Bermuda
Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is 1,070 km east-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina; the capital city is Hamilton. Bermuda is self-governing, with its own constitution and its own government, which enacts local laws, while the United Kingdom retains responsibility for defence and foreign relations; as of July 2018, its population is the highest of the British overseas territories. Bermuda's two largest economic sectors are offshore insurance and reinsurance, tourism. Bermuda had one of the world's highest GDP per capita for most of the 20th century; the islands have a subtropical climate and lies in the hurricane belt and thus is prone to related severe weather. The first European known to have reached Bermuda was the Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermúdez in 1505, after whom the islands are named, he claimed the islands for the Spanish Empire. Unusually, Bermuda had no indigenous population at the time of its discovery, nor at the time of the initial British settlement a century later.
Bermúdez never landed on the islands, but made two visits to the archipelago, of which he created a recognisable map. Shipwrecked Portuguese mariners are now thought to have been responsible for the 1543 inscription on Portuguese Rock. Subsequent Spanish or other European parties are believed to have released pigs there, which had become feral and abundant on the island by the time European settlement began. In 1609, the English Virginia Company permanently settled Bermuda in the aftermath of a hurricane, when the crew and passengers of the Sea Venture steered the ship onto the surrounding reef to prevent its sinking landed ashore; the island was administered as an extension of Virginia by the Company until 1614. Its spin-off, the Somers Isles Company, took over in 1615 and managed the colony until 1684. At that time, the company's charter was revoked, the English Crown took over administration; the islands became a British colony following the 1707 unification of the parliaments of Scotland and England, which created the Kingdom of Great Britain.
After 1949, when Newfoundland became part of Canada, Bermuda became the oldest remaining British overseas territory. After the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997, Bermuda became the most populous remaining dependent territory, its first capital, St. George's, was established in 1612. Bermuda was discovered in 1505 by Spanish explorer Juan de Bermúdez, it is mentioned in Legatio Babylonica, published in 1511 by historian Pedro Mártir de Anglería, was included on Spanish charts of that year. Both Spanish and Portuguese ships used the islands as a replenishment spot to take on fresh meat and water. Legends arose of spirits and devils, now thought to have stemmed from the calls of raucous birds and the loud noise heard at night from wild hogs. Combined with the frequent storm-wracked conditions and the dangerous reefs, the archipelago became known as the Isle of Devils. Neither Spain nor Portugal attempted to settle it. For the next century, the island is believed to have been visited but not settled.
After the failure of the first two English colonies in Virginia, a more determined effort was initiated by King James I of England, who granted a Royal Charter to the Virginia Company. It established a colony at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Two years a flotilla of seven ships left England under the Company's Admiral, Sir George Somers, the new Governor of Jamestown, Sir Thomas Gates, with several hundred settlers and supplies to relieve the colony of Jamestown. Somers had previous experience sailing with both Sir Francis Sir Walter Raleigh; the flotilla was broken up by a storm. As the flagship, Sea Venture, was taking on water, Somers drove it onto Bermuda's reef and gained the shores safely with smaller boats – all 150 passengers and a dog survived, they stayed ten months, building two small ships to sail to Jamestown. The group of islands were claimed for the English Crown, the charter of the Virginia Company was extended to include them. In 1610, all but three of the survivors of Sea Venture sailed on to Jamestown.
Among them was John Rolfe, whose wife and child died and were buried in Bermuda. In Jamestown he married Pocahontas, a daughter of the powerful Powhatan, leader of a large confederation of about 30 Algonquian-speaking tribes in coastal Virginia. In 1612, the English began intentional settlement of Bermuda with the arrival of the ship Plough. St. George's was designated as Bermuda's first capital, it is the oldest continually inhabited English town in the New World. In 1615, the colony was passed to a new company, the Somers Isles Company, named after the admiral who saved his passengers from Sea Venture. Many Virginian place names refer to the archipelago, such as Bermuda City, Bermuda Hundred; the first English coins to circulate in North America were struck in Bermuda. The archipelago's limited land area and resources led to the creation of what may be the earliest conservation laws of the New World. In 1616 and 1620 acts were passed banning the hunting of young tortoises. In 1
Slavery Abolition Act 1833
The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 abolished slavery throughout the British Empire. This Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom expanded the jurisdiction of the Slave Trade Act 1807 which made the purchase or ownership of slaves illegal within the British Empire, with the exception of "the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company", Saint Helena; the Act was repealed in 1997 as a part of wider rationalisation of English statute law. In May 1772, Lord Mansfield's judgment in the Somersett's Case emancipated a slave in England and thus helped launch the movement to abolish slavery; the case ruled that slaves could not be transported out of England against their will, but did not abolish slavery in England. However, many campaigners, including Granville Sharp, mistakenly believed that the Somerset case meant that slavery was unsupported by law in England and that no authority could be exercised on slaves entering English or Scottish soil. In 1785, English poet William Cowper wrote: We have no slaves at home – Then why abroad?
Slaves cannot breathe in England. They touch our country, their shackles fall. That's noble, bespeaks a nation proud, and jealous of the blessing. Spread it then,And let it circulate through every vein. By 1783, an anti-slavery movement to abolish the slave trade throughout the Empire had begun among the British public. Spurred by an incident involving Chloe Cooley, a slave brought to Canada by an American Loyalist, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada John Graves Simcoe tabled the Act Against Slavery in 1793. Passed by the local Legislative Assembly, it was the first legislation to outlaw the slave trade in a part of the British Empire. In 1807, Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which outlawed the slave trade, but not slavery itself; this legislation imposed fines. Abolitionist Henry Brougham realized that trading had continued and as a new MP introduced the Slave Trade Felony Act 1811 which at last made slavery a felony act through the empire; the Royal Navy established the West Africa Squadron to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa.
It did not stop it entirely. Between 1808 and 1860, the West Africa Squadron captured 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans, they resettled many in Jamaica and the Bahamas. Britain used its influence to coerce other countries to agree to treaties to end their slave trade and allow the Royal Navy to seize their slave ships; the British were, by the late eighteenth century, the biggest proponents of the abolition of slavery worldwide. It was ironic. In 1823, the Anti-Slavery Society was founded in London. Members included Joseph Sturge, Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce, Henry Brougham, Thomas Fowell Buxton, Elizabeth Heyrick, Mary Lloyd, Jane Smeal, Elizabeth Pease, Anne Knight. William Wilberforce had written in his diary in 1787 that his great purpose in life was to suppress the slave trade before waging a 20-year fight on the industry. During the Christmas holiday of 1831, a large-scale slave revolt in Jamaica, known as the Baptist War, broke out, it was organised as a peaceful strike by the Baptist minister Samuel Sharpe.
The rebellion was suppressed by the militia of the Jamaican plantocracy and the British garrison ten days in early 1832. Because of the loss of property and life in the 1831 rebellion, the British Parliament held two inquiries; the results of these inquiries contributed to the abolition of slavery with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. The Act had its third reading in the House of Commons on 26 July 1833, three days before William Wilberforce died, it received the Royal Assent a month on August 28, came into force the following year, on 1 August 1834. In practical terms, only slaves below the age of six were freed in the colonies. Former slaves over the age of six were redesignated as "apprentices", their servitude was abolished in two stages: the first set of apprenticeships came to an end on 1 August 1838, while the final apprenticeships were scheduled to cease on 1 August 1840; the Act excluded "the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company, or to the Island of Ceylon, or to the Island of Saint Helena."
The exceptions were eliminated in 1843. The Act provided for payments to slave-owners; the amount of money to be spent on the payments was set at "the Sum of Twenty Million Pounds Sterling". Under the terms of the Act, the British government raised £20 million to pay out for the loss of the slaves as business assets to the registered owners of the freed slaves. In 1833, £20 million amounted to 40% of the Treasury's annual income or 5% of the British GDP. To finance the payments, the British government had to take on a £15 million loan, finalised on 3 August 1835, with banker Nathan Mayer Rothschild and his brother-in-law Moses Montefiore; the money was not paid back until 2015. Half of the money went to slave-owning families in the Caribbean and Africa, while the other half went to absentee owners living in Britain; the names listed in the returns for slave owner payments show that ownership was spread over many hundreds of British families, many of them of high social standing. For example, Henry Phillpotts, with three others, was paid £12,700 for 665 slaves in the West Indies
Sugarcane
Sugarcane, or sugar cane, are several species of tall perennial true grasses of the genus Saccharum, tribe Andropogoneae, native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, used for sugar production. It has stout, fibrous stalks that are rich in the sugar sucrose, which accumulates in the stalk internodes; the plant is two to six metres tall. All sugar cane species can interbreed and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids. Sugarcane belongs to the grass family Poaceae, an economically important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat and sorghum, many forage crops. Sucrose and purified in specialized mill factories, is used as raw material in the food industry or is fermented to produce ethanol. Sugarcane is the world's largest crop by production quantity, with 1.9 billion tonnes produced in 2016, Brazil accounting for 41% of the world total. In 2012, the Food and Agriculture Organization estimated it was cultivated on about 26 million hectares, in more than 90 countries.
The global demand for sugar is the primary driver of sugarcane agriculture. Cane accounts for 79% of sugar produced. Sugarcane predominantly grows in the subtropical regions. Other than sugar, products derived from sugarcane include falernum, rum, cachaça, ethanol. In some regions, people use sugarcane reeds to make pens, mats and thatch; the young, unexpanded inflorescence of Saccharum edule is eaten raw, steamed, or toasted, prepared in various ways in Southeast Asia, including Fiji and certain island communities of Indonesia. Sugarcane was an ancient crop of the Papuan people, it was introduced to Polynesia, Island Melanesia, Madagascar in prehistoric times via Austronesian sailors. It was introduced to southern China and India by Austronesian traders at around 1200 to 1000 BC; the Persians, followed by the Greeks, encountered the famous "reeds that produce honey without bees" in India between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. They adopted and spread sugarcane agriculture. Merchants began to trade in sugar from India, considered a luxury and an expensive spice.
In the 18th century AD, sugarcane plantations began in Caribbean, South American, Indian Ocean and Pacific island nations and the need for laborers became a major driver of large human migrations, both the voluntary in indentured servants. And the involuntary migrations, in the form of slave labor. Sugarcane is a tropical, perennial grass that forms lateral shoots at the base to produce multiple stems three to four m high and about 5 cm in diameter; the stems grow into cane stalk. A mature stalk is composed of 11–16% fiber, 12–16% soluble sugars, 2–3% nonsugars, 63–73% water. A sugarcane crop is sensitive to the climate, soil type, fertilizers, disease control and the harvest period; the average yield of cane stalk is 60–70 tonnes per hectare per year. However, this figure can vary between 30 and 180 tonnes per hectare depending on knowledge and crop management approach used in sugarcane cultivation. Sugarcane is a cash crop, but it is used as livestock fodder. There are two centers of domestication for sugarcane: one for Saccharum officinarum by Papuans in New Guinea and another for Saccharum sinense by Austronesians in Taiwan and southern China.
Papuans and Austronesians primarily used sugarcane as food for domesticated pigs. The spread of both S. officinarum and S. sinense is linked to the migrations of the Austronesian peoples. Saccharum barberi was only cultivated in India after the introduction of S. officinarum. Saccharum officinarum was first domesticated in New Guinea and the islands east of the Wallace Line by Papuans, where it is the modern center of diversity. Beginning at around 6,000 BP they were selectively bred from the native Saccharum robustum. From New Guinea it spread westwards to Island Southeast Asia after contact with Austronesians, where it hybridized with Saccharum spontaneum; the second domestication center is mainland southern China and Taiwan where S. sinense was a primary cultigen of the Austronesian peoples. Words for sugarcane exist in the Proto-Austronesian languages in Taiwan, reconstructed as *təbuS or **CebuS, which became *tebuh in Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, it was one of the original major crops of the Austronesian peoples from at least 5,500 BP.
Introduction of the sweeter S. officinarum may have replaced it throughout its cultivated range in Island Southeast Asia. From Island Southeast Asia, S. officinarum was spread eastward into Polynesia and Micronesia by Austronesian voyagers as a canoe plant by around 3,500 BP. It was spread westward and northward by around 3,000 BP to China and India by Austronesian traders, where it further hybridized with Saccharum sinense and Saccharum barberi. From there it spread further into the Mediterranean; the earliest known production of crystalline sugar began in northern India. The exact date of the first cane sugar production is unclear; the earliest evidence of sugar production comes from ancient Pali texts. Around the 8th century and Arab traders introduced sugar from medieval India to the other parts of the Abbasid Caliphate in the Mediterranean, Egypt, North Africa, Andalusia. By the 10th century, sources state, it was among the early crops brought to the Americas by the Spanish Andalu
United States Agency for International Development
The United States Agency for International Development is an independent agency of the United States federal government, responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 billion, USAID is one of the largest official aid agencies in the world, accounts for more than half of all U. S. foreign assistance—the highest in the world in absolute dollar terms. Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act on September 4, 1961, which reorganized U. S. foreign assistance programs and mandated the creation of an agency to administer economic aid. USAID was subsequently established by the executive order of President John F. Kennedy, who sought to unite several existing foreign assistance organizations and programs under one agency. USAID became the first U. S. foreign assistance organization whose primary focus was long-term socioeconomic development. USAID's programs are authorized by Congress in the Foreign Assistance Act, which Congress supplements through directions in annual funding appropriation acts and other legislation.
As an official component of U. S. foreign policy, USAID operates subject to the guidance of the President, Secretary of State, the National Security Council. USAID has missions in over 100 countries in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe. USAID's mission statement, adopted in May 2013, is "to partner to end extreme poverty and to promote resilient, democratic societies while advancing the security and prosperity of the United States."USAID's decentralized network of resident field missions is drawn on to manage U. S. Government programs in low-income countries for a range of purposes. Disaster relief Poverty relief Technical cooperation on global issues, including the environment U. S. bilateral interests Socioeconomic development Some of the U. S. Government's earliest foreign aid programs provided relief in crises created by war. In 1915, USG assistance through the Commission for Relief of Belgium headed by Herbert Hoover prevented starvation in Belgium after the German invasion.
After 1945, the European Recovery Program championed by Secretary of State George Marshall helped rebuild war-torn Western Europe. USAID manages relief efforts after wars and natural disasters through its Office of U. S Foreign Disaster Assistance in Washington D. C. Funded U. S. NGOs and the U. S. military play major roles in disaster relief overseas. After 1945, many newly independent countries needed assistance to relieve the chronic deprivation afflicting their low-income populations. USAID and its predecessor agencies have continuously provided poverty relief in many forms, including assistance to public health and education services targeted at the poorest. USAID has helped manage food aid provided by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. In addition, USAID provides funding to NGOs to supplement private donations in relieving chronic poverty. Technical cooperation between nations is essential for addressing a range of cross-border concerns like communicable diseases, environmental issues and investment cooperation, safety standards for traded products, money laundering, so forth.
The USG has specialized agencies dealing with such areas, such as the Centers for Disease Control and the Environmental Protection Agency. USAID's special ability to administer programs in low-income countries supports these and other USG agencies' international work on global concerns. Among these global interests, environmental issues attract high attention. USAID assists projects that conserve and protect threatened land, water and wildlife. USAID assists projects to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and to build resilience to the risks associated with global climate change. U. S. environmental regulation laws require that programs sponsored by USAID should be both economically and environmentally sustainable. To support U. S. geopolitical interests, Congress appropriates exceptional financial assistance to allies in the form of "Economic Support Funds". USAID is called on to administer the bulk of ESF and is instructed "To the maximum extent feasible, provide assistance... consistent with the policy directions and programs of."Also, when U.
S. troops are in the field, USAID can supplement the "Civil Affairs" programs that the U. S. military conducts to win the friendship of local populations. In these circumstances, USAID may be directed by specially appointed diplomatic officials of the State Department, as has been done in Afghanistan and Pakistan during operations against al-Qaeda. U. S. commercial interests are served by U. S. law's requirement that most goods and services financed by USAID must be sourced from U. S. vendors. USAID is sometimes called upon to support projects of U. S. constituents that have exceptional interest. To help low-income nations achieve self-sustaining socioeconomic development, USAID assists them in improving management of their own resources. USAID's assistance for socioeconomic development provides technical advice, scholarships and financial assistance. Through grants and contracts, USAID mobilizes the technical resources of the private sector, other USG agencies, NGOs to participate in this assistance.
Programs of the various types above reinforce one another. For example, the Foreign Assistance Act requires USAID to use funds appropriated for geopolitical purposes to support socioeconomic development to the maximum extent possible. USAID delivers financial assistance. Technical assistance includes technical advice, scholarships and commodities. Technical assistance is contrac
Stone Age
The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was used to make implements with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted 3.4 million years and ended between 8700 BCE and 2000 BCE with the advent of metalworking. Stone Age artifacts include tools used by modern humans and by their predecessor species in the genus Homo, by the earlier contemporaneous genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus. Bone tools were used during this period as well but are preserved in the archaeological record; the Stone Age is further subdivided by the types of stone tools in use. The Stone Age is the first period in the three-age system of archaeology, which divides human technological prehistory into three periods: The Stone Age The Bronze Age The Iron Age The Stone Age is contemporaneous with the evolution of the genus Homo, the only exception being the early Stone Age, when species prior to Homo may have manufactured tools. According to the age and location of the current evidence, the cradle of the genus is the East African Rift System toward the north in Ethiopia, where it is bordered by grasslands.
The closest relative among the other living primates, the genus Pan, represents a branch that continued on in the deep forest, where the primates evolved. The rift served as a conduit for movement into southern Africa and north down the Nile into North Africa and through the continuation of the rift in the Levant to the vast grasslands of Asia. Starting from about 4 million years ago a single biome established itself from South Africa through the rift, North Africa, across Asia to modern China, called "transcontinental'savannahstan'" recently. Starting in the grasslands of the rift, Homo erectus, the predecessor of modern humans, found an ecological niche as a tool-maker and developed a dependence on it, becoming a "tool equipped savanna dweller"; the oldest indirect evidence found of stone tool use is fossilised animal bones with tool marks. Archaeological discoveries in Kenya in 2015, identifying the oldest known evidence of hominin use of tools to date, have indicated that Kenyanthropus platyops may have been the earliest tool-users known.
The oldest stone tools were excavated from the site of Lomekwi 3 in West Turkana, northwestern Kenya, date to 3.3 million years old. Prior to the discovery of these "Lomekwian" tools, the oldest known stone tools had been found at several sites at Gona, Ethiopia, on the sediments of the paleo-Awash River, which serve to date them. All the tools come from the Busidama Formation, which lies above a disconformity, or missing layer, which would have been from 2.9 to 2.7 mya. The oldest sites containing tools are dated to 2.6–2.55 mya. One of the most striking circumstances about these sites is that they are from the Late Pliocene, where previous to their discovery tools were thought to have evolved only in the Pleistocene. Excavators at the locality point out that: "...the earliest stone tool makers were skilled flintknappers.... The possible reasons behind this seeming abrupt transition from the absence of stone tools to the presence thereof include... gaps in the geological record."The species who made the Pliocene tools remains unknown.
Fragments of Australopithecus garhi, Australopithecus aethiopicus and Homo Homo habilis, have been found in sites near the age of the Gona tools. In July 2018, scientists reported the discovery in China of the oldest stone tools outside Africa, estimated at 2.12 million years old. Innovation of the technique of smelting ore began the Bronze Age; the first most significant metal manufactured was bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, each of, smelted separately. The transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age was a period during which modern people could smelt copper, but did not yet manufacture bronze, a time known as the Copper Age, or more technically the Chalcolithic, "copper-stone" age; the Chalcolithic by convention is the initial period of the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age; the transition out of the Stone Age occurred between 6000 BCE and 2500 BCE for much of humanity living in North Africa and Eurasia. The first evidence of human metallurgy dates to between the 5th and 6th millennium BCE in the archaeological sites of Majdanpek and Pločnik in modern-day Serbia, though not conventionally considered part of the Chalcolithic or "Copper Age", this provides the earliest known example of copper metallurgy.
Note the Rudna Glava mine in Serbia. Ötzi the Iceman, a mummy from about 3300 BCE carried with him a flint knife. In regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the Stone Age was followed directly by the Iron Age; the Middle East and southeastern Asian regions progressed past Stone Age technology around 6000 BCE. Europe, the rest of Asia became post-Stone Age societies by about 4000 BCE; the proto-Inca cultures of South America continued at a Stone Age level until around 2000 BCE, when gold and silver made their entrance. The Americas notably did not develop a widespread behavior of smelting Bronze or Iron after the Stone Age period, although the technology existed. Stone tool manufacture continued after the Stone Age ended in a given area. In Europe and North America, millstones were in use until well into the 20th century, still are in many parts of the world; the terms "Stone Age", "Bronze Age", "Iron Age" were never meant to suggest that advancement and time periods in prehistory are only measured by the type of tool material, rather than, for
Antigua
Antigua known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the West Indies. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Barbuda became an independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations on 1 November 1981. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish after an icon in Seville Cathedral, "Santa Maria de la Antigua" — St. Mary of the Old Cathedral; the name Waladli comes from the indigenous inhabitants and means "our own". The island's circumference is 87 km and its area 281 km2, its population was 80,161. The economy is reliant on tourism, with the agricultural sector serving the domestic market. Over 32,000 people live in the capital city, St. John's; the capital is situated in the north-west and has a deep harbour, able to accommodate large cruise ships. Other leading population settlements are All Liberta, according to the 2001 census. English Harbour on the south-eastern coast is famed for its protected shelter during violent storms.
It is the site of a restored British colonial naval station called "Nelson's Dockyard" after Captain Horatio Nelson. Today English Harbour and the neighbouring village of Falmouth are known as a yachting and sailing destination and provisioning centre. During Antigua Sailing Week, at the end of April and beginning of May, an annual regatta brings a number of sailing vessels and sailors to the island to play sports. On 6 September 2017, the Category 5 Hurricane Irma destroyed 90 percent of the buildings on the island of Barbuda. Residents were evacuated to Antigua; the first residents were the Guanahatabey people. The Arawak migrated from the mainland, followed by the Carib. Prior to European colonialism, Christopher Columbus was the first European to visit Antigua, in 1493; the Arawak were the first well-documented group of indigenous people to settle Antigua. They paddled to the island by canoe from present-day Venezuela, pushed out by the Carib, another indigenous people; the Arawak introduced agriculture to Barbuda.
Among other crops, they cultivated. They cultivated: Corn Sweet potatoes Chili peppers Guava Tobacco CottonSome of the vegetables listed, such as corn and sweet potatoes, still are staples of Antiguan cuisine. Colonists took them to Europe, from there, they spread around the world. For example, a popular Antiguan dish, dukuna, is a sweet, steamed dumpling made from grated sweet potatoes and spices. Another staple, fungi, is a cooked paste made of water. Most of the Arawak left Antigua about A. D. 1100. Those who remained were raided by the Carib coming from Venezuela. According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, the Caribs' superior weapons and seafaring prowess allowed them to defeat most Arawak nations in the West Indies, they enslaved cannibalised others. Watson points out; the indigenous people of the West Indies made excellent sea vessels, which they used to sail the Atlantic and Caribbean. As a result, the Arawak and Carib populated much of the Caribbean islands, their descendants live throughout South America Brazil and Colombia.
Christopher Columbus named the island "Antigua" in 1493 in honour of the "Virgin of the Old Cathedral" found in Seville Cathedral in southern Spain. On his 1493 voyage, honouring a vow, he named many islands after different aspects of St. Mary, including Montserrat and Guadaloupe. In 1632, a group of English colonists left St. Kitts to settle on Antigua. Sir Christopher Codrington, an Englishman, established the first permanent European settlement. From that point on, Antigua history took a dramatic turn. Codrington guided development on the island as a profitable sugar colony. For a large portion of Antigua history, the island was considered Britain's "Gateway to the Caribbean", it was located on the major sailing routes among the region's resource-rich colonies. Lord Horatio Nelson, a major figure in Antigua history, arrived in the late 18th century to preserve the island's commercial shipping prowess. According to A Brief History of the Caribbean, European diseases and slavery destroyed the vast majority of the Caribbean's native population.
There are some differences of opinions as to the relative importance of these causes. In fact, some historians believe that the abundant, but starchy, low-protein diet may have contributed to severe malnutrition of the "Indians" who were used to a diet fortified with protein from sealife. Others believe that the psychological stress of slavery may have played a part in the massive number of native deaths while in servitude. Sugar became Antigua's main crop in about 1674, when Christopher Codrington settled at Betty's Hope plantation, he came from Barbados. Betty's Hope, Antigua's first full-scale sugar plantation, was so successful that other planters turned from tobacco to sugar; this resulted in their importing slaves to work the sugar cane crops. According to A Brief History of the Caribbean, many West Indian colonists tried to use locals as slaves; these groups succumbed to disease and/or malnutrition, died by the thousands. The enslaved Africans adapted better to the new environment and thus became the number one choice of unpaid labour.
However, according to a Smith
Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda is a country in the West Indies in the Americas, lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of two major islands and Barbuda, a number of smaller islands; the permanent population numbers about 81,800 and the capital and largest port and city is St. John's on Antigua. Lying near each other and Barbuda are in the middle of the Leeward Islands, part of the Lesser Antilles at 17°N of the equator; the island of Antigua was explored by Christopher Columbus in 1493 and named for the Church of Santa María La Antigua. Antigua was colonized by Britain in 1632. Antigua and Barbuda joined the West Indies Federation in 1958. With the breakup of the federation, it became one of the West Indies Associated States in 1967. Following by self-governing on its internal affairs, independence was granted from United Kingdom on 1 November 1981. Antigua and Barbuda remains a member of the Commonwealth and Elizabeth II is the country's queen and head of state. Antigua is Spanish for "ancient" and barbuda is Spanish for "bearded".
The island of Antigua was called Wadadli by Arawaks and is locally known by that name today. Christopher Columbus, while sailing by in 1493 may have named it Santa Maria la Antigua, after an icon in the Spanish Seville Cathedral. Antigua was first settled by archaic age hunter-gatherer Amerindians called the Ciboney. Carbon dating has established the earliest settlements started around 3100 BC, they were succeeded by the ceramic age pre-Columbian Arawak-speaking Saladoid people who migrated from the lower Orinoco River. The Arawaks introduced agriculture, among other crops, the famous Antigua black pineapple, sweet potatoes, guava and cotton; the indigenous West Indians made excellent seagoing vessels which they used to sail around on the Atlantic and the Caribbean. As a result and Arawaks were able to colonize much of South America and the Caribbean Islands, their descendants still live there, notably in Brazil and Colombia. Most Arawaks left Antigua around 1100 AD. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Caribs' superior weapons and seafaring prowess allowed them to defeat most of the West Indian Arawak nations, enslaving some and cannibalising others.
The Catholic Encyclopedia makes it clear that the European invaders had difficulty differentiating between the various groups of the native peoples they encountered. As a result, the number and types of ethnic/tribal groups in existence at that time may have been much more varied and numerous than just the two mentioned in this article. European and African diseases and slavery killed most of the Caribbean's native population. Smallpox was the greatest killer; some historians believe that the psychological stress of slavery may have played a part in the massive number of deaths amongst enslaved natives. Others believe the abundant but starchy, low-protein diet may have contributed to their severe malnutrition as they were used to a diet fortified with protein from the sea; the Spaniards did not colonise Antigua. The English settled on Antigua in 1632. Slavery, established to run sugar plantations around 1684, was abolished in 1834; the British ruled from 1632 to 1981, with a brief French interlude in 1666.
The islands became an independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations on 1 November 1981, with Elizabeth II as the first Queen of Antigua and Barbuda. Vere Cornwall Bird Sr became the first Prime Minister. Most of Barbuda was devastated in early September 2017 by Hurricane Irma, which brought winds with speeds reaching 295 km/h; the storm damaged or destroyed 95% of the island's buildings and infrastructure, leaving Barbuda "barely habitable" according to Prime Minister Gaston Browne. Nearly everyone on the island was evacuated to Antigua. Antigua and Barbuda both are low-lying islands whose terrain has been influenced more by limestone formations than volcanic activity; the highest point on Antigua is the remnant of a volcanic crater rising 402 metres. The shorelines of both islands are indented with beaches and natural harbours; the islands are rimmed by shoals. There are few. Both islands lack adequate amounts of fresh groundwater. Rainfall averages 990 mm per year, with the amount varying from season to season.
In general the wettest period is between November. The islands experience low humidity and recurrent droughts. Temperatures average 27 °C, with a range from 23 °C to 29 °C in the winter to from 25 °C to 30 °C in the summer and autumn; the coolest period is between February. Hurricanes strike on an average of once a year, including the powerful Category 5 Hurricane Irma, on 6 September 2017, which damaged 95% of the structures on Barbuda; some 1,800 people were evacuated to Antigua. An estimate published by Time indicated that over $100 million would be required to rebuild homes and infrastructure. Philmore Mullin, Director of Barbuda's National Office of Disaster Services, said that "all critical infrastructure and utilities are non-existent –
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. Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). 1911.
