Dominica's History

As an island, Dominica is in relative puberty. It is only 26 million years old and is still evolving with continuous geothermal activity. It is one of the youngest islands in the Caribbean chain, formed by the shift of two tectonic plates.

After the Ortoroids vanquished, the Arawaks came. Thereafter, the Caribs arrived and wiped them out; but when Columbus introduced colonization to Dominica in 1493, the same fate that befell the Arawaks was threatening the Caribs.

Ignoring Waitukubuli, the Carib name for the island, the Spanish explorer renamed it Dominica because he landed  on a Sunday. By the time the British and French had begun the battles for the island in the 1600s the Caribs' grip on the island had already begun to slide. They fought valiantly to keep it, and temporarily did so successfully, but the gunpowder assaults eventually drove them into the hills.

The British and French fought repeatedly for control of Dominica. The island eventually escaped colonial fangs on November 3^rd 1978, when it gained independence. Its embryonic independence era brought increased challenges, none the least was the complication of its political struggles. By the mid-1980s though, Dominica had settled down as a stable and peaceful country. The success of the banana trade, which was the island's major export, brought economic buoyancy to the island. Starting in 1992 however, Dominica saw sharp declines in banana export earnings with the loss of its preferential access on the UK market.

Today, the Government of Dominica is investing heavily in tourism as the sector to drive the island's economic development.  

In 1802, the 8th West India regiment revolts at the Cabrits and takes over the garrison for three days before being defeated and disbanded by Governor Cochrane.