Abstract
In 1804, the former French colony of Saint-Domingue, now Haiti, became independent. The first modern state born of a successful slave revolt was then isolated diplomatically until well into the 19th century. Although the country occupied the minds of contemporary diplomats, colonial authorities, and intellectuals, and had a complicated relationship with the society of states, historical accounts of the expansion of international society into the Atlantic have largely ignored Haiti’s early independence. This can be attributed to the literature’s sparse consideration of colonialism, the institution of slavery, race, commerce, and abolitionism in the expansion process. The Haitian case reveals the advantages of incorporating all of these insights and offers a more nuanced and complicated picture of the encounter between Haiti and international society.
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Notes
The expression ‘savages in the midst’ is taken from Edwards (1797).
Haiti and the Dominican Republic (formerly known as Santo Domingo) share the island of Hispaniola.
For an exception, see Shilliam (2008).
Both contemporary thinkers like Hegel and current IR theorists have also largely ignored the Haitian case. On Hegel, see Buck-Morss (2009).
For a recent account of Siam, see Englehart (2010). For a more comprehensive list, see Buzan and Little (2010).
See also Buzan and Little (2010), who contend that one of the absences in the literature is an account of the role of trade and economics in the expansion of international society. Similar to Pella, Jr. (2013: 66), this article uses a broad definition of ‘world society’ as individuals organised into ‘different types of non-state social relationships’, and focuses especially on abolitionists and merchants.
And reconfirmed the abolition decree in 1798.
For a more detailed account of Thomas Jefferson’s policy toward the United States, see Scherr (2011). For a brief historical survey of the differences in the reactions by various administrations to Haiti, see Sepinwall (2009).
According to Fabry (2010: 30–31), dynastic legitimacy ‘allowed a territorial or jurisdictional change only with consent of the affected monarch’. Since Paris never recognised Saint Domingue’s secession, Haiti’s existence was a challenge to the principle.
See also Vivek Chibber (2013).
Although Christophe’s 1811 Constitution did not include a principle of non-intervention, that particular document was more of an ‘amendment to the 1807 constitution’ (Fischer 2004: 248) and can therefore be seen as an extension to the previous document.
See also Hannaford (1996), especially chapter 7.
This is not, of course, to say that there was consensus on the matter in Europe — see Keene (2002) and Drescher (2002).
Gaffield (2012: 221) explains that a trade treaty may have become unnecessary given the French and American embargoes imposed on Haiti by this time.
See Saint-Louis (2009: 286) for detailed data on imports by France.
Quoted in Griggs and Prator (1968: 120).
See, for example, Letters 23, 25 and 32 in Griggs and Prator (1968).
The indemnity payments were extremely unpopular and harmful to the Haitian economy — the country continued to make payments for the remainder of the century. On this topic, see Beckles (1993).
Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807 and slavery in 1833. France did so in 1815 and 1848, respectively. See Stinchcombe (1994) for a similar argument.
Two significant problems stand out. First, the breakdown of the plantation economy and the subsequent fragmentation of land plots, which harmed Haiti’s economic well-being (Lundahl 2002). Second, the militarisation of the country because of fears of French reinvasion, which turned the military into a powerful actor in domestic politics (Nicholls 1979; Blackburn 1988).
The role of merchants also points to the importance of Haiti for International Political Economy (IPE) studies.
For a recent discussion of race in international relations, see the 2013 special issue of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs 26(1).
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Matthew Croskey, Rebecca Fensholt, Derek Glasgow, Evan Jones, Jay Kirstein, Carla Machain, Cornelia Navari, Carsten-Andreas Schulz, and the anonymous reviewers and editors at JIRD for their extremely helpful comments on earlier drafts. All errors are my own.
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Cantir, C. ‘Savages in the midst’: revolutionary Haiti in international society (1791–1838). J Int Relat Dev 20, 238–261 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/jird.2015.7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jird.2015.7