Discover the patrimonial variety !
From the year 850 to the present day.
Huécoïdes, Arawaks, Christophe COLOMB, Victor SCHOELCHER...
Aux origines de Marie-Galante.
The Huecoides is the oldest known civilization to have occupied Marie Galante. The Arawak tribe followed them - then around 850 the Carib Indians arrived.
L'arrivée de Christophe Colomb
Among the islands of the Guadeloupe archipelago, Marie Galante was the first one reached by Christopher Columbus during his second voyage. He arrived at the place called Anse Ballet in Grand-Bourg on November 3, 1493. He named the Island after his flagship, Maria Galanda. It was previously called "Aichi" by the Carib Indians and "Touloukaera" by the Arawaks.
Les premiers colons français
On November 8, 1648, Governor HOUEL organized the settlement of the first French colonists, they were about fifty men near the site of Vieux-Fort in Saint Louis. Jacques de BOISSERET bought the island back from the French Company of the Islands of America on September 4, 1649. In 1653 the Carib Indians slaughtered the few remaining colonists, who had not given into the harsh living conditions, as reprisal for rapes committed on the island of Dominica by sailors on a barge coming from Martinique.
Sugar cane
Sugar cane most probably originated from India had been imported to the French West Indies by Christopher Columbus. In light of its industrialization, it was cultivated in Guadeloupe in the beginning of 1654 thanks to deported Brazilian colonists who incited the creation of the first sugar plantations equipped with small oxen-powered mills to crush the cane.
In 1660, at Basse-Terre Chateau, a peace treaty was signed between the Carib Indians and the French and British who authorized them to settle on the islands of Dominica and Saint Vincent. The Island was now at peace leaving way for human and technological means to unite developing the economic market based on plantations as the center of production and labor by imported African slaves.
In 1664 Madame de Boisseret gave up her rights to Marie-Galante to the Company of the West Indies, and the Island then had its first 4 (oxen-powered) mills. In 1665 her son, Monsieur de Boisseret de Temericourt became governor. The map of the island he established carries his coat of arms.
The Island was plundered by both the Dutch in 1676, and by the British in 1690 and 1691. These radings, which gave way to the destruction of the mills, the refineries and the depopulation of the Island, caused the governor general of Martinique to forbid the repopulation of the Island until 1696.
The British took over the Island again from 1759 to 1763.
Windmills were first seen in 1780. By 1830 105 mills existed, half of which were still oxen drawn. Today 72 mill towers are still standing.
Abolition of slavery
From November 1792 to 1794 Marie Galante was independent and separated itself from the royalist government of Guadeloupe.
Slavery which was first abolished in 1794 and reinstated in 1802, finally came to an end in 1848 thanks to the combined efforts of abolitionists, such as Victor Schoelcher, and the never ending revolts of the negro slaves.
The legislative elections of June 24 and 25, 1849, the first time the emancipated slaves voted, it was marred by a bloody repression of protesting groups, from the majority of the population, against the ballot rigging orchestrated by wealthy white plantation owners. Many blacks were killed during these uprisings which lead to the dumping of rum and sugar from the Pirogue plantation into the nearby pond. Today this pond is known as "la mare au punch" (Punch pond) in memory of these tragic events.
Département français
The Guadeloupe archipelago is made up principally of the islands of: Grande-Terre, Basse-Terre, Marie-Galante, Saint-Martin, Saint-Barthelemy, Terre de Haut, Terre de Bas and Desirade. It is an overseas French department since 1946 and a single-department region since 1982.
The three administrative counties of Marie Galante: Capesterre, Grand-Bourg and Saint Louis, constituted a county community (Communauté des Communes) on January 8, 1994, the first one to be created in a French Overseas department.
