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Haiti–United Kingdom relations

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Haiti-United Kingdom relations

Haiti
United Kingdom

Haiti–United Kingdom relations refers to the international relations between Haiti and the United Kingdom. The Embassy of the United Kingdom in Port-au-Prince is accredited to Haiti, as is the British Embassy and Ambassador in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, while Haiti has an embassy in London and a consulates-general in Providenciales in Turks and Caicos Islands.

History

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Haitian Revolution

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After both the onset of the Haitian Revolution in 1791 and the French declaration of war on Great Britain in 1793, the grands blancs in Saint-Domingue, unhappy with Sonthonax, arranged with Britain to declare British sovereignty over the colony, believing that the British would maintain slavery.[1] The British prime minister, William Pitt the Younger, believed that the success of the slave revolt in Saint-Domingue would inspire insurrections in the British Caribbean colonies. He further thought that taking Saint-Domingue, the richest of the French colonies, would be a useful bargaining chip in eventual peace negotiations with France, and in the interim, occupying Saint-Domingue would mean diverting its great wealth into the British treasury.[2] Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, who was Pitt's Secretary of State for War, instructed Sir Adam Williamson, the lieutenant-governor of the Colony of Jamaica, to sign an agreement with representatives of the French colonists that promised to restore the Ancien Régime, slavery and discrimination against mixed-race colonists, a move that drew criticism from abolitionists William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson.[3][4] The British government would send less trained adolescents to maintain strong regiments. The incompetence of the new soldiers, combined with the ravaging of disease upon the army, led to a very unsuccessful campaign in Saint-Domingue.[4]

After Sonthonax declared the abolition of slavery in Saint-Domingue, revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture shifted his loyalties back to the French against both the British and the Spanish. The American journalist James Perry notes that the great irony of the British campaign in Saint-Domingue was that it ended as a complete debacle, costing the British treasury millions of pounds and the British military thousands upon thousands of dead, all for nothing.[5] On 31 August 1798, Maitland and Toussaint signed an agreement whereby in exchange for the British pulling out of all of Saint-Domingue, Toussaint promised to not support any slave revolts in Jamaica.[6]

Eventually, after the arrest and deportation of Toussaint, the British allied with the Haitian revolutionaries and enacted a naval blockade on the French forces. Dessalines led the Haitian revolution until its completion, when the French forces were finally defeated in 1803.[7]

Post-revolution

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After the assassination of Dessalines, the country spiraled into civil war, and both Alexandre Pétion and Henri Christophe submitted rival treaty proposals in 1807 to the British government to gain diplomatic recognition and economic relations. Through English abolitionist Thomas Clarkson, Christophe was able to make an agreement with Britain that Haiti would not threaten its Caribbean colonies; in return the Royal Navy would warn Haiti of imminent attacks from French troops. Christophe also provided British merchants lower import duties, though during the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the British government agreed not to prevent France's actions by "whatever means possible, including that of arms, to recover Saint-Domingue and to subdue the inhabitants of that colony".[8][9] While most independent European nations, their colonies and the United States prohibited trade with Haiti, the British carried out formal trade relations with Haiti throughout the earlier 19th century.

Haiti and the United Kingdom formally established diplomatic relations on 13 May 1859, with the United Kingdom becoming the second country after France to recognize Haiti as an independent, sovereign country.[10] Thomas Neville Ussher was appointed as the first British Chargé d'Affaires and Consul General to Haiti.[11]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Perry 2005, p. 63.
  2. ^ Perry 2005, pp. 63–63.
  3. ^ C.L.R. James, Black Jacobins (London: Penguin, 1938), p. 109.
  4. ^ a b David Geggus, Slavery, War and Revolution: The British Occupation of Saint Domingue, 1793–1798 (New York: Clarendon Press, 1982).
  5. ^ Perry 2005, p. 69.
  6. ^ Perry 2005, p. 75.
  7. ^ "The Slave Rebellion of 1791". Retrieved 27 November 2006.
  8. ^ Alcenat, Westenly. "The Case for Haitian Reparations". Jacobin. Retrieved 2021-02-20.
  9. ^ Leger, J.N. Haiti: Her History and Her Detractors. The Neale Publishing Co.: New York & Washington. 1907. Accessed 19 February 2011.
  10. ^ The Foreign Office List and Diplomatic and Consular Year Book. Harrison. 1912. pp. 452–453.
  11. ^ Francis W H Cavendish and Edward Hertslet. The Foreign Office List forming a complete British Diplomatic and Consular Handbook 1863 July. 23rd Publication. 1863-07. p. 46. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
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