Antigua (Lesser Antilles)
| Antigua | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Waters | Caribbean Sea | |
| Archipelago | Lesser Antilles | |
| Geographical location | 17 ° 3 ′ N , 61 ° 48 ′ W | |
|
||
| surface | 281 km² | |
| Highest elevation |
Mount Obama (formerly Boggy Peak) 402 m |
|
| Residents | 67,000 238 inhabitants / km² |
|
| main place | Saint John's | |
 |
||
Antigua ( Spanish "the old one") is an island in the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean and the main island of the state of Antigua and Barbuda .
geography
The island is one of the Leeward Islands and is located about 40 km south of Barbuda , 80 km east of Nevis and St. Kitts , 50 km northeast of Montserrat and 100 km north of Guadeloupe . The island is 281 km² in size. Its hills rise up to 402 m above sea level.
Its 365 beaches (with a coastline of only 87 km) are considered very beautiful and fine. Antigua has numerous capes and natural harbors .
Economy and population
The landscape is characterized by palm trees, pineapple and cotton fields. 67,000 people live on Antigua.
history
discovery
Antigua was discovered by Christopher Columbus on November 10, 1493 on his second voyage. He named the island after his patron saint Maria , who u. a. is venerated in Seville Cathedral as Virgen de la Antigua . On that day, the Spaniards "rattled off" several islands to reach Española and passed Antigua early in the morning. Columbus himself probably did not set foot on the island; his reports described the island as inhabited by savages, with no drinking water or anything of value. In 1520 a group of Spaniards tried to colonize the island, but soon gave up. The native Indians are likely to have died out, and there are still numerous artifacts and a few settlement sites from their culture.
Colonial Era and Politics
The island was only colonized by the British 150 years after its discovery, in 1632. In November 1666, the French fleet captured the island during the Second Anglo-Dutch War .
In 1674 Antigua formed a confederation of English island colonies with Nevis , St. Kitts and Montserrat with a common House of Representatives under Governor William Stapleton . Sugar cane has been grown since that year and thousands of slaves were brought to the island in the following century. Their number rose from 12,500 in 1713 to 37,500 (around 1775).
British colonial rule lasted until 1981. With the declaration of independence on November 1, 1981, the name of the colony, Antigua , was changed to the name of the independent state of Antigua and Barbuda , which is now a parliamentary monarchy. The capital, Saint John's , is on Antigua.
Culture
Attractions
In the south of the island is the Nelson's Dockyard , a naval port fortified by the Royal Navy in the 18th century , which, due to its natural location, is one of the few harbors that are safe from tropical storms.
The island 's first sugar cane plantation, Betty's Hope, dates back to the 17th century . The owner Christopher Codrington named the plantation after his daughter Betty. Two windmill towers and the ruins of the distillery are a reminder of the former wealth.
The Devil’s Bridge natural monument is located on the east side of the island . The breakers of the Atlantic formed a natural limestone arch here .
Personalities
- Frederick Crute ( DJ Red Alert ; * 1956), American DJ and hip-hop producer, was born on the island.
- Eric Clapton (* 1945), English guitarist, singer and composer, founded the Crossroads Center Antigua , a drug clinic for the rich.
- Silvio Berlusconi (* 1936) owns a property with seven villas on Antigua.
- Jamaica Kincaid (* 1949), black Antiguan-American writer, born in Saint John's. A Small Place (1988), German: Nur eine kleine Insel (1993) is about her growing up on the island.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ See the article Virgen de la Antigua of the Spanish Wikipedia. For further references cf. Linda B. Hall: Mary, Mother and Warrior: The Virgin in Spain and the Americas . University of Texas Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-292-79742-0 , pp. 53 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Alexander Bridport Becher: The Landfall of Columbus on His First Voyage to America . JD Potter, 1856, Appendix Second Voyage 1493–1496 , pp. 300 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
- ↑ Lucius Lee Hubbard: Did Columbus discover the islands of Antigua and St. Martin? Ed .: American geographical society. 1931, p. 57, 59 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ a b c (author unknown): Antigua and the Antiguans: A Full Account of the Colony and Its Inhabitants . tape I . Saunders and Otley, 1844, Chapter I., Discovery by Columbus Section ( archive.org ). Republished Cambridge Library Collection - Slavery and Abolition . Cambridge University Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-108-02777-9 , pp. 3 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ It was probably only named from afar, because the fleet followed the eastern Antilles. Hubbard: Did Columbus discover ... p. 60 . ; the earliest cartographic illustration is perhaps to be found on the Piri Reis map of 1513; This is followed by Kunstmann around 1520 and the Turin map around 1523. Gregory C. McIntosh, Norman JW Thrower (collaborators): Piri Reis Map of 1513 . University of Georgia Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-8203-4359-4 , Puerto Rico and Lesser Antilles , pp. 83 ( limited preview in Google Book search). Perhaps she was only visited on the return journey in 1496 or later; so the name Marygalante Bay is passed down for Friars Head Bay (Moll, Atlas minor , 1716-1732), which could refer to Columbus' flagship of the second voyage, the Maria Galanda , on the island, which is otherwise already known in English .
- ↑ H. Wellenreuther: Niedergang und Aufstieg , p. 401.
- ↑ Betty's Hope ( Memento from August 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Official website ; see. Barbara Japal: Welcome to Standfast Point, Vacation Villa of Eric Clapton , at standfastpoint.com , accessed November 4, 2014.