The strategic error of Jean-Jacques Dessalines
At the end of Haiti’s war of independence, the authorities were unable to establish the foundations of a modern state in the country. Dessalines’ lack of strategic understanding of the people around him, notably the free people of old and their greed, sealed the fate of the young nation on October 17, 1806, two years after independence. The fact that Haiti has not managed to integrate into the modern world can also be attributed to the influence of the international community and the incompetence of its elites. Furthermore, the establishment of Western democracy in a country where institutions are weak and poorly developed has undermined the already weak authority of the state. After two centuries of independence, Haiti remains in such a state of disrepair that one can question the viability of its existence as a state, with anarchy seemingly becoming the norm in governance. In this article, we will endeavor to expose the main cause of this failure, which was the strategic error committed by Jean-Jacques Dessalines.
The society of Santo Domingo, which corresponds to present-day Haiti, was made up of three groups of people: the barbarians, in other words, the colonists, were present there, engaging in the unbridled exploitation of all the wealth of the colony, with the sole aim of satisfying the interests of the metropolis. There we found the little landless whites, unlucky but free by birth, who never had to suffer the agonies of slavery; and lastly, we could observe the masses of African origin who formed the backbone of the colony, these were the slaves. During the struggle for independence, Jean-Jacques Dessalines had to team up with the second category mentioned, the little whites, because the latter harbored significant resentments towards the tyrants who entirely dominated the colony’s production. This is where the famous alliance between blacks and mulattos in 1803 came from.
It is clear that, in this humiliating situation in which the little whites found themselves, their objectives in the fight were not aligned with those of Dessalines. Bringing down the barbarians, appropriating wealth while continuing to enslave black people to ensure the functioning of the economy, such was their sole ambition. If the former free people had analytical and intellectual skills thanks to their studies in France, they would not succeed in achieving their goal. Dessalines stood out as the only character endowed with exceptional strategic abilities allowing him to overthrow the system. The former free people unfortunately used it as a tool to make their dream come true when they would have wanted a union marked by sincerity.
It was evident after the declaration of independence that building a strong system of government and economy for the new nation was incompatible with the presence of generals with conflicting interests. It would have been preferable for Dessalines to keep these gentlemen away from all spheres of power by reducing their ability to cause harm to nothing. Because the revolution could only be completed by eliminating the traitors who undermine it from within.
From this perspective, we can affirm that Dessalines would not be the first to get rid of the original leaders of a revolution. Leon Trotsky, one of the emblematic figures of the Russian Revolution of 1917 alongside Lenin, was executed in exile in Mexico in 1940, on the orders of Stalin, who was once his ally. Grigori Rasputin, although not a revolutionary in the classical sense, nonetheless held considerable power in the political spheres of pre-revolutionary Russia of 1917. He was assassinated shortly before the revolution. Maximilien Robespierre, an emblematic figure of the French revolution of 1789, was arrested and sentenced to death in 1794, along with 21 of his supporters, five after the revolution. Hence the famous formula: the revolution eats its own sons.
It turns out to be undeniable that any real revolution requires a thorough cleansing of mentalities, a questioning of established values and practices. Dessalines did not manage to separate himself from the former free people, it was he who was assassinated in 1806, only two years after the revolution. Although we recognize the genius of this gentleman, the fact remains that this strategic error determined the disastrous fate of the emerging nation.
Dieff DERICE
Master in international political sociology
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