A mountainous and densely-populated overseas department of France, Martinique's French and Creole heritage is mirrored in its customs, food and languages.
Tourism flourishes on the tropical Caribbean island, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year and is a stopping-off point for cruise ships.
Most Martiniquais have mixed ancestry, being the descendants of 17th century French settlers and slaves brought from Africa to work on plantations.
From the late 1970s a lack of jobs prompted large-scale migration to France. But despite a reliance on aid from Paris, high unemployment and a large trade deficit, Martinique has one of the higher standards of living in the region.
Nationalist sentiment has sometimes flared, but the prospect of losing economic aid from Paris has tempered public support for independence
The island has an active volcano, Mount Pelee, which erupted in 1902, razing the town of Saint-Pierre and killing its 30,000 residents.
Martinique is the birthplace of the African-French music form "the Beguine", whose influence can be heard in the zouk music of the French West Indies.
Visited by the explorer Christopher Columbus and briefly occupied by the Spanish, Martinique was settled by the French in 1635.
Other colonial powers vied for control of the increasingly-prosperous sugar-producing island, and it came under brief periods of English rule in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Head of state: (French) President Nicolas Sarkozy
Martinique is governed as an overseas department of France; Paris is represented by an appointed prefect. The territory has an elected legislative council and is represented in the National Assembly and Senate in Paris.
TV and radio services are provided by the French public overseas broadcaster, RFO, and by private operators.
Television
Radio
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