Chapter 272: The Haitian Question

Chapter 272: The Haitian Question

Jacques Galarde and his crew did indeed have vast tracts of land in Louisiana. In fact, the land in Louisiana was hardly worth much. What was always in short supply there was not land but people.

In 1762, as part of their alliance to resist British expansion in North America, the French transferred sovereignty over Louisiana to the Spanish. From that point onwards, the Spanish became the rulers of Louisiana.

However, the Spanish faced a significant challenge - a shortage of population. They couldn't provide many immigrants. As a result, despite being under Spanish rule, Louisiana remained predominantly French.

After the French Revolution, Spain briefly joined the anti-French coalition to fight against France, but they soon switched sides and became allies of France. Louisiana continued to be a Spanish colony, but it was still inhabited by French-speaking people.

Recently, the Spanish had encountered economic difficulties (it seemed that the Spanish were always struggling economically), and they were facing pressure from the United States in North America. In Florida, Americans had already started making some moves, and in the capital of Louisiana, they used the weakness of the Spanish to force them to acknowledge American "special interests" in New Orleans.

The increasingly weakened Spanish were finding it difficult to maintain control over the vast land of Louisiana. Napoleon saw an opportunity and proposed to the Spanish that he would be willing to trade some of his interests in Italy for sovereignty over Louisiana.

In Napoleon's vision, using Louisiana, along with Haiti, which was still under French control, could help maintain considerable influence in the New World. This idea received the support of Joseph , who had a clearer understanding of the significance of the New World for the future compared to most others.

However, to strengthen their control over Louisiana, the most crucial factor was the population. But due to recent prosperity in France, there were fewer people willing to venture thousands of miles away. So, the number of French immigrants was limited. Although the government encouraged childbirth and even awarded "Heroic Mother" medals to mothers with many children, this couldn't change the situation in the short term.

Therefore, the French mainly relied on immigrants from other European regions to move to Louisiana.

Theoretically, ensuring that French people remained the majority of immigrants would be better for the cohesion of overseas territories and the homeland. However, the events of the American War of Independence showed that blood relations were not always reliable. Unlike Napoleon, who envisioned a new empire where the sun never set, Joseph had much lower expectations. His minimum expectation was only a divided North American continent.

Joseph believed that with the existence of the United States, Louisiana might actually become more loyal to France in some sense, just as Canada remained loyal to Britain due to the existence of the United States.

Haiti's "downfall" – let's call it "downfall" for now, although in reality, even during Haiti's "most prosperous" times, the average black person's life was not significantly better – is actually quite straightforward. It was simply a highly replaceable link in the economic chain. When Haiti became independent, it not only achieved political independence but also economic independence.

In other words, it was isolated from the colonial economic chain. Its position in this chain was quickly replaced by other colonies, and the production costs in these other colonies were certainly far lower than in Haiti's. Unless independent Haiti could concentrate land and use the black people as "free laborers," what would be the meaning of the revolution?

However, for France, for Napoleon's dream of a new empire where the sun never sets, the failure of Haiti was decisive. Losing Haiti not only resulted in significant economic losses (although some of this was recovered by demanding ransom from the Haitian Republic), but it also meant losing a crucial foothold in the Americas. This was one of the reasons why Napoleon sold the entirety of Louisiana to the United States.

Now, in this alternate timeline, the issue of Haiti was once again before Napoleon.

"Santo Domingo is bound to have problems sooner or later," Napoleon was well aware of this. "That Toussaint Louverture has become the absolute ruler of Haiti. Well, Joseph, how did you phrase it?"

"Mountains are high, and the Emperor is far away," Joseph answered.

"Yes, 'mountains are high, and the Emperor is far away.' This place is too far from France. I just received reports that Toussaint has started implementing 'land nationalization'—essentially, confiscating white people's land. Damn it, five cents per acre, that's just outright confiscation. Many French people have already been forced to flee, or even killed. What do you think we should do?" Napoleon asked.

If Joseph had been educated according to his past life's experiences, he would undoubtedly have cheered and applauded the anti-colonial and righteous actions in Haiti. But this approach damaged the French people, or more plainly, the interests of the Bonapartes! So, if they could suppress it directly, Joseph would certainly approve of directly suppressing the Haitian uprising.

But would suppression work? Joseph couldn't help but ask himself this question.

Steamships couldn't yet reach Haiti, and the British and Americans had the advantage at sea. Joseph wondered, if he were a Briton or an American, what would he do when he discovered that the French were fighting against the local Haitian rebels?