The Arrival of Europeans:
Christopher Columbus: An Italian explorer sponsored by Spain, who arrived in the Caribbean in 1492, marking the beginning of European colonization in the Americas. | Colonization: The process of settling among and establishing control over Indigenous peoples in an area. | Conquistadors: Spanish conquerors who claimed territories in the Americas, often through violence and exploitation. |
Europeans brought new diseases (like smallpox) that devastated the Indigenous populations.
Establishment of Spanish and French Colonies:
Hispaniola: The island now known as Haiti and the Dominican Republic; initially colonized by Spain, then split with France in 1697. | Treaty of Ryswick: The 1697 agreement where Spain officially ceded the western third of Hispaniola to France, which named it Saint-Domingue. |
Saint-Domingue would become one of the world’s wealthiest due to its plantation economy based on enslaved labor.
Enslavement and The Plantation Economy:
Plantations: Large farms specializing in crops like sugar and coffee, reliant on enslaved labor |
Middle Passage: The forced journey across the Atlantic, during which millions of Africans were brought to the Americas as part of the transatlantic slave trade. |
Sugar Economy: Saint-Domingue was the world’s leading sugar producer, generating enormous wealth for France while enslaved people endured brutal conditions. |
The Cultural and Social Impacts:
Vodou: Resistance:
A syncretic religion developed by Enslaved people preserved African
enslaved Africans in Haiti, blending African traditions as acts of cultural resistance, a
spiritual practices with elements of Catholicism. practice crucial to the survival of Afro-Haitian identity.
Resistance and Rebellion:
Maroons:
Enslaved individuals who escaped plantations and formed independent communities in mountainous regions.
Slave Rebellions:
Frequent uprisings occurred as enslaved people resisted the brutal plantation system, foreshadowing the Haitian Revolution.
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