AHC: Independent state in Hispaniola that spearheads mini scientific revolution

How, with a POD of 1500 or later, could there be an independent state in Hispaniola that starts and leads a mini scientific revolution in the late 19th or early 20th century?

Bonus points the more backwards it was as a colony.
 

scholar

Banned
French Revolution keeps Haiti and expands into the entire island, as French climate becomes chaotic political refugees flee to Haiti and these include a number of cultured individuals, amongst many of them scientists. This continues for decades until Hispaniola boasts more brilliant minds than France itself. This continues, even as France stabilizes every few decades a new faction will rise to power be they monarchists, radical conservatives, nationalists, socialists, or republicans. With each new change their enemies flee to Hispaniola (though prisoners are sent to Guyana as always), by the 1890s the radical nationalists take command of the French government once again and denounce certain "German" or "British" sciences and persecute those who are a part of that field. Many flee the country, but most head to Hispaniola, long a bastion of French free thought. They head there. The radical nationalists are replaced rather quickly by a more temperate conservative movement. They do not actively encourage the sciences, but they flourish under the more lenient rule. This new found explosion of expression in the sciences leads to a scientific revolution in chemistry and physics, as well as in art forms and culture.
 
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