After Dessalines' death Haiti became split into two, with the Kingdom of Haiti in the north directed by Henri Christophe, later declaring himself Henri I, and a republic in the south centred on Port-au-Prince, directed by Alexandre Pétion, an ''homme de couleur''. Christophe established a semi-feudal corvée system, with a rigid education and economic code. Pétion's republic was less absolutist, and he initiated a series of land reforms which benefited the peasant class. President Pétion also gave military and financial assistance to the revolutionary leader Simón Bolívar, which were critical in enabling him to liberate the Viceroyalty of New Granada. Meanwhile, the French, who had managed to maintain a precarious control of eastern Hispaniola, were defeated by insurgents led by Juan Sánchez Ramírez, with the area returning to Spanish rule in 1809 following the Battle of Palo Hincado.