Florvil Hyppolite

Louis Mondestin Florvil Hyppolite (born May 26, 1828 in Port-au-Prince , † March 24, 1896 ibid) was a Haitian politician and President of Haiti .

biography

Military and political career

His father Jacques Sylvain Gelin Hyppolite , Duc de la Bande du Nord, was himself Minister of War in the cabinet of Philippe Guerrier and in 1845 a member of the Council of State Secretaries. Florvil Hyppolite himself completed a military career after attending school and was promoted to captain as early as 1848 . Towards the end of his military career he was promoted to general .

He later began a political career. On October 3, 1879, after the overthrow of the provisional government of Joseph Lamothe and his arrest, he himself became chairman of a provisional government. He handed over the office of President on October 25, 1879 to the Minister of Finance, Trade and Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government, General Lysius Salomon . Most recently, in 1888, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture to President François Denys Légitime's cabinet. Since November 1888 he was in front of a counter-government in Northern Haiti .

President 1889 to 1896

After the constitution was changed by the Constituent National Assembly on September 24, 1889 in Gonaïves , Hyppolite was elected President of Haiti on October 9, 1889 for a term of seven years, succeeding the acting President Monpoint Jeune . On October 17, he took his oath of office and was immediately confronted with a foreign policy difficulty.

The crisis surrounding the Môle Saint-Nicolas peninsula

The United States at that time were looking for a suitable site for a naval base in the Caribbean . Although it was an older project, it formed a new focus of US policy in 1889. This year, the construction of the Nicaragua Canal to compete with the Panama Canal , which was planned at the same time, was discussed again intensively , not least because American engineers had started new ground surveys in December 1887. On the US side, this led to tensions with Great Britain due to contractual obligations.

With these plans for a connection between the Pacific and the Atlantic , Haiti was also seen as an attractive location for a naval base. From seefahrerischer view Haiti's main strategic capital was the Mole Saint-Nicolas , an increased lying, of limestone existing peninsula about 5.5 kilometers in the far north-east of Haiti , that enter a port at the northern entrance to the passage of the winds made (Windward Passage). In the 19th century, the peninsula's outer harbor was believed to be impregnable. As a result, the peninsula has been viewed as an ongoing lure for weak governments and revolutionary groups to sell to foreign protecting powers. Over time, however, Haitians believed that their autonomy was almost mystically linked to holding onto control of Môle Saint-Nicolas.

Due to the sympathy of President Hyppolite for the USA, the USA hoped to get the peninsula into their possession in order to establish a naval base there. In doing so, the US forgot that the Haitian people did not intend to give up part of their territory. As a result, the President found himself exposed to the unified indignation of the people who saw the independence of the nation and the integrity of its territory in danger by relinquishing ownership of Môle Saint-Nicolas. Notwithstanding this attitude commissioned US President Benjamin Harrison on the advice of his foreign minister ( Secretary of State ) , James G. Blaine , the commander of the North Atlantic squadron Rear Admiral Bancroft Gherardi to negotiate the purchase of Mole Saint-Nicolas.

USS Philadelphia

In order to intimidate the Haitians, a strong naval formation with over 100 guns and a crew of 2,000 men was relocated to Port-au-Prince . However, this fleet deployment did not achieve the intended purpose of intimidation, but rather a loud national protest that also forced President Hyppolite to tone down his sympathy for the United States. In a letter that Rear Admiral Gherardi sent from his flagship , the USS Philadelphia, to the Haitian government, it said: As long as the United States is the leaseholder of the Môle Saint-Nicolas, the Haitian government will not become another port or free port or one lease or otherwise exploit other territory of his property or guarantee other special privileges or rights for the use thereof to other powers, states or governments.

Admiral Gherardi was so eager to achieve quick success that he failed to secure the support of the then US envoy in Port-au-Prince, Frederick Douglass , and therefore prematurely signed the letter by himself. The Haitian Foreign Minister Joseph-Anténor Firmin took advantage of this misstep to ask the rear admiral about an authorization that he did not have, so that Gherardi first had to request such an authorization from Washington, DC . When President Harrison's letter of authorization reached Port-au-Prince, public opinion in the capital was so heated and tense that it was next to impossible for President Hyppolite to declare even the slightest advantage over the United States. A plot against President Hyppolite broke out in Port-au-Prince and arrested all the suspects. When they were supposed to be liberated on May 28, 1889, they were all shot. Foreign Minister Firmin stubbornly insisted on compliance with the constitution, which forbade any alienation of state territory, which ended the issue. The US envoy Douglass was falsely held responsible for the rear admiral's misconduct and was recalled.

Not discouraged by this failure, however, President Harrison and his Secretary of State Blaine approached the Dominican Republic in 1892 in search of a suitable naval base . The successor of Douglass as ambassador in Port-au-Prince and charge d'affaires in the Dominican capital Santo Domingo , Durham was commissioned the Samaná Bay for a sum of 250,000 US dollars to lease for a period of 99 years. The Dominican foreign minister at the time, General Ignacio María González , however rushed the declaration of the signing of such a lease and thereby made the intentions of the USA obvious, so that he immediately had to go into exile . This event meant that US President Harrison and Dominican President Ulises Heureaux had to give up all further negotiations.

Other events and death in office

After the Môle Saint-Nicolas affair ended, the government of President Hyppolite reached an agreement with the French embassy on the practice of the previously shown leniency over citizenship in Haiti. Haitian nationals who were able to prove that they were of French descent had the opportunity to register as French citizens with the French embassy. Foreign Minister Firmin put an end to this unconstitutional abuse. After a long discussion, France gave in and accepted the Haitian position. The government in Paris then issued an instruction to the French envoy to cancel the wrongly acquired nationalities.

President Hyppolite also maintained good relations with all foreign states. In 1892 diplomatic relations with the Holy See were established through the accreditation of a delegate and extraordinary envoy in Port-au-Prince.

Chicago Exhibition Grounds 1893

To increase the trade and awareness of Haitian products abroad, Haiti participated in the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, where it received several awards.

The President also paid attention to public works following the reorganization of the Ministry of Public Works. In addition to shipping berths, large markets were set up in Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haïtien . In several places canals for water supply and telegraph connections between the main towns of the departments were built and the telephone was introduced for the first time . In 1892 he had a mausoleum built for the father of independence , Jean-Jacques Dessalines , in the central cemetery of Port-au-Prince . In addition to the roads, agriculture and trade were also flourishing. This made it possible for the Republic of Haiti to settle its debts for which 18 percent interest per year had to be paid. For this purpose a loan of 50 million was still 1,896 francs at an annual interest rate of six percent on the stock exchange of Paris negotiated. This was the last major move during Hyppolite's tenure.

Compared to many previous governments, there was some form of democracy in his tenure . In particular, there was no press censorship, and the senators and members of parliament were also able to exercise their mandate without intimidation or interference.

However, his government was not entirely free from unrest either. So there were arrests in 1895 after the commander of the army units in northern Haiti , General Pierre Nord Alexis , had turned against him.

Hyppolite put his administration before his own health and, against the advice of his doctors, planned an extended trip to Jacmel in southeast Haiti . However, before he left the seat of government in Port-au-Prince, he died on the back of his horse on March 24th or 25th, 1896 as a result of an apoplexy .

After his state funeral on March 26, 1896, a council of state secretaries consisting of Tirésias Simon-Sam , Tancrède Auguste and Solon Ménos took over the office until the election of a successor on March 31 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ "New Rulers For Hayti; The Provisional Government Overturned And Former Leaders In Prison," New York Times October 21, 1879
2. ^ "All Quiet In Hayti; A Reported American Syndicate With Extraordinary Concessions," New York Times September 19, 1889
3. ↑ Chapter XXV, Haiti History Chapters, in: Haitiwebs.co ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ^ "Haiti's Latest Attempt In Revolt," New York Times November 7, 1893
5. ↑ "Haitian Troubles Expected; Alexis Nord And Exiles Against The Rule Of President Hyppolite" , New York Times December 31, 1895 ( Memento of the original from November 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ^ "Haiti's President Dead; Florville Gelan Hyppolite As Soldier And Politician," New York Times March 26, 1896
7. ^ "The Necrology Of 1896" , New York Times January 1, 1897

Web links

• Biographical notes in rulers.org
• Chapter XXV, Haiti History Chapters, in: Haitiwebs.com
• Biography in Haitianmedia
• Fearon, James D. / Laitin, David D .: "Haiti" , Stanford University, 2006 (PDF file; 259 kB)
• Decades Of Instability, 1843-1915, Library Of Congress, 1989
• World History: Haiti 1859-1915
• Photo by President Hyppolite

predecessor	Office	successor
Monpoint Jeune	President of Haiti October 17, 1889–24. March 1896	Tirésias Simon-Sam