Many know that Haiti’s help was crucial in the liberation of many Latin American countries, the most remembered being the liberation of Venezuela, however, most are unaware that the first Black Republic also helped many other countries.
Between 1821 and 1832, the Greek revolutionaries waged wars against the Ottoman Empire, which had been ruling most of Greece since 1453. Out of money, supplies, and help from their European neighbors, the Greek revolutionaries decided to seek help from Haiti.
They sent a letter to then Haiti’s president Jean Pierre Boyer, asking him for military and monetary help for their fight against Ottoman rules.
Haiti was in financial ruins but still found a way to help. The country had lost nearly all of its sources of revenues in the wars for independence against the French empire. Plus the recent integration of the (Dominican Republic) into Haiti was also having some financial restraint on the Haitian government.
In a lengthy letter, on January 15th, 1822, President Boyer explained to Adamantios Korais, then Governor of Greece, that due to Haiti’s financial situation he would not be able to send money nor men to Greece, but promised to do all that he could to help in their cause for freedom. Some historians claim, President Boyer agreed to send a cargo of 25 tons of coffee, one of the most important commodities of the time, to be sold on behalf of the Greek revolutionaries for the procurement of supplies; thus making Haiti the first country in the world to recognized Greece right to freedom, and the first one outside Europe to help the country of Socrates achieve self-determination.
