Port of France

Title

Port of France

Description

Total view of Port of France

ca. 1870

Artist

Anonymus

Historical Description

The island was colonized by France in 1635 by Pierre Belain d’Esnambuc on behalf of the Compagnie des îles d'Amérique founded by Richelieu and has remained in French possession until then, except for three short periods of foreign occupation. With the foundation of the French East India Company by Jean-Baptiste Colbert in 1664, Martinique became the property of the French crown. During the Second Anglo-Dutch War, France was allied with the Netherlands - an English fleet repeatedly attacked French settlements on Martinique and defeated a French squadron at Saint-Pierre on July 6th. In the Third Anglo-Dutch War, in which France was now fighting England against the Netherlands, Martinique was attacked on July 16, 1674 by the fleet of the Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter. Thanks to the patronage of Madame de Pompadour, the economist and physiocrat Pierre-Paul Le Mercier de La Rivière was appointed director or governor of Martinique, during the period from 1759 to 1764 he had great economic success there. From 1762 to 1763 Martinique was occupied by the British. In 1763, Joséphine, born de Tascher de la Pagerie, who later became Napoleon's wife, was born in Trois-Îlets near Fort-de-France in Martinique. Her parents ran a sugar cane plantation there, which can still be visited as a museum. From 1787 to 1802 a civil war broke out due to conflicts between plantation owners and traders, there was a slave uprising. In 1794, in the spirit of the French Revolution, the French convention voted for the abolition of slavery. This decision did not last long, however, because Napoleon reintroduced slavery in 1802. On May 22, 1848, slavery was finally abolished. Victor Schoelcher played an important role in this. From then on, Indians and Chinese were employed there due to a shortage of workers on the plantations.