Editing Martinique (section)

===Post-1688 period===
Under governor of the Antilles [[Charles de Courbon, comte de Blénac]], Martinique served as a home port for French pirates, including [[Captain Crapo|Captain Crapeau]], [[Étienne de Montauban]], and [[Mathurin Desmarestz]].<ref name="Gasser">{{cite journal |last1=Gasser |first1=Jacques |title=De la mer des Antilles à l'océan Indien (From the Caribbean Sea to the Indian Ocean) |journal=Bulletin du Cercle Généalogique de Bourbon (Bulletin of the Bourbon Genealogical Circle) |date=1992–1993 |volume=38–41 |url=http://membre.oricom.ca/yarl/livre/3F/0402gasser.html |access-date=31 August 2017 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303193228/http://membre.oricom.ca/yarl/Livre/3F/0402gasser.html |url-status=live }} French language original, as reprinted in ''Le Diable Volant: Une histoire de la flibuste: de la mer des Antilles à l'océan Indien (1688–1700)'' / (''The Flying Devil: A History of the Filibusters: From the Antilles to the Indian Ocean (1688–1700)'').</ref> In later years, pirate [[Bartholomew Roberts]] styled his [[jolly roger]] as a black flag depicting a pirate standing on two skulls labeled "ABH" and "AMH" for "A Barbadian's Head" and "A Martinican's Head" after governors of those two islands sent warships to capture Roberts.<ref name="Little-The Golden Age of Piracy">{{cite book |last1=Little |first1=Benerson |title=The Golden Age of Piracy: The Truth Behind Pirate Myths |date=2016 |publisher=Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. |location=New York |isbn=978-1-5107-1304-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M2uIDAAAQBAJ |access-date=15 September 2017 |language=en |archive-date=18 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818031653/https://books.google.com/books?id=M2uIDAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 28 November 1717 the pirate [[Blackbeard]] and his pirates captured a French [[frigate]] named ''La Concorde'' near the island of Martinique in the [[West Indies]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.qaronline.org/history/ships-journey|title=The Pirate Ship's Journey {{!}} Queen Anne's Revenge Project|website=www.qaronline.org|access-date=2017-12-01|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023174935/https://www.qaronline.org/history/ships-journey|archive-date=2017-10-23}}</ref> After selling her cargo of slaves on the island, Blackbeard made the vessel his [[flagship]], added more heavy [[cannon|cannons]] and renamed her ''[[Queen Anne's Revenge]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Preliminary Observations on British and American Documents Concerning the Activities of the Pirate Blackbeard, March 1717 to June 1718* |url=https://www.qaronline.org/preliminary-observations-british-and-american-documents-concerning-activities-pirate-blackbeard/open |website=QARonline.org |access-date=14 July 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Battle martinique 1779 img 9388.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The [[Battle of Martinique (1779)|Battle of Martinique]] between British and French fleets in 1779]]

Martinique was attacked or occupied several times by the British, in 1693, [[Invasion of Martinique (1759)|1759]], [[Invasion of Martinique (1762)|1762]] and [[Battle of Martinique (1779)|1779]].<ref name="britannica1" /> Excepting a period from 1802 to 1809 following signing of the [[Treaty of Amiens]], Britain controlled the island for most of the time from 1794 to 1815, when it was traded back to France at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars.<ref name="britannica1" /><ref name="LP">{{Cite book|last=Ver Berkmoes|first=Ryan|title=Caribbean Islands|publisher=[[Lonely Planet Publications]]|others=Jens Porup, Michael Grossberg, et al|year=2008|isbn=978-1-74059-575-9|location=Footscray, Vic. & Oakland, CA}}</ref> Martinique has remained a French possession since then.

Despite the introduction of successful coffee plantations to Martinique in the 1720s, making it the first coffee-growing area in the Western hemisphere, the planter class lost political influence as sugar prices declined in the early 1800s.<ref>Auguste Lacour, ''Histoire de la Guadeloupe'', vol. 1 (1635–1789). Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, 1855 [https://books.google.com/books?id=Cch7AAAAMAAJ full text at Google Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726153705/https://books.google.com/books?id=Cch7AAAAMAAJ|date=26 July 2020}}, p. 235ff.</ref> Slave rebellions in 1789, 1815 and 1822, plus the campaigns of abolitionists such as [[Cyrille Bissette]] and [[Victor Schœlcher]], persuaded the French government to end [[Code Noir|slavery in the French West Indies]] in 1848.<ref>Robin Blackburn, ''The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 1776–1848'' (Verso, 1988), p. 492.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Dessalles|first=Pierre|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/32856639|title=Sugar and slavery, family and race : the letters and diary of Pierre Dessalles, planter in Martinique, 1808-1856|date=1996|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|others=Elborg Forster, Robert Forster|isbn=0-8018-5153-X|location=Baltimore|page=52|oclc=32856639}}</ref><ref name="britannica1" /><ref name="LP" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Important Information |url=https://us.martinique.org/discover/important-information |access-date=2022-08-27 |website=Martinique - Best Caribbean Islands, Caribbean Tourism, Best Caribbean Destination |language=en-gb |archive-date=27 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220827041522/https://us.martinique.org/discover/important-information |url-status=live }}</ref> Martinique was the first French overseas territory in which the abolition decree came into force, on 23 May 1848.<ref>Project manifest EU: https://www.projectmanifest.eu/the-march-of-23-may-1998-paris-france-en-fr/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306130717/https://www.projectmanifest.eu/the-march-of-23-may-1998-paris-france-en-fr/ |date=6 March 2023 }}</ref>

As a result, some plantation owners imported workers from India and China.<ref name="britannica1" /> Despite the abolition of slavery, life scarcely improved for most Martinicans; class and racial tensions exploded into rioting in southern Martinique in 1870 following the arrest of Léopold Lubin, a trader of African ancestry who retaliated after he was beaten by a Frenchman. After several deaths, the revolt was crushed by French militia.<ref>{{cite web|date=27 June 2015|title=MARTINIQUE 1870 : LA GRANDE INSURRECTION DU SUD|url=http://une-autre-histoire.org/martinique-1870-la-grande-insurrection-du-sud/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710022529/http://une-autre-histoire.org/martinique-1870-la-grande-insurrection-du-sud/|archive-date=10 July 2019|access-date=10 July 2019}}</ref>