State of Haiti | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1806–1811 | |||||||||
 The State of Haiti in the north of Hispaniola before 1808 | |||||||||
| Capital | Milot | ||||||||
| Common languages | French,Haitian Creole | ||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism | ||||||||
| Demonym | Haitian | ||||||||
| Government | Unitarystratocraticautocracy | ||||||||
| President | |||||||||
• 1806–1811 | Henri Christophe | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Assassination of EmperorJacques I | 17 October 1806 | ||||||||
• Proclamation ofHenri Christophe as King Henri I | 28 March 1811 | ||||||||
| Currency | Haitian livre | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Dominican Republic Haiti | ||||||||
TheState of Haiti[1][2] (French:État d'Haïti;[3]Haitian Creole:Leta an Ayiti) was the name of the state in northernHaiti.[4] It was created on 17 October 1806 following the assassination of EmperorJacques I and the overthrow of theFirst Empire of Haiti. The northern State of Haiti was ruled byHenri Christophe originally asProvisional Chief of the Haitian Government from 17 October 1806 until 17 February 1807 when he becamePresident of the State of Haiti. The 1807 constitution for the State of Haiti made the post of president a position forlife with the president having the power to appoint his successor. On 28 March 1811 President Henri was proclaimed King Henri I, thereby dissolving the State of Haiti and creating theKingdom of Haiti.
Following the assassination of Emperor Jacques I, the country was split. Parallel with the government of Christophe in the north,Alexandre Pétion, afree person of color, ruled over the south of the country as President of theRepublic of Haiti until his death in 1818. He was succeeded byJean-Pierre Boyer, who reunited the two parts of the nation after the deaths of Henri I and Henri I's son,Jacques-Victor Henry, in 1820.
From 1791 to 1804, the Haitian revolution against theFrench colonists raged. After the failure of the French expedition of 1803, General Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed Haiti's independence.
On 8 October 1804, Dessalines was crowned emperor inCap-Haitian under the name of Jacques I.
Very quickly, some generals, ambitious to take power, set up a plot against the emperor who was finally killed by General Alexandre Pétion's men in an ambush on 17 October 1806, at the Pont-Rouge (at the entrance toPort-au-Prince), betrayed by one of his battalion leaders. After that, his generals marched on the capital, abolished the Empire and drove out the imperial family, which had to go into exile. Alexandre Pétion proclaims the Republic and becomes president. But another general, Henri Christophe, seceded and took control of northern Haiti where he established aseparatist government, the Northern State.
President of the Northern Republic—then president andgeneralissimo of the land and sea forces of the State of Northern Haiti from 1807—Henri Christophe wanted to legitimize his power as Dessalines had done by re-establishing the empire. In conflict with the southern republic of Pétion, he managed, after several battles, to secure the borders of his new state.
During this period, the French whoremained in the eastern part of the island were defeated by the Hispanic-Creole inhabitants, under the command ofJuan Sánchez Ramírez, at the battle of Palo Hincado on 7 November 1808. The French surrender in the eastern part of the island took place in Santo Domingo on 9 July 1809. The authorities then re-established theSpanish colony.
Having established a certain stability, Christophe established a constitutional monarchy with him as monarch. He became King of Haiti on 28 March 1811, under the name of Henri I. On 2 June 1811, he was crowned by the Grand ArchbishopJean-Baptiste-Joseph Brelle.
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