Saint-Domingue’s wealth was seeded by loot from the 1697 sack of Cartagena
Evidence
In 1697 a French commander arrived in the growing colony of Saint- Domingue. Preparing to attack the Spanish port of Cartagena, he nailed an invitation on the church of the settlement at Petit-Goâve calling on flibustiers and inhabitants of the “coast of St. Domingue,” including “negroes,” to join him. The recruits from Saint-Domingue participated in the siege, capture, and brutal pillage of Cartagena. One of the officers taking part in the raid, Joseph d’Honor de Gallifet, who later served briefly as governor of the colony, invested his portion of the loot in land, establishing plantations that were to become some of the most successful in the colony. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 71
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- XREF: Connects to the earlier passage on Drake’s 1585-86 Cartagena raid — two generations of Caribbean plunder funded colonial growth.