1774-February-10: Ossun, the French minister to Spain, declared in an official memoir that Saint-Domingue was France’s “finest and richest colony”.

1774-February-10: Ossun, the French minister to Spain, declared in an official memoir that Saint-Domingue was France’s “finest and richest colony”. He argued that the colony was the principal resource for maintaining a navy capable of counterbalancing British naval power. By this time, Môle St. Nicolas was increasingly recognized by international powers as the “Gibraltar of the Caribbean”. Its strategic position on the Windward Passage made it a critical site for controlling access to the Gulf of Mexico. This assessment by Ossun highlights why France was so desperate to protect the colony from potential British or American encroachment.