Science, Medicine and French Colonialism in Old-Regime Haiti

Abstract

The topic of science and colonialism has recently attracted increased historiographical attention.1 However, both French colonialism in general and European colonialism in the eighteenth century in particular have been largely ignored in this recent literature.2 The present paper begins to fill these historiographical gaps by examining the role of French science and medicine for the development of French colonialism in the Old Regime, as seen in the non-trivial case of the French West-Indian colony of Saint Domingue (modern-day Haiti). Two subsidiary objectives inform this paper: one, to show that science and medicine were not monolithic historical entities, but that they affected colonial development through real institutions with sometimes conflicting priorities; and secondly to illustrate that science and medicine were not wholly progressive historical forces, but that they served to support colonial slavery and the economically retrogressive policies of French mercantilism.KeywordsEconomic BotanyEighteenth CenturyFrench GovernmentFrench ColonialismCultural ImperialismThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.