The Saint-Domingue expedition was a large French military invasion sent by Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, under his brother-in-law Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc in an attempt to regain French control of the Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue on the island of Hispaniola, and curtail the measures of independence and abolition of slaves taken by the former slave Toussaint Louverture. It departed in December 1801 and, after initial success, ended in a French defeat at the Battle of Vertières and the departure of French troops in December 1803. The defeat forever ended Napoleon's dreams of a French empire in the West.[2]
The French Revolution led to serious social upheavals on Saint-Domingue, of which the most important was the slave revolt that led to the abolition of slavery in 1793 by the civil commissioners Sonthonax and Polverel, in a decision endorsed and spread to all the French colonies by the National Convention 6 months later, including Haiti on August 29, 1793.[3] Toussaint Louverture, a black former slave who had been recognized as Governor by France, re-established peace, fought off Spanish and British attempts to capture the island, and partially re-established prosperity by daring measures.[4] However, he went too far in hunting down governor Don Joaquín García y Moreno (27 January 1801), who had remained in what had been the Spanish part of the island following the 1795 Peace of Basel. Toussaint had also challenged French imperial interests by promulgating a self-rule constitution on 12 July 1801, which declared himself governor for life.[5]
On 9 February 1801, after their defeat at Marengo, the Austrians split off from the Second Coalition and signed the Treaty of Lunéville with France. The Kingdom of Naples then signed a peace treaty with the French at Florence and Russia under Paul I distanced itself from the coalition, with his successor Alexander I finally concluded a secret peace with Bonaparte on 10 October 1801. Britain was thus isolated and, after the first ministry of William Pitt the Younger fell on 13 March 1801, the new Addington ministry began to consider making peace.
Napoleon (now First Consul) could thus concentrate on internal problems within France and its empire. His troops were idle and his officers eager for a chance for glory. In early 1801, Napoleon decided to appoint his sister Pauline's husband, general Charles Leclerc, as head of a military expedition to reassert French authority over Saint-Domingue.[6][7][8] Initially, Napoleon planned to confirm the military ranks and lands acquired by Toussaint's officers, offer Toussaint the rôle of lieutenant of France, and guarantee freedom to the former slaves, while re-establishing Paris's authority over the island in the person of its capitaine général.[9] Toussaint's two sons were then being educated in France and as proof to Toussaint of the Frenc