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A population linked to colonization and slavery
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The history of Martinique and its population is linked to that of the West Indies, marked by European colonization and the slavery practiced for two centuries by the Spaniards, English, French, and Dutch. However, the human presence in the region dates back well before the arrival of Europeans. In Martinique, archaeologists have found stone tools dating from 3,000 to 3,500 years belonging to the Amerindians. The human occupation of the island indeed began well before Christopher Columbus when the Arawak Amerindians from the Venezuelan coasts settled there. At the beginning of the 13th century, a new Amerindian civilization reputed to be warlike and coming from Guiana, the Caribs or Kalina, invaded Martinique and gradually exterminated all the Arawaks except for women. The Caribs were in turn decimated by the Europeans during the 16th century. The 17th and 18th centuries were placed under the reign of slavery and the importation of black populations from Africa to replace the Amerindian people who did not survive the harsh working conditions. In Martinique, the first slaves were imported as early as 1635 to provide the labor necessary for the cultivation of sugar cane. In 1745, the island had about 80,000 inhabitants, including 65,000 slaves. When slavery was abolished in June 1848, they were still just over 72,000.
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