Coffee production in Martinique Coffee production in Martinique Coffee production in Martinique dates to 1723 and its establishment is credited to the French naval officer Gabriel de Clieu. It later spread to other places in the Caribbean and South America from Martinique, an overseas region of France. Jules Rossignon wrote that in 1723, Royal Physician Pierre Chirac gave Gabriel de Clieu, a French navy lieutenant, a coffee tree to be planted in Martinique. In spite of King Louis XV refusing permission to do so, de Clieu took a cutting from a coffee plant in the royal gardens and planted it in Martinique. He gave
Troude's expedition to the Caribbean Troude's expedition to the Caribbean Troude's expedition to the Caribbean was a naval operation by a French force under Commodore Amable-Gilles Troude during the Napoleonic Wars. The French squadron departed from Lorient in February 1809 in an attempt to reach and resupply the island colony of Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, then under invasion from a British expeditionary force. The force arrived much too late to affect the outcome of the successful invasion and took shelter from a British squadron in the Îles des Saintes, where they were blockaded by part of the British invasion fleet, led by Vice-Admiral Sir