1697-09-20: (Treaty of Ryswick, the 1697 Agreement Between France and the Grand Alliance That Ended Their War and Redistributed Colonial Territory, With Fran…
1697-09-20: (Treaty of Ryswick, the 1697 Agreement Between France and the Grand Alliance That Ended Their War and Redistributed Colonial Territory, With France Receiving the Western Third of Hispaniola as Part of the Settlement Between Louis XIV and William III of England): The Treaty of Ryswick was signed on September 20, 1697, ending a war between France under Louis XIV and the Grand Alliance led by William III of England. The agreement involved a broad redistribution of territory, and its most consequential provision for Caribbean history was the formal cession of the western third of Hispaniola to France. Spain, which had nominally controlled the entire island, surrendered a territory it could no longer effectively govern. France acquired what would become the engine of its colonial economy, a sugar-producing colony that would generate more wealth than all thirteen British North American colonies combined.