The first European settlement was established there in Fort Saint-Pierre (now St. Pierre). The indigenous inhabitants of the island repeatedly rebelled against the French settlers, and in 1658 there was an armed intervention, during which many Caribbean people died. Those who survived were taken prisoner and expelled from the island. They settled in neighboring Dominica and Saint Vincent.
Under the rule of the French governor Charles de Courbon, comte de Blénac, Martinique became the home port for French pirates: Captain Crapeau, Étienne de Montauban, and Mathurin Desmarestz.
Later (17th/18th century), the Welsh pirate Bartholomew Roberts, also known as Black Bart or Bart Roberts, who operated in the vicinity of Martinique and Barbados, stylized his pirate flag called "jolly roger" into a black flag depicting a pirate standing on two skulls with inscribed "ABH" and "AMH" for "A Barbadian's Head" and "A Martiniquan's Head)" symbolizing the heads of the governors of these islands who sent warships to capture Roberts.
