page_title: Dominica
section_title: Early 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Dominica / History / Early 20th century
caption_attribution_description: English: Dominica stamps.
context_page_description: Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically situated as part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The island is located near Guadeloupe to the northwest and Martinique to the south-southeast. Its area is 750 km², and the highest point is Morne Diablotins, at 1,447 m in elevation. The population was 71,293 at the 2011 census.
  The island was settled by the Arawak arriving from South America in the 5th century. The Island Caribs or Kalinagos displaced the Arawak by the 15th century. Columbus is said to have passed the island on Sunday 3 November 1493. It was later colonised by Europeans, predominantly by the French from the 1690s to 1763. Great Britain took possession in 1763 after the Seven Years' War, and it gradually established English as its official language. The island gained independence as a republic in 1978.
  Its name is pronounced with emphasis on the third syllable, related to its French name of Dominique.
context_section_description: In World War I, many Dominicans, mainly the sons of small farmers, volunteered to fight in Europe for the British Empire. After the war, an upsurge of political consciousness throughout the Caribbean led to the formation of the Representative Government Association. Marshaling public frustration with the lack of a voice in governing Dominica, this group won one-third of the popularly elected seats of the legislative assembly in 1924, and one-half in 1936. In 1940, administration of Dominica was transferred from the British Leeward Islands to the British Windward Islands. During World War II, some Dominicans volunteered in British and Caribbean forces. Thousands of Free French refugees from Martinique and Guadeloupe escaped to Dominica from the Vichy-controlled French islands, staying in Roseau and other villages.
  Until 1958, Dominica was governed as part of the British Windward Islands. Caribbean islands sought independence from 1958 to 1962, and Dominica became a province of the short-lived West Indies Federation in 1958. After the federation dissolved in 1962, Dominica became an associated state of the United Kingdom in 1967, and formally took responsibility for its internal affairs. On 3 November 1978, the Commonwealth of Dominica was granted independence as a republic, led by Prime Minister Patrick John.
caption: Dominica stamps with portraits of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II
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