colony · Mesoamerica and the Caribbean

British occupation of Saint-Domingue

1793 CE – 1798 CE · capital Port-au-Prince

Britain's costly five-year attempt to seize revolutionary Saint-Domingue, which cost it tens of thousands of soldiers, mostly to yellow fever.

Origins

Royalist French planters, alarmed by the abolition of slavery, invited Britain to take over Saint-Domingue after war broke out with revolutionary France. British troops from Jamaica landed at Jérémie and Môle Saint-Nicolas in September 1793 and captured Port-au-Prince in June 1794.

Rule and society

The occupiers governed the coastal towns they held in alliance with planters and with restored slavery, relying heavily on locally raised black and coloured troops. They never controlled the interior. Yellow fever and malaria devastated the reinforcements sent from Britain, while Toussaint Louverture, now fighting for the French Republic, and André Rigaud pressed them from the north and south.

Decline and legacy

With losses mounting, Brigadier Thomas Maitland negotiated an evacuation with Toussaint and withdrew the last British forces in 1798, also reaching a secret trade agreement. The failure helped Toussaint consolidate power and strengthened the path to Haitian independence.

Lineage

Saint-Domingue 1665 CE – 1804 CEBritish occupation of Saint-DomingueSaint-Domingue 1665 CE – 1804 CE

Connections (1)

  • British occupation of Saint-Domingue was a colony of British Empire1793 CE – 1798 CE

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). British occupation of Saint-Domingue. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/british-occupation-of-saint-domingue
MLA
“British occupation of Saint-Domingue.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/british-occupation-of-saint-domingue. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “British occupation of Saint-Domingue.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/british-occupation-of-saint-domingue.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘British occupation of Saint-Domingue’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/british-occupation-of-saint-domingue (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻