Fosten- Elí Sulouk ( Haitian Creole. Fosten Soulouk , fr. Faustin-Élie Soulouque ; August 15, 1782 , Petit Goav , San Domingo - August 3, 1867 , Anse-a-Vaud , Haiti ) - a prominent Haitian state, political and military leader. Having come to power as a result of a military coup, in 1847 Suluk became president of the Republic of Haiti , and in 1849 he proclaimed Haiti an empire , and himself emperor , and began to rule under the name of Fosten I.
| Faustin I Suluk | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| fr. Faustin I Soulouque hait. Creole. Fosten i soulouk | |||||||
| |||||||
| Coronation | April 18, 1852 | ||||||
| Predecessor | position established | ||||||
| Successor | position abolished Faustin II as reincarnation | ||||||
| |||||||
| Predecessor | Jean-Baptiste Richet | ||||||
| Successor | position abolished | ||||||
| Birth | August 15, 1782 Petit Goav San Domingo | ||||||
| Death | August 3, 1867 (84 years old) Anse-a-Vaud , Republic of Haiti | ||||||
| Kind | Suluki | ||||||
| Spouse | Adeline Levek | ||||||
| Children | Daughters of Olivia and Chelita | ||||||
| Religion | Catholicism | ||||||
| Military service | |||||||
| Affiliation | Haitian Armed Forces | ||||||
| Rank | lieutenant general (1843) | ||||||
| Battles | Haiti War of Independence Dominican War of Independence | ||||||
The reign of Faustin I was marked by a number of eccentric innovations in various spheres of state life, as well as an extremely short-sighted domestic and foreign policy. In 1859, a group of soldiers overthrew the emperor, restoring the republican form of government and forcing Suluk to flee the country.
Biography
Faustin-Eli Suluk was born on August 15, 1782 in Petit Goave , in the territory of the then French colony of San Domingo . His father and mother, who belonged to the African Mandinka tribe, were brought to the island of Haiti by the French as black slaves [1] .
Suluk served under Andre Rigo , Alexander Petion , Jean-Baptiste Richet , Jean-Pierre Boyer .
After the overthrow of President Jean-Pierre Boyer in Haiti in 1843, a civil war broke out between the mulattoes supporting Boyer and the black people of the country. To reassure the latter, in 1847 , after the death of President Jean-Baptiste Richet, the Mulattan ruling circles chose him to succeed Suluk. They hoped that the power of the new president, like all his black predecessors, would be only nominal, while the de facto rule would continue to be ruled by the mulatto elite, but Suluk was not comfortable with this state of affairs, and at the beginning of 1848 he concentrated all power in his hands, removing the mulattos from the leadership of the country. Suluk immediately established himself as a tough, authoritarian ruler: having risen at the head of state, he found support in the person of black generals. He initiated raids on representatives of the mulatto elite: those who did not have time to escape on time were harassed and arrested; many were executed. With the general's rise to power, Haiti plunged into an atmosphere of fear and cruelty. “The Haitian ruling system is the despotism of the most ignorant, depraved, and vicious form,” wrote American Consul General Robert Walsh about the Suluk regime. “The state treasury is bankrupt, (...) the population is immersed in Cimmerian darkness, (...) and people even in confidential conversation are afraid to express their opinion about something for which they may be tortured and accused of (...) criticizing the authorities” [2] . The regime’s backbone was the country's armed forces, as well as paramilitary formations of the “zinglins” [1] .
On August 26, 1849, Suluk proclaimed Haiti an empire , and himself Emperor Faustin I. On the same day, members of the Senate planted on his head a cheap, made in artisanal conditions, crown made of gilded cardboard [3] .
April 18, 1852 Faustin I was solemnly crowned. This time his crown was made of pure gold. Along with the crown of the empress, as well as ermine robes for the imperial couple, she was brought from France. Faustin planned to make the coronation ceremony as similar as possible to the Napoleonic one , which took place in 1804 [2] .
Emperor
Despite the emperor’s serious intentions, the whole world considered Faustin I an ignoramus, and his regime was like a circus. Many saw in the Haitian Empire a mocking parody of the Second French Empire , and Faustin himself was compared with the French emperor Napoleon III , who was also the country's president, and later proclaimed himself a monarch. Due to the fact that the Haitian empire was formed before the French, on December 2, 1851 , on the day of the coup in France , opponents of the restoration of the empire on the streets of Paris chanted: “Down, Suluk! Down, traitor! ” - the word“ suluk ”acquired a household name and literally meant“ despot ”,“ barbarian ”. Faustin I became one of the favorite characters of French cartoonists, including the famous Kama , Nadara and Honore Daumier [4] .
During the reign of Suluk, posters were hung around the capital of Haiti, which depicted the head of state on his knees near the Virgin Mary [5] .
In 1925, adherents of the Voodoo cult on the Haitian island of Gonave , proclaimed the sergeant of the American Marine Corps Faustin Virkus Emperor Faustin II, believing him to be the reincarnation of Faustin I. Faustin II ruled the island until 1929, when he was relocated to another location [6] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Juang, Richard M., Morrissette, Noelle. Africa and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History . - Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO , 2008 .-- Vol. 1. - P. 1021-1022. - 1215 p. - ISBN 978-1-85109-441-7 .
- ↑ 1 2 Childs, 2004 , p. 111-112.
- ↑ Childs, 2004 , p. 111.
- ↑ Childs, 2004 , p. 112-120.
- ↑ Hecht, Tobias. Minor Omissions: Children in Latin American History and Society . - Madison: UW Press , 2002. - P. 190. - 277 p. - ISBN 0-299-18030-1 .
- ↑ Faustus Wirkus the White King of La Gonave
Literature
- Childs, Elizabeth C. Daumier and Exoticism: Satirizing the French and the Foreign . - Bern: Peter Lang , 2004 .-- P. 111-120. - 252 p. - ISBN 0-8204-6945-9 .