Caribbean art in the Caribbean in the 1625 and established trading ports on the islands of St. Kitts, Tortuga (in 1628, now a British Virgin Island) in Saint-Domingue (later Haiti), Martinique, and Guadeloupe (both in 1635). Near the end of the 17th century, the population of the French Caribbean was growing steadily but the territory was increasingly isolated from France because in 1674 the French trading company finally failed, and few artists had arrived from Europe. Currently little or no research has been done to highlight the early French influenced art forms originating in the Caribbean, nor to list artists who might
Martinique island of iguanas". When Columbus landed on the island in 1502, he christened the island as Martinica; through the influence of the neighboring island of Dominica (La Dominique), it came to be known as Martinique. The island is called "Madinina" by the locals. The island was occupied first by Arawaks, then by Caribs. The Carib people had migrated from the mainland to the islands about 1201 CE, according to carbon dating of artifacts. They were largely displaced, exterminated and assimilated by the Taino, who were resident on the island in the 1490s. Martinique was charted by Columbus in 1493, but