History of Martinique
This is a page on the history of the island of Martinique.
100–1450
The island was originally inhabited by
1450–1600
Christopher Columbus charted the island in 1493, making the region known to European interests, but it was not until June 15, 1502, on his fourth voyage, that he actually landed, leaving several pigs and goats on the island. However, the Spaniards ignored the island as other parts of the New World were of greater interest to them.
17th century
In 1635,
The following year, d'Esnambuc fell ill and passed the command of the settlement to his nephew,
Over the next quarter of a century the French established full control of the island. They systematically killed the fiercely resisting Caribs as they expanded, forcing the survivors back to the Caravelle Peninsula in the Cabesterre (the eastern side of the island).
Although labor-intensive, sugar was a lucrative product to trade, and cultivation on Martinique soon focused only on growing and trading sugar. In 1685, King
The French colonial settlers were peasants attracted by propaganda promising fortune and a life under the sun. The "volunteers" were
In 1650 Father Jacques du Tetre built a still for converting the waste from the sugarcane mills into molasses, which became a major export industry.
In 1654, du Parquet allowed 250 Dutch Jews, who were fleeing Brazil following the Portuguese taking back their territory in that colony, to settle Martinique, where they engaged in the sugar trade. This was by far the most sought after product in Europe and the crop soon became Martinique's biggest export.
After the death of du Parquet, his widow ruled on behalf of his children until 1658, when
In 1658, Dominican Fathers built an estate at Fonds Saint-Jacques. From 1693 to 1705, this was the home of Père Labat, the French Dominican priest who improved the distillery. A colorful character, he was also an explorer, architect, engineer, and historian, and fought as a soldier against the English.
In 1664, Louis transferred the island, this time to the newly established Compagnie des Indes Occidentales. The next year, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, a Dutch fleet under Admiral Michiel de Ruyter retired to Martinique to refit after the fleet's indecisive encounter with an English force off Barbados. Two years later a hurricane devastated Martinique and Guadelope, killing some 2,000 people. This was the first of several natural disasters that would devastate the population of Martinique over the next few centuries.
In 1666 and 1667 the English unsuccessfully attacked. The Treaty of Breda (1667) ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War and hence the hostilities.
In 1672,
During the Third Anglo-Dutch War, de Ruyter returned to Martinique in 1674, this time with the intent to capture Fort Royal. Calm winds and French booms prevented him from sailing his fleet of 30 warships, nine supply ships, and 15 transports into the harbor. The French repulsed his attempt to land his 3,400 troops, causing him to lose 143 men, at a cost of 15 French lives.
In 1675 the first
The growth of the town resulted in the progressive clearing and draining of the
In 1685, in France King
In 1692, Charles de La Roche-Courbon, Count of Blénac, the Governor and Lieutenant General of the French colonies in America, named Fort Royal as the capital city of Martinique. In 1693 the English again unsuccessfully attacked Martinique.
1700–1788
In 1720, a French naval officer,
During the Seven Years' War the British 76th Regiment of Foot under William Rufane captured Martinique in early 1762.[2] Following
August 2, 1766 saw the birth of Saint-Pierre de Louis Delgrès, a mixed-race free black who would serve in the French army and fight the British in 1794, before becoming the leader of the unsuccessful resistance in Guadeloupe against General Richepance, whom Napoleon had sent to restore slavery to that colony. On August 13 (in either 1766 or 1767) a hurricane – apparently accompanied by an earthquake – struck the island; 600–1600 were killed.[3][4][5] Monsieur de la Pagerie, the father of the future Empress, was almost ruined. At the time, there were some 450 sugar mills in Martinique, and molasses was a major export. Four years later an earthquake shook the island. By 1774, when a decree ended indentured servitude for whites, there were some 18 to 19 million coffee trees on the island.
In 1779, the future
French Revolution
The
On 4 April 1792, the French
In 1794 the
Napoleonic Wars
Six years later, in 1800,
In 1802, the British returned the island to the French under the Treaty of Amiens. Napoléon Bonaparte reinstated slavery in the French colonies, though in Martinique it had never been abolished in practice, due to the British occupation. In 1796, he had married Martiniquan Joséphine de Beauharnais and in 1804 she became Empress of France.
During the Napoleonic Wars, in 1804 the British established a fort at Diamond Rock, outside Fort de France, and garrisoned it with some 120 sailors and five cannons. The Royal Navy commissioned the fort HMS Diamond Rock and from there were able for 17 months to harass vessels coming into the port. The French eventually sent a fleet of sixteen vessels that retook the island after a fierce bombardment.
The British again
1815–1899
A slave insurrection in 1822 resulted in two dead and seven injured. The government condemned 19 slaves to death, 10 to the galleys, six to whipping, and eight to helping with the executions.
Martinique has suffered from earthquakes as well as hurricanes. In 1839, an
In February 1848,
In 1851 a law was passed authorizing the creation of two colonial banks with the authority to issue banknotes. This led to the founding of the Bank of Martinique in Saint Pierre, and the Bank of Guadeloupe. (These banks would merge in 1967 to form the present-day Banque des Antilles Française).
Indentured laborers from India started to arrive in Martinique in 1853. Plantation owners recruited the Indians to replace the slaves, who once free, had fled the plantations. This led to the creation of the small but continuing
The city government in 1857-58 cleared and filled the flood channel encircling Fort de France. The channel had become an open sewer and hence a health hazard. The filled-in channel, La Levee, marked the northern boundary of the city.
Martinique got its second enduring financial institution in 1863 when the Crédit Foncier Colonial opened its doors in Saint Pierre. Its objective was to make long-term loans for the construction or modernization of sugar factories. It replaced the Crédit Colonial, which had been established in 1860, but seems hardly to have gotten going.
In 1868 construction work on the Radoub Basin port facilities at Fort de France finally was completed. The improvements to the port would enable Fort de France better to compete in trade and commerce with Saint Pierre.
In 1870, during the
By this time sugar cane fields covered some 57% of Martinique's arable land. Unfortunately, falling prices for sugar forced many small sugar works to merge. Producers turned to rum production in an attempt to improve their fortunes.
When France established the Third Republic in 1871, the colonies, Martinique among them, gained representation in the National Assembly.
In 1887, after visiting Panama, Paul Gauguin spent some months with his friend Charles Laval, also a painter, in a cabin some two kilometers south of Saint Pierre. During this period Gauguin produced several paintings featuring Martinique. There is now a small Gauguin museum in Le Carbet that has reproductions of his Martinique paintings. That same year Harper's Weekly sent the author and translator Lafcadio Hearn to Martinique for a short visit; he ended up staying for some two years. After his return to the United States he would publish two books, one an account of his daily life in Martinique and the other the story of a slave.
By 1888, the population of Martinique had risen from about 163,000 people a decade earlier to 176,000. At the same time, natural disasters continued to plague the island. Much of Fort de France was devastated by a fire in 1890, and then the next year a hurricane killed some 400 people.
In the 1880s, the Paris architect
20th century
The abolition of slavery did not end racially charged labor strife. In 1900, a strike at a sugar factory owned by a Frenchman led to the police shooting dead 10 agricultural workers.
Mount Pelée eruption
On May 8, 1902, a blast from the volcano Mont Pelée destroyed the town of St. Pierre, killing almost all of its 29,000 inhabitants. The only survivors were a shoemaker and a prisoner who was saved by his position in a jail dungeon with only a single window. Because Saint Pierre was the commercial capital of the island, there were four banks in the city—the Banque de la Martinique, Banque Transatlantique, a branch of the Colonial Bank of London, and the Crédit Foncier Colonial. All were destroyed. The town had to be completely rebuilt and lost its status as the commercial capital, a title which shifted to Fort-de-France. Due to the eruption, refugees from Martinique arrived in boats to the southern villages of Dominica and some remained permanently on the island.
Return to normality
A hurricane in 1903 killed 31 people and damaged the sugar crop and a strong earthquake off Saint Lucia in 1906 caused further damage in Martinique, but mercifully no deaths. As construction began on the Panama Canal, more than 5,000 Martiniquans left to work on the project.
Resettlement of Saint Pierre began in 1908. Even so, two years later the City of Saint Pierre was removed from the map of France with jurisdiction over the ruins transferring to
With war with Germany looming, in 1913 France enacted compulsory military service in the colony, and called on Martinique to send 1,100 men per year to France for training. When World War I finally came, 18,000 Martiniquans took part, of whom 1,306 died. During the war, the French government requisitioned Martinique's rum production for the use of the French Army. Production doubled as sugar mills converted to distilleries, helping the recovery of the local economy.
Between the World Wars
In 1923 Saint Pierre was reestablished as a municipality. Two years later, in Fort de France, the municipal council approved the Mayor's proposal to redevelop the slum district of Terres Sainvilles as a "workers city". The council would sell the new housing to the residents for 40 semi-annual interest-free payments.
With the collapse of the world market for sugar in 1921–22, cultivators sought a new crop. In 1928 they introduced bananas.
Mont Pelée became active in 1929, forcing the temporary evacuation of Saint Pierre. The Volcanological Observatory there did not get its first seismometer until some three years later.
In 1931, the Martiniquan
In 1933,
In 1934, persons unknown kidnapped and murdered André Aliker; his body washed up on the beach with his arms tied behind him. Aimé Césaire, Senghor, Damas, and others, founded L'Etudiant, a Black student review.
In 1939, the French cruiser Jeanne d'Arc arrived late in the year with Admiral Georges Robert, High Commissioner of the Republic to the Antilles and Guiana. Aimé Césaire returned to Martinique. He became a teacher at the Lycée Schœlcher in Fort de France, where his students included Frantz Fanon and Édouard Glissant.
World War II
Until mid-1943, Martinique was officially pro-Vichy, with the US and Great Britain seeking to limit any effect of that stance on the war. The US did prepare plans for an invasion by an expeditionary force to capture the island, and at various times the US and Britain established blockades. For instance, from July to November 1940, the British cruisers HMS Fiji and HMS Dunedin maintained a watch to ensure that the French aircraft carrier Béarn and the other French naval vessels in Martinique did not slip away to Europe.
In June 1940, the French cruiser Émile Bertin arrived in Martinique with 286 tons of gold from the Bank of France. The original intent was that Bank's gold reserve go to Canada for safekeeping, and a first shipment did go there. When France signed an armistice with Germany, plans changed and the second shipment was rerouted to Martinique. When it arrived in Martinique, Admiral Robert arranged for the storage of the gold in Fort Desaix. The island was blockaded by the Royal Navy and the British used the gold as collateral for Lend-Lease facilities from the US, on the basis it could be "acquired" at any time if needed.[12]
In late 1941, Admiral Robert agreed to keep the French naval vessels, including the Émile Bertin immobilized, in return for the Allies not bombarding and invading the French Antilles. In mid-1943, Admiral Robert returned to France via Puerto Rico and Lisbon, and Free French sympathizers took control of the gold at Fort Desaix and the French fleet.
In 1944, the American film director Howard Hawks directed Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Hoagy Carmichael and Walter Brennan in the film To Have and Have Not. Hawks more-or-less based the film on a novel that Ernest Hemingway had written in 1937. The essence of the plot is the conversion from neutrality to the Free French side of an American fishing boat captain operating out of Vichy-controlled Fort de France in 1940.
In 1945,
In 1947 the High Court of Justice in Versailles tried Admiral Robert for collaboration. He received a sentence of 10 years at hard labor and national degradation for life. The Court released him from the hard labor after six months, and he received a pardon in 1957.
Departmental era
In 1946, the French National Assembly voted unanimously to transform Martinique from a colony of France into a department, known in French as a
Some[who?] think that French funding to the DOM has somewhat made up for the social and economic devastation of the slave trade and sugar crop monoculture. With French funding to Martinique, the island had one of the highest standards of living in the Caribbean. However, it remained, somewhat constrained, dependent upon French aid, as when measured by what Martinique actually produced, it was one of the poorer islands. Martinique being one of the poorer islands is due to everything costing on average 12.3% [1][13] more than in France while salaries being on average lower. Many inequalities [14] and political issues are also at cause.
Sources and references
- ^ see Gabriel de Clieu for more detail
- ISBN 978-0-8078-9940-3, retrieved 2018-08-09
- ^ Sir Norman Lockyer, ed. (1902). Nature. Vol. 66. p. 152.
- ^ Aspinall, Sir Algernon Edward (1907). The Pocket Guide to the West Indies. E. Stanford. p. 252.
- ^ a b 1995: Rappaport, Edward N. and Fernandez-Partagas, Jose; "The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492–1994", NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS NHC-47, National Hurricane Center, 41 pp.
- ISBN 0-486-25514-X.
- ^ Besson, Gerard. 2000. The 'Land of Beginnings'. A historical digest, Newsday, Sunday August 27, 2000
- ^ Reinhardt, Catherine A. (2005). Claims to Memory: Beyond Slavery and Emancipation in the French Caribbean. New York: Polygons. p. 112.
- ^ a b Geggus, David. “The British Government and the Saint Domingue Slave Revolt, 1791-1793.” The English Historical Review 96.379 (April, 1981), 285-305.
- ISBN 978-0-8122-4172-3.
- ^ Elisa Bordin and Anna Scacchi (eds), Transatlantic Memories of Slavery: Remembering the Past, Changing the Future, Cambria Press, 2015, p. 107.
- SBN 333 19377 6.
- ^ "En Martinique, les prix sont plus élevés de 12,3 % qu'en France métropolitaine - Insee Analyses Martinique - 9".
- ^ "Pauvreté et niveau de vie : 29 % des Martiniquais vivent sous le seuil de pauvreté - Insee Analyses Martinique - 39".
- Burton, Richard D.E. (1978). Assimilation or Independence? Prospects for Martinique. Centre for Developing-Area Studies. ISBN 0-88819-039-5.
- Burton, Richard D.E. and Fred Reno (1995). French and West Indian: Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana Today. New World Studies. University Press of Virginia. ISBN 0-8139-1565-1.
- Wilgus, A. Curtis (1958). The Caribbean: British, Dutch, French, United States. University of Florida Press. ISBN 0-8139-1565-1.
External links
- Institutional History of Martinique - Official site of the French Government (translation by Maryanne Dassonville)