This is an expansion of an idea I threw out on Petike's Caribbean thread.
After the assassination of Dessalines in 1806, there was a power struggle between two of his generals, Henri Christophe and Alexandre Pétion. The two had very different backgrounds: Christophe was black and a former slave (although he apparently gained his freedom before the revolution), while Pétion was a light-skinned mulatto from a wealthy free-colored family. There was, then as now, a rivalry between the black population, which made up a majority of Haitians, and the mulattoes who formed most of the educated elite. The conflict between the generals was also ideological, with Pétion ostensibly favoring democracy and Christophe believing that an autocratic government was the only way to develop the country.
Neither was strong enough to prevail over the other, so the country was divided, with Christophe establishing the State of Haiti in the north and Pétion assuming the presidency of the Republic of Haiti in the south. In 1811, Christophe changed his title from president for life to king, declaring the Kingdom of Haiti and creating a class of landed nobles. The northern nobility was almost all black, while the southern republic was dominated by the free-coloreds.
The two states followed very different development patterns. In the north, Christophe continued the efforts of Toussaint and Dessalines to keep a cash-crop economy going by forcing the peasants to perform corvee labor on the plantations. Pétion broke up the plantations and distributed them to the peasantry, who became yeoman farmers. The north was thus able to earn a great deal of foreign exchange through trade with foreign (mostly British) merchant ships, while the south became a nation of subsistence farmers who contributed little if any revenue to the state. On the other hand, the southern population was content under Pétion, while Christophe was hated both for the forced-labor system and because he spent all the export earnings on castles, lavish entertainments and other kingy things.
Ultimately, Pétion declared himself president for life (which is depressingly common among Haitian leaders), died in office without being overthrown (which is depressingly uncommon) and was succeeded by Jean-Pierre Boyer. Christophe, meanwhile, committed suicide in 1820 to avoid a coup; his son and heir was killed soon afterward, and Boyer reunited Haiti as a republic. It was Boyer who would go on to conquer the Dominican Republic (which would last until 1844) and conclude peace with France, under the guns of French warships in Port-au-Prince harbor, in return for an indemnity of 150 million francs.
Now, the POD. Let's posit a Christophe who's just as authoritarian as in OTL but not as fond of gaudy castles. He still takes over the north, declares himself king (figuring that a monarchy might get more respect from Europe, and that creating a peerage is the quickest way to make a black elite class) and forces the peasants into semi-serfdom, but he spends most of the foreign exchange revenue on actual development projects. The peasants thus see that their labor is being repaid in an increased standard of living, and while they still don't like many features of the Christophe regime, they aren't angry enough to overthrow it. Christophe thus dies in bed (probably not long after his OTL death, as he was in poor health) and passes the throne to his heir, Prince Jacques-Victor Henry.
So we have two Haitis, with different elite classes and development paths. The first question is what happens with the Dominican Republic. In OTL, it considered joining Gran Colombia after its 1821 declaration of independence, but many of its leaders were pro-Haitian, and Boyer was able to take over without much of a fight. In this timeline, there are several possibilities. The first is that neither of the Haitian states is strong enough to make a credible bid for control, resulting in eastern Hispaniola becoming part of Gran Colombia albeit with a restive black and mulatto population. Alternatively, either the Republic of Haiti or the Kingdom of Haiti - more likely the latter, given its greater wealth and development - could march in. Would the new Haitian overlords make the same mistake as OTL - i.e., treating the Dominican Republic as free land to be parceled out to Haitian generals - or would they find some way to co-opt the Dominicans? I could actually see Christophe's kingdom, for all its autocracy, doing a better job of this if it makes the black Dominican leaders into nobles and grants them landed estates.
Second, what happens with France? In OTL, as noted, France extorted an enormous indemnity from Boyer, which wasn't fully paid off until the 1880s and which entrenched Haitian poverty beyond hope of recovery. In this timeline, would France still pursue that indemnity, and if so, from one or both states? Would the northern kingdom, with its de facto alliance with Britain, be able to tell France to go pound sand? The south under Boyer would be much weaker - even weaker than OTL, in fact - but it would also be too poor to pay any significant indemnity, and France might not consider it worth the trouble to try to get one. If so, the cold-war status quo would continue until France decided to recognize Haitian independence on its own (I'd guess no later than 1848), but Haiti would also be spared a crippling debt burden.
Finally, what about the long-term future of Haiti? Boyer would probably be safe from internal threats: the Republic's yeoman population was happy enough, and in this timeline he probably wouldn't have the 1844 Dominican debacle to bring him down. But would the Kingdom try to reunite the country by force? Or would the Kingdom have problems of its own - if Christophe died in 1825, for instance, his heir would only be 21 years old and might not be able to handle the intrigues of ambitious generals and nobles. Assuming both states do last into the late nineteenth century, though, what would be the effect of having a relatively rich, black-dominated state centered on Cap-Haïtien and a more democratic but poorer mulatto-dominated one at Port-au-Prince?
After the assassination of Dessalines in 1806, there was a power struggle between two of his generals, Henri Christophe and Alexandre Pétion. The two had very different backgrounds: Christophe was black and a former slave (although he apparently gained his freedom before the revolution), while Pétion was a light-skinned mulatto from a wealthy free-colored family. There was, then as now, a rivalry between the black population, which made up a majority of Haitians, and the mulattoes who formed most of the educated elite. The conflict between the generals was also ideological, with Pétion ostensibly favoring democracy and Christophe believing that an autocratic government was the only way to develop the country.
Neither was strong enough to prevail over the other, so the country was divided, with Christophe establishing the State of Haiti in the north and Pétion assuming the presidency of the Republic of Haiti in the south. In 1811, Christophe changed his title from president for life to king, declaring the Kingdom of Haiti and creating a class of landed nobles. The northern nobility was almost all black, while the southern republic was dominated by the free-coloreds.
The two states followed very different development patterns. In the north, Christophe continued the efforts of Toussaint and Dessalines to keep a cash-crop economy going by forcing the peasants to perform corvee labor on the plantations. Pétion broke up the plantations and distributed them to the peasantry, who became yeoman farmers. The north was thus able to earn a great deal of foreign exchange through trade with foreign (mostly British) merchant ships, while the south became a nation of subsistence farmers who contributed little if any revenue to the state. On the other hand, the southern population was content under Pétion, while Christophe was hated both for the forced-labor system and because he spent all the export earnings on castles, lavish entertainments and other kingy things.
Ultimately, Pétion declared himself president for life (which is depressingly common among Haitian leaders), died in office without being overthrown (which is depressingly uncommon) and was succeeded by Jean-Pierre Boyer. Christophe, meanwhile, committed suicide in 1820 to avoid a coup; his son and heir was killed soon afterward, and Boyer reunited Haiti as a republic. It was Boyer who would go on to conquer the Dominican Republic (which would last until 1844) and conclude peace with France, under the guns of French warships in Port-au-Prince harbor, in return for an indemnity of 150 million francs.
Now, the POD. Let's posit a Christophe who's just as authoritarian as in OTL but not as fond of gaudy castles. He still takes over the north, declares himself king (figuring that a monarchy might get more respect from Europe, and that creating a peerage is the quickest way to make a black elite class) and forces the peasants into semi-serfdom, but he spends most of the foreign exchange revenue on actual development projects. The peasants thus see that their labor is being repaid in an increased standard of living, and while they still don't like many features of the Christophe regime, they aren't angry enough to overthrow it. Christophe thus dies in bed (probably not long after his OTL death, as he was in poor health) and passes the throne to his heir, Prince Jacques-Victor Henry.
So we have two Haitis, with different elite classes and development paths. The first question is what happens with the Dominican Republic. In OTL, it considered joining Gran Colombia after its 1821 declaration of independence, but many of its leaders were pro-Haitian, and Boyer was able to take over without much of a fight. In this timeline, there are several possibilities. The first is that neither of the Haitian states is strong enough to make a credible bid for control, resulting in eastern Hispaniola becoming part of Gran Colombia albeit with a restive black and mulatto population. Alternatively, either the Republic of Haiti or the Kingdom of Haiti - more likely the latter, given its greater wealth and development - could march in. Would the new Haitian overlords make the same mistake as OTL - i.e., treating the Dominican Republic as free land to be parceled out to Haitian generals - or would they find some way to co-opt the Dominicans? I could actually see Christophe's kingdom, for all its autocracy, doing a better job of this if it makes the black Dominican leaders into nobles and grants them landed estates.
Second, what happens with France? In OTL, as noted, France extorted an enormous indemnity from Boyer, which wasn't fully paid off until the 1880s and which entrenched Haitian poverty beyond hope of recovery. In this timeline, would France still pursue that indemnity, and if so, from one or both states? Would the northern kingdom, with its de facto alliance with Britain, be able to tell France to go pound sand? The south under Boyer would be much weaker - even weaker than OTL, in fact - but it would also be too poor to pay any significant indemnity, and France might not consider it worth the trouble to try to get one. If so, the cold-war status quo would continue until France decided to recognize Haitian independence on its own (I'd guess no later than 1848), but Haiti would also be spared a crippling debt burden.
Finally, what about the long-term future of Haiti? Boyer would probably be safe from internal threats: the Republic's yeoman population was happy enough, and in this timeline he probably wouldn't have the 1844 Dominican debacle to bring him down. But would the Kingdom try to reunite the country by force? Or would the Kingdom have problems of its own - if Christophe died in 1825, for instance, his heir would only be 21 years old and might not be able to handle the intrigues of ambitious generals and nobles. Assuming both states do last into the late nineteenth century, though, what would be the effect of having a relatively rich, black-dominated state centered on Cap-Haïtien and a more democratic but poorer mulatto-dominated one at Port-au-Prince?
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