Brief Chronology of Haitian History
1492: Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Quisqueya/Ayiti. He re-names it La Española (Hispaniola).
1500: The Spanish claim the island of Santo Domingo as a crown colony.
1502: The first enslaved Africans arrive in Santo Domingo.
1521: The first recorded slave insurrection in the Americas occurs in Santo Domingo.
Early 1600s: French settlement in the western part of Hispaniola begins.
1685: French king Louis XIV issues the Code Noir.
1697: The Treaty of Ryswick ends the Nine Years’ War. Spain recognizes French control of the western third of Hispaniola, the colony of Saint-Domingue.
1700s: Saint-Domingue becomes France’s most profitable colony due to the labor of enslaved Africans on its sugar and coffee plantations.
1758: Colonial authorities in Saint-Domingue execute the maroon and alleged conspirator François Makandal.
1789: France’s Third Estate declares itself the National Assembly. The Bastille falls. The National Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens then accepts petition of rights from Saint-Domingue’s “free citizens of color.”
1790: Conflict between royalists and patriots in Saint-Domingue
1791: Colonial authorities in Saint-Domingue execute Vincent Ogé. Insurrection of enslaved people begins in the northern province of Saint-Domingue. Insurgents burn Cap-Français to the ground. A general insurrection spreads throughout Saint-Domingue.
1793: The French commissioner Léger-Félix Sonthonax issues a general emancipation decree in the northern province of Saint Domingue.
1794: France’s National Convention abolishes slavery in France and its colonies, including Saint-Domingue.
1801: Toussaint Louverture brings Santo Domingo under his governance and promulgates a new constitution for Saint-Domingue, which abolishes slavery across the entire island of Hispaniola. French first consul Napoleon Bonaparte sends the Leclerc Expedition to reinstate slavery in Saint-Domingue.
1802: Bonaparte re-opens the slave trade and reinstates slavery in the French colonies.
1803: Louverture dies while imprisoned in France’s Fort de Joux.
1804: Haiti declares its independence. Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed emperor.
1805: Jean-Jacques Dessalines issues the Imperial Constitution of Haiti
1806: Dessalines assassinated at Pont Rouge, civil war ensues.
1807: Henry Christophe becomes president of the State of Haiti. Alexandre Pétion becomes president of the Republic of Haiti.
1811: Christophe becomes king of the Kingdom of Haiti
1820: President Jean-Pierre Boyer reunifies Haiti.
1822: Boyer unifies the east and west of the island under Haitian governance.
1825: France demands an indemnity to cease its aggression towards Haiti and grant diplomatic recognition to its former colony.
1826: Boyer issues his Code Rural
1842: Earthquake destroys Cap-Haïtien.
1843-44: Boyer is deposed, unification ends, and the Dominican Republic declares independence from Haiti
1844: Beginning of the Piquet rebellion under Jean-Jacques Acaau.
1862: The United States grants diplomatic recognition to Haiti
1915: The United States occupation of Haiti begins.
1934: The United States removes its marines from Haiti.
1937: Operating on the orders of Dominican president Rafael Trujillo, Dominican soldiers carry out a massacre of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent on the Dominican-Haitian border.
