Tentative Timeline for the Colonial French Caribbean

A preliminary work started for another project but something we hope to continue, like our "Tentative Timeline for Kanem-Borno" on this site. We plan to add additional events and dates for Saint-Domingue (Haiti), Guadeloupe, Martinique, and other French colonial possessions in the Antilles but we have been too distracted by our Kanem-Borno and African historical "research" lately.

-1500s-1540s: French often plundered Spanish treasure fleets (according to Gad Heuman)

-1523: Jean Fleury, French corsair, sacked Spanish fleet carrying part of Aztec treasure

-1530-1570: French pirates were main scourge of Spanish possessions

-1559: Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis (Spain and France)

-1620s: Early French occupation of western Hispaniola in 1620s

-1620s-1667: frontier era in French Antilles, tobacco was first cash crop and remained important in Saint Domingue until 1690s, boucaniers and piracy in Tortuga, western Hispaniola

-1624-1625: English and French share Saint-Christophe (Saint Kitts), the French settlement led by Pierre Belain d’Esnambuc in 1625

-1626: Cardinal Richelieu invested in plans to colonize Saint Christophe (St. Kitts)

-1635: French colonization of Martinique, Guadeloupe (but French colonization proceeded at slow pace due to significant Carib population) and some of the smaller islands of the eastern Caribbean; also the year the Compagnie des Isles de l’Amerique was founded to consolidate French interests in Caribbean

-1640: Before 1640, French colonies relied on engages (indentured laborers who usually worked 3 year contracts), then increasingly depended on slave labor

-1642 Regulation of Compagnie des Indies declared all Indians of French islands equals of whites

-c. 1650: matelotage partnerships of newly freed servants common in Saint Domingue by mid-1600s, engaging in hunting cattle, processing hides, curing meat, and trade at Tortuga

-1650-1660: French Caribbean around 19% black in 1650, but grew to 36% by 1660; important role of Dutch and Jewish settlers from Brazil in sparking commercial sugarcane production in French Caribbean in 1650s (and Barbados, English colony)

-1654-1659/1660: French wars with the Caribs in the Lesser Antilles, lasting five years

1658: Caribs slaughtered French colonists at Marie Galante

-1660: Settlement reached between French and Caribs, restricting Caribs to St. Vincent and Dominica

-1664: Formation of Compagnie des Indes Occidentales, supported by Colbert

-1665-1675: Bertrand d’Ogeron governor of Tortue (Tortuga) for most of this period, promoting settlement and development of Saint Domingue

-1666: Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin joined French Compagnie des Indes Occidentales, sailing to Tortuga

-1667-1720: Colonial Conflicts and Economic Transition in French Antilles

-1669-1670: French Company of the West Indies opens slave trade with Allada and the “Slave Coast”; Mateo Lopes, ambassador of Allada king received at the court of Louis XIV

-1670-1700: enslaved Africans in Martinique grew in numbers from 7,000 in 1670 to 15,000 while the entire French Antilles had around 30,000 slaves by 1700

-1670s: French missionaries and fur traders at Fort St. Louis (Peoria, Illinois) and later other spots on Illinois River, Mississippi River, Missouri River

-1670-1672: troubles of period in Saint Domingue due to French attempts to halt contact between Dutch traders and French colonists in the Caribbean

-1670: Foundation of Cap Francais (modern Cap-Haitien)

-1671: French Lesser Antilles has population of just under 30,000

-1672-1678: French and Dutch wars in Indies

-1680: Troubles in Cap Francais following collapse of French market for colonial tobacco and enforcement of Senegal Company’s slave trade monopoly

-1680s-1690s: French privateering important for bringing slaves to Caribbean colonies

-1685: first sugarcane plantation in French Saint Domingue; also, Louis XIV revoked Edict of Nantes, leading to some migration of Huguenots to Caribbean and North American mainland

-First sovereign council of Saint Domingue established at Petit Goave by the marquis de Seignelay

1690: French raid Spanish colony of Santo Domingo

1690s: slaves carried to French colonies by privateers in late 1600s pivotal for rise of sugar production in Saint Domingue

1691: Spanish attack Cap-Francais

-1694: St. Domingue raid on Jamaica brings 1600-2000 slaves to Saint Domingue

-1695: Anglo-Spanish attack on Saint Domingue; French evacuate Sainte-Croix largely due to governor of St. Domingue, Du Casse; most of the 460 whites, 712 slaves, 52 free colored ended up in northern Saint Domingue

-1697: Treaty of Ryswick, ceding western Hispaniola to France (officially recognized by Spain)

-1698: planters and slaves from St. Croix displaced en masse to French Saint Domingue; Compagnie de Saint-Domingue (financial/military arm of French government) formed to promote sugar; foundation of Saint-Domingue Company, founded by DuCasse and financiers Bernard, Crozat, Mayon, Thome (to promote settlement of southern Saint Domingue)

-1701-1713: War of Spanish Succession

-1703: 1,369 people, including 409 whites and 908 slaves, lived in South of Saint Domingue

-1704: Andre Deslandes, former director of French East India and Asiento Companies, arrived to be first ordonnateur and established  a Superior Council at Cap-Francais the next year

-1706-1730: large number of Indian slaves , especially Panis or Pawnee in Missouri Valley

-1710: Recall of Governor Choiseul-Beaupre from Saint Domingue

1713: By this year, Saint Domingue’s population surpassed Martinique

1713-1735: French conflict with Fox Indians, Fox attack French allies in Illinois Country and French do not finally defeat the Fox until 1735

1715-1744: Years of Peace for French Antilles

1715: French Saint Domingue had a population of 7,000 white colonists, 30,000 slaves

1715-1717: Spanish pirates captured or pillaged 20 French ships along coast of Saint Domingue

1717-1723: temporarily successful rebellions of planters in Martinique and Saint Domingue against royal authority/colonial authority (the French king appointed colonial governors and officials; intendants were in charge of civil/judicial affairs

1720-1790: Plantations, slavery, Revolutions (French, Haitian, Guadeloupe)

1720: Revocation of Saint Domingue Company’s privileges

1720s: increase in coffee plantations after 1720

1726: French near Natchez villages tied to tobacco-growing concessions, 2 large grants for tobacco made in 1726

1729: 28 Nov 1729 Natchez warriors killed 237 French, captured nearly 300 slaves and 50 white women and children

1730-1731: Natchez defeated, some 500 sold into slavery (an unknown number sold in Saint Domingue, where their chief Grand-Soleil also went)

1756-1763: British successfully attack Guadeloupe and Martinique, bringing in more slaves

1758: Mackandal conspiracy in Saint Domingue

1788: Lejeune case of Saint Domingue slaves who unsuccessfully sued their master for his torture and murder 

1791: August 1791 beginning of slave uprising in the north of Saint Domingue 

Sources 

Gibson, Carrie. Empire's Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean From Columbus to the Present Day. London: Macmillan, 2014.

Heuman, Gad J. The Caribbean: A Brief History. Second edition. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.

Palmié, Stephan, and Francisco A. (Francisco Antonio) Scarano (editors). The Caribbean: A History of the Region and Its Peoples. Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Pritchard, James S. In Search of Empire: The French in the Americas, 1670-1730. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.