What Are The Causes Of The Haitian Revolution

Revolutions are caused by a societal desire for change. In America, residents of the thirteen colonies were no longer willing to suffer high taxes, and be under the control of a country hundreds of miles away. In France, the bourgeoisie wanted political equality and fair taxation. In Haiti, slaves sought equality. Although each revolution had its own immediate causes, equally, the American, French and Haitian Revolutions were the result of the Enlightenment ideas of natural rights and equality. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress of the thirteen American colonies declared themselves independent from their mother country, Great Britain. Preceding the declaration, the revolution focused on popular sovereignty. The colonies experienced salutary neglect until after the Seven Years War when Britain’s national debt rose immensely and the British government implemented differed acts and taxes. The colonists had to quarter soldiers, pay taxes on stamps, tea and goods. In Thomas Paine’s, Common Sense, he calls the colonists to action; Paine implores to parents to establish a better and debt-free life for their children and to loyalists or people having doubts to see the true motives of the British. By declaring themselves independent, people regained their unalienable rights of “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Declaration of

They fought for racial equality, national independence, and the end of slavery. In 1804, Haiti became a republic. The Haitian revolution was the most violent of the three, and had the harshest economic and public impacts. However, compared to America and France, Haiti was the only nation that achieved all of its political goals by the end of its revolution. Haiti was an independent republic with racial equality and no slavery whereas, in America, not all people were able to vote, and in France, Napoleon became the new