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Christopher Columbus was the first European to discover Martinique in 1502. The island was not actually colonized by Europeans until 1635, when Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc landed with a hundred French settlers. |
They cleared forests to grow sugar cane, and gave vent to increasing tension with the native Caribs, and in 1660 the surviving Caribs were forcibly removed from the island. Black slaves were brought from Africa to work in the sugar plantations.
With all the productivity on the island, the French soon caught the eye of the British near the end of the 1700s. As a result of this interest a power struggle began for the island between the British and French lasting almost two centuries. Martinique changed hands between the two powerhouses several times, including one incident during the French Revolution. This tug of war between French and the British finally ended in 1815, when the island was returned to France by England on orders from the Vienna Treaty. Slavery was not officially abolished until 1848, with Victor Schoelcher’s law. All slaves became French citizens.
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Martinique’s then capital, Saint-Pierre, which was widely considered to be the most cultured town in the West Indies, was destroyed in 1902, by a blast from the volcano Mont Pelée. |
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All 28,000 inhabitants were killed with the exception of two (or possibly three) residents, and the town had to be completely rebuilt, although it lost both the status of capital, that title now belonging to Fort-de-France, and its cultural reputation.
In 1946, Martinique obtained the position of a French department, due mainly to Aimé Césaire's campaign as mayor, and in 1974 it gained more autonomy with the regional status the island was able to enjoy.
Source: wikipedia.com
