Petite Martinique ( ) is one of the islands of

Carriacou and Petite Martinique Carriacou and Petite Martinique, also known as the Southern Grenadines, is a dependency (part) of Grenada, lying north of Grenada island and south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in the Lesser Antilles. Carriacou Island is the largest isla ...

, which is part of

Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...

. It is 4 km ( miles) away from

Carriacou Carriacou ( ) is an island of the Grenadine Islands. It is a part of the nation of Grenada and is located in the south-eastern Caribbean Sea, northeast of the island of Grenada and the north coast of South America. The name is derived from the ...

. With its and population of 900, it is smaller than Carriacou. Petite Martinique comprises about 9.8% of the total area and 10% of the entire population of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, which is estimated at 10,000.

History

The first settler on Petite Martinique was Mr. Pierre from

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

, who left his home island shortly after 1700 seeking new fertile land to grow sugarcane and cotton. The island was owned by him and his wife ('Madame Pierre'), their children and

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

. Hence, the largest village was named Madame Pierre after the wife of the French owner. It is thought that he named the island ''Petit'' (little) Martinique because he thought its shape resembled that of Martinique.

Colonial history

On 27 September 1650, Jacques du Parquet bought

from the

Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique The Company of the American Islands () was a French chartered company that in 1635 took over the administration of the French portion of ''Saint-Christophe island'' (Saint Kitts) from the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe which was the only French settl ...

, which was dissolved, for the equivalent of £1160. In 1657, Jacques du Parquet sold Grenada to Jean de Faudoas, Comte de Sérillac for the equivalent of £1890. In 1664, King

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

bought out the independent island owners and established the

French West India Company The French West India Company () was a trading company of the Kingdom of France founded in May 1664 and eventually closed in late 1674. The brainchild of King Louis XIV's First Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the company was part of an ambitious ...

. Steele, page 54 In 1674 the French West India Company was dissolved. Proprietary rule ended in Grenada, which became a French crown colony. Petite Martinique was part of the French colony in 1762. It was part of the

British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were the territories in the West Indies under British Empire, British rule, including Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Antigua and Barb ...

Grenada colony from 1763-1779 and 1783-1974. It was part of the French Grenada colony from 1779-1783. It has been a dependency of Grenada since 1974.

Recent history

The majority of the inhabitants today are of Indian, Scottish, Portuguese, French and African descent. There is still a British influence on the island as it was colonised by the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

and it is part of Grenada, a

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

state. The only French influence is demonstrated in the aforementioned village name, Madame Pierre. However, the local dialect is

English-based creole languages An English-based creole language (often shortened to English creole) is a creole language for which English was the '' lexifier'', meaning that at the time of its formation the vocabulary of English served as the basis for the majority of the cr ...

. The Sacred Heart Church was the first Roman Catholic Church on Petite Martinique and the first wooden building. It was destroyed by a hurricane in the 1940s, and the Church standing today was built in 1947. Though

Hurricane Ivan Hurricane Ivan was a large, long-lived, and devastating tropical cyclone that caused widespread damage in the Caribbean and United States. The ninth named storm, the sixth hurricane, and the fourth major hurricane of the active 2004 Atlantic h ...

in 2004 dealt a devastating blow to the island of

, Carriacou and Petite Martinique suffered significantly less damage. However, in 2005, Hurricane Emily hit Carriacou, damaging and forcing the evacuation of its only hospital and destroying or damaging hundreds of homes. In early July 2024,

Hurricane Beryl Hurricane Beryl (, ) was a deadly and destructive tropical cyclone that impacted parts of the Caribbean, the Yucatán Peninsula, and the Gulf Coast of the United States in late June and early July 2024. The second named storm, first hurricane ...

made landfall as a Category 4 storm, causing extensive damage on the island as well as

. The hurricane devastated the island's power infrastructure, and destroyed cell towers, and it has been estimated that up to 95% of the residences on the island were destroyed or damaged beyond habitability. Communications were almost entirely cut off from the island as a result of the hurricane, hampering response and recovery operations. The water supply for the island was also affected as desalination plants were damaged or taken offline as a result of the storm. No fatalities have been reported on the island as of yet. The humanitarian response to the hurricane's damage was also hampered by rough seas, preventing aid and supplies from reaching the island.

Education

St. Thomas Aquinas School formerly known as Petite Martinique RC School is the only primary school on the island along with the Petite Martinique Pre-Primary School, so other schoolchildren travel by boat to schools in nearby

References

{{Reflist Islands of Grenada