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=== Independence ===
{{Nations of the World}}
After a French defeat in the (war in the 1860s-1890’s) the french government tried to raise funds by increasing taxes on sugar, coffee and perfume exports and barring merchants from Saint-Domingue from buying essential produced goods from the NNL, the British or Mexico. This led to a series of riots against French imperial rule of the nation. The French responded by confiscating the land and assets of merchants who were believed to be rebellious; in response to this a group of wealthy mixed race Saint Domingue elites set up an underground society to oppose french rule (similar to anti-french empire fraternal organization / continental congress) called the new order of saint domingue. This organization agitated against french rule (in particular trying to get black former slave Domingues to support independence in return for promising suffrage. After an incident of a drunk french soldier shooting and killing a Domingue woman, riots broke out in Santo Domingo which spread to all the major port cities. The rebels (under the direction of the New Order) hastily organized a militia called the armée populaire de Saint Domingue. At the same time pro independence black sharecroppers and farmworkers in the interior of the island took up arms and sided with the rebels. After only 4 months of fighting the French military was kicked from the island and the rebels declared the independence of Saint Domingue to the world but 2 months later the French returned to retake the island. After a long siege and a week of brutal street by street urban fighting the french took the city of Santo Domingo (known by the rebels as blue Monday). At this point the NNL, South Tussenlandt, the British were starting to pressure the French to back down, with South Tussenlandt recognizing the independence of Saint Domingue and even sending aid to the rebels. The French offensive in the island stalled and the rebels started to regain land (starting with the western coast and Port-au-prince while the French were hemorrhaging money from this long drawn out war. After 18 months of rebellion the French military left the island the French government recognized the independence of Saint Domingue in (year is TBD){{Nations of the World}}
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