1822–1825, July 11: (The French Indemnity and the Gunboat Diplomacy of Charles X): For eight more years negotiations dragged fruitlessly on — Pétion died in …

1822–1825, July 11: (The French Indemnity and the Gunboat Diplomacy of Charles X): For eight more years negotiations dragged fruitlessly on — Pétion died in 1818, Henry in 1820 — and in 1822, Louis XVIII sent Jacques Bové, one of Leclerc’s most sympathetic officers, as special envoy to Boyer, whose diplomacy nearly dissolved the impasse with an acceptable agreement calling for an indemnity of 100 million francs, but Louis would have none of it unless France retained control over Haiti’s foreign relations. Then Louis died in 1824, and Charles X — seized of divine right, imperious, and under considerable political pressure from impoverished former colons — determined to dispose of the matter by disdaining further negotiations, raising the indemnity by 50 percent to 150 million francs payable in five years, (3) and unilaterally decreeing the independence of Haiti on March 17, 1825, conveyed to Port-au-Prince by two admirals backed by the 494 guns of fourteen warships. On July 5, the French commander-in-chief Admiral Baron Mackau told Foreign Minister Inginac that either a new life of repose and happiness would begin or the large squadron would commence military operations — Boyer had no choice, and on July 11, Charles X’s ordinance was accepted, the squadron fired a salute, and in a fashion Haiti was grudgingly allowed to join the family of nations. Not only was the style of the transaction intentionally humiliating, but Haiti was required to grant a 50 percent tariff preference to France, independence would be conditional until the whole indemnity was paid, and the grant was conferred not by treaty between sovereign powers but by unilateral edict from a throne no Haitian had ever recognized.