Martinique

The island was occupied first by Arawaks, then by Caribs. The Arawaks were described as gentle timorous Indians and the Caribs as ferocious cannibal warriors. The Arawaks came from Central America in the 1st century AD and the Caribs came from the Venezuela coast around the 11th century. When Columbus arrived, the Caribs had massacred many of their adversaries, sparing the women, whom they kept for their personal or domestic use.[7]

Martinique was charted by Columbus in 1493, but Spain had little interest in the territory.[7] Christopher Columbus landed on 15 June 1502, after a 21-day trade wind passage, his fastest ocean voyage.[7] He spent three days there refilling his water casks, bathing and washing laundry.[9]

On 15 September 1635, Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, French governor of the island of St. Kitts, landed in the harbour of St. Pierre with 80-150 French settlers after being driven off St. Kitts by the English. D'Esnambuc claimed Martinique for the French King Louis XIII and the French "Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique" (Company of the American Islands), and established the first European settlement at Fort Saint-Pierre (now St. Pierre).[7] D'Esnambuc died in 1636, leaving the company and Martinique in the hands of his nephew, Jacques Dyel du Parquet, who in 1637, became governor of the island.[7]

In 1636, in the first of many skirmishes, the indigenous Caribs rose against the settlers to drive them off the island. The French successfully repelled the natives and forced them to retreat to the eastern part of the island, on the Caravelle Peninsula in the region then known as the Capesterre. When the Carib revolted against French rule in 1658, the Governor Charles Houël du Petit Pré retaliated with war against them. Many were killed; those who survived were taken captive and expelled from the island. Some Carib had fled to Dominica or St. Vincent, where the French agreed to leave them at peace.

After the death of du Parquet in 1658, his widow Marie Bonnard du Parquet tried to govern Martinique, but dislike of her rule led King Louis XIV to take over sovereignty of the island.[7] Meanwhile, Dutch Jews, expelled from Portuguese Brazil, introduced sugar plantations worked by enslaved Africans to the island in 1654.[7] Large numbers of slaves were imported from Africa to work these plantations.[7]

In 1667 the Second Anglo-Dutch War spilled out into the Caribbean, with Britain attacking the pro-Dutch French fleet in Martinique, virtually destroying it and further cementing British pre-eminence in the region.[10] In 1674 the Dutch attempted to conquer the island but were repulsed.[7]

The attack on the French ships at Martinique in 1667

Because there were few Catholic priests in the French Antilles, many of the earliest French settlers were Huguenots who sought greater religious freedom than what they could experience in mainland France.[11] Others were transported there as a punishment for refusing to convert to Catholicism, many of them dying en route. [12]Those that survived were quite industrious and over time prospered, though the less fortunate were reduced to status of indentured servants. Although edicts from King Louis XIV's court regularly came to the islands to suppress the Protestant "heretics", these were mostly ignored by island authorities until Louis XIV's Edict of Revocation in 1685.

As many of the planters on Martinique were themselves Huguenot, and who were sharing in the suffering under the harsh strictures of the Revocation, they began plotting to emigrate from Martinique with many of their recently arrived brethren. Many of them were encouraged by the Catholics who looked forward to their departure and the opportunities for seizing their property. By 1688, nearly all of Martinique's French Protestant population had escaped to the British American colonies or Protestant countries in Europe. The policy decimated the population of Martinique and the rest of the French Antilles and set back their colonisation by decades, causing the French king to relax his policies in the region, which however left the islands susceptible to British occupation over the next century.[13]

Under Governor of the Antilles Charles de Courbon, comte de Blénac, Martinique served as a home port for French pirates including Captain Crapeau, Etienne de Montauban, and Mathurin Desmarestz.[14] In later years pirate Bartholomew Roberts styled his jolly roger as a black flag depicting a pirate standing on two skulls labeled "ABH" and "AMH" for "A Barbadian's Head" and "A Martinican's Head", after governors of those two islands sent warships to capture Roberts.[15]

The Battle of Martinique between British and French fleets in 1779

Martinique was attacked or occupied several times by the British, including in 1693, 1759, 1762 and 1779.[7] Excepting a period from 1802 to 1809 following signing of the Treaty of Amiens, Britain controlled the island for most of the time from 1794 to 1815, when it was traded back to France at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars.[7][16] Martinique has remained a French possession since then.

Despite the introduction of successful coffee plantations in the 1720s, with Martinique being the first area in the Western hemisphere where coffee was introduced,[17] as sugar prices declined in the early 1800s, the planter class lost political influence. Slave rebellions in 1789, 1815 and 1822, plus the campaigns of abolitionists such as Cyrille Bissette and Victor Schœlcher, persuaded the French government to end slavery in the French West Indies in 1848.[18][19][7][16] As a result, some plantation owners imported workers from India and China.[7] Despite the abolition of slavery life scarcely improved for most Martinicans; class and racial tensions exploded into rioting in southern Martinique in 1870 following the arrest of Léopold Lubin, a trader of African ancestry who retaliated after he was beaten by a Frenchman. After several deaths the revolt was crushed by French militia.[20]

On 8 May 1902, Mont Pelée erupted and completely destroyed St. Pierre, killing 30,000 people.[7] Due to the eruption refugees from Martinique arrived in boats to the southern villages of Dominica with some remaining permanently on the island. In Martinique the only survivor in the town of Saint-Pierre, Auguste Cyparis, was saved by the thick walls of his prison cell.[21] Shortly thereafter the capital shifted to Fort-de-France, where it remains today.[16]

Mount pelée and Bay of St Pierre as seen from the Grande Savane trail

During WWII, the pro-Nazi Vichy government controlled Martinique under Admiral Georges Robert.[7] German U-boats used Martinique for refuelling and re-supply during the Battle of the Caribbean. In 1942, 182 ships were sunk in the Caribbean, dropping to 45 in 1943, and five in 1944. Free French forces took over on the island on Bastille Day, 14 July 1943.[7][22]

In 1946 the French National Assembly voted unanimously to transform the colony into an Overseas Department of France.[7] Meanwhile, the post-war period saw a growing campaign for full independence; a notable proponent of this was the author Aimé Césaire, who founded the Progressive Party of Martinique in the 1950s. Tensions boiled over in December 1959 when riots broke out following a racially-charged altercation between two motorists, resulting in three deaths.[23] In 1962, as a result of this and the global turn against colonialism, the strongly pro-independence OJAM (Organisation de la jeunesse anticolonialiste de le Martinique) was formed. Its leaders were later arrested by the French authorities, however they were later acquitted.[23] Tensions rose again in 1974, when gendarmes shot dead two striking banana workers.[23] However the independence movement lost steam as Martinique's economy faltered in the 1970s, resulting in large scale emigration.[24] Hurricanes in 1979-80 severely affected agricultural output, further straining the economy.[7] Greater autonomy was granted by France to the island in the 1970s-80s[7]

In 2009 Martinique was convulsed by the French Caribbean general strikes. Initially focusing on cost-of-living issues, the movement soon took on a racial dimension as strikers challenged the continued economic dominance of the Béké, descendants of French European settlers.[25][26] President Nicolas Sarkozy later visited the island, promising reform.[27] While ruling out full independence, which he said was desired neither by France nor by Martinique, Sarkozy offered Martiniquans a referendum on the island's future status and degree of autonomy.[27]

A map of Martinique showing the island's four arrondissements

Martinique is divided into four arrondissements and 34 communes. The 45 cantons were abolished in 2015. The four arrondissements of the island, with their respective locations, are as follows:

• Fort-de-France is the sole prefecture of Martinique. It takes up the central zone of the island. It includes four communes and sixteen cantons. In 2013 the population was 161,021.[2] Besides the capital, it includes the communities of Saint-Joseph and Schœlcher.
• La Trinité is one of the three subprefectures on the island and occupies the northeast region. It has ten communes and eleven cantons. In 2013 the population was 81,475.[2] La Trinité contains the communities of La Trinité, Ajoupa-Bouillon, Basse-Pointe, Le Gros-Morne, Le Lorrain, Macouba, Le Marigot, Le Robert and Sainte-Marie.
• Le Marin, the second subprefecture of Martinique, makes up the southern part of the island and is composed of twelve communes and thirteen cantons. In 2013 the population was 119,653.[2] The subprefecture includes the communities of La Marin, Les Anses d'Arlet, Le Diamant, Ducos, Le François, Rivière-Pilote, Rivière-Salée, Sainte-Anne, Sainte-Luce, Saint-Esprit, Les Trois-Îlets, and Le Vauclin.
• Saint-Pierre is the third subprefecture of the island. It comprises eight communes and five cantons, lying in the northwest of Martinique. In 2013 the population was 23,402.[2] Together with Saint-Pierre, its communities include Le Carbet, Case-Pilote-Bellefontaine, Le Morne-Rouge, and Le Prêcheur.

As a part of the French Republic, the French tricolour is in use and La Marseillaise is sung at national French events. When representing Martinique outside of the island for sport and cultural events the civil flag is 'Ipséité’ and the anthem is ‘Lorizon’.[29] Martinique Civil ensign is the cross of St Michael (White cross with 4 blue quarters with one snake in each), which is the official civil ensign of Martinique (it also used to be the one of Saint Lucia. However a coat of arms adaptation of the civil ensign (also called snake flag) is used in an unofficial but formal context such as by the Gendarmerie. The independentists also have their own flag, using a red/black/green colours.

• 
  Civil ensign of Martinique, a St Michael cross with white snakes. Also called 'Snake flag' of Martinique.
• 
  The Ipséité is a civil flag sometimes used in international cultural and sporting events.
• 
  Also called ‘red, green and black’, this flag is used by the independence movement.
• 
  Flag of the High Council of Martinique (Collectivité Territoriale de la Martinique).

The northern end of the island catches most of the rainfall and is heavily forested, featuring species such as bamboo, mahogany, rosewood and locust. The south is drier and dominated by savanna-like brush, including cacti, Copaiba balsam, logwood and acacia.

The Trou d'eau of the Pitons du Carbet forest, Rivière du Lorrain, as seen from the Trace des Jésuites trail

Anole lizards and fer-de-lance snakes are native to the island. Mongooses (Herpestes auropunctatus), introduced in the 1800s to control the snake population, have become a particularly cumbersome introduced species[34] as they prey upon bird eggs and have exterminated or endangered a number of native birds, including the Martinique trembler, white-breasted trembler and white-breasted thrasher.[16]

Beach of Anse Grosse Roche, St Anne peninsula

Bat species include the Jamaican fruit bat, the Antillean fruit-eating bat, the Little yellow-shouldered bat, Davy's naked-backed bat, the Greater bulldog bat, Schwartz's myotis, and the Mexican free-tailed bat.

Les Salines, a wide sand beach at the southeastern end of the island

Tourism has become more important than agricultural exports as a source of foreign exchange.[7] Most visitors come from mainland France, Canada and the USA.[7] Roughly 16% of the total businesses on the island (some 6,000 companies) provide tourist-related services.[36]

Martinique's main and only airport with commercial flights is Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport. It serves flights to and from Europe, the Caribbean, Venezuela, the United States, and Canada.[21] See List of airports in Martinique.

Fort-de-France is the major harbour. The island has regular ferry service to Guadeloupe, Dominica and St. Lucia.[16][21] There are also several local ferry companies that connect Fort-de-France with Pointe du Bout.[16]

The road network is extensive and well-maintained, with freeways in the area around Fort-de-France. Buses run frequently between the capital and St. Pierre.[16]

The country code top-level domain for Martinique is .mq, but .fr is often used instead. The country code for international dialling is 596. The entire island uses a single area code (also 596) for landline phones and 696 for cell phones. (596 is dialled twice when calling a Martinique landline from another country.)[37]

Martinique had a population of 385,551 as of January 2013.[2] There are an estimated 260,000 people of Martinican origin living in mainland France, most of them in the Paris region. Emigration was highest in the 1970s, causing population growth to almost stop, but it is comparatively light today.[7]

The population of Martinique is mainly of African descent generally mixed with European, Amerindian (Carib), Indo-Martiniquais (descendants of 19th-century Tamil immigrants from South India), Lebanese, Syrian or Chinese. Martinique also has a small Syro-Lebanese community, a small but increasing Chinese community, and the Béké community, descendants of the first European settlers.[7] Whites in total represent 5% of the population of Martinique.[38]

The Béké population represents around 1% of Martinique's population,[39] most of aristocratic origin by birth or after buying the title. In addition to the island population, the island hosts a mainland French community, most of which live on the island on a temporary basis (generally from 3 to 5 years).

About 90% of Martinicans are Christian, predominantly Roman Catholic as well as smaller numbers of various Protestant denominations.[7] There are much smaller communities of other faiths such as Islam, Hinduism and Baháʼísm.

The island has 49 parishes [41] and several historic places of worship, such as the Saint-Louis Cathedral of Fort de France,[42] the Sacred Heart Church of Balata,[43] and the Co-Cathedral of Our Lady of Assumption, Saint-Pierre.[44]

The official language is French, which is spoken by virtually the entire population. In addition, most residents can also speak Martiniquan Creole, a form of Antillean Creole closely related to the varieties spoken in neighboring English-speaking islands of Saint Lucia and Dominica. Martiniquan Creole is based on French, Carib and African languages with elements of English, Spanish, and Portuguese. It continues to be used in oral storytelling traditions and other forms of speech and to a lesser extent in writing.

Speaking Creole in public schools was forbidden until 1982, which is thought to have discouraged parents from using Creole in the home. [45] In the 1980s Martinican authors such as Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabé and Raphaël Confiant attempted to challenge this via the promotion of Creole in a cultural movement known as Créolité. [46] The education authority, Académie de la Martinique, launched a "Parcours Creole +" project in 2019, trialling bilingual education of children in French and Creole, or in French and English, planning a further option of French and Spanish. [47] Though Creole is normally not used in professional situations, members of the media and politicians have begun to use it more frequently as a way to redeem national identity and prevent cultural assimilation by mainland France. Indeed, unlike other varieties of French creole such as Mauritian Creole, Martinican Creole is not readily understood by speakers of Standard French due to significant differences in grammar, syntax, vocabulary and pronunciation, though over the years it has progressively adopted features of Standard French.

Martinique has a hybrid cuisine, mixing elements of African, French, Carib Amerindian and Indian subcontinental traditions. One of its most famous dishes is the Colombo (compare kuzhambu (Tamil: குழம்பு) for gravy or broth), a unique curry of chicken (curry chicken), meat or fish with vegetables, spiced with a distinctive masala of Tamil origins, sparked with tamarind, and often containing wine, coconut milk, cassava and rum. A strong tradition of Martiniquan desserts and cakes incorporate pineapple, rum, and a wide range of local ingredients.

Sisters Jeanne Nardal and Paulette Nardal were involved in the creation of the Négritude movement. Yva Léro was a writer and painter who co-founded the Women's Union of Martinique. Marie-Magdeleine Carbet wrote with her partner under the pseudonym Carbet.

Aimé Césaire is perhaps Martinique's most famous writer; he was one of the main figures in the Négritude literary movement.[48] René Ménil was a surrealist writer who founded the journal Tropiques with Aimé and Suzanne Césaire and later formulated the concept of Antillanité. Other surrealist writers of that era included Étienne Léro and Jules Monnerot, who co-founded the journal Légitime Défense with Simone Yoyotte and Ménil. Édouard Glissant was later influenced by Césaire and Ménil, and in turn had an influence on Patrick Chamoiseau, who founded the Créolité movement with Raphaël Confiant and Jean Bernabé.

Frantz Fanon, a prominent critic of colonialism and racism, was also from Martinique.

Martinique has a large popular music industry, which gained in international renown after the success of zouk music in the later 20th century. Zouk's popularity was particularly intense in France, where the genre became an important symbol of identity for Martinique and Guadeloupe.[49] Zouk's origins are in the folk music of Martinique and Guadeloupe, especially Martinican chouval bwa, and Guadeloupan gwo ka. There's also notable influence of the pan-Caribbean calypso tradition and Haitian kompa.