Bonaparte, Haïti et l'échec colonial du régime consulaire

Abstract

This study offers a overview of the colonial policy of the Consulate, a largely unknownfield of study that should not be reduced to the single question of slavery in the West Indies. First, a description of the state of these policy at the end of the revolutionary decade is offered, followed by an examination of the failure to restore the West Indies to the sphere of French influence, the expedition to Santo Domingo over the plans of Toussaint Louverture, the decision to reestablish slavery provoking first repression, then massacres in Guadeloupe, finally the irreversible rupture with Santo Domingo, proclaimed independent on 1 January 1804. Other topics are also examined — those related to the vast colonial plan of Bonaparte' s — in Egypt, India, Louisiana, even Australia - all doomed to rapid failure, for lack of a fleet capable of competing with Britain's. In 1804, the failure was patent on all colonial fronts. In this realm, the new regime had deliberately broken with the revolutionary legacy, without benefiting from it.