Page 306 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

revolution—iran 1607

he died the next year. The following three years were ued to experience political instability, despite or because
marked by unrest, rebellions, massacres, and general of (depending on one’s point of view) the intervention of
civil war. On 1 January 1804, a new leader, Jean-Jacques the United States.Yet despite its many serious problems,
Dessalines (c.1758–1806), declared the independent Haiti has developed a rich artistic and literary tradition
Republic of Haiti. In 1806 Dessalines was assassinated, that is recognized around the world.
leading to renewed north-south civil war, with Henry
David Levinson
Christophe (1767–1820) rising to power. Christophe
instituted authoritarian rule, and fighting continued on See also French Empire; Labor Systems, Coercive; Napo-
and off until Christophe’s death by suicide in 1820. leonic Empire; Slave Trades; Sugar
The years of revolt, massacres, and civil war left Haiti
in a dismal state.At least 150,000 people died during the
revolution.The new nation had no money, and its plan- Further Reading
tations and plantation system were in ruins. Land was dis- Bryan, P. E. (1984). The Haitian revolution and its effects. Kingston,
Jamaica: Heinemann.
tributed to individual farmers, but many of the plots were Fick, C. E. (1990). The making of Haiti. Knoxville: University of Ten-
too small to be economically viable. The republic was nessee Press.
Oriol, M. (1992). Images de la revolution a Saint-Domingue (Images of
short-lived and was followed by a series of dictatorships:
the revolution of Saint Domingue). Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Editions
Between 1843 and 1915 Haiti had twenty-two leader- Henri Deschamps.
ship changes. Most of the people remained extremely Prioce, R., ed. (1996). Maroon societies: Rebel slave communities in the
Americas. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
poor, although there was a small, rich elite that ruled from
the north. Mulattos fled to the north and dominated
trade, collecting taxes on both imports and exports.
Haiti’s situation was not helped by the hostility of the
major world powers—the United States, Britain, Spain, Revolution—Iran
and France—all of whom still benefited from slavery and
saw the successful revolt as a threat to their coercive labor he Iranian Revolution of 1979 was a defining
systems. The United States was right in this regard, as Tmoment in modern Iranian history, a precursor to
many slave revolts in the United States were modeled on bringing Islam and Shia (Muslims of the branch of Islam
those in Haiti. Haiti also became the focus of debates comprising sects believing in Ali and the prayer leaders
about the wisdom of emancipation for slaves and the abil- as the only rightful successors of the Prophet Muham-
ity of former slaves to rule themselves.The political insta- mad) clerics into the center of political authority, an
bility and weak economy also meant that Haiti remained unprecedented notion in the Middle East and the Islamic
agricultural (even into the twenty-first century), while world of modern times. The Iranian Revolution had its
Europe and other nations in the Americas industrialized. origins in several preconditions that were intertwined
In 1838 France granted Haiti recognition after Haiti with other issues: political oppression, modernization/
agreed to pay France 150 million French francs, an out- Westernization of Iran, and foreign dependency, eventu-
lay that further damaged Haiti’s already weak economy. ally leading to the collapse of Muhammad Reza Shah’s
The United States offered recognition in 1862; it occu- political order and its replacement by an Islamic republic.
pied the island from 1915 to 1934 following years of
Haitian political instability. After series of weak govern- Political Oppression
ments in the following decades, the nation came under Political oppression in Iran can be traced to Reza Shah,
the dictatorial rule of the Duvalier family from 1957 to founder of the Pahlavi dynasty. His autocratic role, partic-
1986. Since then, it has remained poor and has contin- ularly after 1930, is easily identifiable as an undermining