Independence Comes At a Cost
The French colony of Saint Domingue gained their independence in 1804. This happened after the colony's slaves, who make up a majority of the population revolted and killed thousands of people. When San Domingue became independent from France they became Haiti. Countries felt intimidated by Haiti since if slaves could overthrow their masters their it could happen in any other country. Once independent the Republic of Haiti was received negatively. Haiti was ignored globally which made them bitter since they had to pay France an "Independence debt" to make globally recognized. The debt they had to pay was one hundred million francs, and Haiti agreed to pay it by taking out a loan from a French bank. Even though it was wrong for France to charge Haiti for becoming independent. No country stopped France from doing it since other countries were scared of Haiti's independence because they didn't want the slaves revolting in their country. Haiti was still paying off the debt in 1947, 140 years after slave trade was abolished and 85 years after the emancipation proclamation. Overall Haiti was affected severely by not being recognized and having to pay a serious price for independence.
Battle of Vertières in 1803
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