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History Martinique
Between 5000 years before J.-C. and the
beginning of our era, several waves of migrations of Arawaks Indians coming from
the Basin of Orénoque migrated to the West-Indian archipelago. In Martinique,
about sixty Arawaks sites were inventoried showing the existence of true
villages inhabited since the II nd century of our era.
The Indians lived mainly of agriculture. They
had the art of pottery. They did not write, but left " messages " on engraved
rocks. The intrusion of the Caribbean Indians, coming from the area of Guyanes,
involves in the Xth century the collapse of the arawak reign in all the
Lesser Antilles.
June 15 1502, Christopher Colombus landed in
Martinique, and discovered these people that he called " Indians " or " red
skins " because of a red dyeing (the rocou) used by Arawaks to paint their body
against the mosquitos. The Spaniards did not leave colonists on the island. The
Spaniards, who feared the Caribbean Indians neglected this island.
The island was colonized by France in 1635 by
Pierre Belain d' Esnambuc, who died in 1658. In 1664, repurchased by the Company
of the Western Indies in 1664, the island becomes a colony of the kingdom in
1674 and Colbert institutes the blacks trade.
Colony of the Crown in 1783, it
was very coveted by the English who settled there in 1794, after the first
convention of the abolition of slavery.
The first European colonists arrived about the
middle of XVIIth century and quickly developed the sugar cane culture resorting
to the African labour. The economic system of the Habitations, founded on the
exploitation of the slaves work in the sugar plantations, will remain until the
official abolition of slavery, April 27, 1848, by the Republic.
In 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte restores slavery
giving rise to ceaseless wars between English and French.
France wins and the
abolition of slavery is proclaimed on the initiative of Victor SCHOELCHER, more
than 70.000 slaves are released, it was followed by an arrival of Asian labour
which contributed to mix the races.
Since 1946, Martinique belongs to the French
overseas departments, like Guadeloupe and Guyana.
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