“Sterile in Spanish Hands”

Abstract This article examines schemes for reviving the French imperial presence in the Caribbean against the backdrop of the Haitian Revolution. It analyzes a series of memoranda sent to French ministries by imperial officials and former Saint-Domingue colonists that articulated ambitious visions of empire both before and after Haiti's independence. During a historical juncture that marked the apparent retreat of the French presence in the Western Hemisphere, proposals circulated in French ministries and colonial offices advocating the establishment of new diplomatic and territorial footholds across the Spanish Caribbean, especially in Cuba, with the intent of giving new life to French imperial projects in the Caribbean. Including both unsolicited and commissioned works, these proposals envisioned Spanish Caribbean colonies as new imperial possessions for the French empire that aimed at replicating Saint-Domingue on new lands or, alternatively, as launching pads for broader plans of reconquest of the lost “Pearl of the Antilles.” Key to these prospective schemes was the ubiquitous presence of a community of exiled French colonists across the Spanish Caribbean, especially in eastern Cuba, which underpinned visions of productive improvement under French rule and the foundation of new territorial footholds supporting renewed French imperial designs in the Western Hemisphere.