Causes Of The Haitian Revolution

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The causes for revolutions are generally similar to each other. However the way the country ends up after the war varies drastically. The American Revolution ended with a nation that is still prospering today. The French Revolution was successful, however the political aftermath was a disaster. Finally the Haitian Revolution was also a success and they built a republic free from other nations. Before the American Revolution, King George was using mercantilism to completely take advantage of the colonies. He also implemented outrageous taxes to pay for a war that the colonists fought with very limited help from Britain. To make it worse King George also kept the colonists from settling on the land that they fought and many died for. Because…show more content…
The second estate which was made up of the rich nobles were not required to pay taxes while the third estate which made up 97% of the population, made up of peasants and the middle class, had to pay about half of every dollar they made in taxes. There were also massive debts from the excessive spending of King Louis and his wife. At this time half of the government’s budget was going straight to other countries because of the interest on their loans. One of the main reasons for the revolution in France was to get rid of the massive debts racked up by their previous kings. In 1793 King Louis was finally arrested and executed by guillotine, this began The Reign of Terror. This time period was similar to the Red Scare during the Cold War and saw the deaths of 40,000 French that were accused of being traitors to the new French government. The Reign of Terror was led by Maximilien Robespierre and lasted from the execution of King Louis until 1794 when ironically the French turned on him and executed him. After this a new government system was put into place and it was called The Directory. Through The Directory Napoleon rose to power, and although it was originally a group of rulers Napoleon became the dictator of France. Napoleon started a school system and a banking system, however with his military campaigns France’s debts weren’t getting closer to being paid…show more content…
At the time of the revolution there were 500,000 African slaves working on the plantations. The plantation owners used brutal methods of punishment to keep their slaves from disobeying. The main goal of this revolution was to end slavery in Haiti, because of how badly slaves were mistreated by the European plantation owners. A man by the name of Toussaint Louverture led the revolution. He saw the mistreatment of the slaves and instead of sitting idly by he got involved and led a revolution that overthrew the French colonists. After the revolution they started a
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