Dominica: Colonial Period

The Kalinago (Carib) people had inhabited Dominica for centuries before European contact, calling the mountainous island Wai'tu kubuli. Christopher Columbus sighted it in 1493 during his second voyage and named it for the day of the week on which he arrived, but Dominica's rugged terrain and the Kalinago's sustained resistance discouraged Spanish settlement. In 1660, England and France took the unusual step of jointly recognizing Dominica as neutral territory reserved for the Kalinago, though the agreement did little to halt later colonial encroachment.

From the early eighteenth century, French settlers began establishing small coastal plantations despite the absence of formal French control, introducing sugar, coffee, and cocoa cultivation along with enslaved African labor. This period left a lasting imprint on Dominican culture, including the French-derived Kwéyòl language and Catholic traditions still present today. British forces seized the island during the Seven Years' War in 1761, and the 1763 Treaty of Paris formally transferred Dominica to British control.

Kalinago communities continued to resist European encroachment throughout the colonial period. In 1903, British colonial authorities formally established the Kalinago Territory on the island's Atlantic coast, setting aside land for the community's descendants, who remain there today as one of the last surviving indigenous populations in the Eastern Caribbean.