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The Invasion of Guadeloupe was a British attempt in 1794 to take and hold the island of Guadeloupe in the French West Indies during the French Revolutionary Wars.The British had negotiated with the French planters, Ignace-Joseph-Philippe de Perpignan and Louis de Curt, who wished to gain British protection, as France's National Convention was passing a law abolishing slavery on 4 February 1794.
In 1790, the National Assembly affirmed their support for the continuation of slavery. [3] The French colony of Saint-Domingue in particular was important to the economy of France. [4] A 1791 slave rebellion in the colony led to widespread turmoil, which the Spanish and British attempted to take advantage of by invading Saint-Domingue.
France's navy at first dominated in the West Indies, capturing Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent, Tobago but losing St. Lucia at the beginning of the war. After the siege of Yorktown the French returned to the West Indies and were successful in taking St. Kitts (despite a naval defeat), Montserrat as well as Demerara and Essequibo in South ...
The French Revolution led to serious social upheavals on Saint-Domingue, of which the most important was the slave revolt that led to the abolition of slavery in 1793 by the civil commissioners Sonthonax and Polverel, in a decision endorsed and spread to all the French colonies by the National Convention 6 months later, including Haiti on August 29, 1793. [3]
As of 1778, French slave trade transported approximately 13,000 Africans as slaves to the French West Indies each year. [4] Slavery had been active in French colonies since the early 16th century; it was first abolished by the French government in 1794, whereupon it was replaced by forced labour before being reinstated by Napoleon in 1802. [5]
A series of events took place from 1791 which led to the abolition of institutionalized slavery in France, including the establishment of the national convention and the election of the first Assembly of the First Republic (1792–1804), on 4 February 1794, under the leadership of Maximilien Robespierre, culminating in the passing of the Law of 4 February 1794, which abolished slavery in all ...
Britain's victory against France and its allies in the war made the French feel vulnerable to British power. The French saw the American Revolution as a way to strengthen itself and cripple the British Empire. At the beginning, the French helped fuel the American war effort but did not come out as an official ally on the side of the Americans.
The aftermath of the 1791 Haitian slave rebellion was decisive, resulting in the abolition of slavery in Saint-Domingue by 1793 and paving the way for Haiti's independence from France in 1804. This was the first successful formation of a nation led by former slaves.