave rebellion later allied with Republican French forces following the abolition of slavery in the colony in 1793, although this alienated the island's dominant slave-owning class. France controlled the entirety of Hispaniola from 1795 to 1802, when a renewed rebellion began. The last French troops withdrew from the western portion of the island in late 1803, and the colony later declared its independence as Haiti, the Taino name for the island, the following year.

^ "Hispaniola Article". Britannica.com. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
^ Henson, Janine (12 February 2014). "Dominican Republic 2014". CardioStart International. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
^ McAlister, Elizabeth (2012). "From Slave Revolt to a Blood Pact with Satan: The Evangelical Rewriting of Haitian History". Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses. 41 (2): 187–215. doi:10.1177/0008429812441310. S2CID 145382199.

[1] "Hispaniola Article". Britannica.com. Retrieved 4 January 2014.

[2] Henson, Janine (12 February 2014). "Dominican Republic 2014". CardioStart International. Retrieved 24 April 2014.

[McAlister2012-3] McAlister, Elizabeth (2012). "From Slave Revolt to a Blood Pact with Satan: The Evangelical Rewriting of Haitian History". Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses. 41 (2): 187–215. doi:10.1177/0008429812441310. S2CID 145382199.

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