Before colonization, Martinique (Madinina or Mantinino as referred to by its settlers) was a land covered by magnificent rain forests, devoid of the vast sugar plantations that plagued it under French rule. Columbus visited the small island in June of 1502 on one of his last voyages to the Americas. At the time the land was controlled by the Caribs, Native-Americans who today are linked to the Galibs now living in Guiana. Columbus returned to Spain, leaving the untouched island in the hands of the natives for several decades. .
French King Louis XIII sent the founder of the American Islands Company, Prime Minister Richelieu to Martinique in 1626 to form and exploit a new colony. Colonization finally took off in July of 1635 with the settling of Pierre Belain d" Esnambuc on the western coast of the island. Within four years the French had started a system of direct rule, importing both indentured French servants and slaves purchased from the African coast. Early production on the island included tobacco and cotton and required very little labor. In 1640 the company suffered financial problems and was forced to sell the island to French noble, Dyel Duparquet. Under Duparquet an edict was formed forbidding the use of natives as slaves, limiting the number of slaves on the island to only a few dozen. Although protected from slavery, the Carib natives were slowly fought off the land and were finally slaughtered and defeated by 1658. .
In 1645 Martinique was visited by a group of Dutch settlers from northeastern Brazil who brought with them the means and knowledge for the production of sugar. Sugar-cane soon replaced tobacco as the island's chief crop and required a much larger labor force for its production. Indentured servants were soon replaced by slave labor through the importation by the Senegal Company, who launched a full scale slave trade in Africa. Between the years of 1685 and 1717 Martinique became increasingly covered by sugar plantations and the number of slave workers outweighed that of free colonists.
