DOMINICA
Dominica (pronounced Dom-in-eek-a) sits midway along the Eastern Caribbean archipelago, just a few miles from Martinique to the south and Guadeloupe to the north. Its location is 15 degrees North latitude and 61 degrees West longitude.
The island's official name is the Commonwealth of Dominica, which is mostly referenced in official communiqué and to distinguish the island from its northerly Caribbean sister, the Dominican Republic. The indigenous Carib Indians named the island Waitukubuli which means "tall is her body" in the carib language.
The island is sparsely populated with around 70,000 people inhabiting its 289.5 square miles. A significant portion of the population lives in and around the capital city, Roseau. Dominica is an arcadia of unspoiled nature. Tropical forest coats two thirds of the island, which nourishes 1,200 plant species. Rivers, lakes, streams, and waterfalls abound, fed by the islands high annual rainfall. Its volcanic physique points to extensive geothermal activity above and below sea level.
Our Morne Trois Pitons National Park was the first UNESCO World Heritage Site in the eastern Caribbean.
The island is one of only a couple in the Caribbean still with populations of the pre-Columbian Carib Indians. About 80% of the population is Roman Catholic. English is the official language, spoken with a melodic French lilt, but a large portion of the population speaks Kwèyòl (Creole), with a few northern villages speaking Kokoy.
How to Find Us: Dominica is located in the eastern Caribbean, between the French Islands of Guadeloupe (which lies to the north) and Martinique (which lies to the south).
As an island, Dominica is in relative puberty. It is only 26 million years old and is still evolving with continuous geothermal activity. It is one of the youngest islands in the Caribbean chain, formed by the shift of two tectonic plates.
After the Ortoroids vanquished, the Arawaks came. Thereafter, the Caribs arrived and wiped them out; but when Columbus introduced colonization to Dominica in 1493, the same fate that befell the Arawaks was threatening the Caribs.
Ignoring Waitukubuli, the Carib name for the island, the Spanish explorer renamed it Dominica because he landed on a Sunday. By the time the British and French had begun the battles for the island in the 1600s the Caribs' grip on the island had already begun to slide. They fought valiantly to keep it, and temporarily did so successfully, but the gunpowder assaults eventually drove them into the hills.
The British and French fought repeatedly for control of Dominica. The island eventually escaped colonial fangs on November 3rd 1978, when it gained independence. Its embryonic independence era brought increased challenges, none the least was the complication of its political struggles.
Today, the Government of Dominica is investing heavily in tourism as the sector to drive the island's economic development.
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