AHC: Francophone Haiti

French may be one of the official languages of Haiti, but only a tiny percentage of the population can actually speak it. With a PoD anytime after Haitian independence, what would it take to make a majority of Haitians fluent in French? Creole doesn't necessarily have to be eliminated.
 
Well not having Napoleon be such an monumental arse, IIRC he wanted to reintroduce slavery to Haiti and Guadeloupe, would be a good start. If you can find some way of making him give up any dreams of an empire in the Americas sooner, dispose of Louisiana and support the Haitian government either in independence or just autonomy so that relations remain good. You can then maintain and expand upon the already existing cultural links.
 
Well not having Napoleon be such an monumental arse, IIRC he wanted to reintroduce slavery to Haiti and Guadeloupe, would be a good start. If you can find some way of making him give up any dreams of an empire in the Americas sooner, dispose of Louisiana and support the Haitian government either in independence or just autonomy so that relations remain good. You can then maintain and expand upon the already existing cultural links.

All of the colonial powers had legal slavery in their colonies in 1802. None wanted anything to do with an independent black republic. Slavery was justified on the notion that black people were inferior, so how could a European country accept an independent Haiti? It wasn't surprising that Napoleon wanted to restore slavery. His peers would have considered him a monumental arse for not doing so. The notion of France just deciding to accept the independence of by far its most valuable colony is far-fetched.

Back to the language issue, it's complicated. To say that only a small minority can speak French is somewhat misleading, because the vocabulary of Créole itself is about 95% of French origin, so all Haitians know some French - it's not a completely foreign language. The reason why the majority don't master French is simply because the school system is a disaster - it's so strapped for cash that in most places, students have to pay tuition to attend school, and Haiti is extremely poor.

To make Haiti fully francophone, you have to have a better-funded school system. Classes in school are conducted in French, and those who are able to attend school all the way through high school become bilingual - but most Haitians aren't able to attend school that long.
 
Actually Napoleon wanted to give Haiti what one could call Dominion status where everything other than Foriegn and Financial policy would be decided by the Haitians. But before he could implement the same, Colonel Vincent who was his link to Toussaint L'Ouverture came to Paris and delivered Toussaint's constitution for Haiti which angered Napoleon who then decided to conquer the place. So if Napoleon implements his policy and L'Ouverture accepts, we can have a more developed Haiti and maybe even a French Louisiana.
 
Yeah, considering the standard everywhere in the anglophone Caribbean is diglossia, where people speak English in formal situations, and a (generally English, but in a few cases French) creole in informal ones, it's really not that difficult to imagine Haiti following the same path. Jamaican-levels of development are hardly implausible.

Just longer French colonialism alone might do the trick honestly. Today, French (not a creole, but actual French) is the spoken language in Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast after all.
 
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All of the colonial powers had legal slavery in their colonies in 1802. None wanted anything to do with an independent black republic. Slavery was justified on the notion that black people were inferior, so how could a European country accept an independent Haiti? It wasn't surprising that Napoleon wanted to restore slavery. His peers would have considered him a monumental arse for not doing so. The notion of France just deciding to accept the independence of by far its most valuable colony is far-fetched.

Back to the language issue, it's complicated. To say that only a small minority can speak French is somewhat misleading, because the vocabulary of Créole itself is about 95% of French origin, so all Haitians know some French - it's not a completely foreign language. The reason why the majority don't master French is simply because the school system is a disaster - it's so strapped for cash that in most places, students have to pay tuition to attend school, and Haiti is extremely poor.

To make Haiti fully francophone, you have to have a better-funded school system. Classes in school are conducted in French, and those who are able to attend school all the way through high school become bilingual - but most Haitians aren't able to attend school that long.

Yes, this can be done After 1900. Just have a President who modernizes the school system geared towards embracing Haitians' Frenchness. Instead of Duvalier, a Haitian Trujillo, really. Those two dictators were brutal monsters, but Trujillo actually left the Dominican Republic better off than Duvalier did Haiti. The Dominican Republic used to be as poor as Haiti. So there's no reason Haiti couldn't develop as well, with less bad luck.
 
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