Martinique is a piece of France in the tropics, a beautiful island of mountains covered by a tropical jungle, and famous for its diversity of exotic flowers, as well as the white and black sandy beaches (map)

On the little beach at the feet of fort St. Louis, a placard warns the visitors: “It’s forbidden to take sand away, transgressors will be fined”. While in North America and Europe is forbidden to throw papers to the floor, in Martinique is forbidden to rob the “soil”. After landing in 1502 in the island, Christopher Columbus wrote in his diary: “ This must be the best place in the world. I have never seen a more fertile, beautiful and charming land. My eyes will never get tired of contemplating so much green”. However, he continued his trip, and only after more than a century, the first French colonists, led by the corsair Pierre Belain d’Esnambuc arrived, and founded St. Pierre, starting the colonization of the island.

As in many others of the Caribbean islands, the French and the British fought ferociously for the control of Martinique, that was kept, definitively, by the French through a treaty signed in 1815. Today is a French department. The first impression the visitors have, is that a piece of France has been transported to the Caribbean. In his novel, Central Passage, the Trinitarian writer, V.S. Naipaul writes: “Contrary to what happens in other islands, where everything is centered around their main city, Martinique is full of small French towns, each one with its church, its mairie (city hall), and the monument to the war heroes…”.

Tropical France
With its 1,085 square km., Martinique is the biggest Windward Island. The quiet Caribbean waters are at the west coast; at east, the huge Atlantic waves burst against a beautiful coast, with a rustic landscape compared by some tourism guides with that of Bretagne in France.

On the north, emerges the majestic silhouette of Mont Pelée (1,397m), a sleeping volcano since 1902, when a furious eruption took place. A series of hills, called mornes, connect the volcano with other craggy mountains of the island, as Les Pitons du Carbet (1205m) in the middle, and La Montagne du Vauclin (504m) in the south. The yearly temperature average is around 26°C, and breezes coming from the sea make Martinique nights very pleasant. Adding the exuberant vegetation, Columbus enthusiasm is easily understood.

Currently, agriculture is still the main economic activity on the island, with a population of 380,000 people. As the rest of the islands, Martinique suffered the horror of colonization and slavery. But, contrary to the majority of the British West Indies that crossed the long road to independence, Martinique, and Guadeloupe, have been absorbed, politically and economically, by France, and now are part of the Overseas Department of that country.

From the First Colonists to the Present
The first French colonists lost few time, because, almost immediately, established sugar plantations on the island. But, before that, they found the ferocious resistance from the Caribbean Indians, who after an initial fighting period, opted to take refuge in the Atlantic coast, though afterwards, faded away defeated by the French’s modern weapons and their diseases. The arrival of slaves from Africa was a major boost for Martinique’s economy, directed by the békés, the white owners of the plantations forming an aristocratic elite. With the outbreak of the French Revolution, in 1789, the white aristocracy feared the end of their privileged position, so they invited the British to invade the island. This is why, between 1794 and 1802, the Martinique békés, avoided being beheaded by the guillotine.

After the official abolition of 1848, for which Frenchman Victor Schoelcher fought so bravely, the sugar industry declined, though rum continued to be the most exported product of the island. Despite all this, St. Pierre, the ancient capital, grew in importance, to become an important cultural and economic center. In May 8, 1902, the violent eruption of the volcano, Pelée, leveled the city in a few seconds, killing all of its 30,000 inhabitants.

The support Martinique gave to the Vichy Government brought the naval blockade from the allies, originating the absence of some food and basic products.
After the war, Aimé Césaire, a radical black poet of Martinique, was elected, at the same time, major of Fort-de-France, the new capital, and député (deputy) of the French Assembly, during an emotional anti-béké wave. In 1946, Martinique and Guadeloupe were declared Overseas French Departments.

Today, inhabitants in Martinique are satisfied with the benefits it brings. However, some regret the lost of identity of the island, that has its roots in Africa, and that has been transformed, radically, by the French culture.