HISTORY
The island's indigenous Arawak
people were expelled or exterminated by Caribs in the 14th century.
Columbus landed there in November 1493. Spanish ships frequently
landed on Dominica during the 16th century, but fierce resistance
by the Caribs discouraged Spain's efforts at settlement.
In 1635, France claimed Dominica.
Shortly thereafter, French missionaries became the first European
inhabitants of the island. Carib incursions continued, though,
and in 1660, the French and British agreed that both Dominica
and St. Vincent should be abandoned. Dominica was officially neutral
for the next century, but the attraction of its resources remained;
rival expeditions of British and French foresters were harvesting
timber by the start of the 18th century.
Largely due to Dominica's
position between Martinique and Guadeloupe, France eventually
became predominant, and a French settlement was established and
grew. As part of the 1763 Treaty of Paris that ended the seven
years' war, the island became a British possession. In 1778, during
the American Revolutionary War, the French mounted a successful
invasion with the active cooperation of the population, which
was largely French. The 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the
war, returned the island to Britain. French invasions in 1795
and 1805 ended in failure.
In 1763, the British established
a legislative assembly, representing only the white population.
In 1831, reflecting a liberalization of official British racial
attitudes, the Brown Privilege Bill conferred political and social
rights on free nonwhites. Three Blacks were elected to the legislative
assembly the following year. Following the abolition of slavery,
in 1838 Dominica became the first and only British Caribbean colony
to have a Black-controlled legislature in the 19th century. Most
Black legislators were small holders or merchants who held economic
and social views diametrically opposed to the interests of the
small, wealthy English planter class. Reacting to a perceived
threat, the planters lobbied for more direct British rule.
In 1865, after much agitation
and tension, the colonial office replaced the elective assembly
with one comprised of one-half elected members and one-half appointed.
Planters allied with colonial administrators outmaneuvered the
elected legislators on numerous occasions. In 1871, Dominica became
part of the Leeward Island Federation. The power of the Black
population progressively eroded. Crown Colony government was re-established
in 1896. All political rights for the vast majority of the population
were effectively curtailed. Development aid, offered as compensation
for disenfranchisement, proved to have a negligible effect.
Following World War I, an
upsurge of political consciousness throughout the Caribbean led
to the formation of the representative government association.
Marshaling public frustration with the lack of a voice in the
governing of Dominica, this group won one-third of the popularly
elected seats of the legislative assembly in 1924 and one-half
in 1936. Shortly thereafter, Dominica was transferred from the
Leeward Island Administration and was governed as part of the
Windwards until 1958, when it joined the short-lived West Indies
Federation.
After the federation dissolved,
Dominica became an associated state of the United Kingdom in 1967
and formally took responsibility for its internal affairs. On
November 3, 1978, the Commonwealth of Dominica was granted independence
by the United Kingdom.
Independence did little to
solve problems stemming from centuries of economic underdevelopment,
and in mid-1979, political discontent led to the formation of
an interim government. It was replaced after the 1980 elections
by a government led by the Dominica Freedom Party under Prime
Minister Eugenia Charles, the Caribbean's first female prime minister.
Chronic economic problems were compounded by the severe impact
of hurricanes in 1979 and in 1980. By the end of the 1980s, the
economy had made a healthy recovery, which weakened in the 1990s
due to a decrease in banana prices.
In the January 2000 elections, the Edison James United Workers Party (UWP) was defeated by the Dominican Labour Party (DLP), led by Roosevelt P. "Rosie" Douglas. Douglas died after only a few months in office and was replaced by Pierre Charles, who died in office in January 2004. Roosevelt Skerrit, also of the DLP, replaced Charles as Prime Minister. Under Prime Minister Skerrit's leadership, the DLP won elections in May 2005 that gave the party 12 seats in the 21-member Parliament to the UWP's 8 seats. An independent candidate affiliated with the DLP won a seat as well. Since that time, the independent candidate joined the government and one UWP member crossed the aisle, making the current total 14 seats for the DLP and 7 for the UWP.
