Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States the Caribbean Community. OECS currently has ten Eastern Caribbean members, which together form a near-continuous archipelago across the Leeward Islands and Windward Islands. Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands and Martinique are only associate members of OECS. Diplomatic missions of the OECS do not represent the associate members. For all other purposes, associate members are treated as equals of full members. Six of the members were formerly colonies of the United Kingdom. Three others, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, and Montserrat remain overseas territories of the UK while Martinique, is a part of the French Republic as an overseas department and
Invasion of Martinique (1674) had won a dramatic and unexpected victory. French historians still describe Martinique as an astounding military success: the great de Ruyter and the all-conquering Dutch navy had been defeated by a single frigate. Martinique would remain French. Captain Renart was rewarded with the grand noble title of Marquis d'Amblimont; he would later return to Fort-Royal as governor-general of the French Caribbean. The humiliated Dutch fleet retreated back across the Atlantic, their combat losses compounded by the ravages of sickness. Their ambitions to expand their colonial empire in the Americas were permanently stalled, leaving them with only Suriname and the Netherlands