Portsmouth (Dominica)

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Portsmouth
Portsmouth (Dominica)
Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Coordinates 15 ° 34 ′  N , 61 ° 27 ′  W Coordinates: 15 ° 34 ′  N , 61 ° 27 ′  W
Basic data
Country Dominica

Parish

Saint John
ISO 3166-2 DM-05
Residents 3633
Portsmouth

Portsmouth is a small town in Dominica on the Indian River in the north of the island of Dominica . Portsmouth has 3633 inhabitants, making it the second largest municipality in the island state. The city belongs to the Parish Saint John . On a peninsula north of the village lies National Park Cabrits National Park . Portsmouth has its own seaport in addition to Roseau .

history

Dominica was settled by the Kalinago when Columbus "discovered" the island in 1493. They belonged to the Arawak linguistic group and were mostly called "Island Caribs" by the French , who had been trying to get Dominica under their control since the 1620s. At the site of present-day Portsmouth, when the French landed there in 1642, there was a larger Kalinago settlement called Uyuhao.

Both before and after France ceded the island to Great Britain in 1763 , consideration had been given to making Portsmouth the island's capital. Because Portsmouth is located on Prince Rupert Bay, which offers the best natural harbor on the island. But that never happened. Portsmouth was at risk of malaria , so Roseau was preferred. (Because of those plans, it is still occasionally read that Portsmouth was "the former capital" of Dominica.)

In 2004 Portsmouth was hit by an earthquake. It was u. a. the Catholic parish church of St. John's largely destroyed. It was rebuilt by 2017.

literature

  • Lennox Honychurch: The Dominica Story. A History of the Island . Macmillan, London 1995, ISBN 978-0-333-62776-1 .

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Lennox Honychurch: The Dominica Story. A History of the Island . Macmillan, London 1995, pp. 20-25.
  2. ↑ Lennox Honychurch: The Dominica Story. A History of the Island . Macmillan, London 1995, p. 25.
  3. ↑ Lennox Honychurch: The Dominica Story. A History of the Island . Macmillan, London 1995, p. 64.
  4. ^ Catholic News , Port of Spain, Aug. 27, 2017, p. 6.