The Saint-Pierre Disaster: Elections Amid Volcanic Eruption

Instagram: Twitter: PayPal: donat@ Once, the town of Saint-Pierre on the island of Martinique was one of the economic and commercial centers of the region. It was called “the little Paris of the Antilles.” Life in Saint Pierre was in full swing; there was a commercial port, a theater, and a botanical garden. All this ended on May 8, 1902. Along with its nearly 30,000 inhabitants, Saint-Pierre was destroyed in a matter of seconds by the eruption of the Mount Pelée volcano. In the new episode of “How It Was,” we will tell you about the disaster that razed the town of Saint-Pierre to the ground. You will find out why the residents ignored the alarming signals that the Mount Pelée volcano sent them even a month before the eruption and how the desire of its governor Louis Mouttet to hold elections in Saint-Pierre at all costs prevented the townspeople from escaping. Finally, you will learn what a Pelean eruption is, how three inhabitants of Saint-Pierre managed to avoid death, and why being imprisoned can sometimes be the luckiest event of your life. Covers and animations designed using Materials used: Library of Congress, SMU Libraries Digital Collections, Gallica - The BnF digital library, Nationaal Archief / National Archives of the Netherlands Photographs used: Rehcral / CC BY-SA 4.0, Jean & Nathalie / CC BY 2.0, Ze Moudong / CC BY-SA 4.0, Patrice78500 / CC BY-SA 4.0, Riba / CC BY-SA 3.0, Shroedingerskat / CC BY-SA 4.0, Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen / CC BY-SA 3.0 Scheme used: Sémhur / CC BY-SA 4.0 Videos used: “Rearing Mare“ / GuidingStarbuck under Creative Commons - Attribution License, “Dominican centipede death“ / vk45de under the Creative Commons - Attribution license, Volcano Eruptions / PublicResourceOrg under Creative Commons - Attribution license