Brief History
of St.Kitts
At the time of European discovery,
the island of St. Kitts was inhabited by Carib Indians.
Christopher Columbus landed on St.Kitts in 1493, on
his second voyage and named the small Caribbean island
after St. Christopher, his patron saint. Although
discovered by Columbus in 1493, European colonization
did not begin until 1624. The first European colony
was spearheaded by Englishman, Sir Thomas Warner at
Old Road, landing on 28th January, 1624. It was the
English who abbreviated the name of the island to
St. Kitts. As the first English colony in the Caribbean,
St. Kitts served as a base for further colonization
through out the region.
The French arrived in 1625 in the form of Pierre Belain
d'Esnambue. His ship had been damaged in a skirmish
with the Spanish and he and his crew had anchored
off shore to carryout repairs. The English and French
were responsible for wiping out the Caribs at Bloody
Point in 1626 near the village of Challengers on St.
Kitts' West Coast. The area Bloody Point gets its
name for it was reported the river ran red with the
blood of the Carib Indians.
St. Kitts was held jointly by the English and French
from 1628-1713. As was the custom with any situation
involving the French and the English, the aggressive
pretentiousness began and the two began sizing each
other up. St. Kitts was not only the ideal strategic
springboard from which to colonise the surrounding
islands, but it was also a sugar colony and both sides
knew it, and thus wanted complete control of the island.
The French exiled the English from St. Kitts in 1664
only to lose it to them in 1689. France recaptured
the island in 1706 only to relinquish the island to
Great Britain by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Then
in 1782, Brimstone Hill Fortress was besieged by the
French, and once again they had control of the island.
However the Treaty of Versailles 1783 Britain was
definitively awarded St.Kitts and its sister island
of Nevis.
During the 19th Century the British made various administrative
changes throughout the Caribbean and in 1880 the British
put St. Kitts and Nevis under one administrative umbrella.
Britain also made aggregations that often did not
make sense to islands concerned. One such problem
was that of St. Kitts and Anguilla. Anguilla had been
administered by St. Kitts from as far back as 1824,
but had never appreciated it. Despite numerous petitions
to the British government (as far back as 1872) for
direct administration from Britain, Anguilla's calls
went unheeded. Tensions escalated between Anguilla
and St. Kitts in the late 1950's and throughout the
1960's, helped along by the highly destructive nature
of the threats made by the eccentric Chief Minister
of St.Kitts, Robert Bradshaw.
In 1967 Anguilla had, had enough and invaded St.Kitts
to show that they meant business. They disarmed the
seventeen (17) St. Kitts policemen stationed in Anguilla
and sent them back home. The British government found
Anguilla's request to return to colonial status highly
odd and decided to pay them a visit on March 19th,
1969 in the form of two frigates, HMS Minerva and
HMS Rothesay and 315 men of the Parachute Regiment
to restore order. Although the process began in the
late 1960’s Anguilla was officially reinstated
as a British Crown Colony in December 1980, and still,
to this day remain a British dependency.
On September 19, 1983 the federation St. Kitts and
Nevis gained independence from Britain. The twin island
Federation remains a member of The Commonwealth and
preserves many of the traditions of Britain - a passion
for cricket, stable government and always driving
on the left. It has also preserved much of the colonial
architecture in the capital Basseterre making it one
of the most beautiful capitals in the Caribbean.
