History of St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Flag of St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Location of the islands belonging to the state of St Vincent and the Grenadines

The History of St. Vincent and the Grenadines deals with the history of the island state of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the Eastern Caribbean , which has been independent since 1979 . The islands belonging to the national territory - St. Vincent and 32 of the northern Grenadines - do not form a natural, geographical unit. Their consolidation into one state, including the separation from the rest of the Grenadines, is the result of the collapse of the West Indian Federation , which St. Vincent and the Grenadines belonged to from 1958 to 1962 after 200 years of English colonial times .

Indigenous population: Arawak and Caribs

Carib family in European representation from the late 18th century

Human settlement on the main island of St. Vincent , which is on the immigration route from North America to South America, has existed since 5000 BC. Adopted. From 700 BC It was settled by the Arawak Indians. Around 800, according to other sources around 1300 AD, however, the Arawak were expelled from the Caribs . Today, numerous prehistoric artifacts can be found on the island. However, both their interpretation (can one speak of petroglyphs , i.e. rock drawings?) And their assignment to the Arawak or Caribs are controversial.

The Caribs called the island "Hairouan", "Island of the Blessed", and defended it resolutely against external attacks. Although the ships of Christopher Columbus sighted the island as early as 1498 (on the day of St. Vincent), it remained free of European rule and settlement for over 200 years, in contrast to neighboring larger islands.

St. Vincent as a refuge for black slaves

The first non-Indian inhabitants of the island were Africans . In 1675 a slave ship ran aground off St. Vincent. The survivors of the kidnapped Africans stayed on the island. In addition, in the following centuries there were escaped black slaves from the neighboring islands of Barbados , Grenada and St. Lucia, which were partly British , partly Portuguese or Spanish . From their descendants and the native Caribs, a new ethnic group emerged , the so-called "black" Caribs or Garifuna , who were to offer such decisive resistance to the British conquerors in the 18th century that they only raised them through two wars and the subsequent deportation of 5000 Garifuna could subjugate an island off the coast of Honduras .

European settlers and Franco-British competition for the islands

In 1627 the British claimed the island of St. Vincent for themselves without establishing a base there. In 1719, however, the Caribs allowed the French, who were hostile to the British, to settle on the island, who stayed on the island from 1722 to 1748. According to other sources, the French built the settlement of Barrouallie on the leeward side of the island before 1700 . In the Peace of Paris in 1763 , Spain and France recognized British rule over St. Vincent. In 1778, however, the French besieged the island and in 1779 they regained sovereignty by invading Calliaqua near Fort Duvernette , which the British had built against the rebellious Caribs. In 1783, with the Peace of Paris, the island finally fell to the British.

The resistance of the Caribs and Garifuna

The British, like the French before them, used slave labor on their plantations. The simultaneous existence of a free black or “brown” population became a permanent point of conflict. The First Caribbean War began in 1772 and ended on February 17, 1773 with a treaty in which the British promised the Caribs the windward side of the island. In the 1790s the Second Caribbean War broke out, which was mainly carried out by the "Black Caribs", ie the Garifuna. In 1796 the British general Ralph Abercromby put down the uprising. With the logistical help of the French, who were once allied with the locals, 5,000 Garifuna were deported to the uninhabited island of Baliceaux , which belongs to the Grenadines and was later deported to an island off Honduras. Only about half of them survived the violent deportation .

Slavery and labor migration

Sugar cane

Thousands and thousands of Africans were deported to the island to work on the coffee , tobacco and sugar plantations . Soon the Africans, and no longer the Europeans or Caribs, made up the majority of the population. To feed the rapidly growing population, new plants were introduced on the island, such as the breadfruit brought to the island by William Bligh , previously in command of the famous Bounty , on his "second breadfruit voyage" in 1793. Slavery was abolished in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 1834, although a transition period until 1838 was agreed. Around 18,000 people are said to have gained their freedom this year.

With the abolition of slavery, there was a significant shortage of labor. In the 1840s, several Portuguese were recruited from the island of Madeira and between 1861 and 1888 a large number of Indians were brought into the country as workers. Even after the abolition of slavery, work on the sugar cane plantations remained tough for both former slaves and the new immigrants.

Development of colonial institutions

In 1776 the colony received its first official colonial institution in the form of a representative assembly of the white settlers. In 1877, St. Vincent and the Grenadines became a crown colony , a status associated with certain civil rights for the islands' residents. A Legislative Council was created in 1925 and universal adult suffrage was introduced in 1951.

Detours on the way to independence: West Indian Federation and "Associated State"

Active and passive women's suffrage was introduced on May 5, 1951. The principles of universal, equal, secret and direct suffrage had been in effect since the 1951 House of Assembly elections . The women's suffrage was confirmed at independence 1979th

In order to simplify the administration of their West Indian possessions, the British tried several unsuccessfully to unite St. Vincent and the Grenadines with the other Leeward Islands . In order to be able to satisfy the increasing urge for independence of the British possessions in the West Indies as smoothly as possible and in one fell swoop, an independent association of most of the British West Indies under the name West Indies Federation was established between 1958 and 1962 . However, the federation only lasted four years. It broke because of the inconsistency of the proportions of its "provinces". The largest island, Jamaica , has 2.8 million inhabitants today, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, on the other hand, 118,000. The smaller islands soon felt dominated by Jamaica, Jamaica itself rejected by its smaller partners. A referendum in Jamaica in 1961 sealed the fate of the Federation. Some of its members became self-employed, while others, including St. Vincent and the Grenadines, voluntarily returned to British colony status.

Flag of the West Indian Federation

In 1967, the West Indian Associated States were founded, which, in addition to St. Vincent, included the British islands of Antigua , Barbuda , Dominica , Grenada , Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla and St. Lucia . The members of this association were associated states of Great Britain, thus had a status that can be settled between colony and independence: the "associated West Indian states" had full internal government, while Great Britain remained responsible for foreign policy and defense. The association gradually dissolved through the achievement of full independence of its members: Grenada 1974, Dominica 1978, St. Lucia and finally St. Vincent 1979, Antigua and Barbuda and St. Kitts and Nevis the last in 1981 and 1983 respectively.

On October 27, 1979, a referendum was held in St. Vincent and the Grenadines , through which the population declared their will to independence.

Natural disasters of the 20th century

A large number of natural disasters are part of the history of St. Vincent and the Grenadines: In 1902 the volcano La Soufriére erupted and 2000 people lost their lives. Another outbreak in 1979 cost no lives but destroyed valuable farmland. In 1980 and 1987, Hurricanes destroyed banana and coconut plantations, and in 1999 Hurricane Lenny wreaked havoc on the west coast.

The economic impact of this last catastrophe was exacerbated when the European Union abandoned the preferential treatment of agricultural products from former colonies in the same year.

Development since independence

Ralph Gonsalves

Since 1979 St. Vincent and the Grenadines has been an independent sovereign member state of the Commonwealth of Nations , and thus a parliamentary monarchy with the British Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. The Queen is represented by Governor General Frederick Ballantyne and the Prime Minister is Ralph Gonsalves .

The House of Assembly consists of 21 members, 15 of whom are elected and 6 appointed every five years. All persons over the age of 18 are entitled to vote. In 2001 the Unity Labor Party (ULP) won a "landslide victory" (12 out of 15 seats), and lawyer Ralph Gonsalves became Prime Minister . The elections on December 7, 2005 confirmed the party and prime minister: The United Labor Party ULP won 12 seats, the New Democratic Party 3 seats.

On November 25, 2009, a referendum was held in which the population voted on a new, republican constitution, which Queen Elizabeth II would have replaced as head of state with a president. However, 55% of voters were against the constitutional amendment.

On June 7, 2019, the country was elected to the UN Security Council for the first time and will take place there in 2020 and 2021. In terms of its population, it is the smallest country in the body to date.

literature

• Ralph E. Gonsalves: History and the Future: A Caribbean Perspective . Quik-Print, Kingstown (St. Vincent) 2007.
• Eric Williams: British Historians and the West Indies. PNM Publishing, Port-of-Spain 1964.

Web links

Commons : History of St. Vincent and the Grenadines  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• with timeline and pictures of the historical flags
• state.gov state.gov
• st-vincent-history
• on the archeology of St. Vincent
• slavery
• timeline

Individual evidence

1. ↑ z. B. Garifuna.com
2. ↑ ^{a b} timeline ( Memento of the original from March 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ st-vincent-history ( memento of the original from April 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 438
5. ^ Mart Martin: The Almanac of Women and Minorities in World Politics. Westview Press Boulder, Colorado, 2000, p. 328.
6. ↑ Bernd Hillebrands: St. Vincent and the Grenadines. In: Dieter Nohlen (Ed.): Handbook of the election data of Latin America and the Caribbean (= political organization and representation in America. Volume 1). Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1993, ISBN 3-8100-1028-6 , pp. 695-701, p. 697.
7. ↑ - New Parline: the IPU's Open Data Platform (beta). In: data.ipu.org. May 5, 1951, accessed September 28, 2018 . 
8. ↑ The opposition wins the elections in St. Vincent. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of March 31, 2001.
9. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.