Martinique Articles from Columbia Encyclopedia

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.

Martinique


(märtnk´) (KEY) , overseas department and administrative region of France (1995 est. pop. 395,000), 425 sq mi (1,101 sq km), in the Windward Islands, West Indies. Fort-de-France is the capital. The department and the island of Martinique are coextensive.	1

Land, People, and Economy
Of volcanic origin, the island is rugged and mountainous and reaches its greatest height in Mt. Pelée. The mainly Roman Catholic population is largely of African descent; minorities include those of European, Asian Indian, Lebanese, and Chinese origin. French and a creole patois are spoken.	2
Most agriculture exists in the hot valleys and along the coastal strips; a large part of this area is devoted to sugarcane, which was introduced from Brazil in 1654 and which provides one of Martinique’s chief exports, rum. Bananas and pineapples are also important agricultural products. The island’s industries consist mainly of petroleum refining, sugar and rum production, and pineapple canning. Tourism, which has eclipsed agriculture as a source of foreign exchange, constitutes a major sector of the economy, and the majority of the people work in the service sector or administration.	3

History
Visited by Columbus, probably in 1502, the island was ignored by the Spanish; colonization began in 1635, when the French, who had promised the native Caribs the western half of the island, established a settlement. The French proceeded to eliminate the Caribs and later imported African slaves as sugar plantation workers. In the 18th cent. Martinique’s sugar exports made it one of France’s most valuable colonies; although slavery was abolished in 1848, sugar continued to hold a dominant position in the economy. A target of dispute during the Anglo-French worldwide colonial struggles, Martinique was finally confirmed as a French possession after the Napoleonic wars. In 1902 an eruption of Mt. Pelée destroyed the town of St. Pierre.	4
Martinique supported the Vichy regime after France’s collapse in World War II, but in 1943 a U.S. naval blockade forced the island to transfer its allegiance to the Free French. It became a department of France in 1946 and an administrative region in 1974. Although the island has recovered from the extensive damage caused by a hurricane in 1980, France has continued its attempts to improve the economic life of the Martinique, which is plagued by overpopulation and a lack of development.	5

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.

Fort-de-France

(fôr-d-fräNs) (KEY) , city (1999 pop. 94,049), capital of the French overseas dept. of Martinique, West Indies. It is a popular tourist resort and a free port, exporting mainly bananas, sugar, and rum. It was settled in 1762 by the French, who built Fort-Royal by the strategically situated harbor. Yellow fever hampered its prosperity, however, and Fort-de-France did not gain importance until after 1902, when the city of Saint-Pierre was destroyed by an eruption of Mont Pelée. Drainage of the swamps to control disease further stimulated Fort-de-France’s growth. Empress Josephine, first wife of Napoleon I, was born across the bay from the city.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.

Pelée


(pl´) (KEY) , volcano, 4,429 ft (1,350 m) high, on N Martinique, in the West Indies. On May 8, 1902, the day after the eruption of Soufrière on St. Vincent, Pelée also erupted, engulfing Saint-Pierre at its base and killing c.40,000 people in the city and adjacent area. Because the chemical composition of the volcanic ash prevents plant life, the thick layer deposited over a wide expanse is almost complete wasteland. Pelée also erupted in 1792 and 1851.	1
See G. Thomas and M. M. Witts, The Day the World Ended (1984); E. Zebrowski, Jr., The Last Days of St. Pierre (2002).	2