When it was a French colony, Haiti was called _____. Martinique Río de la Plata St. Domingue Guadeloupe

When it was a French colony, Haiti was called Saint-Domingue.

Extra: Haiti's history as a colonial entity begins with the arrival of Christopher Columbus on Hispaniola in 1492. The island was initially claimed by Spain and was called La Española (Hispaniola). The western part of the island, which would eventually become Haiti, was later ceded to France in 1697 under the Treaty of Ryswick. The French named their new colony Saint-Domingue, and it became one of the richest colonies in the Caribbean due to the enormous production of sugar, coffee, cotton, and indigo plantations, which were worked by enslaved Africans.

The brutal conditions and the harsh labor system led to the Haitian Revolution in 1791, led by formerly enslaved people like Toussaint L’Ouverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines. This was the first successful slave rebellion in the Americas, resulting in Haiti becoming the first independent state ruled by people of African descent and the second independent country in the Western Hemisphere after the United States. Haiti declared its independence from France on January 1, 1804. The history of Saint-Domingue/Haiti is a powerful testament to the struggle for freedom and human rights.