the Caribbean, Hispaniola became a haven for pirates. The western part of the island was settled by French buccaneers. Among them was Bertrand d'Ogeron, who succeeded in growing tobacco. His success prompted many of the numerous buccaneers and freebooters to turn into settlers. This population did not submit to Spanish royal authority until the year 1660 and caused a number of conflicts. By 1640, the buccaneers of Tortuga were calling themselves the Brethren of the Coast.
17th-century settlement
Bertrand d'Orgeron attracted many French colonial families from Martinique and Guadeloupe, such as those of Jean Roy, 1625–1707; Jean Hebert, 1624; Guillaume Barre, 1642. They and others were driven from their lands when more land was needed for the expansion of the sugar plantations, which produced the major commodity crop. From 1670 to 1690, a drop in the tobacco markets significantly reduced the number of settlers on the island.
The first windmill for processing sugar was built in 1685.
Treaty of Ryswick and French colony (1697)
France and Spain settled hostilities on the island by the Treaty of Ryswick of 1697, which divided Hispaniola between them. France received the western third and subsequently named it Saint-Domingue. (The current Santo-Domingo is in the Dominican Republic and was part of the eastern side given to the Spanish through the treaty). Many French colonists soon arrived and established plantations in Saint-Domingue due to high profit potential from agricultural development. They developed large sugar cane plantations, especially, but also devoted land to the cultivation of coffee and indigo. The colonists imported slaves from Africa to work in the labor-intensive cultivation and processing of the commodity crops, and Saint-Domingue became a "slave society," dependent on slavery as the basis of its economy, with the slaveholders comprising the ruling class.
By 1789, approximately 40,000 French
