Martinique/The Overseas region of France

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• published: 17 Mar 2010
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1943, Martinique was officially pro-Vichy, with the US and Great Britain seeking to limit any impact of that stance on the war. The US did prepare plans for an invasion by an expeditionary force to capture the island, and at various times the US and Britain established blockades. For instance, from July to November 1940, the British cruisers HMS Trinidad and HMS Dunedin maintained a watch to ensure that the French aircraft carrier Bearn and the other French naval vessels in Martinique did not slip away to Europe.In June 1940, the French cruiser Émile Bertin arrived in Martinique with 286 tons of gold from the Bank of France. The original intent was that Bank's gold reserve go to Canada for safekeeping, and a first shipment did go there. When France signed an armistice with Germany, plans changed and the second shipment was rerouted to Martinique. When it arrived in Martinique, Admiral Robert arranged for the storage of the gold in Fort Desaix. Émile Bertin then stayed at Fort de France until Martinique declared for Charles DeGaulle and the Free French forces. Essentially, in late 1941, Admiral Robert agreed to keep the French naval vessels immobilized, in return for the Allies not bombarding and invading the French Antilles.In mid-1943, Admiral Robert returned to France via Puerto Rico and Lisbon, and Free French sympathizers took control of the gold at Fort Desaix and the French fleet.In 1944, the American film director Howard Hawks directed Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Hoagy Carmichael and Walter Brennan in the film To Have and Have Not. Hawks more-or-less based the film on a novel that Ernest Hemingway had written in 1937. The essence of the plot is the conversion from neutrality to the Free French side of an American fishing boat captain operating out of Vichy-controlled Fort de France in 1940. In 1945, Aimé Césaire succeeded in getting elected Mayor of Fort de France and Deputy from Martinique to the French National Assembly as a member of the Communist Party. Césaire went on to remain mayor for 56 years. However, the Communist suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 disillusioned him, causing him to quit the Communist Party. As a member of the Assembly, he was one of the principal drafters of the 1946 law on departmentalizing former colonies, a role for which politicians favoring independence have often criticized him.In 1947 the High Court of Justice in Versailles tried Admiral Robert for collaboration. He received a sentence of 100 years at hard labor and national degradation for life. The Court released him from the hard labor after six months, and he received a pardon in 1957.In 1946, the French National Assembly voted unanimously to transform Martinique from a colony of France into a department, known in French as a Département d'Outre-Mer or DOM. Along with its fellow DOMs of Guadeloupe, Réunion, and French Guiana, Martinique was intended to be legally identical to any department in the metropole. However, in reality, several key differences remained, particularly within social security payments and unemployment benefits.French funding to the DOM has somewhat made up for the social and economic devastation of the slave trade and sugar crop monoculture. With French funding to Martinique, the island had one of the highest standards of living in the Caribbean. However, it remained dependent upon French aid, as when measured by what Martinique actually produced, it was one of the poorer islands in the region.