The deadly virus: the impact of yellow fever on the French expeditionary force in Saint Domingue, 1802
Abstract
Taking advantage of the preliminary peace agreements of Amiens, signed in London with his traditional enemy Great Britain between October and December 1801, Napoleon Bonaparte, consul of the French Republic, organised and deployed a formidable expeditionary force consisting of 35 ships of the line and 21 frigates, which secured Spanish and Dutch participation and which mobilised, in its first phase, 24,500 soldiers from elite European regiments, veterans of the campaigns of the Rhine, the Alps, and the Nile, and 4,500 sailors. The operation sought to regain control of the island of Hispaniola, as the metropolis, cut off from the Antilles theatre by the English naval blockade since 1793, controlled it through Toussaint Louverture. The island lay under French sovereignty and remained divided into two separate colonies, Saint Domingue and Santo Domingo, but in December 1800, the black general took the former Spanish part and unified them into a single political entity, giving it a constitution without the consent of Paris. The reconquest campaign was Napoleon's response to the insolence of Toussaint de Breda, who had been elevated to governor for life. The French landing took place in February 1802, and by the end of March, the reconquest troops had defeated the indigenous army. In May, the rebel leader was captured and sent to France in June. However, the pacification campaign was halted in April by the appearance of a silent and deadly virus that ravaged the troops during the summer, leading to military defeat and the failure of the enterprise.References
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