7 ATLASES
History of Haiti in maps
Haiti as it appears in 7 interactive history atlases, from 1750 to 2015: Saint-Domingue, then Haiti, Saint-Domingue / Haiti, Haiti. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
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What was Haiti before it was Haiti? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.
Saint-Domingue, then Haiti (1804) · Industrial Revolution
Saint-Domingue was the world’s most profitable sugar and coffee colony when enslaved people rose against their masters in 1791. In 1804 they founded Haiti, the first nation to abolish slavery for good. France later forced the new nation to pay a huge indemnity for its independence. The revolution removed the largest sugar producer from the market and showed the Atlantic world that slavery could be overthrown.
| Colony or dependency — the opening position | |
| Agrarian economy |
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Saint-Domingue / Haiti · Age of Revolutions
From 1791 to 1804, the enslaved people of Saint-Domingue freed themselves, defeated Spain, Britain and Napoleon’s largest expedition, and founded the first Black republic. Recognition carried a terrible price. France demanded an indemnity of 150 million francs in 1825, followed by a century of payments, and Haiti also faced an embargo. Haiti armed Bolívar on condition that he abolish slavery. Almost none of the powers on this map acknowledged the debt they owed it.
| Colonial possessions — the opening position | |
| Republics & revolutionary states |
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Saint-Domingue / Haiti · Haiti and Kenya independence
In 1789 France’s richest colony occupied the western third of Hispaniola. Saint-Domingue had some 800 sugar estates and thousands of coffee farms, worked by about half a million enslaved people. Between 1791 and 1803, they rose, won emancipation and defeated Napoleon’s army. Their generals named the country Haiti on 1 January 1804, and its founders defined every citizen as free and Black. The new rulers argued for decades over plantations and family land. France, meanwhile, demanded 150 million francs for recognition, later reducing the sum to 90 million.
| Under colonial rule — the opening position | |
| Self-rule in all but name | |
| Under colonial rule | |
| Held by insurgents | |
| Independence won |
HAITI AND KENYA INDEPENDENCE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Haiti · American Civil War
Haiti became the hemisphere’s first Black republic through its own slave revolution in 1804. That achievement was also why Washington refused to recognize it for six decades: to the slaveholding South, Haiti was proof of what enslaved people could do. The war removed the Southern veto, and Lincoln’s government granted recognition in 1862. Frederick Douglass later served here as US minister. Recognition was a quiet diplomatic consequence of emancipation.
| Neighbors & the outside world — the opening position |
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Haiti · WWI
| The Entente & Allies — the opening position | |
| The Entente & Allies |
Haiti · Cold War
| US-aligned states — the opening position |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Haiti · Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution
| Refused: women excluded; ERA never ratified — the opening position | |
| Right won in law | |
| No reform yet / outside this story | |
| Right won in law |
FEMINISM AND THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
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