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

1625-00-00: (France Establishes a Colony on the Island of Tortuga, the Buccaneers’ Base That Would Become the Foothold for French Colonization of the West of the Larger Island): In 1625, France established a colony on the island of Tortuga, off the northwestern coast of the larger island. Tortuga served as a base for French buccaneers who raided Spanish shipping and established settlements along the coast of the larger island’s western part. 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.