Haiti's History
By 1519, the gold mines were empty and the Tainos all but extinct, so the Spanish came up with a new racket - importing Africans as slave labor and growing sugarcane. By 1568, more than 20,000 slaves were doing the Spaniards' work for them. As the 1600s began, the French, Spanish and English were at each other's throats, but the Spanish citizens on the western end of Hispaniola continued trading with the crown's enemies despite the king's displeasure. The troops were sent in and those treasonous areas depopulated. The French traders shrugged and moved into the empty towns, further frustrating Spain's ambitions.
Between 1669 and 1679, a hurricane, a smallpox epidemic and an outright war between France and Spain convinced Spanish colonists that there would have to be a compromise, and they agreed to let the French settlements grow, but only on the western third of the island. Spain established a border in 1731, ammended in a treaty with France in 1777, creating the territory of Saint-Domingue.
Mulattos, the children of white masters and African slaves, were technically free but treated as second-class citizens by the white minority. Their call for equality was echoed in the slave community, who made up the vast majority of the population. The Spanish on the other side of the island supported the slaves' call for independence, presumably so they could take advantage of the upcoming civil war to reclaim the western part of the island for Spain. The French were not amused.
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