Dominica

Where the name comes from

Dominica means “Sunday” in Latin; Christopher Columbus named it after sighting the island on Sunday, 3 November 1493.

First people

Kalinago people lived here long before Europeans, and their Kalinago Territory, set up in 1903, keeps a homeland with shared land and an elected chief.¹

Known for

Dominica is known as the Nature Island for its rainforests and for the Boiling Lake, a flooded volcanic vent.²

Outside contact

French settlement grew from 1690. Britain took control in 1763, and France occupied it in 1778–1783.³

The modern country

After an era of plantation slavery, it became independent in 1978.³