Cardinal Richelieu, principal minister of Louis XIII…
1635 CE
Cardinal Richelieu, principal minister of Louis XIII of France, has created the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique (Company of the Isles of America, the successor to the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe), which has contracted with Messrs l’Olive and Duplessis to occupy and govern on its behalf the Caribbean islands belonging to the French crown.
This leads on September 1, 1635, to Pierre Bélain d'Esnambuc landing on Martinique with eighty to one hundred French settlers from Saint Cristophe.
After meeting some native resistance that they are able to dispatch quickly because of their far superior weaponry and armor, the colonists settle in the northwestern region that is later to become known as St-Pierre, at the mouth of the Roxelane River, where they build Fort Saint Pierre.