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The Blockade of Saint-Domingue was a naval campaign fought during the first months of the Napoleonic Wars, in which a series of British Royal Navy squadrons blockaded the French-held ports of Cap Français and Môle-Saint-Nicolas on the Northern coast of the French colony of Saint-Domingue, shortly to become Haiti following the conclusion of the Haitian Revolution on 1 January 1804. In the summer of 1803, when war broke out between the United Kingdom and the French Consulate, Saint-Domingue had been almost completely overrun by Haitian forces under the command of Jean-Jacques Dessalines. In the north of the country, the French forces were isolated in the two large ports of Cap Français and Môle-Saint-Nicolas and a few smaller settlements, all supplied by a French naval force based primarily at Cap Français. At the outbreak of war on 18 May 1803, the Royal Navy immediately despatched a squadron under Sir John Duckworth from Jamaica to cruise in the region, seeking to eliminate communication between the French outposts and to capture or destroy the French warships based in the colony. On 28 June, the squadron encountered a French convoy from Les Cayes off Môle-Saint-Nicolas, capturing one ship although the other escaped. Two days later an independently sailing French frigate was chased down and captured in the same waters. On 24 July another British squadron intercepted the main French squadron from Cap Français, which was attempting to break past the blockade and reach France. The British, led by Commodore John Loring gave chase, but one French ship of the line and a frigate escaped. Another ship of the line was trapped against the coast and captured after coming under fire from Haitian shore batteries. The remainder of the squadron was forced to fight two more actions on their return to Europe, but did eventually reach the Spanish port of Corunna. On 3 November, the frigate HMS ''Blanche'' captured a supply schooner near Cap Français, and by the end of the month the garrison was starving, agreeing terms with Dessalines that permitted them to safely evacuate provided they had left the port by 1 December. Commodore Loring however refused the French permission to sail. The French commander Rochambeau procrastinated until the last possible moment, but eventually was forced to surrender to the British commander. One of Rochambeau's ships was almost wrecked while leaving the harbour, but was saved by a British lieutenant acting alone, who not only rescued the 900 people on board, but also refloated the ship. At Môle-Saint-Nicolas, General Louis de Noailles refused to surrender and instead sailed to Havana, Cuba in a fleet of small vessels on 3 December, but was intercepted and mortally wounded by a Royal Navy frigate. The few remaining French-held towns in Saint-Domingue surrendered soon afterwards, and on 1 January 1804 the new independent nation of Haiti was declared. ==Background== During the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802), the wealthy French colony of Saint-Domingue on the western half of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea was the scene of heavy fighting. In addition to unsuccessful British and Spanish invasions, the colony was wracked by a brutal civil war as the black population of newly emancipated slaves fought for independence from the French Republic under the command of Toussaint Louverture.〔Brenton, p. 274〕 By 1801, Louverture had seized control of almost the entire island, including much of the neighbouring Spanish colony of Santo Domingo. However following the Peace of Amiens in Europe that brought an end to the French Revolutionary Wars in 1802, French First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte sent a large expeditionary force to Saint-Domingue under General Charles Leclerc.〔Brenton, p. 275〕 Leclerc's army had some initial success and Louverture was captured after signing a peace treaty with the French general, later dying in unclear circumstances in a French prison.〔Woodman, p. 179〕 However, following Louverture's arrest and under threat of the restoration of slavery, the Haitian general Jean Jacques Dessalines renewed the campaign against the French. Leclerc and much of his army died in an epidemic of yellow fever in the autumn of 1802, and command fell to the Vicomte de Rochambeau, whose forces were rapidly driven back into a few well fortified towns, relying for communication and supply on maritime links.〔Brenton, p. 277〕 In May 1803, the situation in Haiti deteriorated still further for the French when Britain and France once again went to war, after a peace lasting just fifteen months. In preparation for the coming conflict, the French had ordered a number of ships to sail from their southern ports in Saint-Domingue, the frigate ''Franchise'' sailing ''en flute'' from Port-au-Prince on 3 May. ''Franchise'' was however intercepted in the Bay of Biscay by a British battle squadron and captured on 28 May, as was the corvette ''Bacchante'' on 25 June which had sailed in April.〔James, p. 186〕 The remaining French naval forces in the colony were consolidated at the port of Cap Français.〔Brenton, p. 278〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Blockade of Saint-Domingue」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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