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MAPS OF HISTORY · IB HISTORY · PAPER 1 · INDEPENDENCE AND IDENTITY

IB HISTORY · PAPER 1 · FOCUSED STUDY

Paper 1: Independence and Identity — Haiti and Kenya

Independence and Identity is one of the five Paper 1 Focused Studies of the new IB History course, first examined in May 2028. Paper 1 is the source paper: its questions ask you to read primary sources closely, to judge what each can and cannot tell a historian, and to combine them with your own knowledge. This Focused Study pairs two case studies, Haiti and Kenya, and our atlas Two Roads to Independence: Haiti and Kenya covers both on linked maps, in 12 chapters with 40 primary sources.

How the enslaved of the richest colony on earth made Haiti, and how colonised Kenyans lost a war yet won their independence — and what the way each was won meant afterwards.

Map from Two Roads to Independence: Haiti 1789–1838 and Kenya 1895–1978, chapter 5
TWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE: HAITI 1789–1838 AND KENYA 1895–1978 · CHAPTER 5
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What this Focused Study asks

Each source set in the atlas is built around one inquiry question, and together they show what this Focused Study asks of you. Keep them in mind as you read: a good answer to any of them needs both the sources and the chapters behind them.

Haiti

Kenya

Case study 1: Haiti

Chapters 1–6 of the atlas follow Haiti, from 1789 to 1947. Read them in order: each chapter is a step in one argument, and the map moves with it.

Evidence to use

One point from the IB notes of each chapter, written as a sentence you could use in an answer. Every chapter in the atlas carries four to six.

  1. In 1789 Saint-Domingue held about 465,000 enslaved people, some 31,000 whites and 28,000 free people of colour, so the enslaved outnumbered the free by about eight to one, a balance no amount of terror could make secure. CH 1
  2. The National Assembly’s decree of 15 May 1791 gave full political rights only to men of colour born of a free father and a free mother, a few hundred people, and even that was cancelled on 24 September 1791. CH 2
  3. Commissioner Sonthonax proclaimed general emancipation in the North on 29 August 1793, and the National Convention abolished slavery in all French colonies on 4 February 1794, the day after seating Jean-Baptiste Belley, a formerly enslaved deputy. CH 3
  4. General Leclerc sailed from Brest on 14 December 1801, and about 31,000 French soldiers landed in Saint-Domingue in 1802–03, with orders to disarm the colony’s Black army and send its generals to France. CH 4
  5. On 1 January 1804 at Gonaïves, Dessalines and his generals declared independence, renounced France for ever and named the country Haiti, the first state in the Americas founded by people who had freed themselves from slavery. CH 5
  6. Charles X’s ordinance of 17 April 1825 granted Haiti “full and complete independence” on condition that it pay 150 million francs in five yearly instalments and halve customs duties on French goods. CH 6

Case study 2: Kenya

Chapters 7–11 of the atlas follow Kenya, from 1895 to 1978. Read them in order: each chapter is a step in one argument, and the map moves with it.

Evidence to use

One point from the IB notes of each chapter, written as a sentence you could use in an answer. Every chapter in the atlas carries four to six.

  1. The Uganda Railway, built between 1896 and 1901 by 31,983 workers recruited in British India, cost about £5.5 million, far above the estimates presented to Parliament, and officials invited settlers to the highlands to make it pay. CH 7
  2. About 98,000 Kenyan Africans served in the Second World War, and the 11th (East Africa) Division fought in Burma in 1944–45, where men such as Waruhiu Itote, later “General China”, learned that colonisers could be beaten. CH 8
  3. Kenyatta and five KAU leaders were tried at Kapenguria from December 1952 to April 1953 and sentenced to seven years’ hard labour; the key witness, Rawson Macharia, swore in 1958 that he had been bribed. CH 9
  4. The first Lancaster House conference, from January to February 1960, gave Kenya a Legislative Council of 65 seats with an elected African majority, ending the settlers’ political dominance. CH 10
  5. Somali-speaking northerners who had told a British commission in 1962 that they wanted to join Somalia fought the Shifta War of 1963–67, which ended with the Arusha Memorandum of 28 October 1967. CH 11

Comparing the two case studies

The atlas ends by setting the two case studies side by side in Two Independences Compared. Comparison is where the Focused Study pays off: the same question asked of two societies shows which explanations travel and which belong to one place.

PAPER 1 · TWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 12

Compare and contrast the ways in which Haiti and Kenya achieved independence.

THESIS

Both independences grew from colonial systems built on land seized for a privileged class and worked by coerced labour, and both involved violent struggle that divided colonised society. They differed in the manner of victory: Haiti won outright by war and was punished with isolation and debt, while Kenya’s defeated rebellion led to a negotiated transfer that preserved the colonial state.

THE THREE POINTS

  1. Similar roots in land and coercion.

  2. Opposite military outcomes.

  3. Different terms of recognition and burden.

The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 12 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: Two Independences Compared.

Key concepts

The course asks you to think with six concepts. Each chapter’s IB notes name the two or three it supports best; here they are across the atlas, most used first.

Source-analysis practice

This is one complete source set from the atlas, free to use. It is built around one inquiry question: How far did Toussaint Louverture’s leadership define what freedom meant in Saint-Domingue, 1793–1802? Read the sources first and note who made each one, when and why. Then answer the questions in writing, and only afterwards open the guide under each question, which describes what a strong answer does.

TEXT · CHAPTER 3

Proclamation from Camp Turel

CREATOR
Toussaint Louverture
DATE
29 August 1793
ORIGIN
Proclamation addressed to the people of Saint-Domingue while Toussaint served Spain

Context. The “king” in the signature is the King of Spain, whom Toussaint then served. The proclamation is dated the same day as Sonthonax’s emancipation in the North, and its author would join the French Republic eight months later.

At Camp Turel, 29 August 1793. Brothers and friends, I am Toussaint Louverture; perhaps my name has become known to you. I have undertaken vengeance. I want liberty and equality to reign in Saint-Domingue. I am working to bring them into being. Unite with us, brothers, and fight with us for the same cause. Toussaint Louverture, General of the King’s Armies, for the public good.

Translation: Maps of History, from the French text published by the Fondation pour la mémoire de l’esclavage (2023) · original ↗

TEXT · CHAPTER 3

Constitution of the French colony of Saint-Domingue, Articles 3, 4, 5 and 14

CREATOR
Central Assembly of Saint-Domingue, convened by Toussaint Louverture
DATE
Adopted 9 May 1801; proclaimed 7–8 July 1801
ORIGIN
Constitution printed in Le Cap and Paris

Context. Another article named Toussaint governor “for the rest of his glorious life”. Napoleon Bonaparte, who had seized power in France in 1799, read the document as a challenge to French authority.

Article 3. No slaves may exist on this territory; servitude is abolished here for ever. All men are born, live and die here free and French. Article 4. Every man, whatever his colour, is eligible for all employments. Article 5. There exists here no distinction other than that of virtues and talents, and no superiority other than that which the law gives in the exercise of a public office. The law is the same for all, whether it punishes or protects. […] Article 14. The colony, being essentially agricultural, cannot suffer the least interruption in the work of its cultivation.

Translation: Maps of History, from Janvier, Les Constitutions d’Haïti (1886), via Digithèque MJP · original ↗

TEXT · CHAPTER 4

Toussaint Louverture’s words on boarding Le Héros, as recorded by a French general

CREATOR
Pamphile de Lacroix (memoir); words attributed to Toussaint Louverture
DATE
June 1802 (published 1819)
ORIGIN
Lacroix, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la révolution de Saint-Domingue, vol. 2, pp. 202–203

Context. Lacroix was a French general who served in the expedition; he published his memoir seventeen years later. The words were reported as spoken to the ship’s commander, not written by Toussaint.

In overthrowing me, you have cut down in Saint-Domingue only the trunk of the tree of the liberty of the Blacks; it will grow back from the roots, for they are deep and numerous.

Translation: Maps of History, from Lacroix (Paris: Pillet aîné, 1819) · original ↗

PICTURE · CHAPTER 3

Title page and portrait from Histoire de Toussaint-Louverture

CREATOR
Cousin d’Avallon (author); engraver unnamed
DATE
1802 (Year XI)
ORIGIN
Book published in Paris by Pillot frères during Leclerc’s expedition

Context. French publishers produced books about Toussaint while the expedition against him was under way; the subtitle calls him “chief of the insurgent Blacks”.

Title page of a French book of 1802, with an engraved oval portrait of Toussaint Louverture in a plumed hat and uniform beside the printed title.

Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain Mark) · original ↗

The questions

  1. QUESTION 1 · COMPREHENSION

    According to the Camp Turel proclamation, what did Toussaint want for Saint-Domingue in August 1793, and in whose service did he claim to act?

    What a strong answer does

    A strong answer identifies two points: Toussaint wanted “liberty and equality to reign in Saint-Domingue” and called others to join the same cause, and he signed as a general “of the King’s Armies”, meaning the King of Spain. The best answers note the tension between republican language and royal service.

    • Quotes or paraphrases the aim of liberty and equality
    • Identifies the King of Spain as the power he served
    • Notes the tension between the two
  2. QUESTION 2 · ANALYSIS

    What does the title page and portrait of 1802 suggest about how Toussaint was presented to French readers during Leclerc’s expedition?

    What a strong answer does

    Answers should read the image and its words together: a Paris publication of Year XI presents Toussaint in uniform and plumed hat, a figure of military authority, while its subtitle calls him “chief of the insurgent Blacks”. Good answers link this double image, commander and rebel, to the moment of publication, when France was at war with him.

    • Describes visual features (uniform, hat, oval portrait)
    • Uses the printed subtitle as evidence
    • Links the presentation to the date and purpose
  3. QUESTION 3 · EVALUATION

    With reference to its origin, purpose and content, assess the value and limitations of Lacroix’s report of Toussaint’s words aboard Le Héros for a historian studying how Toussaint saw his own role.

    What a strong answer does

    Value: it records words spoken at a decisive moment and shows Toussaint presenting himself as the trunk of a tree whose roots, the formerly enslaved, would survive him. Limitations: the words were reported by a French general and published in 1819, seventeen years later, in a memoir written partly to explain French defeat; the quotation may be polished. A strong answer weighs the two.

    • Identifies author, date and publication gap
    • Considers Lacroix’s purpose
    • Explains what the content reveals about Toussaint’s self-image
    • Reaches a balanced judgement
  4. QUESTION 4 · SYNTHESIS

    Using the sources and your own knowledge, to what extent did Toussaint Louverture’s leadership define what freedom meant in Saint-Domingue between 1793 and 1802?

    What a strong answer does

    Strong answers build an argument from the sources: the proclamation shows freedom as a cause, the constitution of 1801 writes it into law as French citizenship while Article 14 subordinates it to plantation labour, and Lacroix’s report shows Toussaint linking freedom to the people beyond himself. Own knowledge should add the labour code of 1800, the Moyse revolt and Sonthonax’s role in emancipation. The best answers conclude that Toussaint defined freedom as citizenship without land, a definition many cultivators resisted.

    • Uses at least three sources
    • Adds relevant own knowledge (labour code, Moyse, Sonthonax)
    • Addresses “to what extent” with a judgement
    • Considers the cultivators’ perspective

More source sets in the atlas

The atlas holds 4 more source sets for this Focused Study. Their sources sit in the IB notes of the chapters named below: open a chapter in the atlas and turn on the IB notes switch to read them.

Practice questions and essay plans

Each question below comes with the outline of a model plan: a thesis that answers the question and the claim each paragraph makes. Try your own plan before you read ours. The first plan comes from chapter 2, a free chapter, and is shown in full. The full plans, with evidence, a counter-argument and a judgement, are in the chapters’ IB notes in the atlas, and the atlas’s own page lists every chapter’s notes: IB notes for Haiti and Kenya.

PAPER 2 · TWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 2

To what extent was the rising of August 1791 caused by the ideas of the French Revolution?

THESIS

French revolutionary ideas created the opening for the rising by dividing the colony’s free population and weakening authority, yet the rising itself was planned by the enslaved through their own networks and shaped by their own aims. French ideas were a trigger and a resource, while the driving force was the agency of the enslaved.

THE THREE POINTS

  1. The Revolution divided the colony’s masters.

    EVIDENCEPlanters formed colonial assemblies, the boldest at Saint-Marc in 1790; free men of colour demanded rights, and Ogé took up arms in October 1790; Paris granted rights in May 1791 and withdrew them in September.

    LINKWith the free fighting each other, the forces that kept the enslaved in check were weakened.

  2. The rising was organised through the enslaved’s own networks.

    EVIDENCEDrivers met on 14 August 1791 and, by tradition, a ceremony at Bois Caïman led by Boukman bound the leaders; the rising began on 22–23 August across many estates at once.

    LINKSuch coordination depended on structures planters ignored, from estate drivers to religious gatherings.

  3. The insurgents’ aims were not simply French.

    EVIDENCELeaders flew royalist flags and claimed the king had granted free days; Thornton argues many Kongolese veterans thought in terms of just kingship; in December 1791 the leaders asked only for freedom for a few hundred officers.

    LINKThe ideas behind the rising were plural, and universal emancipation emerged later, in the course of the war.

COUNTER-ARGUMENT

Historians in the tradition of C. L. R. James stress that the language of rights reached the enslaved through sailors, servants and news, and that the timing of the rising, two years after 1789, shows the Revolution’s direct influence. The insurgents’ own appeals to the rights of man in later negotiations support that reading.

JUDGEMENT

The French Revolution was a necessary trigger because it split the free and supplied a language of rights, but it was not the main cause of the rising, which grew from the enslaved’s organisation, experience and aims. The rising used French ideas without being defined by them.

Read the chapter behind this plan: The Revolution Crosses the Atlantic.

PAPER 1 · TWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 5

Using the sources and your own knowledge, examine how Haiti’s founders defined who belonged to the new nation between 1804 and 1816.

THESIS

Haiti’s founders defined belonging by the experience of slavery and the war against France. The declaration of 1804 defined the nation against France, the constitution of 1805 made Blackness the name of every citizen, and the constitution of 1816 opened citizenship to all Africans and Indigenous Americans, turning the nation into a refuge.

THE THREE POINTS

  1. The declaration defined the nation against France.

  2. The 1805 constitution made Blackness a civic status.

  3. The 1816 constitution turned identity outward.

The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 5 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: Dessalines and the Making of Haiti.

PAPER 2 · TWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 9

Evaluate the effects of the Kenya Emergency (1952–1960) on the people of central Kenya.

THESIS

The Emergency transformed the lives of central Kenya’s people through death, detention, forced villagisation and land consolidation, and it divided them along lines that outlasted the war. Its effects fell unevenly: suspected rebels and their families bore the heaviest losses, while loyalists gained land and office.

THE THREE POINTS

  1. Violence and death on a scale still debated.

  2. Detention and villagisation reorganised daily life.

  3. Land and power shifted to loyalists.

The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 9 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: The Emergency.

PAPER 2 · TWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 11

To what extent did Jomo Kenyatta maintain power between 1963 and 1978 through methods inherited from colonial rule?

THESIS

Kenyatta maintained power largely through institutions inherited from colonial rule, especially the provincial administration and detention laws, but he combined them with new methods: patronage through land and office, ethnic alliances and a carefully managed single party. Kenyatta also benefited from Cold War support for his pro-Western course.

THE THREE POINTS

  1. The colonial state’s machinery was kept and used.

  2. Patronage through land bound supporters to the regime.

  3. Ethnic politics and the party narrowed opposition.

The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 11 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: Challenges after Independence.

Revision tools

The atlas ends with a map quiz that asks you to find places and moments on the map itself (part of membership and of the Exam Sprint). The quick quiz and the discussion questions with our answers are free pages on this site, and the printable study guide gathers every chapter’s notes into one document for revision.

CHAPTER 1 — SAINT-DOMINGUE: THE RICHEST COLONYMAP QUIZQUICK QUIZPRINTABLE STUDY GUIDEDISCUSSION QUESTIONSALL 12 CHAPTERS

The same atlas for other papers

Several chapters also carry IB notes for Papers 2 and 3, and for topics of the old course examined in 2027:

Maps of History is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the International Baccalaureate Organization. IB course names describe alignment only; paper, theme and section names follow the new course outline and may change when the final guide is published.

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