An English fleet invades and captures Jamaica in 1655. Later migrants, the Carib people, moved into the Caribbean islands and in some places pushed out the Arawak people. The sugar crop grew very well here. Their name came from the special wooden huts called boucanswhere they smoked their meat. Fort Royal (Fort-de-France) on Martinique was a major port for French warships in the region from which the French were able to explore the region. English is its official language, but French-based Creole languages are widely spoken by the island population due to a period of French colonization[9][10]. In 1946 the French government gave the status of French départementto its Caribbean possessions, referred to as departmentalisation. In the hundred years after Columbus's landing, Dominica remained isolated. The French Caribbean (or Francophone Caribbean) includes all the French-speaking countries in the region. The following Caribbean regions are predominantly French-speaking and/or French Creole-speaking: (*) = gained independence from Great Britain. Inspired by French revolutionary sentiments that at one point freed the slaves, Toussaint L'Ouverture and Jean Jacques Dessalines led the Haitian Revolution that gained the independence of Haiti in 1804, the first Afro-Caribbean republic in the Western Hemisphere. By 1797, 14,000 French settlers came to live in Trinidad, consisting of about 2,000 whites and 12,000 slaves. Of this group of immigrants, the whites and about one quarter of the people of color were land owners, and their primary language was Patois, their French Creole dialect. In 1797, Trinidad became a British crown colony, with a French-speaking population. The du Paquet family bought Martinique, Grenada, and Saint Lucia for 60,000 livres. It became accepted for the French planters to have colored mistresses. They were called the "new" colonists, to distinguish them from the older Spanish people. His nephew, Jacques Dyel du Parquet, inherited d'Esnambuc's authority over the French settlements in the Caribbean, in 1637 becoming governor of Martinique. The French, hard on their heels, occupy part of St Kitts (1627), Dominica (1632) and Martinique and Guadeloupe (1635). The Dutch finally prevailed, with one permanent colony along the Essequibo River in 1616, and another, in 1624, along the neighboring Berbice River. This decree opened up the island of Trinidad to Catholics from any country that would swear fealty to the Spanish Crown. By the late 1640s, in France Mazarin had little interest in colonial affairs, and the company languished. Richelieu became a shareholder in the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe, created to accomplish this with d'Esnambuc at its head. The first permanent English colonies were founded at Saint Kitts (1624) and Barbados (1627). Port-of-Spain: Paria Publishing Company Ltd., 1991. These families lived in large estate houses, with many servants and ornate furnishings. However, these servants did not arrive in large numbers. In this period, the Antillean Creole language developed. The history of the Caribbean reveals the significant role the region played in the colonial struggles of the European powers since the 15th century. In the 18th century, Saint-Domingue grew to be the richest sugar colony in the Caribbean. Traditional island cuisine results from a melange of cultural influences. The people who migrated to the New World came from the Atlantic coast north of Bordeaux and the northwest region of France. Collectivities can be included too. ... pillaged the "Spanish Main," raiding Spanish silver fleets and attacking Caribbean ports. In Grenada and in St. Lucia, the French and English fought each other for possession. He explored the Caribbean in 1601 and the coast of New England in 1603 before traveling farther north. The resulting offspring were sometimes legitimized and educated abroad by their fathers. Trinidad's population jumped from just under 1,400 in 1777, to over 15,000 by the end of 1789. The effect on Trinidad was drastic and immediate. The term's more ambiguous than the term "French West Indies", which refers specifically to the islands that are French overseas departments, which means they have overall the same laws and regulations as departments on the mainland of France. The two official French overseas departments are Guadeloupe and Martinique. France had a colony for several years, they imported slaves from West Africa, Martinique and Guadeloupe to work on its plantations. It was later discovered that rum could be made from fermented cane juice, a drink that remains the ultimate in tropi⦠By 1688, the monarchy had transported over 1,000 Huguenots to Martinique after they refused to ⦠Despite the long history of British rule, Grenada's French heritage is still evidenced by the number of French loanwords in Grenadian Creole, French-style buildings, cuisine and places name (For ex. 0 1 2 ... french,spaniards,africans. An introduction to tracing your Caribbean ancestors British Caribbean territories Anguilla (1650) Antigua (1632) Bahamas (from 1629) Barbados (1625) Belize (British Honduras) (1638) Bermuda (1609) British Virgin Islands (from 1666) several from the Dutch Cayman Islands (1670) from the Spanish Dominica (1763) from the French Grenada (1763) from the French Guyana (British Guiana) (1814) from the⦠The older, wealthier families were an elite group. Because it was considered underpopulated, Roume de St. Laurent, a Frenchman living in Grenada, was able to obtain a Cédula de Población from the Spanish king Charles III, on 4 November 1783, allowing French planters with their slaves, free coloreds and mulattos from the French Antilles of Martinique, Grenada, Guadeloupe and Dominica to migrate to Trinidad. The three Acadian cultural centers of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve share the stories and customs of the Acadians who came to Louisiana and became the Cajuns, people proud of their French roots who adapted to a new land and a ⦠Carnivals And Parades Are Serious Business. This decree opened up the island of Trinidad to Catholics from any country that would swear fealty to the Spanish Crown. In the 17th century, buccaneers lived on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola and its tiny turtle-shaped neighbour, Tortuga. Most colonies were developed to export products such as fish, rice, sugar, and furs. In 1635 d'Esnambuc sailed to Martinique with one hundred French settlers to clear land for sugarcane plantations. they came to the Caribbean because they wanted to find a route to the pacific ocean, sugar & other goods and, like most colonies of the times, they wanted wealth (gold). much of the change that came about did not flow fr om ... colonies more than made up for the fall in French and Dutch exports, ... saying its basic point that the Caribbean economy had come to count. However most of these islands changed hands several times. What had been an underdeveloped and backwater settlement, became a significant colony in the West Indies. France formally ceded possession of Dominica to Great Britain in 1763. As a result, Trinidad rapidly became known as one of the most cultured societies in the West Indies. Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc was a French trader and adventurer in the Caribbean, who established the first permanent French colony, Saint-Pierre, on the island of Martinique in 1635. At first, they lived as hunters, and shot wild pigs with their long-barrelled muskets. Fifty years later there were 18,680 coffee trees in Martinique, and coffee cultivation was established in Haiti, Mexico, and most of the islands of the Caribbean. When Columbus arrived in 1493, he introduced sugarcane to the natives. Bousillage, a mixture of Spanish moss and mud, was the Louisiana version of traditional building methods used in Acadie and in France. Between 1536 and 1609, the French and English successfully raided the smaller Leeward and Windward islands where the Spanish were weak. The Spanish and English (and French ⦠Actually white servants came to the islands before the African slaves arrived. The company was not particularly successful and Richelieu had it reorganized as the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique. Learn how and when to remove this template message, List of governors general of the French Antilles, "Populations légales 2011 des départements et des collectivités d'outre-mer", "Base chiffres clés : évolution et structure de la population 2010", "Actualités : 2008, An 1 de la collectivité de Saint-Martin", "Actualités : 2008, An 1 de la collectivité de Saint-Barthélemy", Sovereign states and dependent territories, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=French_West_Indies&oldid=988108635, French-speaking countries and territories, Articles needing additional references from April 2014, All articles needing additional references, France articles missing geocoordinate data, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Overseas collectivity, detached from Guadeloupe, This page was last edited on 11 November 2020, at 03:29. The descendants of Caribbean people will come from the current Caribbean people. Over time, the elitism of the French subsided as they inter-married with other ethnic groups. Christopher Columbus named the island after the day of the week on which he spotted it, a Sunday (domingo in Latin), 3 November 1493. Trinidad became a safe haven because of Roume de St. Laurent's inspired move of ten years before, when under a Spanish government a Cedula of Population (1783) made it easy for French-speaking Free Black people, French colonists and others, to come to this island, the main stipulation being that they be Catholic. The French brought with them the practice of slavery which would add numerous African, and later Caribbean, cultures to the state. In 1642, the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique received a twenty-year extension of its charter. Dominica is a former French and British colony in the Eastern Caribbean, located about halfway between the French islands of Guadeloupe (to the north) and Martinique (to the south). They are often known as the Taino and the Igneri. The French permanently settled on Martinique and Guadeloupe after being driven off Saint Kitts and Nevis (Saint-Christophe in French) by the British. He remained in Martinique and did not concern himself with the other islands. These settlers came mostly from other French colonies, such as the French West Indies, Acadia (Canada) and Louisiana. Historians say they believe the first "modern" Caribbean Carnival originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the late 18th century when a flood of French settlers brought the Fat Tuesday masquerade party tradition with them to the island, although Fat Tuesday celebrations were almost certainly taking place at least a century before that. In addition, some of the islands of the present and former British West Indies were once ruled by France. What did the Dutch, English and French encourage their merchants and bankers to do? French settlers began arriving during the eighteenth century, but the island remained independent until its conquest by the British in 1761 and formal cession in 1763. One of the most skillful of the French revolutionary leaders in the Caribbean was Victor Hugues, a man of extraordinary energy, who stirred up the slaves and the Caribs against the English. [5][6][7] It can also refer to any area that exhibits a combination of French and Caribbean cultural influences in music, cuisine, style, architecture, and so on. The influx of French settlers did just that, and the island became a Spanish colony in name only. The islands of the Caribbean were discovered by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, working for the then Spanish monarchy. These new immigrants established the local communities of Blanchisseuse, Champs Fleurs, Paramin, Cascade, Carenage and Laventille, adding to the ancestry of Trinidadians and creating the creole identity; Spanish, French, and Patois were the languages spoken. Some of the largest scale raids were led by the Welsh captain, Sir Henry Morgan (later knight⦠Among some of them, a French-based creole language is spoken, whereas in others the language is nearing extinction; specific words and expressions may vary among the islands. In 1608 he ⦠The french colonization of the Caribbean started during the 16th century under the rule of Francis 1 (king of France) and they ended they colonization spree in roughly the 19th century. Around the same time, France established colonies in Martinique and Guadeloupe. In 1665, the Knights sold the islands they had acquired to the newly formed (1664) Compagnie des Indes occidentales. It is not used much in France, unless the speaker wants to refer to every French dependency in the Caribbean region. The notable exception is Barbados, which was colonized by the British only, and Martinique and Guadeloupe by the French only. In 1626 he returned to France, where he won the support of Cardinal Richelieu to establish French colonies in the region. By 1797, the population had swelled to 18,627. The descendants of the French remain a significant force in Trinidad to this day, especially in the professions, as lawyers, doctors, and educators. Post World War II trends The French On the 24th of November, 1783, the King of Spain signed The Royal Cedula of Population. The English settled St Kitts in 1624, Barbados, Montserrat and Antigua in 1627 and Nevis in 1628. The King would name the Governor General of the company, and the company the Governors of the various islands. 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