When Columbus sighted Martinique it was inhabited by Carib Indians who called the island Madinina, 'Island of Flowers.' Three decades passed before the first party of French settlers, led by Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, landed on the northwestern side of the island. They built a small fort in 1635 and established a settlement that would become the island's first capital, Saint-Pierre. The following year, French King Louis XIII signed a decree authorizing the use of slaves in the French West Indies.

The settlers quickly went about colonizing the land and by 1640 had extended their grip south to Fort-de-France, where they constructed a fort on the rise above the harbor. As forests were cleared to make room for sugar plantations, conflicts with the native Caribs escalated into warfare, resulting in the forced removal in 1660 of those Caribs who'd managed to survive the fighting.

The British took a keen interest in Martinique as well, invading and holding the island for most of the period from 1794 to 1815. The island prospered under British occupation; the planters simply sold their sugar in British markets rather than French. The occupation also allowed Martinique to avoid the turmoil and bloodshed of the French Revolution: by the time the British returned the island to France in 1815, the Napoleonic Wars had ended and the French empire was again entering a period of stability.

Martinique's most famous daughter is the Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon. Legend has it that upon her birth in 1763 in Trois-Ilets a soothsayer took one look at her and declared that one day she would become queen.

Not long after French administration was re-established on Martinique, sugar cane's golden era began to wane as glutted markets and the introduction of sugar beets in mainland France eroded prices. With less wealth, the aristocratic plantation owners lost much of their political influence, and an abolitionist movement led by Victor Schoelcher gained momentum. It was Schoelcher, the French cabinet minister responsible for overseas possessions, who convinced the provisional government to sign the 1848 Emancipation Proclamation that brought an end to slavery in the French West Indies.

In 1902, a blast from Mont Pelée (a still-active volcano) laid waste to Saint-Pierre with a burst of superheated gas and burning ash 40 times stronger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Only one of the town's 30,000 residents survived (and he was in jail). Saint-Pierre, long regarded as the most cultured city in the French West Indies, was eventually rebuilt. However, the capital was moved permanently to Fort-de-France and Saint-Pierre has never been more than a shadow of its former self.

In 1946 Martinique became an overseas department of France, with a status similar to those of metropolitan departments, and in 1974 it was further assimilated into the political fold as a region of France. Both of France's Caribbean outposts, Martinique and Guadeloupe, use French currency and stamps and fly the French flag. However, in recent years there have been increased rumblings for greater internal autonomy and separatist groups continue to organize.

Despite the ubiquitous French influence on Martinican culture, French-Indian Creole traditions dominate the island's cuisine, language, music and customs. Although French is the official language, most Martinicans also speak Creole, which grew out of the pidgin that early setters used to communicate with each other, and which also bears the traces of the many tongues spoken by African slaves.

The biguine (or beguine), an Afro-French dance music with a bolero rhythm, originated in Martinique in the 1930s. A more contemporary French West Indies creation, zouk, draws on the biguine and other French Caribbean folk forms. With its Carnival-like rhythm and hot dance beat, zouk has become as popular in Europe as it is in the French Caribbean.

A literary and philosophical movement known as Négritude emerged in the 1930s, largely through the writings of Martinican native Aimé Césaire, a poet and long-time mayor of Fort-de-France. Négritude strived to advance black social and cultural values and re-establish bonds with African traditions that had been suppressed by French colonialism.