Island (pop., 2002 est.: 386,000) of the Windward Islands , West Indies , and overseas department of France.
It is 50 mi (80 km) long and 22 mi (35 km) wide and occupies an area of 436 sq mi (1,128 sq km). Largely mountainous, its highest point, Mount Fort-de-France . Tourism is the basis of its economy. Carib Indians, who had ousted earlier Arawak inhabitants, resided on the island when Christopher Columbus visited it in 1502. In 1635 a Frenchman established a colony there, and in 1674 it passed to the French crown. The British captured and held the island from 1762 to 1763 and occupied it again during the {{link=Napoleonic Wars">Napoleonic Wars , but each time it was returned to France. Made a department of France in 1946, it remained under French rule despite a communist-led independence movement in the 1970s.