In the early 1800's the French faced a revolt from the local population, as they were not pleased by their rule and wanted to be independent, thus the French were on the verge of losing their important colony.
Because of this, the French intervened with force, trying to stop this movement, but it was with no success, because Dessalines had already anticipated their move and had organized the locals very well.
The end result was that the French lost their colony as their military forces were not victorious, and Dessalines proclaimed independence of the Caribbean country, while also changing its name to Haiti.
