conventional long form: Commonwealth of Dominica
conventional short form: Dominica
754 km²
Roseau
East Caribbean dollar (XCD)
1-767
.dm
English, French patois
Roman Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, Pentecostal, Baptist, Methodist, Church of God, Jehovah's Witnesses, other Christian, Rastafarian
72,386
parliamentary democracy
green, with a centered cross of three equal bands - the vertical part is yellow (hoist side), black, and white and the horizontal part is yellow (top), black, and white; superimposed in the center of the cross is a red disk bearing a sisserou parrot encircled by 10 green, five-pointed stars edged in yellow; the 10 stars represent the 10 administrative divisions (parishes)
Dominica was the last of the Caribbean islands to be colonized by Europeans due chiefly to the fierce resistance of the native Caribs. France ceded possession to Great Britain in 1763, which made the island a colony in 1805. In 1980, two years after independence, Dominica's fortunes improved when a corrupt and tyrannical administration was replaced by that of Mary Eugenia CHARLES, the first female prime minister in the Caribbean, who remained in office for 15 years. Some 3,000 Carib Indians still living on Dominica are the only pre-Columbian population remaining in the eastern Caribbean.
tropical; moderated by northeast trade winds; heavy rainfall
