colony · Mesoamerica and the Caribbean
Tortuga
Origins
From around 1630 French and English hunters, the boucaniers who smoked wild cattle meat on Hispaniola, used Tortuga as a refuge. Spain raided it several times, in 1635 and 1638 among others. In 1640 the Huguenot engineer Jean Le Vasseur took control on behalf of the French governor of Saint Kitts and built the Fort de la Roche above Basse-Terre harbour.
Rule and society
Government was loose and personal: Le Vasseur ruled almost as an independent lord until his murder in 1653. The island's economy rested on trading hides and meat, and increasingly on buccaneering raids against Spanish shipping and towns, with the plunder sold in its harbour. Settlers were a mix of French Catholics and Protestants, English adventurers and indentured servants.
Decline and legacy
After a final Spanish occupation in 1654 to 1655, French control returned. In 1665 the French West India Company appointed Bertrand d'Ogeron as governor, who encouraged settlers to plant on the Hispaniola mainland. Tortuga faded as the capital moved across the water to the new colony of Saint-Domingue.
Lineage
On the connections map
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- Tortuga was a colony of French Empire1640 CE – 1665 CE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Tortuga. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tortuga
- MLA
- “Tortuga.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tortuga. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Tortuga.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tortuga.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Tortuga’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tortuga (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻