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1625-00-00

1625-00-00: (France Establishes a Colony on the Island of Tortuga, the Buccaneers’ Base That Would Become the Foothold for French Colonization of Western His…

Haitian

1625-00-00: (France Establishes a Colony on the Island of Tortuga, the Buccaneers’ Base That Would Become the Foothold for French Colonization of Western Hispaniola): In 1625, France established a colony on the island of Tortuga, off the northwestern coast of Hispaniola. The island served as a base for French buccaneers who raided Spanish shipping and established settlements along the coast of western Hispaniola. Tortuga was the beachhead from which French colonization spread south and east, eventually producing the colony of Saint-Domingue that would become the wealthiest possession in the French empire. The buccaneers were pirates, adventurers, and outcasts who laid the foundation of a colony that would eventually enslave more people and generate more wealth than any other territory in the Caribbean. Tortuga itself would reappear in Haitian history in 1802, when General Leclerc died of yellow fever on its shores while commanding Napoleon’s failed expedition to reconquer Haiti.