Dominica

Dominica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea, part of the Windward Islands chain within the Lesser Antilles, lying between the French overseas departments of Guadeloupe to the northwest and Martinique to the south-southeast, covering approximately 750 square kilometers and rising to 1,448 meters at its highest point, Morne Diablotins. Roseau, on the island's western side, is the capital of a country whose population was estimated at about 72,412 in 2021. Arawak and later Kalinago peoples inhabited the island before European arrival in 1493; France ruled from 1690 to 1763, after which Britain took control, and Dominica gained independence on 3 November 1978, becoming a republic rather than remaining a monarchy like most of its Caribbean neighbors. Dominica is a unitary parliamentary republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with an indirectly elected president as head of state and a prime minister leading the cabinet; known as the Nature Island of the Caribbean for its rainforests and wildlife, it is the youngest island in the Lesser Antilles still undergoing volcanic formation, home to Boiling Lake, the world's second-largest hot spring.