Like nearly every carribbean island Dominica, was supposed to be discovered by Christopher Columbus which is wrong,  like nearly every caribbean island.
During the Stone Age Dominica was already populated by Siboneys and later by Arawaks, who were expelled by Caribs circa 1000 AD. Just about 500 years later, 03.11.1493 on Sunday this island was found by Christopher Columbus and that`s why it is called Dominica now,  thank God, he only found two islands on Sunday! The original name of Dominica is Waitikubuli.
At first Columbus couldn`t find a place to land and sailed to the neighbour-island north from  Dominica. From there he looked for an anchorage and found one in the Prince Ruppert Bay. Since then this bay is an important station for trade- and warships from overseas. This is also a reason why Fort Shirley was built there.
For about 200 years nobody was interested in the island due to it`s impenetrable jungle and high mountains and it was even given back to the Caribs.
1763 Dominica was annexed to the British Kingdom and one could buy parts of the island. The rest is  history. Colonisation, slavery, the comings and goings of the English and the French, who were suddenly also interested in Dominica, escaped slaves hiding themselves in the mountains and so on. Only after the abolition of slavery in 1834, did freedom ensue. But the Englishmen also did good: end of 19th century one of them drew attention to the miserable situation of the Caribs and 1903 the Carib Territory was founded officially. Nowadays the Caribs still try to maintain their cultural heritage.
Dominica became autonomous in the domestic policy in 1967 and  on 3^rd of November 1978 the island became independent.

17.02.2007