Trifter

The Island of Beauty, Martinique

Image via Wikipedia

This absolutely beautiful island covered with Palm trees, is located in the Caribbean waters, and is one of the Windward Islands; where the water is blue, and the sand is white.  Many of us look at the beauty of it, a place to vacation and get away from it all, but Martinique has history, a lot of history that most of us never knew, and many will never find out about.

Image via Wikipedia

Christopher Columbus discovered the island back in 1493, but after much trading and exploring France came along and colonized it in 1635. They used the slaves to turn Martinique into the sugar capital for that time period. The people who occupy Martinique today are descendants of the slaves back then.

 From the shore of Martinique about a mile away is another island that is called the Rock of the Diamond, which was used during the Napoleonic Wars when the British took control of the island. Protected as if it were a fortress by 200 seamen; it became known as the “warship of his Majesty, with a Royal Navy flag displayed, to let everyone who past know the power that was presiding there. The land grew as a forest and was covered with bushes and scrubs, no one, would ever believe the horrors that occurred just about 200 years ago.
December 2nd, Napoleon wins one of many battles fought here, this was the Battle of Austerlitz.

After about one hundred and fifty years of the British defending their “ship” and the French fighting for their island, a French Admiral came into the picture. It was Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse and his men who finally conquered the British and took back their land in 1805.

Image via Wikipedia

 Martinique is the birthplace of Napoleon’s empress Josephine; the many slaves of the island cared for her needs and wants. For the French it is the Rock of the Diamond and strong it is. When you consider the fighting, the wars during the 1700’s it needed to strong as a diamond to survive and over time its beauty came back, once again making it one of the most gorgeous Islands in the world.