Who were the first inhabitants of Martinique?
From the 5th century BC they were inhabited by Arawak Native Americans, the Taino. The Kalinagos will take them to the Greater Antilles, to Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, where they were still living when Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492.
History of Guadeloupe. The first inhabitants of the island were Indians who came from Venezuela a few centuries before our era – an evolved and peaceful fishing people: the Arawaks.
Martinique became French in 1635: it was managed by the Compagnie des Iles d’Amérique, created by Richelieu. Slavery developed there from the middle of the 17th century to provide free labor to sugar cane planters.
Victor SCHOELCHER, French Colonies. Immediate abolition of slavery, 1842.
Why does Martinique belong to France?
Both region and department, Martinique, located in the heart of the Antilles in the Caribbean Sea, is organized into a single territorial community. It is one of the five French overseas departments and regions and one of the nine outermost regions of the European Union.
Guadeloupe is a French overseas department, since the law of March 19, 1946 adopted after important debates in Parliament. Deputy Paul Valentino, famous for his fight against the Vichy regime represented on the island by Admiral Robert, is against departmentalization.
Martinique is located in the far south of the French West Indies, a vast Caribbean archipelago that includes Guadeloupe, La Désirade, Marie-Galante, Saintes, Saint-Barths and Saint-Martin, all located to the north of the island. The French West Indies corresponds to the French islands located in the Caribbean Sea.
For some, the name “Martinique” would be a French version of the old island names “Madinina” or “Madiana” that the Arawak would have given. This name meant “island of women”. In fact, according to the Arawaks, the island was only inhabited by women at the time of explorers’ travels to the region.
Who colonized the West Indies?
Christopher Columbus landed there on June 15, 1502, Saint Martin’s Day, on the site of the current town of Carbet. Then the French took possession of the island as soon as the stone wall of Pierre Belain d’Esnambuc landed on September 15, 1635.
It was in the 17th century, under the patronage of Cardinal Richelieu, that French merchants founded the Compagnie des Îles d’Amérique and organized colonization. Liénard de L’Olive and Le Plessis d’Ossonville take possession of the archipelago on June 28, 1635, a merciless war is waged against the Indians of the Caribbean.
Discovery and exploration of the West Indies and the Caribbean The first island that Christopher Columbus discovered on Sunday – Lord’s Day – November 3, 1493, was named Dominica.
The pre-Columbian period In Martinique, the oldest archaeological sites testify to the presence of Amerindians in the 1st century AD. The first inhabitants of Martinique are the Arawaks, originating from the Amazon.
Who abolished slavery in Martinique?
He is known to have acted in favor of the definitive abolition of slavery in France, by the decree of abolition, signed by the provisional government of the Second Republic on April 27, 1848.
Historical. The decree for the abolition of slavery in France was signed on April 27, 1848 by the provisional government of the Second Republic, under the leadership of Victor Schålcher.
In July 1846, King Louis Philippe I abolished slavery in the royal domains of Martinique and Guadeloupe and on the island of Mayotte which had just been acquired by France, but Guizot, the chief minister, n did not intend to go further.
On the occasion of the Treaty of Amiens of March 26, 1802, which returns Tobago, Santa Lucia and Martinique to the republic, where the British maintained slavery, this situation was confirmed by Napoleon Bonaparte, with the law of May 20, 1802.