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
Piracy in the Caribbean in Europe increasingly drove their plantation-based economies. The English had also expanded their dominion in the Caribbean and settled several new islands, including Bermuda in 1612, Antigua and Montserrat in 1632, and Eleuthera in the Bahamas in 1648, though these settlements began like all the others as relatively tiny communities that were not economically self-sufficient. The French also founded major new colonies on the sugar-growing islands of Guadeloupe in 1634 and Martinique in 1635 in the Lesser Antilles. However, the heart of French activity in the Caribbean in the 17th century remained Tortuga, the fortified island haven off the coast