The British naval blockade doomed French reinforcements in Saint-Domingue.

Evidence

Already driven out of much of the colony, they now had no hope of receiving reinforcements from Europe and furthermore had to contend again with the British enemy. Rochambeau withdrew to Le Cap, where his “answer to the blockade of the ports by a British fleet, to the disintegration of his army, to the hospitals glutted with the mutilated and the dying, and to Dessalines’ victories, was to throw a ball.” During the “last days of Saint-Domingue,” with the remaining French forces in Le Cap surrounded by insurgents, the century of French rule ended in a final festival of brutal recrimination and pathetic debauchery. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 1046

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: The European war between Britain and France is decisive for the revolution’s outcome — connects the Saint-Domingue arc to the wider Atlantic/European conflict.

Related

• Renewed Anglo-French war doomed the stranded French army in Saint-Domingue (similarity 0.89)
• Peace with Britain made Bonaparte’s invasion of Saint-Domingue both possible and expedient. (similarity 0.80)
• Peace with Britain empowered Napoleon to reimpose control over Saint-Domingue (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Louverture warned France that reenslaving Saint-Domingue would provoke a war it could not win #complicates (0.40)