A Haitian military council convened following the…
December 1806 CE
A Haitian military council convened following the assassination of Dessalines appoints his army commander, Henri Christophe, provisional chief of the nation.
Although Christophe reportedly believes despotism the only suitable form of government for his people, he summons a constituent assembly on December 18, 1806.
Pétion, Christophe's only rival for power, secures control in the south and west and thereby secures majority representation in the Assembly.
He is appointed chairman to draft a constitution, which in its final form makes Christophe little more than a figurehead. (This institution of a weak presidency and a comparatively strong legislature establishes what will later be known as the politique de doublure, politics by understudies, a system under which a black leader is to serve as a figurehead for mulatto elitist rule.