Interesting Antigua And Barbuda History read now

Antigua And Barbuda Pre-colonial period:

Antigua was first referred to as Siboni by Amerindian hunter-gatherers of the Archaic Age. Carbon dating has established the earliest settlements dating to around 3100 BC. They were succeeded from the Ceramic Age by the pre-Columbian Araque-speaking Saladoid peoples who migrated from the lower Orinoco River.

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The capital of this country – St. John’s

They introduced agriculture with the cultivation of other crops, the famous Antigua black pineapple corn, sweet potato, chile, guava, tobacco and cotton. Later, the more bellicose Caribs also possibly settled the island by force.

Antigua And Barbuda -European Arrival and Settlement:

Christopher Columbus was the first European to see the islands in 1493. The Spanish did not colonize Antigua because it lacked fresh water but the aggressive Caribs were not. However, a combination of European and African diseases, malnutrition, and slavery eventually killed off most of the population of Caribbean descent; Smallpox was probably the biggest killer.

Largest city – St. John’s

British settled on Antigua in 1632; Christopher Coddington settled in Barbuda in 1685. Tobacco and then sugar were grown, worked by a large population of slaves from West Africa, who soon began to outnumber European settlers.

Antigua -colonial era:

Repulsing a French attack in 1666, the British retained control of the islands. The years 1701 and 1729 were met with brutal conditions by rebels, and most notably in 1736, led by Prince Lala, although it was discovered before it began and the ringleaders were executed. Slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1834, which affected the economy.

It was extinguished by natural disasters such as the earthquake of 1843 and the hurricane of 1847. Mining took place on the island of Redonda, however, it was closed in 1929 and the island remained uninhabited. The Leeward Islands colony, part of Antigua and Barbuda, became part of the short-lived West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962. Antigua and Barbuda later became an associated state of the United Kingdom with full internal autonomy on 27 February 1967. The 1970s dominated.

Antigua and Barbuda finally gained full independence on 1 November 1981, through discussions between the island’s future and the flagship bird of the Antigua Labor Party and George Walter’s Progressive Labor Movement (PLM). Vere Bird became the new country’s prime minister. The country opted to remain in the Commonwealth, with the last governor Sir Wilfred Jacobs retaining Queen Elizabeth as head of state.

Barbuda -Independence Era:

The first two decades of Antigua’s independence were politically dominated by the Byrd family and the ALP, with Very Bird ruled from 1981 to 1994, followed by his son Lester Bird from 1994 to 2004. Although providing political stability and promoting tourism in the country, the Byrd governments were often accused of corruption, cronyism and financial malfeasance.

The eldest son, Veer Bird Jr., was forced to leave politics in 1990 after a scandal in which he was accused of smuggling Israeli weapons and Colombian drug smugglers. Another son, Ivor Bird, was convicted of selling cocaine in 1995. Hurricane Louis Barbuda in 1995 caused severe damage. The ALP’s dominance of Antiguan politics ended with the 2004 Antiguan general election, which was won by Baldwin Spencer’s United Progressive Party. However, the UPP lost the 2014 Antiguan general election, with the ABS returning to power under Gaston Browne.

Much of Barbuda was devastated by Hurricane Irma in early September 2017. According to Prime Minister Gastro Brown, 95% of the island’s buildings and infrastructure were destroyed, leaving Barbuda “barely habitable”. Almost everyone on the island was evacuated to Antigua.