MAPS OF HISTORY · IB HISTORY · PAPER 1 · INDEPENDENCE AND IDENTITY
IB HISTORY · PAPER 1 · FOCUSED STUDY
Paper 1: Independence and Identity — Haiti and Kenya
Independence and Identity is one of the five Paper 1 Focused Studies of the new IB History course, first examined in May 2028. Paper 1 is the source paper: its questions ask you to read primary sources closely, to judge what each can and cannot tell a historian, and to combine them with your own knowledge. This Focused Study pairs two case studies, Haiti and Kenya, and our atlas Two Roads to Independence: Haiti and Kenya covers both on linked maps, in 12 chapters with 40 primary sources.
Haiti was made by the enslaved people of the richest colony on earth. Colonised Kenyans lost a war but won independence. The two cases ask how independence was won and what the manner of victory meant afterwards.
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What this Focused Study asks
Each source set begins with an inquiry question. Together, the questions show the work this Focused Study asks you to do. Read the sources alongside the chapters: a good answer draws on both.
Haiti
- How far did Toussaint Louverture’s leadership define what freedom meant in Saint-Domingue, 1793–1802?
- How did Haiti’s founders define the new nation and its citizens, 1804–1816?
- Why did Haiti accept the indemnity of 1825, and how should its cost be judged?
Kenya
- How did colonial law make land and labour the central grievances of Kenya, 1915–1934?
- How have the violence of the Kenya Emergency and its victims been recorded and remembered?
Case study 1: Haiti
Chapters 1–6 of the atlas follow Haiti, from 1789 to 1947. Read them in order: each chapter is a step in one argument, and the map moves with it.
- Saint-Domingue: The Richest ColonyCHAPTER 1 · 1789
- The Revolution Crosses the AtlanticCHAPTER 2 · 1789–1791
- Toussaint LouvertureCHAPTER 3 · 1793–1801
- Napoleon’s ExpeditionCHAPTER 4 · 1802–1803
- Dessalines and the Making of HaitiCHAPTER 5 · 1804–1820
- The Price of RecognitionCHAPTER 6 · 1825–1947
Evidence to use
One point from the IB notes of each chapter, written as a sentence you could use in an answer. Every chapter in the atlas carries four to six.
- In 1789 Saint-Domingue had about 465,000 enslaved people, alongside some 31,000 whites and 28,000 free people of colour. The enslaved outnumbered the free by roughly eight to one. Terror could enforce slavery, but it could not make that balance secure. CH 1
- Who gained rights under the National Assembly’s decree of 15 May 1791? Only men of colour born to a free father and a free mother: a few hundred people. Even that grant was cancelled on 24 September 1791. CH 2
- On 29 August 1793, Commissioner Sonthonax proclaimed general emancipation in the North. The National Convention followed on 4 February 1794, abolishing slavery in all French colonies. The previous day it had seated Jean-Baptiste Belley, a formerly enslaved deputy. CH 3
- General Leclerc left Brest on 14 December 1801. In 1802–03, about 31,000 French soldiers landed in Saint-Domingue. Their orders were to disarm the colony’s Black army and send its generals to France. CH 4
- At Gonaïves on 1 January 1804, Dessalines and his generals declared independence, renounced France for ever and gave the country the name Haiti. The new state was the first in the Americas founded by people who had freed themselves from slavery. CH 5
- On 17 April 1825, Charles X issued an ordinance granting Haiti “full and complete independence” if it paid 150 million francs in five yearly instalments and cut customs duties on French goods by half. CH 6
Case study 2: Kenya
Chapters 7–11 of the atlas follow Kenya, from 1895 to 1978. Read them in order: each chapter is a step in one argument, and the map moves with it.
- The White HighlandsCHAPTER 7 · 1895–1939
- War, Land and the OathCHAPTER 8 · 1939–1952
- The EmergencyCHAPTER 9 · 1952–1960
- The Road to UhuruCHAPTER 10 · 1960–1963
- Challenges after IndependenceCHAPTER 11 · 1963–1978
Evidence to use
One point from the IB notes of each chapter, written as a sentence you could use in an answer. Every chapter in the atlas carries four to six.
- The Uganda Railway cost about £5.5 million, far more than the estimates presented to Parliament. Built from 1896 to 1901 by 31,983 workers recruited in British India, it needed to pay for itself; officials invited settlers to the highlands with that purpose in mind. CH 7
- About 98,000 Kenyan Africans served in the Second World War. Among them were men of the 11th (East Africa) Division, which fought in Burma in 1944–45. Waruhiu Itote, later known as “General China”, was one of those who learned there that colonisers could be beaten. CH 8
- Kenyatta and five KAU leaders stood trial at Kapenguria from December 1952 to April 1953. They received sentences of seven years’ hard labour. In 1958, the key witness, Rawson Macharia, swore that he had been bribed. CH 9
- At the first Lancaster House conference, held from January to February 1960, Kenya received a 65-seat Legislative Council with an elected African majority. Settlers would no longer dominate its politics. CH 10
- In 1962, Somali-speaking northerners told a British commission that they wanted to join Somalia. They went on to fight the Shifta War of 1963–67, which ended with the Arusha Memorandum of 28 October 1967. CH 11
Comparing the two case studies
The atlas ends by setting the two case studies side by side in Two Independences Compared. Comparison is where the Focused Study pays off: the same question asked of two societies shows which explanations travel and which belong to one place.
PAPER 1 · TWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 12
Compare and contrast the ways in which Haiti and Kenya achieved independence.
Haiti and Kenya emerged from colonial systems in which land had been seized for a privileged class and worked by coerced labour. In each, violent struggle divided colonised society. But the struggles ended differently: Haiti won outright through war and faced isolation and debt as punishment, while Kenya’s defeated rebellion was followed by a negotiated transfer that preserved the colonial state.
Similar roots in land and coercion.
Opposite military outcomes.
Different terms of recognition and burden.
The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 12 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: Two Independences Compared.
Key concepts
The course asks you to think with six concepts. Each chapter’s IB notes name the two or three it supports best; here they are across the atlas, most used first.
- Causation · 6 CHAPTERS
Why something happened: the long-term conditions, the triggers and the choices behind it, and which of them mattered most. For example: Saint-Domingue: The Richest Colony, The Revolution Crosses the Atlantic, Napoleon’s Expedition, The White Highlands. - Consequence · 6 CHAPTERS
What followed from an event or decision, intended and unintended, in the short and the long term. For example: Napoleon’s Expedition, The Price of Recognition, The White Highlands, The Emergency. - Perspectives · 6 CHAPTERS
How people at the time, and historians since, have seen the same events differently, and why. For example: Saint-Domingue: The Richest Colony, The Revolution Crosses the Atlantic, Toussaint Louverture, Dessalines and the Making of Haiti. - Significance · 5 CHAPTERS
Why an event, person or idea matters, judged by its effects and by how it has been remembered. For example: The Revolution Crosses the Atlantic, Toussaint Louverture, Dessalines and the Making of Haiti, The Price of Recognition. - Change · 4 CHAPTERS
What was different afterwards, how quickly it changed, and for whom. For example: Toussaint Louverture, Dessalines and the Making of Haiti, War, Land and the Oath, The Road to Uhuru. - Continuity · 3 CHAPTERS
What stayed the same through an apparent upheaval, and why it survived. For example: The Price of Recognition, Challenges after Independence, Two Independences Compared.
Source-analysis practice
This is one complete source set from the atlas, free to use. It is built around one inquiry question: How far did Toussaint Louverture’s leadership define what freedom meant in Saint-Domingue, 1793–1802? As you read each source, ask who made it, when, and why. These details help you judge what it can tell you. Answer the questions in writing first; then open the guide under each one to see what a strong answer does.
TEXT · CHAPTER 3
Proclamation from Camp Turel
- CREATOR
- Toussaint Louverture
- DATE
- 29 August 1793
- ORIGIN
- Proclamation addressed to the people of Saint-Domingue while Toussaint served Spain
Context. Toussaint was then serving the King of Spain, the “king” named in his signature. His proclamation is dated the same day as Sonthonax’s emancipation in the North. Eight months later, Toussaint would join the French Republic.
Translation: Maps of History, from the French text published by the Fondation pour la mémoire de l’esclavage (2023) · original ↗
TEXT · CHAPTER 3
Constitution of the French colony of Saint-Domingue, Articles 3, 4, 5 and 14
- CREATOR
- Central Assembly of Saint-Domingue, convened by Toussaint Louverture
- DATE
- Adopted 9 May 1801; proclaimed 7–8 July 1801
- ORIGIN
- Constitution printed in Le Cap and Paris
Context. A further article named Toussaint governor “for the rest of his glorious life”. Napoleon Bonaparte, who had seized power in France in 1799, saw the document as a challenge to French authority.
Translation: Maps of History, from Janvier, Les Constitutions d’Haïti (1886), via Digithèque MJP · original ↗
TEXT · CHAPTER 4
Toussaint Louverture’s words on boarding Le Héros, as recorded by a French general
- CREATOR
- Pamphile de Lacroix (memoir); words attributed to Toussaint Louverture
- DATE
- June 1802 (published 1819)
- ORIGIN
- Lacroix, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la révolution de Saint-Domingue, vol. 2, pp. 202–203
Context. Lacroix was a French general who served in the expedition; he published his memoir seventeen years later. The words were reported as spoken to the ship’s commander, not written by Toussaint.
Translation: Maps of History, from Lacroix (Paris: Pillet aîné, 1819) · original ↗
PICTURE · CHAPTER 3
Title page and portrait from Histoire de Toussaint-Louverture
- CREATOR
- Cousin d’Avallon (author); engraver unnamed
- DATE
- 1802 (Year XI)
- ORIGIN
- Book published in Paris by Pillot frères during Leclerc’s expedition
Context. French publishers were producing books about Toussaint as the expedition against him proceeded. This book’s subtitle calls him “chief of the insurgent Blacks”.
Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain Mark) · original ↗
The questions
- QUESTION 1 · COMPREHENSION
In the Camp Turel proclamation of August 1793, what did Toussaint seek for Saint-Domingue, and whom did he say he served?
What a strong answer does
Toussaint asked that “liberty and equality to reign in Saint-Domingue” and called on others to join that cause. He also signed as a general “of the King’s Armies”, serving the King of Spain. The two details belong together: he used the language of liberty while fighting in royal service.
- Quotes or paraphrases the aim of liberty and equality
- Identifies the King of Spain as the power he served
- Notes the tension between the two
- QUESTION 2 · ANALYSIS
During Leclerc’s expedition, how did the 1802 title page and portrait present Toussaint to French readers?
What a strong answer does
The portrait gives Toussaint the appearance of a military commander: he wears a uniform and plumed hat. Yet the subtitle calls him “chief of the insurgent Blacks”. Published in Paris in Year XI, when France was at war with him, the image and words present him both as a commander and as a rebel.
- Describes visual features (uniform, hat, oval portrait)
- Uses the printed subtitle as evidence
- Links the presentation to the date and purpose
- QUESTION 3 · EVALUATION
Assess the value and limitations of Lacroix’s report of Toussaint’s words aboard Le Héros for a historian studying Toussaint’s view of his own role. Refer to origin, purpose and content.
What a strong answer does
The reported words come from a decisive moment. Toussaint compares himself to the trunk of a tree and the formerly enslaved to roots that would survive him, offering a view of his role in relation to the people. But a French general, Lacroix, reported the words in 1819, seventeen years later, in a memoir written partly to explain French defeat. The quotation may have been polished, so its portrayal of Toussaint’s self-image must be read with those circumstances in mind.
- Identifies author, date and publication gap
- Considers Lacroix’s purpose
- Explains what the content reveals about Toussaint’s self-image
- Reaches a balanced judgement
- QUESTION 4 · SYNTHESIS
Using the sources and your own knowledge, assess how far Toussaint Louverture’s leadership defined freedom in Saint-Domingue from 1793 to 1802.
What a strong answer does
The proclamation presents freedom as a cause for which to fight. The 1801 constitution gives it legal form as French citizenship, while Article 14 subjects that freedom to plantation labor. Lacroix’s report links it to people who would survive Toussaint himself. Bring the labor code of 1800, the Moyse revolt and Sonthonax’s role in emancipation into the argument. A judgment can then consider how far Toussaint defined freedom as citizenship without land, and why many cultivators resisted it.
- Uses at least three sources
- Adds relevant own knowledge (labour code, Moyse, Sonthonax)
- Addresses “to what extent” with a judgement
- Considers the cultivators’ perspective
More source sets in the atlas
The atlas holds 4 more source sets for this Focused Study. Their sources sit in the IB notes of the chapters named below: open a chapter in the atlas and turn on the IB notes switch to read them.
- How did Haiti’s founders define the new nation and its citizens, 1804–1816? HAITI
Its sources are in the IB notes of chapter 5. - Why did Haiti accept the indemnity of 1825, and how should its cost be judged? HAITI
Its sources are in the IB notes of chapter 1, chapter 6. - How did colonial law make land and labour the central grievances of Kenya, 1915–1934? KENYA
Its sources are in the IB notes of chapter 7. - How have the violence of the Kenya Emergency and its victims been recorded and remembered? KENYA
Its sources are in the IB notes of chapter 9, chapter 12.
Practice questions and essay plans
Try planning your answers before looking at ours. Each outline states a thesis and shows what each paragraph would claim. The first plan comes from chapter 2, a free chapter, and is shown in full. In the atlas, the chapters’ IB notes give the full plans, with evidence, a counter-argument and a judgement. The atlas’s own page lists those notes: IB notes for Haiti and Kenya.
PAPER 2 · TWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 2
How far did the ideas of the French Revolution cause the rising of August 1791?
French revolutionary ideas helped open the way to the rising by dividing the free population and weakening authority in the colony. But the enslaved planned the rising through networks of their own and brought their own aims to it. The French Revolution supplied a trigger and a language to use; the agency of the enslaved was the driving force.
The Revolution divided those who ruled the colony.
EVIDENCEPlanters formed colonial assemblies, the boldest at Saint-Marc in 1790. Free men of colour pressed for rights, and Ogé took up arms in October 1790. Paris granted rights in May 1791 and withdrew them in September.
LINKThese conflicts among the free weakened the forces that kept the enslaved in check.
The enslaved used their own networks to organize the rising.
EVIDENCEDrivers met on 14 August 1791. According to tradition, Boukman led a ceremony at Bois Caïman that bound the leaders together; the rising began across many estates at once on 22–23 August.
LINKCoordinating action on that scale depended on structures planters ignored, including estate drivers and religious gatherings.
The insurgents drew on aims and ideas beyond those of France.
EVIDENCEThe leaders flew royalist flags and claimed that the king had granted free days. Thornton argues that many Kongolese veterans thought in terms of just kingship. In December 1791 the leaders sought freedom for only a few hundred officers.
LINKThe rising had more than one source of ideas. Universal emancipation emerged later, as the war developed.
Historians in the tradition of C. L. R. James give French revolutionary ideas a more direct role. Sailors, servants and news, they emphasize, carried the language of rights to the enslaved, and the rising followed 1789 by only two years. The insurgents’ later appeals to the rights of man in negotiations support this reading.
The French Revolution was a necessary trigger: it divided the free population and supplied a language of rights. The main cause, however, lay in the organization, experience and aims of the enslaved. They used French ideas, but the rising was not defined by those ideas alone.
Read the chapter behind this plan: The Revolution Crosses the Atlantic.
PAPER 1 · TWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 5
Using the sources and your own knowledge, examine how Haiti’s founders defined membership of the new nation between 1804 and 1816.
The founders drew on both slavery and the war against France to define who belonged. In 1804 they declared a nation separate from France; in 1805 they gave every citizen the name Black; and in 1816 they opened citizenship to Africans and Indigenous Americans, making Haiti a refuge.
The declaration made separation from France a foundation of the nation.
The 1805 constitution gave Blackness a civic meaning.
The 1816 constitution extended belonging beyond Haiti’s existing population.
The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 5 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: Dessalines and the Making of Haiti.
PAPER 2 · TWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 9
Evaluate the effects of the Kenya Emergency (1952–1960) on the people of central Kenya.
The Emergency changed life across central Kenya through death, detention, forced villagisation and land consolidation. Its costs and rewards were distributed unevenly: suspected rebels and their families suffered the heaviest losses, while loyalists gained land and office. Those divisions survived the war.
Violence and death on a scale still debated.
Detention and villagisation reorganised daily life.
Land and power shifted to loyalists.
The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 9 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: The Emergency.
PAPER 2 · TWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 11
How far did Jomo Kenyatta rely on methods inherited from colonial rule to maintain power between 1963 and 1978?
Kenyatta relied heavily on institutions inherited from colonial rule, particularly the provincial administration and detention laws. These did not operate alone. Patronage through land and office, ethnic alliances and a carefully managed single party helped him maintain power, while Cold War support favored his pro-Western course.
Kenyatta retained and used the machinery of the colonial state.
Land patronage gave supporters a stake in the regime.
Party and ethnic strategies restricted the space for opposition.
The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 11 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: Challenges after Independence.
Revision tools
The atlas ends with a map quiz that asks you to find places and moments on the map itself (part of every plan from Starter up). The quick quiz and the discussion questions with our answers are free pages on this site, and the printable study guide gathers every chapter’s notes into one document for revision.
The same atlas for other papers
Several chapters also carry IB notes for Papers 2 and 3, and for topics of the old course examined in 2027:
- Paper 2 · Conflict · 4 CHAPTERS
- Paper 2 · Authoritarian Rule · 2 CHAPTERS
- Paper 2 · Popular Movements · 4 CHAPTERS
- Old course · World history topic 8: Independence movements (1800–2000) · 5 CHAPTERS
Maps of History is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the International Baccalaureate Organization. IB course names describe alignment only; paper, theme and section names follow the new course outline and may change when the final guide is published.
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