St. Kitts and Nevis

Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis
Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis
flag coat of arms
Motto : Country Above Self ( English for "The land above the individual")
Official language	English
Capital	Basseterre
Form of government	Parliamentary monarchy
Head of state	Queen Elizabeth II represented by Governor General Samuel Seaton (interim)
Head of government	Timothy Harris
surface	261 km² St. Kitts: 168 km² Nevis: 93 km²
population	56,000 (2016 estimate)
Population density	201 inhabitants per km²
gross domestic product Nominal Total ( PPP ) GDP / inh. (nominal) GDP / inh. (KKP)	2016 $ 903 million ( 178. ) $ 1,459 million ( 177. ) 16,058 USD ( 47. ) 25,940 USD ( 53. )
Human Development Index	▲ 0.675 ( 73rd ) (2016)
currency	East Caribbean Dollar (XCD)
independence	September 19, 1983 (from the UK )
National anthem	Oh land of beauty
National holiday	September 19 (Independence Day)
Time zone	UTC − 4
License Plate	KAN
ISO 3166	KN , KNA, 659
Internet TLD	.kn
Telephone code	+1 (869) see NANP

St. Kitts and Nevis (in the Federal Republic of Germany officially Federation St. Kitts and Nevis , in contrast in the Republic of Austria and the Swiss Confederation officially St. Kitts and Nevis , English Saint Kitts and Nevis, also officially Saint Christopher and Nevis , German St . Christopher and Nevis ) is a federal island state in the Lesser Antilles . He is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations . With its 56,000 inhabitants and an area of ​​269 square kilometers, the state is one of the twelve smallest generally recognized states on earth . It is named after the two islands of St. Kitts and Nevis . The capital and largest city of the country is Basseterre ; The official language is English .

geography

The capital Basseterre

The island state of Antigua and Barbuda is to the east of the islands , the island of Montserrat to the south-east , Sint Eustatius to the north - west and Saint-Barthélemy to the north .

The island of St. Kitts consists of three volcanic groups , which are separated from each other by deep gorges . St. Kitts has an area of ​​168.4 km ² . The capital Basseterre is also located there . The highest mountain is the 1156 m high Mount Liamuiga , formerly Mount Misery .

The island of Nevis is separated from St. Kitts by a three kilometer wide canal . Nevis has an area of ​​93.2 km². The highest point is Nevis Peak at 985 m. Booby Island is in the strait between the two islands .

Around 46,000 people live on the two islands (update based on the 2001 census), around 13,000 of them in the capital, Basseterre . As the second largest city, Charlestown has a population of just 1700.

See also : List of Places in St. Kitts and Nevis

climate

The islands have a hot, tropical climate, tempered by trade winds. The dry season lasts from January to April. In summer and at the end of the year, the amount of precipitation is higher and varies depending on the altitude. The annual rainfall is around 1400 mm, the main rainy season is from May to October. Cyclones can occur between August and October.

population

Square in the center of Basseterre in front of the Berkeley Memorial

The official language of the Federation is English . However, Creole dialects are often spoken. The largest ethnic groups are blacks (90.4%), people of mixed race background (5.0%), South Asians (3.0%) and whites (including British, Lebanese and Portuguese 1.0%).

The majority of residents are Anglicans (36%) and Methodists (32%). There are also Catholics (12%), Moravians (9%) and 40 different other religious communities.

In 2017, 13.7% of the population were migrants. At the same time, even more people emigrated.

Population development

year	population
1950	46,049
1960	51.195
1970	44,885
1980	43.210
1990	40,834
2000	45,374
2010	51,445
2017	55,345

Source: UN

history

The first inhabitants came around 3000 BC. On the islands. These residents were unfamiliar with agriculture or ceramics and probably came from Florida. These hunters and gatherers later disappeared. Around 400 BC The Saladoids came , who already knew agriculture and ceramics. They came from the Orinoco Delta in present-day Venezuela. Around 800 AD they were ousted by the Igneri, who belong to the Arawak . In 1300 the Kalinago came to the islands and pushed the Igneri towards the Greater Antilles. St. Kitts called them Liamuiga (fertile island) and Nevis Oualie (land of beautiful waters). The locals had trade ties with residents of what is now the Virgin Islands and Puerto Ricos . The two islands were discovered for the Europeans on Christopher Columbus' second voyage in 1493 , but were not settled by British colonists until the beginning of the 17th century . In 1623 Sir Thomas Warner founded the St. Kitts colony. In 1626, according to the monk Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre, the English and French carried out a massacre among the Kalinago. From 1629 to 1630 the islands were briefly in Spanish possession after Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Mendoza had conquered them.

Since colonization, the islands have been a constant point of contention between France and the United Kingdom . In 1783 the British secured the islands and incorporated them into the British Empire . 99 years later, the two islands were combined with nearby Anguilla to form a union called St. Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla .

Between 1929 and 1930, the Great Depression plunged the country into economic and political difficulties. After trade unions and parties came into being in 1930, universal and equal suffrage was introduced in 1952, and with it women suffrage . In 1958 it joined the West Indian Federation , which existed until 1962.

From 1967, the islands were given autonomous status from the United Kingdom. For the residents of Anguilla, which was then part of the Federation, these regulations did not go far enough. So Anguilla effectively left the confederation, but remained affiliated on paper.

On September 19, 1983, the British Crown granted St. Kitts and Nevis independence. Then there was a minority government because of a stalemate in parliament, which destabilized the country. At the end of the 1990s there were independence movements on the part of the island of Nevis, which called for a separation from St. Kitts. However, this demand did not find a sufficient majority of two thirds of the islanders in a referendum.

Constitutional Law and Politics

After dating back to the 1983 constitution the country is a parliamentary monarchy in the Commonwealth of Nations with a federal structure, the head of state, making it the British monarch , currently Queen Elizabeth II. It is represented by a governor general . Sir Samuel Weymouth Tapley Seaton has held this office since September 1, 2015 .

There is a National Assembly with eleven elected members and three members appointed by the Governor General, with eight of the elected seats for St. Kitts and three for Nevis. The legislative period is five years. Nevis also has its own parliament with three appointed and five elected members.

Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister from 1995 to 2015

In the parliamentary elections on February 16, 2015, Prime Minister Denzil Douglas (SKNLP) , who had been in power for 20 years, was replaced by former Foreign Minister Timothy Harris (PLP). His People's Labor Party formed a coalition with the Concerned Citizens' Movement and the People's Action Movement.

The country is a member of CARICOM , the OECS , the OAS and one of the sponsors of the University of the West Indies .

In December 2008, the government decided to reinstate the death penalty by hanging Charles Elroy Laplace , convicted of murder . In doing so, the government tried to combat the high crime rate , which makes St. Kitts one of the countries with the highest number of homicides per inhabitant (2008: 45 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants). Like the other former British colonies in the Caribbean, St. Kitts has adopted the British legal system, but the abolition of the death penalty in the former motherland 40 years ago was not implemented. The highest legal authority for St. Kitts is the Privy Council in London, which has overturned some death sentences already in the last few years. In the case of Charles Elroy Laplace, the objection period passed unused.

Administrative division

St. Kitts and Nevis is divided into 14 administrative districts ( parishes ), nine on St. Kitts and five on Nevis. The population figures in the table below refer to the census of May 14, 2001.

Parishes in St. Kitts and Nevis

State of            Parish	main place	Area km²	Total population	Inhabitants per km²
St. Kitts	Basseterre	174.2	34,930	201
Christ Church Nichola Town	Mansion	18.6	2,059	111
Saint Anne Sandy Point	Sandy Point Town	12.8	3,140	245
Saint George Basseterre	Basseterre	28.7	13,220	461
Saint John Capisterre	Saddlers , Dieppe Bay Town	24.8	3,181	128
Saint Mary Cayon	Cayon	15.1	3,374	223
Saint Paul Capisterre	Saint Paul's	13.8	2,460	178
Saint Peter Basseterre	Monkey Hill	20.7	3,472	168
Saint Thomas Middle Island	Middle Island	24.3	2,332	96
Trinity Palmetto Point	Boyd's	15.4	1,692	110
Nevis	Charlestown	92.5	11,181	121
Saint George Gingerland	Gingerland	18.5	2,568	139
Saint James Windward	Newcastle	31.1	1,836	59
Saint John Figtree	Fig Tree	21.3	2,922	137
Saint Paul Charlestown	Charlestown	3.5	1,820	520
Saint Thomas Lowland	Cotton Ground	18.1	2,035	112
St. Kitts and Nevis	Basseterre	266.7	46.111	172.9

Source: Statistics Division of Saint Kitts and Nevis

economy

Economic structure

The economy of St. Kitts and Nevis is heavily dependent on tourism , in 2009 the country was visited by 200,000 mostly US tourists. The service sector therefore contributes three quarters of the gross domestic product of 1,459 million US dollars (adjusted for purchasing power, 2016). Industry contributes around a quarter; the production of simple consumer goods such as textiles and shoes as well as food processing dominate. With around 2.5% of economic output, agriculture is hardly of any importance; rice , bananas and various types of vegetables are grown , and there is also fishing . The GDP per capita is above the global average.

Until about 1970, the islands' most important industry was the cultivation and processing of sugar , and since then the state-owned companies have only posted losses and drove the country's national debt to over a billion US dollars, one of the highest values ​​in the world as measured by gross domestic product. Sugar processing was therefore stopped in 2005, and since then the country has been confronted with rising unemployment and the need to restructure the economy as quickly as possible. Are Angedacht approximately to financial services , tourism and export-oriented industries. Exports and tourism revenues are nowhere near enough to cover imports, with the country running a current account deficit of US $ 139 million in 2010 . The main trading partner is the USA .

State budget

The state budget in 2016 comprised an estimated expenditure of 333.3 million US dollars , which was offset by income of the equivalent of 370.4 million US dollars.
The national debt in 2013 was around $ 1 billion, or 83% of GDP.

Culture

The following important information is missing from this section:

The culture of the islands and its people. The reduction to the trivial naming of a single museum does not do justice to a culture section of a country article!

Help Wikipedia by researching and pasting it .

See also : National Museum of Saint Kitts

media

There is no public service broadcaster. Freedom of the press and the media is guaranteed by the constitution.

Commercial radio broadcasts began in the 1930s. Thereafter, the BBC took over the broadcasting of programs with the help of which the first regular radio program ZIZ (today ZIZ 96 FM , VHF since 1973) was started. The cooperation with the BBC made it possible to offer a differentiated program with information, education and entertainment. The sister station Big Wave 96.7 FM was added in 2004. The West Indies News Network is an Internet portal and the operator of the VHF radio program WINN FM 98.9 . The owner, the Federation Media Group, has 50 shareholders, none of whom owns more than 10 percent of the shares in order to avoid individual dominance. The operator sees itself as the leading media company. Radio Paradise of Trinity Broadcasting Network can be received through a local medium-wave transmitter. There are also numerous private broadcasting stations with video and audio streams.

Famous pepole

• Alexander Hamilton (1757 or 1755–1804), American statesman
• Bob Douglas (1882–1979), African American sports manager and founder of the New York Renaissance
• Joan Armatrading (born 1950), singer
• Kim Collins (born 1976), athlete

See also

• List of Governors General of St. Kitts and Nevis

literature

• Wolfgang Gieler : St. Kitts and Nevis. In: Wolfgang Gieler, Markus Porsche-Ludwig (Hrsg.): State dictionary America: Geography, history, culture, politics and economy. Peter Lang, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-631-77017-7 , pp. 391–396.

Web links

Wiktionary: St. Kitts and Nevis  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Commons : St. Kitts and Nevis  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Wikivoyage: St. Kitts and Nevis  - Travel Guide

Wikimedia Atlas: Saint Kitts and Nevis  - geographical and historical maps

• Page of the Government of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis
• Country and travel information from the Federal Foreign Office
• Database of indexed literature on the social, political and economic situation in St. Kitts and Nevis

Individual evidence

1. ↑ St Kitts announces appointment of acting GG, May 20, 2015, Jamaica Observer website, accessed January 28, 2016.
2. ↑ Saint Kitts and Nevis Observer, February 2015 ( Memento from February 20, 2015 in the web archive archive.today )
3. ↑ United Nations Statistics Division: Saint Kitts and Nevis , accessed April 21, 2017.
4. ↑ [1] (PDF) International Monetary Fund
5. ↑ [2] United Nations Development Program ( UNDP ),
6. ↑ Standing Committee for Geographical Names (Ed.): List of names of states and their derivatives in German , 13th edition, as of January 2014 (accessed on September 11, 2017).
7. ^ Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis Constitutional Order of 1983
8. ↑ Climate data and rainy season , accessed on September 20, 2013
9. ↑ Migration Report 2017. UN, accessed on September 30, 2018 (English). 
10. ↑ Origins and Destinations of the World's Migrants, 1990-2017 . In: Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project . February 28, 2018 ( pewglobal.org [accessed September 30, 2018]).
11. ↑ World Population Prospects - Population Division - United Nations. Retrieved July 28, 2017 . 
12. ^ Prehistory of the Caribbean Culture Area , Southeast Archaeological Center, National Park Service , accessed December 25, 2014.
13. ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 438
14. ^ The Guardian, February 2015
15. ^ The Saint Kitts and Nevis Observer, February 2015 ( Memento of February 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
16. ^ Report of the UNODC
17. ^ Death penalty in St. Kitts. Retrieved August 18, 2009 . 
18. ^ ^{A b} United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistics Division: World Statistics Pocketbook: Small Island Developing States (= Series V, No. 38 / SIDS). United Nations, Division for Sustainable Development, New York, 2014, p. 28.
19. ↑ ^{a b} The World Factbook , accessed October 5, 2017
20. ↑ About ZIZ - zizonline.com
21. ↑ About us - winnfm.com

Coordinates: 17 ° 20 ′  N , 62 ° 45 ′  W