Dominica was first inhabited somewhere around 3100BCE by a group of Native Americans called the Ortoroids. Around 400BCE the Arawaks Natives took over and by 1400CE the Carib Indians took control of the island. Because of fierce resistance by the Carib's the island was one of the last Caribbean islands to be colonized by Europeans. Both the French and the British laid claim to the island in the 1600's but it was the British that eventually became victorious. The island was granted its independence from Britain in 1978. Its main export is bananas, but today its biggest money maker is tourism.