Caribbean and Central America Travel

These two spectacular islands in the Caribbean sea boasts of having more than 300 beaches, each one of them more magnificent than the last one. The island nation, part of the Lesser Antilles archipelago, enjoys a tropical climate year round, due to its location just 17 degrees north of the Equator.

It was Christopher Columbus who was the first European to see the island in 1493. He named it Santa Maria de la Antigua after a church in Seville, Spain. It wasn’t until 1632 though, that European settlers came in, due to the aggressive nature of the Carib natives who were inhabiting the island.

It was another Christopher who made a big impact on Antigua’s history and economy: Sir Christopher Codrington of England. He came into Antigua in 1684 and discovered the island’s potential to support large-scale sugar cultivation. Over the next fifty years, there was a boom in Antigua’s economy, fueled by the sugar plantation that sprouted throughout the island.

By the end of the 18th century, Antigua became the “gateway to the Caribbean,” owing to its strategic location for overseeing the major sailing routes, as well as being an economic center in the region. Construction of the British naval facilities in the English Harbour also started, under the command of Horatio Nelson. It was one of his officers, the future King William IV who abolished slavery in the British empire. Only Antigua was granted immediate full emancipation among the British Caribbean colonies.

Antigua, along with Barbuda and Redonda as dependencies, became an associated state of Commonwealth. They became an independent commonwealth country in November 1, 1981, with Vere Bird as its Prime Minister.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2007 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Antigua and Barbuda, Caribbean. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.