| FIRE (ACTION) | EVENT | DESCRIPTION | |
|---|---|---|---|
| F.ACTION | In the first weeks of 44 B.C., Caesar was proclaimed “dictator for life.” His life, though, wouldn’t last much longer. Fearful that the concentration of absolute power in a single man threatened the republic’s democracy, he was assassinated by many senators, identifying as the "Liberators".
On March 15, 44 B.C., they attacked Caesar, stabbing him 23 times, believing they were protecting freedom and democracy. Instead, the daggers they thrust into Caesar dealt a fatal blow to the already wounded Roman Republic. |
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| E.RESULT | Fall of the Mighty Roman Empire | Imagine the Roman Empire as a huge, powerful car. At one point, it’s cruising down the road, but over time, it starts having problems that slow it down and eventually cause it to break down. Here's the "for dummies" version of what caused it:
1. Bad Leadership (Political Problems)[]
2. Money Problems (Economic Decline)[]
3. Barbarian Invasions (Outside Attacks)[]
4. The Empire Got Too Big (Overextension)[]
5. Changing Religion and Culture[]
6. The Military Got Weaker[]
7. Plagues and Bad Weather[]
8. The Final Blow[]
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| A.LOGIC | Rise of Islam and the Mongol Invasion |
Rise of Islam and the Mongol Invasion[]Since the rise of Islam, this trade route had become problematic for the Europeans. Europeans didn't want to trade with the Muslims and tried their best to avoid them. However, there were not many alternatives. In parallel, Europe went into the medieval period with a drop in trade in the Mediterranean and the power centers migrated away from the Mediterranean. The Mongols would change that. In the 13th century they would begin the quest to build the greatest empire in history and would create a free trade area stretching from South East Asia to Europe. The Mongol invasion brought key inventions such as the compass from China to Western Europe. This brought a new interest in sailing and Portuguese royals such as Prince Henry the Navigator began exploring more. |
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| W.EMOTION | Fall of Constantinople | By the middle of the 15th century, Western Europe acquired the tools and passion for sailing. They just needed a big reason now. The Turks provided them. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 made it difficult to do trade with India. | |
| EARTH (RESULT) | |||
| F.ACTION | Finding the alternate route |
As the Portuguese royals were increasingly looking for new routes, a variety of Italians offered them ideas. A France-born Italian guy named Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli proposed that they should sail west and they would hit India eventually. The king thought it would be too long. In 1488 he got the alternative route to the Indian Ocean by a guy named Bartolomeu Dias. Columbus took upon Toscanelli's plan and seeing that the Portuguese crown was still looking for the route via Africa [Vasco da Gama would succeed in that route in 1497 - five years after Columbus landed in Americas] he went to the Spanish crown. The Spaniards possibly felt that they were lagging behind Portugal in seafaring and funding Columbus' botched up idea. As luck would have it, he would land in the Caribbean before he would run out of supplies. Some speculate that the real reason Columbus was 'sailing the ocean blue' was because he violated the 13 year old daughter of a Spanish Duchess. They couldn't kill him without angering the Italian court, so Queen Isabella just sent him on a mission they didn't think he would return from. It is also ON PUBLIC RECORD that he rewarded his soldiers by giving them Native Americans to have their way with. At times, they would make an example of a Native by cutting his hands off and tying them around his neck, then telling him to go and 'share the message' with the rest of his tribe. Other times they would go and massacre an entire village, unconcerned with the age of their victims. |
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| E.RESULT | Washed ashore |
When Columbus first came ashore and was greeted by the Arawak native Americans with smiles, gifts and food, he wrote in his log: “They brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things … they willingly traded everything they owned … They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane … They would make fine servants … With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” From the very outset Columbus was writing about conquering and enslaving the natives. Meanwhile the Arawaks, brought gifts, prepared food, and traded everything they owned. Columbus wrote that the natives, "are so naïve and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone." He also wrote, “I believe that they would easily be made Christians, because it seemed to me that they had no religion.” The European settlers took a free society without possessions, property, currency, hierarchy or written religion and replaced it with today’s America – the world’s shining beacon of selfish materialism, where every square inch of land/water/airspace is publicly or privately owned, taxed, and governed through a corrupt hierarchical system of laws and regulations where Mother Nature’s gifts are treated as personal possessions to be bought, sold, owned and defended. Columbus wrote: ‘As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.’ The information that Columbus wanted most was: Where is the gold? … His second expedition was given seventeen ships and more than twelve hundred men. The aim was clear: slaves and gold … They went from island to island in the Caribbean, taking Indians as captives … roaming the island in gangs looking for gold, taking women and children as slaves for sex and labor.” “It was his [Columbus’] avowed aim to ‘convert the heathen Indians to our Holy Faith’ that warranted the enslaving and exporting of thousands of Native Americans. That such treatment resulted in complete genocide did not matter as much as that these natives had been given the opportunity of everlasting life through their exposure to Christianity. The same sort of thinking also gave Westerners license to rape women. In his own words, Columbus described how he himself ‘took [his] pleasure’ with a native woman after whipping her ‘soundly’ with a piece of rope.” Helen Ellerbe, “The Dark Side of Christian History” (86-88) By 1496 the settlers were responsible for massively numerous native American deaths. We are not talking about some guy who accidentally bumped into America looking for a spice-trade route to India, but that’s what the standardized textbooks continue to tell our children about him. Personally, I don't even know why the mainstream historical texts say he 'discovered America' since Natives were obviously in America long before he was, AND for the fact that most of the tribes he slaughtered or enslaved were in the Caribbean. (There is ZERO evidence that he even found 'the mainland of North America'. There are some claims that he landed somewhere in the Florida Keys, but it's hard to say if they're true at this point.) Who Was He?[]Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512) was an Italian explorer and navigator, and he’s famous because his name became attached to the Americas—the continents of North and South America. Why Is He Important?[]Vespucci is often remembered because he was one of the first Europeans to suggest that the lands discovered by Christopher Columbus weren’t part of Asia (as Columbus thought), but actually a new continent altogether. He didn’t discover the Americas, but his idea that these were separate continents changed how the world understood geography. |
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| A.LOGIC | Transformation of Saint-Domingue into modern Haiti |
Indigenous Population (Pre-Columbian Era)[]Before European arrival, the island was inhabited by indigenous peoples, mainly the Taíno and Arawak tribes. These groups lived in relatively peaceful, agricultural societies, cultivating crops such as cassava, maize, and beans, and fishing in the surrounding waters. Their society was organized around small villages, with a chief, or Cacique, at the helm. They had a rich culture, including pottery, music, and religious ceremonies. Arrival of Columbus (1492)[]In 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived on the island, claiming it for Spain and naming it La Española (Hispaniola). The Spanish initially encountered the Taíno people, who were largely decimated within a few decades due to diseases (like smallpox), forced labor, and violence. The island soon became a key part of Spain’s colonial empire in the Americas. Spanish Colonization (16th-17th Century)[]Spain established its first major colony in the New World on Hispaniola, with the capital at Santo Domingo (on the Dominican Republic side). The Spanish introduced sugarcane plantations, and over time, imported African slaves to work the land, as the indigenous population had been almost entirely wiped out. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, the island served as a crucial hub for the Spanish empire, though the Spanish focus gradually shifted to other territories. (Code Noir, 1685) surrounded by woods and mountains,” wrote Jean Baptiste Margat (1689–1747), a Jesuit priest on Saint Domingue, “far from the help you might need at any hour of the day or night, and at the mercy of two Negroes, whose only goal, in some cases, is to do harm to their master.” This oppressive fear justied the use of violence as a deterrent. Planters described themselves as being at war with their enslaved enemies. They whipped, mutilated, or killed the men and women under their care despite the economic disincentive of damaging their own human property. Royal ocials attempted to limit this violence through legislation but met with limited success. The 1685 Code Noir, which governed the relationship between the owner and the owned in the French Caribbean, placed rm restrictions on the punishments planters could inict on their slaves. Article 42 permitted owners to chain their slaves and beat them with rods or straps, but not to torture or mutilate their limbs. Article 43 empowered royal ocials to criminally prosecute masters who had killed their slaves. Planters ignored these rules with impunity. French Colonial Influence (17th Century)[]In the 17th century, the French began to establish settlements on the western side of the island, which eventually became known as Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti). The French and the Spanish fought over control of the island, and by the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick, Spain ceded the western third of Hispaniola to France. This marked the beginning of French rule over what would become the most profitable colony in the Caribbean, based on the production of sugar, coffee, and indigo. Saint-Domingue Under French Rule (18th Century)[]Under French rule, the colony of Saint-Domingue became a powerhouse in the global economy, primarily due to its sugar production. It relied heavily on enslaved African labor. By the late 18th century, more than 500,000 African slaves had been brought to the colony, which far outnumbered the free population. French planters and wealthy merchants controlled the economy, while the enslaved Africans lived under brutal conditions. Social Structure and Tensions[]Saint-Domingue had a highly stratified society:
This complex social hierarchy created tension, particularly between the white elite, the free people of color, and the enslaved Africans, all of whom had different interests and rights. The Early Stirrings of Revolution (Late 18th Century)[]By the late 18th century, discontent was brewing in Saint-Domingue. Several factors contributed to this:
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| W.EMOTION | From Slavery to Sovereignty: Haiti's journey | Following two years of contention among the free population, a significant slave revolt in 1791 thrust the nation into a multifaceted civil racial conflict involving:
The trajectory of the conflict was heavily influenced by the French Revolution, which commenced in 1789 and was initially embraced by many on the island. The frequent changes in leadership in France, coupled with the tumultuous events occurring in Haiti, led to numerous shifts in alliances among various classes and factions. 1791: The Beginning of the Haitian Revolution[]The year 1791 marked the start of the Haitian Revolution, a massive slave uprising that would eventually lead to the independence of Haiti and the overthrow of the French colonial government. The revolt began in the northern part of Saint-Domingue, with enslaved Africans, led by figures like Toussaint L'Ouverture, rising up against their masters. The French Revolution’s call for equality and freedom inspired the enslaved population, and they saw this as an opportunity to fight for their own liberation. The revolt in 1791 was the first large-scale slave rebellion in history that ultimately led to the establishment of a free black republic, Haiti, in 1804. The revolution had profound effects on the Caribbean and the world, changing the course of history and the future of colonialism in the Americas. The Revolt[]Agitation for independence was at first carried on by the rich white planters, the grands blancs, who had resented France's mercantilistic limitations on the island's foreign trade. This class mostly realigned itself with the royalists and the British within a few years of the Revolution. The affranchis, most notably Julien Raimond, had been actively appealing to France for full civil equality with whites since the 1780s. Raimond used the Revolution to make this the major colonial issue before the French National Assembly. Finally, in 1792, the National Convention declared that all free individuals in the French colonies were equal, no matter their skin color, and sent Léger-Félicité Sonthonax to Saint-Domingue to make sure the local leaders followed this rule. However, a bigger problem was brewing as a slave revolt started in August 1791, led by Jean François and Biassou, aligning itself with the pro-royalist Spanish authorities in Santo Domingo. The rebellion began on northern plantations and quickly spread throughout the colony. Slaves set fire to the plantations where they had been forced to work and killed masters, overseers, and other whites. One of the most effective leaders of the rebellion was Toussaint L'Ouverture, who had once been a servant. After Sonthonax announced the end of slavery in 1793, a French general named Étienne Laveaux, in May 1794, persuaded him to switch sides and support the French Republic against the Spanish, With Toussaint in charge, the rebellious slaves took control and brought most of Saint-Domingue back under French rule. Having made himself master of the island, however, Toussaint did not wish to surrender power to Paris, and ran the island like an independent country. He beat several local opponents, such as Sonthonax, André Rigaud, and Hédouville, defeated the British forces in 1798, and even invaded Santo Domingo to free the slaves there in 1801. In this same year, Toussaint issued a constitution for Saint-Domingue which provided for autonomy and made Toussaint himself governor for life. In retaliation, Napoleon Bonaparte dispatched an expedition of French soldiers to the island, led by Bonaparte's brother in law Charles Leclerc, to restore French rule. After being deceived by false guarantees, Toussaint was seized and shipped off to France where he died two years later while imprisoned at Fort-de-Joux. For a few months the island was quiet under Napoleonic rule, but in October of 1802, the Haitian generals revolted under the leadership of Jean-Jacques Dessalines (one of Louverture's generals and a fellow former slave). Dessalines led the rebellion from that point until its completion when the French forces were finally soundly defeated at the Battle of Vertières in 1803. A number of other factors also counted against the European forces. In the context of a war against elusive and mobile ex-slave armies, the Europeans' military tactics and strategy proved absolutely inappropriate. Fixed positions and static formations may have worked in Europe, but not in Saint-Domingue against guerrilla forces with a far superior knowledge of the terrain on which they were fighting. The European troops were also at a significant disadvantage, being neither able to cope with the fiercely hot climate, nor with the local tropical diseases. Yellow fever and malaria are estimated to have claimed the lives of thousands of British and French troops, and the leader of Napoleon's invasion force, his brother-in-law General Charles Leclerc, himself died of a fever on the northern island of La Tortue in November 1802. |
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| AIR (LOGIC) | |||
| F.ACTION | Agricultural shift | ||
| E.RESULT | Subcontinental divide | ||
| A.LOGIC | Part 2 | ||
| W.EMOTION | The Price of independence | ||
| WATER (EMOTION) | |||
| F.ACTION | After World war 2 | ||
| E.RESULT | New York and other Northern cities | ||
| A.LOGIC | South Florida | ||
| W.EMOTION | Diaspora |
=Early History=
(series of events that led to Haiti's birth)
First Part: Rises and falls[]
Fall of the once Mighty Roman Empire[]
In AD 476 the emperor of the Western Roman Empire, Romulus Augustus, was overthrown and the first in a series of non-Roman Germanic Kings took his place. This event is usually given as the fall of the once Mighty Roman Empire, which had ruled much of the known world for 500 years. However, this imperial collapse affected only the Western section of the empire. The Eastern Roman Empire survived and thrived as the Byzantine Empire.
In 1453 the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople and thus ended the Byzantine Empire. Indo-European trade through the Incense Route, Spice trade and the maritime Silk Road has been a key trade route for millennia. Here, India refers to not just the modern day India, but the whole of South and South East Asia. This region shared common cultural, religion and linguistic roots.
This lucrative trade route has significantly influenced world history. Piracy in this trade route, for instance, diverted the trade via the inland region in Arabia leading Mecca to become a major trading point that in turn led to the rise of Islam.
Rise of Islam and the Mongol Invasion[]
Since the rise of Islam, this trade route had become problematic for the Europeans. Europeans didn't want to trade with the Muslims and tried their best to avoid them. However, there were not many alternatives. In parallel, Europe went into the medieval period with a drop in trade in the Mediterranean and the power centers migrated away from the Mediterranean.
The Mongols would change that. In the 13th century they would begin the quest to build the greatest empire in history and would create a free trade area stretching from South East Asia to Europe. Explorers like Marco Polo [even if he himself didn't travel, at the very least his uncles did and he wrote a lot of exciting stuff about the east] would travel to the east and bring exciting accounts. The Mongol invasion brought key inventions such as the compass from China to Western Europe. This brought a new interest in sailing and Portuguese royals such as Prince Henry the Navigator began exploring more.
Fall of Constantinople[]
By the middle of the 15th century, Western Europe acquired the tools and passion for sailing. They just needed a big reason now. The Turks provided them. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 made it difficult to do trade with India.
Finding the Alternate Route[]
As the Portuguese royals were increasingly looking for new routes, a variety of Italians offered them ideas. A France-born Italian guy named Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli proposed that they should sail west and they would hit India eventually. The king thought it would be too long. In 1488 he got the alternative route to the Indian Ocean by a guy named Bartolomeu Dias.
Columbus took upon Toscanelli's plan and seeing that the Portuguese crown was still looking for the route via Africa [Vasco da Gama would succeed in that route in 1497 - five years after Columbus landed in Americas] he went to the Spanish crown. The Spaniards possibly felt that they were lagging behind Portugal in seafaring and funding Columbus' botched up idea. As luck would have it, he would land in the Caribbean before he would run out of supplies.
Some speculate that the real reason Columbus was 'sailing the ocean blue' was because he violated the 13 year old daughter of a Spanish Duchess. They couldn't kill him without angering the Italian court, so Queen Isabella just sent him on a mission they didn't think he would return from. It is also ON PUBLIC RECORD that he rewarded his soldiers by giving them Native Americans to have their way with. At times, they would make an example of a Native by cutting his hands off and tying them around his neck, then telling him to go and 'share the message' with the rest of his tribe. Other times they would go and massacre an entire village, unconcerned with the age of their victims.
Washed ashore[]
When Columbus first came ashore and was greeted by the Arawak native Americans with smiles, gifts and food, he wrote in his log: “They brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things … they willingly traded everything they owned … They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane … They would make fine servants … With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”
From the very outset Columbus was writing about conquering and enslaving the natives. Meanwhile the Arawaks, brought gifts, prepared food, and traded everything they owned.
Columbus wrote that the natives, "are so naïve and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone."
He also wrote, “I believe that they would easily be made Christians, because it seemed to me that they had no religion.” The European settlers took a free society without possessions, property, currency, hierarchy or written religion and replaced it with today’s America – the world’s shining beacon of selfish materialism, where every square inch of land/water/airspace is publicly or privately owned, taxed, and governed through a corrupt hierarchical system of laws and regulations where Mother Nature’s gifts are treated as personal possessions to be bought, sold, owned and defended.
Columbus wrote: ‘As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.’ The information that Columbus wanted most was: Where is the gold? … His second expedition was given seventeen ships and more than twelve hundred men. The aim was clear: slaves and gold … They went from island to island in the Caribbean, taking Indians as captives … roaming the island in gangs looking for gold, taking women and children as slaves for sex and labor.” “It was his [Columbus’] avowed aim to ‘convert the heathen Indians to our Holy Faith’ that warranted the enslaving and exporting of thousands of Native Americans. That such treatment resulted in complete genocide did not matter as much as that these natives had been given the opportunity of everlasting life through their exposure to Christianity. The same sort of thinking also gave Westerners license to rape women. In his own words, Columbus described how he himself ‘took [his] pleasure’ with a native woman after whipping her ‘soundly’ with a piece of rope.” Helen Ellerbe, “The Dark Side of Christian History” (86-88)
By 1496 the settlers were responsible for massively numerous native American deaths. We are not talking about some guy who accidentally bumped into America looking for a spice-trade route to India, but that’s what the standardized textbooks continue to tell our children about him. Personally, I don't even know why the mainstream historical texts say he 'discovered America' since Natives were obviously in America long before he was, AND for the fact that most of the tribes he slaughtered or enslaved were in the Caribbean. (There is ZERO evidence that he even found 'the mainland of North America'. There are some claims that he landed somewhere in the Florida Keys, but it's hard to say if they're true at this point.)
By 1795, Toussaint Louverture was widely known and admired by all racial groups.
Notes[]
- Stories of colonial exploitation, forced migration and looting are hidden in plain sight. This selective memory loss has been sanctioned and celebrated by cultural events
- public sites of memory have yet to fully acknowledge the atrocities committed in the creation of the wealth they manifest or cede space for descendants to grieve and memorialise the destroyed lives of their ancestors.
- Ancestral ghosts haunt these sites and their spectral voices and narratives are only beginning to emerge.
- Official narratives have been constructed and perpetuated through heritage orientation, tourist marketing, guided tours and school curricula.
- story of Haiti and cuba