Battle of Martinique (1794) Battle of Martinique (1794) The Battle of Martinique was a successful 1707-1800 Kingdom of Great Britain month and a half invasion from February 5th to March 24th of 1794 of the 1792-1804 1st Republic of France held island of Martinique in the West Indies, during the 1789-1799 French Revolutionary Wars. During the invasion of Martinique, the British were in negotiations with a French planter, Louis-François Dubuc, who wished to gain British protection, as the then French Constitutional Assembly of the 1st Republic was busy passing a law abolishing slavery, which had actually took place in Paris on 4 February of
Martinique Spain had little interest in the territory. On 15 September 1635, Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, French governor of the island of St. Kitts, landed in the harbor of St. Pierre with 150 French settlers after being driven off St. Kitts by the English. D'Esnambuc claimed Martinique for the French King Louis XIII and the French "Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique" (Company of the American Islands), and established the first European settlement at Fort Saint-Pierre (now St. Pierre). D'Esnambuc died in 1636, leaving the company and Martinique in the hands of his nephew, Jacques Dyel du Parquet, who in 1637, became governor