MARTINIQUE

officially Department of Martinique, French Dpartement de la Martinique island in the Lesser Antilles chain and the smallest of all the French overseas dpartements, situated about 4,400 miles (7,100 km) from France in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The island is some 50 miles (80 km) long from north to south and at its widest extends about 22 miles (35 km) from east to west. The capital is Fort-de-France. Area 436 square miles (1,128 square km). Pop. (1992 est.) 369,000. For information about regional aspects of Martinique, see West Indies: Martinique. officially Department of Martinique, French Dpartement de la Martinique, island of the eastern Caribbean Sea, an overseas dpartement of France. It is included in the Lesser Antilles island chain. Its nearest neighbours are the island republics of Dominica, 22 miles to the northwest, and Saint Lucia, 16 miles to the south. The main islands of Guadeloupe, also a French overseas dpartement, lie about 74 miles to the north. Martinique has an area of 436 square miles (1,128 square kilometres) and measures about 50 miles in length and about 22 miles at its widest extent. The second smallest (after Saint-Pierre and Miquelon) of all the French overseas dpartements, Martinique has a population density that is one of the highest in the Antilles. The administrative capital and chief town is Fort-de-France. The name Martinique is probably a corruption of the Indian name Madiana (Island of Flowers) or Madinina (Fertile Island with Luxuriant Vegetation), as reputedly told to Christopher Columbus by the Caribs in 1502. Empress Josphine, consort of Napoleon I, was born on the island in 1763; she was the daughter of a Martinique planter named Joseph Tascher de La Pagerie. Additional reading There are few works that treat all the islands of the Lesser Antilles or describe a particular island comprehensively, although a number of broad overviews are listed in the earlier section on the region. An informative geologic survey, covering locations from both the Lesser Antilles and the Netherlands Antilles, is offered in J.H. Westermann and H. Kiel, The Geology of Saba and St. Eustatius, with Notes on the Geology of St. Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat, Lesser Antilles (1961). Guy Lasserre, La Guadeloupe: tude gographique, 3 vol. (1978), is a detailed geography. Studies of flora include Clarissa Thrse Kimber, Martinique Revisited: The Changing Plant Geographies of a West Indian Island (1988); and David Watts, Man's Influence on the Vegetation of Barbados, 1627 to 1800 (1966).The people of Barbados are discussed in Jill Sheppard, The Redlegs of Barbados, Their Origins and History (1977), which explores the history of indentured servants; Farley Brathwaite (ed.), The Elderly in Barbados (1986), a survey of social and economic conditions of the elderly; and Graham M.S. Dann (ed.), Everyday in Barbados: A Sociological Perspective (1976), which discusses social structures and recreational activity. Jean Benoist (ed.), L'Archipel inachev: culture et socit aux Antilles franaises (1972), is an anthropological study of the French islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, La Dsirade, Marie-Galante, and Saint-Barthlemy. Stuart B. Philpott, West Indian Migration: The Montserrat Case (1973), explores the impact of migration on village population. Bonham C. Richardson, Caribbean Migrants: Environment and Human Survival on St. Kitts and Nevis (1983), focuses on migration as a response to degradation of environment. Karen Fog Olwig, Cultural Adaptation and Resistance on St. John: Three Centuries of Afro-Caribbean Life (1985), examines the society of one of the Virgin Islands.Analyses of economic conditions include Delisle Worrell (ed.), The Economy of Barbados, 19461980 (1982), a study of the trends of the major sectors; Bonham C. Richardson, Panama Money in Barbados, 19001920 (1985), which discusses the impact of remittances on a wide range of economic activities and social attitudes; Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Peasants and Capital: Dominica in the World Economy (1988), which explores patterns of land ownership and agricultural production; and C. Bourne, E.R. Lefranc, and F. Nunes (compilers), Small Farming in the Less Developed Countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean (1980), which provides information on Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, and Antigua. Studies of individual island-state economies include John S. Brierley, Small Farming in Grenada, West Indies (1974); Deirdre M. Kelly, Hard Work, Hard Choices: A Survey of Women in St. Lucia's Export-Oriented Electronics Factories (1987); and Hymie Rubenstein, Coping With Poverty: Adaptive Strategies in a Caribbean Village (1987).Historical works which concentrate mostly on slavery and plantation life include the following: Vincent T. Harlow, A History of Barbados, 16251685 (1926, reprinted 1969), an examination of the period of the early British colonies; Gary A. Puckrein, Little England: Plantation Society and Anglo-Barbadian Politics, 16271700 (1984), a revisionist economic history, particularly strong on the creolizing process; Hilary Beckles, Black Rebellion in Barbados: The Struggle Against Slavery, 16271838 (1984), a provocative interpretation of slave resistance. Jerome S. Handler, The Unappropriated People: Freedmen in the Slave Society of Barbados (1974), which fills a gap in historiography; Karl Watson, The Civilised Island, Barbados: A Social History, 17501816 (1979), a study of the mature slave society; Claude Levy, Emancipation, Sugar, and Federalism: Barbados and the West Indies, 18331876 (1980), on postslavery adjustments; Gordon C. Merrill, The Historical Geography of St. Kitts and Nevis, the West Indies (1958), which discusses the colonial period on the islands; Lennox Honychurch, The Dominica Story: A History of the Island, 2nd ed. (1984), a well-illustrated study covering developments up to the 1980s and benefiting from the author's personal involvement in the constitutional changes leading to independence; and George Brizan, Grenada, Island of Conflict: From Amerindians to People's Revolution, 14981979 (1984), the work of a Grenadian historian and politician. History The Caribs inhabited the island at the time Christopher Columbus sighted it in 1493. It was not until 1502, on his fourth voyage, that he visited the island, leaving there some pigs and goats. Neglected by the Spaniards, who sought more material rewards than those the island offered, Martinique was occupied in 1635 by a Frenchman, Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, who established 80 settlers at Fort-Saint-Pierre at the mouth of the Roxelane River. A year later d'Esnambuc, who had fallen sick, entrusted Martinique to his nephew, Jacques-Dyel du Parquet, who bought the island from the Compagnie des Isles d'Amrique and developed it into a remarkably prosperous colony. In 1654 a group of 250 Dutch Jews, chased from Brazil by the Portuguese, introduced sugarcane. In 1660 cacao trees were planted in place of cotton. French rule After the death of du Parquet, his widow governed the island in the name of her children but disagreed with the settlers; and in 1658 the French king, Louis XIV, resumed sovereignty over the island, paying an indemnity to du Parquet's children. In 1664 the island was placed under the authority of the Compagnie des Indes Occidentales; in 1674 it was made part of the French crown domain, being administered according to the Pacte Colonial, a body of principles summarized in the statement, The mother country founds and maintains the colonies; the colonies enrich the mother country. Supplies and slaves were brought out to the French Antilles by the Compagnie du Sngal, founded in 1664; the slave ships called at Martinique before proceeding to Guadeloupe, permitting the colony first choice of the slaves. In 1723 Arabian coffee was introduced, thus further contributing to the island's prosperity. In 1787 Louis XVI granted Martinique the right to establish a colonial assembly. At various times Martinique was subjected to attack by various foreign fleets. An attack by the Dutch was repulsed in 1674; further attacks by the English were repelled in 1693 and in 1759. In 1762, however, the English captured the island, only to return it to France under the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The English recaptured it in 1794 and occupied it until 1802; captured once more by the English in 1809, it was definitively restored to France in 1814. Slave uprisings occurred in 1789, 1815, and 1822. The abolition of slavery in 1848 created a labour problem, as a result of which labourers from India and China were introduced. Universal suffrage was proclaimed in 1848 but was abolished once more under Napoleon III; after 1870 the Third Republic of France restored representation for the island in the French Parliament. In 1902 the volcanic eruption of Mount Pele destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre, killing about 30,000 people. During World War II Martinique adhered to the Vichy government of Nazi-occupied France for three years before rallying to the Free French cause in 1943. In 1946, Martinique was granted the status of a French dpartement, and in 1974 it was made a rgion.