In August 1791, 465,000 slaves in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (later called Haiti) successfully overthrew the 30,000 whites in the area. So naturally an up-and-coming Napoleon Bonaparte dispatched his brother-in-law Charles Leclerc with an expeditionary force to put the slaves back to work. However, two-thirds of the expeditionary force, including Leclerc himself, were wiped out by yellow fever and the military stylings of Toussaint L'Ouverture. On November 28, 1803, the French surrendered and Haiti was declared a republic: the second of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.
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Way to be posers, Haiti.
The World-Changer
The Haitian Revolution didn't just change the world of human rights or bolster democracy in North America-- it also forced Bonaparte to sell the Louisiana Territory to America, thereby scrapping his plans for a United States of Napoleon.
To understand the Little Corporal's ultimate scheme for North American infiltration, you need some background. In 1697, Haiti was called Saint-Domingue and was one third of the island of Hispaniola. France owned Saint-Domingue, and Spain owned the rest, a proto-Dominican Republic.
One hundred years later, France didn't just own this little slice of Caribbean heaven off the coast of Cuba; she also owned 828,000 square miles of the interior of the North American continent:
You certainly couldn't expect a guy like Napoleon Bonaparte to look at a map like this and not see a continent ripe for the taking. Sending French troops to re-establish slavery on Saint-Dominigue was only the first part of the plan, which thankfully fell apart. Had it succeeded, however, phase two was to transfer the bulk of the French army to New Orleans, and phase three was to establish the island as a major sugar and coffee exporter, with Louisiana providing food, lumber and military support. To do that, the French would have to colonize Louisiana, obviously. And if you think anyone in their right mind trusted Napoleon with a foothold in the Americas, you're dead wrong. Thomas Jefferson himself was scared that the man would attack the U.S., but only after getting all of the "gold and silver of Mexico and Peru."
"And all the beer in Texas."
But none of that ever happened, thanks to yellow fever and General L'Ouverture. Once Napoleon lost Haiti, he didn't have the financial incentive to hang on to the behemoth that was Louisiana, or the strategic launching point of Haiti from which to start rolling on America. So he sold it. To America. And the rest is le history.
