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Fort de France history - learn what once happend
In 1638, Jacques Duparquet, first governor of Martinique, decided to have Fort Saint Louis built to protect the city against enemy attacks. The fort was soon destroyed, and rebuilt in 1669, when Louis XIV appointed the Marquis of Baas as governor general. Under his orders and those of his successors, particularly the Count of Blnac, the fort was built with a Vauban design. Originally named Fort-Royal, the administrative capital of Martinique was shadowed by Saint-Pierre, the oldest city in the island, which was renowned for its commercial and cultural vibrancy as "The Paris of the Caribbean". The name of Fort-Royal was changed to a short-lived "Fort-La-Republique" during the French Revolution, and finally settled as Fort-de-France sometimes in the 19th century. The old name of Fort-Royal is still used today familiarly is its Creole language form of "Foyal", with the inhabitants of the city being "Foyalais". The city had its share of disasters, being partially destroyed by an earthquake in 1839 and in 1890 by fire. At the turn of the 20th century, however, Fort-de-France became economically important after the volcanic eruption of Mount Pele destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre in 1902. The city, however, never lived up to the cultural reputation of the doomed city. Until 1918, when its commercial growth began, Fort-de-France had an inadequate water supply, was partly surrounded by swamps, and was notorious for yellow fever. Now the swamps are drained to make room for extensive suburbs.
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Fort de France Vacations site
Our company is running one of the largest pc and mobile travel website networks, covering top hotel, vacation package, airline ticket, beach, cruise, all inclusive and honeymoon destinations worldwide.
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In the link section, you can check more links to our travel website network as well as to other third party specialized websites as lastminute.com or orbitz.com which we suggest you to visit if are you planning a trip to Fort de France Martinique.
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