| Kingdom of the French Caribbean ---- | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||
| Motto: Montjoie Saint Michel! "Mountjoy Saint Michael!" |
||||||
| Anthem: ---- (----) ("----") |
||||||
 |
||||||
| Capital (and largest city) | ---- | |||||
| ---- | ---- | |||||
| ---- | ---- | |||||
| Religion | ---- | |||||
| Demonym | ---- | |||||
| Government | ---- | |||||
| - | ---- | ---- | ||||
| - | ---- | ---- | ||||
| Legislature | ---- | |||||
| ---- | ||||||
| - | ---- | ---- | ||||
| - | ---- | ---- | ||||
| - | ---- | ---- | ||||
| - | ---- | ---- | ||||
| - | ---- | ---- | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 444 km2 171 sq mi |
||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | estimate | ---- | ||||
| GDP (PPP) | 2025 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | ---- | ||||
| - | Per capita | ---- | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2025 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | ---- | ||||
| - | Per capita | ---- | ||||
| Gini (2025) | ---- | |||||
| HDI (2025) | ---- | |||||
| Currency | ---- (----) |
|||||
| Time zone | ---- | |||||
| Drives on the | ---- | |||||
| Internet TLD | ---- | |||||
| Calling code | ---- | |||||
French Caribbean, officially the Kingdom of the French Caribbean or the United French Caribbean Kingdom of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy, is an island country in the Caribbean located in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and lies on the boundary of the South American and Caribbean plates. Its capital and largest city is Basse-Terre. The islands were inhabited by the Kalinago people since around the 13th century, and prior to that by other Indigenous peoples such as the Arawaks. Christopher Columbus landed on Guadeloupe in 1493 during his second voyage, claiming it for Spain, though the Spanish did not establish permanent settlements.
In 1635, the French West India Company established colonies in Guadeloupe and Martinique, bringing in European settlers and beginning the development of plantation economies. These relied heavily on enslaved Africans trafficked through the Atlantic slave trade. Over the following decades, France consolidated its hold on the islands, while also claiming Saint-Martin (the northern part of the island, shared with the Dutch since 1648) and Saint-Barthélemy. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the French Caribbean islands became key producers of sugar, coffee, and other cash crops. Their economies depended on enslaved labor until the abolition of slavery in 1848, when the French Second Republic permanently ended slavery in its colonies.
Although contested by Britain during the colonial wars of the 18th century — with Martinique and Guadeloupe temporarily occupied — the islands remained predominantly French possessions, and later became the associated state, during the capetian contract of 1871, the islands were given to the house of Bourbon under Henry V and later the spanish branch which rules it today, leading to its other informal name of the Bourbon Caribbean.
