1.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
2.
Overseas collectivity
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The French overseas collectivities, like the French regions, are first-order administrative divisions of France. The COMs include some former French overseas territories and other French overseas entities with a particular status, the COMs should not be confused with the overseas regions and overseas departments, which have no particular status. As integral parts of France, overseas collectivities are represented in the National Assembly, Senate and Economic, only one COM, Saint Martin, is part of the European Union and can vote to elect members of the European Parliament. The Pacific COMs use the CFP franc, a currency pegged to the euro, as of 31 March 2011, there were five COMs, French Polynesia became a COM in 2003. Its statutory law of 27 February 2004 gives it the designation of overseas country inside the Republic, French Polynesia has a great degree of autonomy, two symbolic manifestations of which are the title of the President of French Polynesia and its additional designation as a pays doutre-mer. Legislature, Assembly of French Polynesia since 2004, Saint Barthélemy, an island in the Lesser Antilles. It has a council and executive council since 2007. Saint Martin, the part of the island of Saint Martin in the Lesser Antilles. Saint Martin remains part of the European Union, both it and St. Barthelemy were separated from the overseas department of Guadeloupe in 2007 and made into their own collectivities. It has a council and executive council since 2007. Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland and it is the last remaining part of New France not ceded by France. Wallis and Futuna, three islands in the Pacific Ocean. Has a high administrator and territorial assembly, mayotte was a COM from 1976 until 31 March 2011, when it became an overseas department. New Caledonia was classified as an overseas territory beginning in 1946, a New Caledonian citizenship was established, and a gradual transfer of power from the French state to New Caledonia itself was begun, to last from fifteen to twenty years
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Light characteristic
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The graphic indicates how the real light may be identified when looking at its actual light output type or sequence. Different lights use different colours, frequencies and light patterns, so mariners can identify which light they are seeing, while light characteristics can be described in prose, e. g. Flashing white every three seconds, lists of lights and navigation chart annotations use abbreviations. The abbreviation notation is different from one light list to another, with dots added or removed. An abbreviation of the type of light, e. g. Fl. for flashing, the color of the light, e. g. W for white, G for green, R for red, Y for yellow. If no color is given, a light is generally implied. The cycle period, e. g. 10s for ten seconds, additional parameters are sometimes added, The height of the light above the chart datum for height. The range in which the light is visible, e. g. 10M for 10 nautical miles, an example of a complete light characteristic is Gp Oc W 10s 15m 10M. A fixed light, abbreviated F, is a continuous and steady light and it is most commonly used for a single-flashing light which exhibits only single flashes which are repeated at regular intervals, in which case it is abbreviated simply as Fl. It can also be used with a group of flashes which are regularly repeated, in which case the abbreviation is Fl. or Gr Fl. for a group of two flashes. Another possibility is a group, in which successive groups in the period have different numbers of flashes. A specific case sometimes used is when the flashes are longer than two seconds, such a light is sometimes denoted long flashing with the abbreviation L. Fl. If the frequency of flashes is large the light is denoted as a quick light, an occulting light is a rhythmic light in which the duration of light in each period is longer than the total duration of darkness. In other words, it is the opposite to a flashing light where the duration of darkness is longer than the duration of light. It has the appearance of flashing off, rather than flashing on, an isophase light, abbreviated Iso, is a light which has dark and light periods of equal length. The prefix derives from the Greek iso- meaning same, a quick light, abbreviated Q, is a special case of a flashing light with a large frequency. If the sequence of flashes is interrupted by regularly repeated eclipses of constant and long duration, group notation similar to flashing and occulting lights is also sometimes used. Another distinction sometimes made is between quick, very quick and ultra quick. This can be combined with notations for interruptions, e. g. I. U. Q. for interrupted ultra quick, or grouping, e. g. V. Q. for a very quick group of nine flashes
5.
United Kingdom Hydrographic Office
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The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office is located in Taunton, Somerset on Admiralty Way and has a workforce of approximately 1,000 staff. The UKHO is the UKs agency providing hydrographic and geospatial data to mariners and they are a trading arm of the Ministry of Defence. They are responsible for support to the Royal Navy and other defence customers. Supplying defence and the shipping industry, they help ensure Safety of Lives at Sea, protect the marine environment. Together with other national hydrographic offices and the International Hydrographic Organisation, they work to set and raise standards of hydrography, cartography. Their market-leading portfolio of ADMIRALTY Maritime Products & Services is found on over 90% of the ships trading internationally. Relied upon by mariners for over 200 years, their portfolio provides the most comprehensive range of SOLAS-compliant charts, publications and digital services to crews, cargo. The Admiraltys first Hydrographer was Alexander Dalrymple, appointed in 1795 on the order of King George III, the first chart Dalrymple published as Hydrographer to the ADMIRALTY brand did not appear until 1800. He also issued sailing directions and Notices to Mariners, Dalrymple was succeeded on his death in 1808 by Captain Thomas Hurd, under whose stewardship the department was given permission to sell charts to the public in 1821. In 1819 Captain Hurd entered into an agreement with Denmark to exchange charts. This is thought to be the earliest formal arrangement for the supply of information between the British and any foreign Hydrographic Office. Hurd developed the specialism of Royal Navy hydrographic surveyors, Rear-Admiral Sir W. Edward Parry was appointed Hydrographer in 1823 after his second expedition to discover a Northwest Passage. In 1825 some 736 charts and coastal views were being offered for sale by the Hydrographic Office, in 1828 Captain Parry and the Royal Society organised a scientific voyage to the South Atlantic, in collaboration with the Hydrographers of France and Spain, using HMS Chanticleer. In 1829, at the age of 55, Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort became Hydrographer, during his time as Hydrographer, he developed the eponymous Scale, saw the introduction of official tide tables in 1833 and instigated various surveys and expeditions. Several of these were by the HMS Beagle, including one to Tierra del Fuego, in 1831 Captain Beaufort informed Captain FitzRoy that he had found a savant for the latters surveying voyage to South America, Charles Darwin. After completing extensive surveys in South America she returned to Falmouth, Cornwall via New Zealand, by the time of Beauforts retirement in 1855, the Chart Catalogue listed 1,981 charts and 64,000 copies of them had been issued to the Royal Navy. In the 1870s the Hydrographic Service supported the Challenger expedition, an exercise that made many discoveries. The cruise was named after the vessel, HMS Challenger
6.
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
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NGA was known as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency until 2003. NGA headquarters is located at Fort Belvoir in Springfield, Virginia, the NGA campus, at 2.3 million square feet, is the third-largest government building in the Washington metropolitan area after The Pentagon and the Ronald Reagan Building. U. S. mapping and charting efforts remained relatively unchanged until World War I, using stereo viewers, photo-interpreters reviewed thousands of images. Many of these were of the target at different angles and times, giving rise to what became modern imagery analysis. The Engineer Reproduction Plant was the Army Corps of Engineerss first attempt to centralize mapping production, printing and it was located on the grounds of the Army War College in Washington, D. C. Previously, topographic mapping had largely been a function of individual field engineer units using field surveying techniques or copying existing or captured products, in addition, ERP assumed the supervision and maintenance of the War Department Map Collection, effective April 1,1939. With the advent of the Second World War aviation, field surveys began giving way to photogrammetry, photo interpretation, during wartime, it became increasingly possible to compile maps with minimal field work. Out of this emerged AMS, which absorbed the existing ERP in May 1942 and it was located at the Dalecarlia Site on MacArthur Blvd. just outside Washington, D. C. in Montgomery County, Maryland, and adjacent to the Dalecarlia Reservoir. AMS was designated as an Engineer field activity, effective July 1,1942, by General Order 22, OCE, the Army Map Service also combined many of the Armys remaining geographic intelligence organizations and the Engineer Technical Intelligence Division. The agencys credit union, Constellation Federal Credit Union, was chartered during the Army Map Service era and it has continued to serve all successive legacy agencies employees and their families. After the war, as capacity and range improved, the need for charts grew. The Army Air Corps established its map unit, which was renamed ACP in 1943 and was located in St. Louis, ACP was known as the U. S. Air Force Aeronautical Chart and Information Center from 1952 to 1972. A credit union was chartered for the ACP in 1948, called Aero Chart Credit Union and it was renamed Arsenal Credit Union in 1952, a nod to the St. Louis sites Civil War-era use as an arsenal. Shortly before leaving office in January 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized the creation of the National Photographic Interpretation Center, lundahl, combining Central Intelligence Agency, Army, Navy, and Air Force assets to solve national intelligence problems. NPIC was a component of the CIAs Directorate of Science and Technology, NPIC first identified the Soviet Unions basing of missiles in Cuba in 1962. The Defense Mapping Agency was created on January 1,1972, dMAs birth certificate, DoD Directive 5105.40, resulted from a formerly classified Presidential directive, Organization and Management of the U. S. Foreign Intelligence Community, which directed the consolidation of mapping functions previously dispersed among the military services, DMA became operational on July 1,1972, pursuant to General Order 3, DMA. On Oct.1,1996, DMA was folded into the National Imagery, DMA was first headquartered at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D. C, then at Falls Church, Virginia
7.
Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society
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Founded in 2000 by Jim Weidner, K2JXW, the Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society is devoted to maritime communications, amateur radio, lighthouses, and lightships. Its members travel to lighthouses around the world where they operate amateur radio equipment at or near the light, collecting lighthouse QSLs is popular for some amateur radio operators. ARLHS is a organization with over 1665 members worldwide as of July 2009. A convention is held in October each year, in 2010 the gathering was in Biloxi, Mississippi. In earlier years it has held in Solomons, Maryland, St. Simons, Georgia, Port Huron, Michigan. The ARLHS has been featured in magazines, such as CQ. Jim Weidner is its founding President, and Jim Buffington, K5JIM, is Vice President, the club call sign is W7QF and the website is The ARLHS maintains a catalog of lighthouses called The World List of Lights. Its main feature is a short, and easily transmitted identification number for each lighthouse, the WLOL lists any lighthouse that is or was an Aid to Navigation and can reasonably accommodate an amateur radio operation. Lights that are no longer in existence, but were once an ATN, also show up on the list, with over 15,000 entries, the WLOL is one of the most complete lighthouse catalogs in existence. Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society Website ARLHS Convention web site Indias First ARLHS activation in Mahaballipuram, Chennai, India Aug 2008 Kadalur Lighthouse Centenary and ILLW operation Aug 2009
8.
Gustav III of Sweden
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Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. Gustav was an opponent of what he saw as the abuse of political privileges seized by the nobility since the death of King Charles XII. Nonetheless, his leadership in the Battle of Svensksund averted a complete military defeat. The much-praised Freedom of the Press Act of 1766 was severely curtailed, however, by amendments in 1774 and 1792, effectively extinguishing independent media. Gustavs immense powers were placed in the hands of a regency under his brother Prince Carl and Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm until his son, the Gustavian autocracy thus survived until 1809, when his son was ousted in another coup detat, which definitively established parliament as the dominant political power. A patron of the arts and benefactor of arts and literature, Gustav founded the Swedish Academy, in 1772 he founded the Royal Order of Vasa to acknowledge and reward those Swedes who had contributed to advances in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce. In 1782, Gustav III was the first formally neutral head of state in the world to recognize the United States during its war for independence from Great Britain. Nonetheless, he perhaps owed most of what shaped him during his education to the poet. State interference with his education as a child caused significant political disruptions within the royal family. Even his most hostile teachers were amazed by his combination of natural gifts, on the whole, Gustav cannot be said to have been well educated, but he read widely, there was scarcely a French author of his day with whose works he was not intimately acquainted. His enthusiasm for the ideas of the French enlightenment was as sincere as that of his mother, if more critical. Gustav married Princess Sophia Magdalena, daughter of King Frederick V of Denmark, by proxy in Christiansborg Palace, Copenhagen, on 1 October 1766 and in person in Stockholm on 4 November 1766. The match was not a one, owing partly to an incompatibility of temperament. The marriage produced two children, Crown Prince Gustav Adolf, and Prince Carl Gustav, Duke of Småland, for the consummation of the marriage, the king and queen requested actual physical instruction by Count Adolf Munck, reportedly because of anatomical problems of both spouses. There were also rumors that the queen was pregnant by Munck. Gustavs mother supported rumors that he was not the father of his first son and it was rumored at the time that Gustav was homosexual, a possibility asserted by some writers. The close personal relationships which he formed two of his courtiers, Count Axel von Fersen and Baron Gustav Armfelt, were alluded to in that regard. His sister-in-law Charlotte implied as much in her famous diary, professor Erik Lönnroth of the Swedish Academy, who described the assistance provided by Munck, has concluded that there is no factual basis for the assumption that Gustav III was homosexual
9.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
10.
Norrbotten
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Norrbotten, known in English as North Bothnia, is a Swedish province in northernmost Sweden. It borders south to Västerbotten, west to Swedish Lapland, the traditional provinces of Sweden serve no administrative or political purposes, but are historical and cultural entities. In this case, however, the county is older than the province, when the new national border to the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland formed, the province split in two, and formed the municipalities of Kolari, Muonio, Pello, Tornio, and Ylitornio. However, Finnish Norrbotten is not recognized enough as its own province, so its usually merged instead with Ostrobothnia. The northernmost of the counties of Sweden were created in 1810 consisting of the parts of Lappland. After that, northern Västerbotten has gradually evolved as a province of its own, not being one of the old historical provinces of Sweden Norrbotten had not been granted a coat of arms in the same way as the others. As recently as 1995, after decades of controversy, Norrbotten got its arms, during the Middle Ages Norrbotten was basically terra nullius. The area was populated by Sami people, who lived on hunting, fishing. From the Middle Ages and forward, the Swedish kings tried hard to colonise, settlers from Finland, the most important of which were known as Birkarls, controlled the trade and even the taxing on the area long into the 16th century. From the mid-16th century, the area was more firmly tied to Sweden, an important sign of Swedish control was the large Nederluleå stone church from 1492. Still today, Finnish and Sami minorities live in Norrbotten and they have kept their culture, historically, Västerbotten was the denomination for northern Sweden, together with the Lappland areas. The Eastern Botten or Ostrobothnia was in the Finnish side, cultural identification in Sweden is closely related to the historical provinces, and the people in Norrbotten live in this sense in Northern Västerbotten, or Norra Västerbotten. Norrbotten had gradually become synonymous with the area that was referred to as northern Västerbotten. It started to evolve as a separate province, during the 20th century it got all of the symbols which are assigned to the other provinces of Sweden. But there was some resistance to the idea of Norrbotten being a province. As recently as 1995, after decades of debate, Norrbotten was granted a coat of arms, the coat of arms symbolizes the four large rivers in Norrbotten that drain into the Gulf of Bothnia, Torne River, Kalix River, Lule River and Pite River. The summers can bring warm temperatures for such northerly altitudes. As of December 31,2009, the population is 192,542, distributed over 26,671 km2, Norrbotten has around 8,000 ancient remains
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Gothenburg
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Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, the city has a population of approximately 550,000 in the urban area, Gothenburg was founded as a heavily fortified, primarily Dutch, trading colony, by royal charter in 1621 by King Gustavus Adolphus. At a key location at the mouth of the Göta älv, where Scandinavias largest drainage basin enters the sea. Gothenburg is home to students, as the city includes the University of Gothenburg. Volvo was founded in Gothenburg in 1927, the original, parent Volvo Group and the now separate Volvo Car Corporation are still headquartered on the island of Hisingen in the city. Other key companies are SKF and Astra Zeneca, Gothenburg is served by Göteborg Landvetter Airport 30 km southeast of the city center. The smaller Göteborg City Airport,15 km from the city center, was closed to airline traffic in 2015. The city hosts some of the largest annual events in Scandinavia, the Gothenburg Film Festival, held in January since 1979, is the leading Scandinavian film festival with over 155,000 visitors each year. In summer, a variety of music festivals are held in the city, such as Way Out West. The city was named after the Geats, the inhabitants of Gothia, the river on which the city sits is the Göta älv or Gothia River. Göta borg Gothia Fortress is the fort on the Göta Älv, in Dutch, Scots, and English, all languages with a long history in this trade and maritime-oriented city, the name Gothenburg is used for the city. The French form of the city name is Gothembourg, but in French texts, Gothenburg can also be seen in some older English texts. In Spanish the city is called Gotemburgo and these traditional forms are sometimes replaced with the use of the Swedish Göteborg, for example by The Göteborg Opera and the Göteborg Ballet. However, Göteborgs universitet, previously designated as the Göteborg University in English, the Gothenburg municipality has also reverted to the use of the English name in international contexts. Other old variations in Swedish are Götheborgh, and the more common Götheborg, one English text, written in the late 15th century, states the name as Guthaeborg. In 2009, the city launched a new logotype for Gothenburg. Since the name Göteborg contains the Swedish letter ö the idea was to make the more international. As of 2015, the name is spelled Go, teborg on a number of signs in the city
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Swedish West India Company
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The Swedish West India Company was a Swedish chartered company which was based in the West Indies. It was the operator in the Swedish slave trade during its existence. Between 1786 and 1805, the company operated from the Swedish island of Saint-Barthélemy, the company was a private enterprise with royal monopoly on all Swedish trade via Saint Barthélemy. Three quarters of profits went to the company, one quarter to the Swedish state, list of trading companies Swedish colony of Saint Barthélemy Mémoire St Barth | History of St Barthélemy, Comité de Liaison et dApplication des Sources Historiques
13.
Napoleonic Wars
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The wars resulted from the unresolved disputes associated with the French Revolution and the Revolutionary Wars, which had raged on for years before concluding with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Napoleon became the First Consul of France in 1799, then Emperor five years later, inheriting the political and military struggles of the Revolution, he created a state with stable finances, a strong central bureaucracy, and a well-trained army. The British frequently financed the European coalitions intended to thwart French ambitions, by 1805, they had managed to convince the Austrians and the Russians to wage another war against France. At sea, the Royal Navy destroyed a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in October 1805, Prussian worries about increasing French power led to the formation of the Fourth Coalition in 1806. France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July, although Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, it did not bring a lasting peace for Europe. Hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia, the Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support. The Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, the Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia. Unwilling to bear the consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse and retreat of the Grand Army along with the destruction of Russian lands. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France, a lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813. The Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814 and he was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power. However, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again, the Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June. The Congress of Vienna, which started in 1814 and concluded in 1815, established the new borders of Europe and laid out the terms, Napoleon seized power in 1799, creating a de facto military dictatorship. The Napoleonic Wars began with the War of the Third Coalition, Kagan argues that Britain was irritated in particular by Napoleons assertion of control over Switzerland. Furthermore, Britons felt insulted when Napoleon stated that their country deserved no voice in European affairs, for its part, Russia decided that the intervention in Switzerland indicated that Napoleon was not looking toward a peaceful resolution of his differences with the other European powers. The British quickly enforced a blockade of France to starve it of resources. Napoleon responded with economic embargoes against Britain, and sought to eliminate Britains Continental allies to break the coalitions arrayed against him, the so-called Continental System formed a league of armed neutrality to disrupt the blockade and enforce free trade with France
14.
Victor Schoelcher
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He worked especially hard for the abolition of slavery on the Caribbean islands, notably the French West Indies. Schœlcher was born in Paris on 22 July 1804 and his father, Marc Schœlcher, from Fessenheim in Alsace, was the owner of a porcelain factory. His mother, Victoire Jacob, from Meaux in Seine-et-Marne, was a lingère in Paris at the time of their marriage, Victor Schœlcher was baptized in Saint-Laurent Church on 9 September 1804. He studied at the Lycée Condorcet, became a journalist, opposing the government of Louis Philippe and he was sent to visit America for business from 1829 to 1830. While in America he visited Mexico, Cuba and some of the states of the U. S. On this trip Schœlcher learned a lot about slavery and began his career as an abolitionist writer, from 1840 to 1842 he visited the West Indies, and from 1845 to 1847 Greece, Egypt, Turkey, and the west coast of Africa to study slavery. He was responsible for the publication of articles regarding slavery between 1833 and 1847 in which he focused on positive aspects of abolishing slavery. Schœlcher was also intent on social, economic, and political changes being made in the Caribbean colonies and he thought that the production of sugar should continue in the colonies but large central factories should be constructed rather than using slave labor. Schœlcher was the first European abolitionist to visit Haiti and had a influence on the abolitionist movements in all of the French West Indies. He was actively against the debt collected from the Haitians as French slave owners sought reparations for their lost property after the Haitian Revolution. As president of a commission, Schœlcher prepared and wrote the decree of 27 April 1848 in which the French government announced that slavery was abolished in all of its colonies, disagreeing with this action, on 2 December 1851 he went into exile in Belgium and then London. Refusing to take advantage of the amnesties of 1856 and 1869, organizing a legion of artillery, he took part in the defence of Paris. In 1871 he was elected again to the assembly for Martinique. Schœlcher was the most well informed French public figure on the Caribbean colonies and he was elected senator for life in 1875. Schœlcher published his last writings in 1889, after fighting for and writing for the abolition of slavery and French colonialism in the Caribbean for a large portion of the 19th century, Schœlcher died in 1893. First buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, Schœlchers remains were transferred on 20 May 1949 to the Panthéon, félix Éboués ashes were also transferred at the same time. In 1981, the newly elected President Francois Mitterrand placed a rose at his tomb in the Pantheon as part of his inauguration ceremony, the commune of Fessenheim made from his familys house the Victor Schœlcher museum. The Place Victor Schœlcher in Aix-en-Provence is named for him, a street created at the south-eastern corner of the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris was named Rue Schœlcher in 1894 and Rue Victor Schœlcher in 2000
15.
Tropical savanna climate
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Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a type of climate that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories Aw and As. This latter fact is in direct contrast to a monsoon climate. In essence, a savanna climate tends to either see less rainfall than a tropical monsoon climate or have more pronounced dry seasons. There are generally four types of tropical climate,1. Distinct wet and dry seasons of relatively equal duration, most of the regions annual rainfall is experienced during the wet season and very little precipitation falls during the dry season. A lengthy dry season and a short wet season. This version features seven or more dry season months and five or less wet season months, there are variations within this version, On one extreme, the region receives just enough precipitation during the short wet season to preclude it from a semi-arid climate classification. This drier variation of the savanna climate is typically found adjacent to regions with semi-arid climates. On the other extreme, the features a lengthy dry season followed by a short. However, regions with this variation of the climate do not experience enough rainfall during the wet season to qualify as a monsoon climate. A lengthy wet season and a short dry season. This version features seven or more wet season months and five or less dry season months, a dry season with a noticeable amount of rainfall followed by a rainy wet season. Tropical savanna climates are most commonly found in Africa, Asia, the climate is also prevalent in sections of Central America, northern Australia and southern North America, specifically in sections of Mexico and the state of Florida in the United States. Most places that have this climate are found at the margins of the tropical zone. Similarly, the Caribbean coast, eastward from the Gulf of Urabá on the Colombia – Panamá border to the Orinoco river delta and this condition extends to the Lesser Antilles and Greater Antilles forming the Circumcaribbean dry belt. The length and severity of the dry season diminishes inland, at the latitude of the Amazon river—which flows eastward, East from the Andes, between the arid Caribbean and the ever-wet Amazon are the Orinoco river llanos or savannas, from where this climate takes its name. Sometimes As is used in place of Aw if the dry season occurs during the time of higher sun and this is the case in parts of Hawaii, East Africa, Sri Lanka and coastal regions of Northeastern Brazil, for instance. The difference between summer and winter in such locations is usually so slight that a distinction between an As and Aw climate is a quibble
16.
Euro
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Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. Additionally,210 million people worldwide as of 2013 use currencies pegged to the euro, the euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The name euro was adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.8252 within two years, it has traded above the U. S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.6038 on 18 July 2008. In July 2012, the euro fell below US$1.21 for the first time in two years, following concerns raised over Greek debt and Spains troubled banking sector, as of 26 March 2017, the euro–dollar exchange rate stands at ~ US$1.07. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, as an independent central bank, the ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy. The Eurosystem participates in the printing, minting and distribution of notes and coins in all states. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, all nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. Since 5 January 2002, the central banks and the ECB have issued euro banknotes on a joint basis. Euro banknotes do not show which central bank issued them, Eurosystem NCBs are required to accept euro banknotes put into circulation by other Eurosystem members and these banknotes are not repatriated. The ECB issues 8% of the value of banknotes issued by the Eurosystem. In practice, the ECBs banknotes are put into circulation by the NCBs and these liabilities carry interest at the main refinancing rate of the ECB. The euro is divided into 100 cents, in Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage. Otherwise, normal English plurals are used, with many local variations such as centime in France. All circulating coins have a side showing the denomination or value. Due to the plurality in the European Union, the Latin alphabet version of euro is used. For the denominations except the 1-, 2- and 5-cent coins, beginning in 2007 or 2008 the old map is being replaced by a map of Europe also showing countries outside the Union like Norway
17.
Wikisource
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Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project, the projects aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, the project officially began in November 24,2003 under the name Project Sourceberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name seven months later, the project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as the National Archives and Records Administration. The project holds works that are either in the domain or freely licensed, professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products. Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, some individual Wikisources, each representing a specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. Wikisources early history included several changes of name and location, the original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Wikipedia articles, by providing evidence and original source texts. The collection was focused on important historical and cultural material. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages, in 2001, there was a dispute on Wikipedia regarding the addition of primary source material, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg was suggested as a solution to this, perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Wikipedia to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG. Wed want to complement Project Gutenberg--how, exactly, and Jimmy Wales adding like Larry, Im interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone -- I mean, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, the project began its activity at ps. wikipedia. org. The contributors understood the PS subdomain to mean either primary sources or Project Sourceberg, however, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Wikipedia. A vote on the name changed it to Wikisource on December 6,2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL until July 23,2004, since Wikisource was initially called Project Sourceberg, its first logo was a picture of an iceberg
18.
New International Encyclopedia
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The New International Encyclopedia was an American encyclopedia first published in 1902 by Dodd, Mead and Company. It descended from the International Cyclopaedia and was updated in 1906,1914 and 1926, the New International Encyclopedia was the successor of the International Cyclopaedia. Initially, the International Cyclopaedia was largely a reprint of Aldens Library of Universal Knowledge, the local Cyclopaedia was much improved by editors Harry Thurston Peck and Selim Peabody. The title was changed to New International Encyclopedia in 1902, with editors Harry Thurston Peck, Daniel Coit Gilman, in 1906 the New International Encyclopedia was expanded from 17 volumes to 20. The 2nd edition appeared in 1914 in 24 volumes, set up from new type and it was very strong in biography. The 1926 material was printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by The University Press, boston Bookbinding Company of Cambridge produced the covers. Thirteen books enclosing twenty-three volumes comprise the encyclopedia, which includes a supplement after Volume 23, each book contains about 1600 pages. A great deal of material is recorded in the New International Encyclopedia. An early description of Adolf Hitler and his activities from 1920 to 1924 is in the supplement to the 1926 edition, many of the names used to describe the scientific identities of plants and animals are now obsolete. Numerous colorful maps which display the nations, states, colonies, the maps are valuable for their depictions of national and colonial borders in Europe, Asia, and Africa at the time of World War I. Drawings, illustrations, and photographs are plentiful, more than 500 men, and some women, submitted and composed the information contained in the New International Encyclopedia. Editors of the First Edition Daniel Coit Gilman, LL. D, President of Johns Hopkins University, President of Carnegie Institution. Frank Moore Colby, M. A. formerly Professor in New York University, editors of the Second Edition Frank Moore Colby, M. A. Talcott Williams, LL. D. Director of the School of Journalism, Columbia University, media related to New International Encyclopedia at Wikimedia Commons 1914 second ed
19.
The World Factbook
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The World Factbook is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available from the National Technical Information Service, Other companies—such as Skyhorse Publishing—also print a paper edition. The Factbook is available in the form of a website that is updated every week. It is also available for download for use off-line, the World Factbook is prepared by the CIA for the use of U. S. Government officials, and its style, format, coverage, and content are primarily designed to meet their requirements. However, it is used as a resource for academic research papers. As a work of the U. S. Government, it is in the domain in the United States. In researching the Factbook, the CIA uses the sources listed below, Other public and private sources are also consulted. However, the CIA requests that it be cited when the Factbook is used, copying the official seal of the CIA without permission is prohibited by U. S. federal law—specifically, the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949. Before November 2001 The World Factbook website was updated yearly, from 2004 to 2010 it was updated every two weeks, since 2010 it has been updated weekly, generally, information currently available as of January 1 of the current year is used in preparing the Factbook. The first, classified, edition of Factbook was published in August 1962, the World Factbook was first available to the public in print in 1975. In 2008 the CIA discontinued printing the Factbook themselves, instead turning printing responsibilities over to the Government Printing Office and this happened due to a CIA decision to focus Factbook resources on the online edition. The Factbook has been on the World Wide Web since October 1994, the web version gets an average of 6 million visits per month, it can also be downloaded. The official printed version is sold by the Government Printing Office, in past years, the Factbook was available on CD-ROM, microfiche, magnetic tape, and floppy disk. Many Internet sites use information and images from the CIA World Factbook, several publishers, including Grand River Books, Potomac Books, and Skyhorse Publishing have re-published the Factbook in recent years. As of July 2011, The World Factbook consists of 267 entities and these entities can be divided into categories. They are, Independent countries This category has independent countries, which the CIA defines as people politically organized into a state with a definite territory. In this category, there are 195 entities, others The Other category is a list of other places set apart from the list of independent countries. Currently there are two, Taiwan and the European Union, dependencies and Areas of Special Sovereignty This category is a list of places affiliated with another country
20.
Central Intelligence Agency
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As one of the principal members of the U. S. Intelligence Community, the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is focused on providing intelligence for the President. Though it is not the only U. S. government agency specializing in HUMINT and it exerts foreign political influence through its tactical divisions, such as the Special Activities Division. Despite transferring some of its powers to the DNI, the CIA has grown in size as a result of the September 11 attacks. In 2013, The Washington Post reported that in fiscal year 2010, the CIA has increasingly expanded its roles, including covert paramilitary operations. One of its largest divisions, the Information Operations Center, has shifted focus from counter-terrorism to offensive cyber-operations, when the CIA was created, its purpose was to create a clearinghouse for foreign policy intelligence and analysis. Today its primary purpose is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence, warning/informing American leaders of important overseas events, with Pakistan described as an intractable target. Counterintelligence, with China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, the Executive Office also supports the U. S. military by providing it with information it gathers, receiving information from military intelligence organizations, and cooperates on field activities. The Executive Director is in charge of the day to day operation of the CIA, each branch of the military service has its own Director. The Directorate has four regional groups, six groups for transnational issues. There is a dedicated to Iraq, regional analytical offices covering the Near East and South Asia, Russia and Europe, and the Asian Pacific, Latin American. The Directorate of Operations is responsible for collecting intelligence. The name reflects its role as the coordinator of intelligence activities between other elements of the wider U. S. intelligence community with their own HUMINT operations. This Directorate was created in an attempt to end years of rivalry over influence, philosophy, in spite of this, the Department of Defense recently organized its own global clandestine intelligence service, the Defense Clandestine Service, under the Defense Intelligence Agency. This Directorate is known to be organized by regions and issues. The Directorate of Science & Technology was established to research, create, many of its innovations were transferred to other intelligence organizations, or, as they became more overt, to the military services. For example, the development of the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was done in cooperation with the United States Air Force, the U-2s original mission was clandestine imagery intelligence over denied areas such as the Soviet Union. It was subsequently provided with signals intelligence and measurement and signature intelligence capabilities, subsequently, NPIC was transferred to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
21.
Capital city
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A capital city is the municipality exercising primary status in a country, state, province, or other region, usually as its seat of government. A capital is typically a city that encompasses the offices and meeting places of its respective government. In some jurisdictions, including countries, the different branches of government are located in different settlements. In some cases, a distinction is made between the capital and the seat of government, which is in another place. The word capital derives from the Latin caput, meaning head, in several English-speaking states, the terms county town, county seat, and borough seat are also used in lower subdivisions. In unitary states, subnational capitals are known as administrative centres. The capital is often, but not necessarily, the largest city of its constituent, historically, the major economic centre of a state or region often becomes the focal point of political power, and becomes a capital through conquest or federation. Examples are Ancient Babylon, Abbasid Baghdad, Ancient Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Changan, Ancient Cusco, Madrid, Paris, London, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Vienna, and Berlin. Some of these cities are or were also religious centres, e. g. Constantinople, Rome, Jerusalem, Ancient Babylon, Moscow, Belgrade, Paris, and Peking. A capital city that is also the economic, cultural. The convergence of political and economic or cultural power is by no means universal, traditional capitals may be economically eclipsed by provincial rivals, e. g. Nanking by Shanghai, Quebec City by Montreal, and numerous US state capitals. The decline of a dynasty or culture could also mean the extinction of its city, as occurred at Babylon. Although many capitals are defined by constitution or legislation, many long-time capitals have no legal designation as such, for example Bern, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London, Paris, are located in or near them. In Canada, there is a capital, while the ten provinces. The states of such countries as Mexico, Brazil, and Australia all have capital cities, for example, the six state capitals of Australia are Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. In Australia, the capital cities is regularly used, to refer to the aforementioned state capitals plus the federal capital Canberra and Darwin. Abu Dhabi is the city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. In unitary states which consist of multiple constituent countries, such as the United Kingdom or the Kingdom of Denmark, the national capitals of Germany and Russia, the Stadtstaat of Berlin and the Federal City of Moscow, are also constituent states of both countries in their own right
22.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
23.
Basse-Terre
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Basse-Terre is a French commune in the Guadaloupe department of France in the Lesser Antilles. It is also the prefecture of Guadeloupe, the city of Basse-Terre is located on Basse-Terre Island, the western half of Guadeloupe. Although it is the capital, Basse-Terre is only the second largest city in Guadeloupe behind Pointe-à-Pitre. Together with its area it had 44,864 inhabitants in 2012. The N2 which goes north along the coast to Vieux Habitants, the N3 which traverses the length of the commune and continues to Saint-Claude inland. Basse-Terre has a station that receives cruise ships and has a ferry service to the Îles des Saintes. The commune is urban with some farmland in the north-east and north-west. A list of online mapping systems can be displayed by clicking on the coordinates in the top right corner of this article. Basse-Terre lies at a point between a tropical rainforest climate and a tropical monsoon climate. While Basse-Terre does feature a drier stretch from January through March, the town’s driest month sees on average roughly 60 mm of precipitation. A monthly precipitation average below 60 mm is considered dry season month, as is the norm with cities with these two climate types, Basse-Terre features relatively consistent temperatures throughout the year. The name comes from the vocabulary of the 17th century which designated a land or coast sheltered from the wind. Before Basse-Terre became a French town it was a village of American Indian horticulturists, the village was on the site of the present Basse-Terre Cathedral where archaeological excavations found human remains and other evidence of occupation during the restoration of the cathedral. In 1635, when it was part of Saint Kitts and Nevis, the operation was entrusted to Charles Liénard de lOlive and Jean du Plessis dOssonville together with 4 missionaries and 550 colonists. The landing took place on 28 June 1635, at Pointe Allègre, famine pushed the party to the south near the present town of Vieux-Fort in early 1636. The relationship between Native Americans and colonists degraded quickly, Liénard then began a war against the locals. In 1660 a treaty forced him to retreat to Dominica and Saint Vincent, the war forced him to build a fort, today Fort Olive at Vieux Fort. In 1640 Aubert succeeded Liénard as the government of the island and he left the site to settle on the left bank of the Galion
24.
Guadeloupe
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Guadeloupe is an insular region of France located in the Leeward Islands, part of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. Administratively, it is a region consisting of a single overseas department. With a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,132 as of January 2015. Guadeloupes two main islands are Basse-Terre to the west and Grande-Terre to the east, which are separated by a strait that is crossed with bridges. They are often referred to as a single island, the department also includes the Dependencies of Guadeloupe, which include the smaller islands of Marie-Galante and La Désirade, and the Îles des Saintes. Guadeloupe, like the other departments, is an integral part of France. As a constituent territory of the European Union and the Eurozone, as an overseas department, however, it is not part of the Schengen Area. The prefecture of Guadeloupe is the city of Basse-Terre, which lies on the island of the same name, the official language is French, and virtually the entire population except recent arrivals from metropolitan France also speak Antillean Creole. Christopher Columbus named the island Santa María de Guadalupe in 1493 after the Virgin Mary, venerated in the Spanish town of Guadalupe, the island was called Karukera by the Arawak people, who settled on there in 300 AD/CE. During the 8th century, the Caribs came and killed the population of Amerindians on the island. During his second trip to the Americas, in November 1493, Christopher Columbus became the first European to land on Guadeloupe, while seeking fresh water. He called it Santa María de Guadalupe de Extremadura, after the image of the Virgin Mary venerated at the Spanish monastery of Villuercas, in Guadalupe, the expedition set ashore just south of Capesterre, but left no settlers behind. Columbus is credited with discovering the pineapple on the island of Guadeloupe in 1493 and he called it piña de Indias, which can be correctly translated as pine cone of the Indies. During the 17th century, the Caribs fought against the Spanish settlers, after successful settlement on the island of St. Due to Martiniques inhospitable nature, the duo resolved to settle in Guadeloupe in 1635, took possession of the island and it was annexed to the kingdom of France in 1674. Over the next century, the British seized the island several times, the economy benefited from the lucrative sugar trade, which commenced during the closing decades of the 17th century. Guadeloupe produced more sugar than all the British islands combined, worth about £6 million a year, the British captured Guadeloupe in 1759. The British government decided that Canada was strategically important and kept Canada while returning Guadeloupe to France in the Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years War
25.
Basseterre
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Basseterre /bæsˈtɛər/, estimated population 13,000 in 2011, is the capital of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies. Geographically, the Basseterre port is located at 17°18′N 62°44′W, on the western coast of Saint Kitts Island. The city lies within the parish of Saint George Basseterre and the part of the parish of Saint Peter Basseterre. Basseterre is one of the oldest towns in the Eastern Caribbean, see Basse-Terre Island for the origin of the name. Basseterre was founded in 1627 by the French, under Sieur Pierre Belain dEsnambuc and it served as capital of the French colony of Saint-Christophe, which consisted of the northern and southern extremities of the island of St. Kitts. When Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy was made the French governor of St. Kitts in 1639, de Poincy then quickly made Basseterre capital of the entire French West Indies colony, which included the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, and remained so until his death in 1660. The city was capital of the entire island of St. Kitts in 1727, following French expulsion from the island. The city of Basseterre has one of the most tragic histories of any Caribbean capital, destroyed many times by wars, fire, earthquakes, floods, riots. Despite all of this, a number of well-restored buildings still exist in downtown Basseterre. The city of Basseterre skirts a 2-mile bay on the shore of St. Kitts. The city lies within the large Basseterre Valley, almost completely surrounded by green hills. It is primarily low-lying, which is one explanation for the name which the French gave unto it, however, the name Basseterre is also due to the fact that the island is on the lee of winds of the island, and is thus a safe anchorage. The name Capesterre, given to the region to the North, was dubbed so as it was facing the wind, Basseterre is surrounded by the Olivees Mountains to the north and the Conaree-Morne peaks to the east. The city is drained by the College River and the Westbourne River and they even form streets in downtown Basseterre. This engineering folly has proven quite disastrous though, as College River has been the scene of many floods in Basseterre history. Port Zante, located in the centre of the bay, lies on 15 acres of land reclaimed from the sea in 1995, under the Köppen climate classification, Basseterre features a tropical rainforest climate. As is the characteristic of cities with this climate, temperatures remain constant throughout the course of the year, Basseterre has no dry season, all 12 months on average see more than 60 mm of precipitation. On average,1700 mm of rain falls on the city annually, Basseterre is a very small town which is laid out in a grid pattern
26.
Saint Kitts and Nevis
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The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, also known as the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is a two-island country in the West Indies. Located in the Leeward Islands chain of the Lesser Antilles, it is the smallest sovereign state in the Americas and Western Hemisphere, the country is a Commonwealth realm, with the British monarch as head of state. The capital city is Basseterre on the island of Saint Kitts. The smaller island of Nevis lies about 2 miles southeast of Saint Kitts across a channel called The Narrows. The British dependency of Anguilla was historically also a part of this union, to the north-northwest lie the islands of Sint Eustatius, and Saba, Saint Barthélemy, Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten and Anguilla. To the east and northeast are Antigua and Barbuda, and to the southeast is the uninhabited island of Redonda, and the island of Montserrat. Saint Kitts and Nevis were among the first islands in the Caribbean to be settled by Europeans, Saint Kitts was home to the first British and French colonies in the Caribbean, and thus has also been titled The Mother Colony of the West Indies. Nevis is also the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, Saint Kitts was named Liamuiga, which roughly translates as fertile land, by the Kalinago Indians who originally inhabited the island. The name is preserved via St. Kittss western peak, Mount Liamuiga, neviss pre-Columbian name was Oualie, meaning land of beautiful waters. Christopher Columbus upon sighting what we now call Nevis in 1493 gave that island the name San Martín, the current name Nevis is derived from a Spanish name Nuestra Señora de las Nieves. This Spanish name means Our Lady of the Snows and it is not known who chose this name for the island, but it is a reference to the story of a fourth-century Catholic miracle, a summertime snowfall on the Esquiline Hill in Rome. Perhaps the white clouds which usually wreathe the top of Nevis Peak reminded someone of the story of a snowfall in a hot climate. The island of Nevis upon first British settlement was referred to as Dulcina, eventually the original Spanish name was restored and used in the shortened form, Nevis. There is some disagreement over the name which Christopher Columbus gave to St. Kitts, for many years it was thought that he named the island San Cristóbal, after Saint Christopher, his patron saint and the patron hallow of travellers. New studies suggest that Columbus named the island Sant Yago, the name San Cristóbal was given by Columbus to the island now known as Saba,20 miles northwest. It seems that San Cristóbal came to be applied to the island of St. Kitts only as the result of a mapping error, no matter the origin of the name, the island was well documented as San Cristóbal by the 17th century. The first English colonists kept the English translation of this name, in the 17th century, a common nickname for Christopher was Kit, or Kitt. This is why the island was often referred to as Saint Kitts Island
27.
Belmopan
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Belmopan is the capital city of Belize. Its population in 2010 was 16,451, although the smallest capital city in the continental Americas by population, Belmopan is the third-largest settlement in Belize, behind Belize City and San Ignacio. Founded as a community in 1970, Belmopan is one of the newest national capital cities in the world. Since 2000 Belmopan has been one of two settlements in Belize to hold city status, along with Belize City. Belmopan is located in Cayo District at an altitude of 76 metres above sea level. Belmopan was constructed just to the east of the Belize River,80 km inland from the former capital, the government was moved to Belmopan in 1970. Its National Assembly Building is designed to resemble a Pre-Columbian Maya temple and this new capital would be on better terrain, would entail no costly reclamation of land, and would provide for an industrial area. In 1962, a committee chose the site now known as Belmopan,82 kilometres west of the old capital of Belize City, since Belize was a British colony in 1964, Premier George Cadle Price led a delegation to London to seek funds to finance the new capital. Although they were not ready to commit to funding such a large project, to encourage financial commitment from the British government, Premier Price and the PUP government invited Anthony Greenwood, Secretary of State for the Commonwealth and Colonies, to visit Belize. One of the highlights of this visit was the unveiling of a monument at mile 49 on the Western Highway, the monument records that Lord Greenwood dedicated the site for the new capital on 9 October 1965. Thus, in a fashion, there was a commitment, the initial estimated cost for building this new city was 40 million Belize dollars. Only 20 million Belize dollars were available, but the momentum was not to be lost, in 1967, work began, the first phase of the new city was completed in 1970 at a cost of 24 million Belize dollars. From 1970 to 2000 the administration of Belmopan was managed by the Reconstruction and Development Corporation, Recondev was vested with the power and authority to provide, or cause to be provided, the municipal functions necessary for the smooth running of the citys business and infrastructure. The British High Commission opened in 1981 when Belize achieved independence, in February 2005, the United States government broke ground and started building a new embassy in Belmopan,43 years after it was chosen as the new capital city. The U. S. embassy was opened on 11 December 2006. Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Venezuela also have embassies in Belmopan, while Ecuador, Chile, however, with four embassies and 29 consulates the former capital of Belize City still has most of the countrys foreign diplomatic community. The city layout centers around the Ring Road which is just under 4 km in circumference, the majority of government buildings are situated either within or around the Ring Road, and a large area within the Ring Road is also given to parkland. The National Assembly Building is the point of the citys design, with the grey stone architecture and broad steps designed to resemble a Mayan temple
28.
Belize
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Belize, formerly British Honduras, is an independent country on the eastern coast of Central America. Belize is bordered on the north by Mexico, on the south and west by Guatemala and its mainland is about 290 km long and 110 km wide. Belize has an area of 22,800 square kilometres and a population of 368,310 and it has the lowest population density in Central America. The countrys population growth rate of 1. 87% per year is the second highest in the region, Belizes abundance of terrestrial and marine species and its diversity of ecosystems gives it a key place in the globally significant Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. Belize has a society, composed of many cultures and languages that reflect its rich history. English is the language of Belize, with Belizean Kriol being the unofficial language. Over half the population is multilingual, with Spanish being the second most common spoken language, Belize is considered a Central American and Caribbean nation with strong ties to both the Latin American and Caribbean regions. Belize is a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch, Belize is known for its September Celebrations, its extensive coral reefs, and punta music. The origin of the name Belize remains unclear, the earliest known record of the name appears in the journal of the Dominican priest Fray José Delgado, dating to 1677. Delgado recorded the names of three rivers that he crossed while travelling north along the Caribbean coast, Rio Soyte, Rio Xibum. The names of these waterways, which correspond to the Sittee River, Sibun River and it is likely that Delgados Balis was actually the Mayan word belix, meaning muddy-watered. Others have suggested that the name derives from a Spanish pronunciation of the name of the Scottish buccaneer Peter Wallace, there is no proof that Wallace settled in this area and some scholars have characterized this claim as a myth. Writers and historians have suggested other possible etymologies, including postulated French. Many aspects of this culture persist in the area despite nearly 500 years of European domination, prior to about 2500 BC, some hunting and foraging bands settled in small farming villages, they later domesticated crops such as corn, beans, squash, and chili peppers. A profusion of languages and subcultures developed within the Maya core culture, between about 2500 BC and 250 AD, the basic institutions of Maya civilisation emerged. The peak of this occurred during the classic period, which began about 250 AD. The Maya civilisation spread across what is now Belize around 1500 BC, the recorded history of the middle and southern regions is dominated by Caracol, an urban political centre that may have supported over 140,000 people. North of the Maya Mountains, the most important political centre was Lamanai, in the late Classic Era of Maya civilisation, as many as 1 million people may have lived in the area that is now Belize
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Bridgetown
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Bridgetown is the capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael, Bridgetown is sometimes locally referred to as The City, but the most common reference is simply Town. As of 2014, its population stands at roughly 110,000. The Bridgetown port, found along Carlisle Bay lies on the southwestern coast of the island, parts of the Greater Bridgetown area, sit close to the borders of the neighbouring parishes Christ Church and St. James. While there is no local municipal government, it is governed as a political constituency within the national Parliament. The present day location of the city was established by English settlers in 1628 following a settlement under the authority of Sir William Courten at St. James Town. Bridgetown is a major West Indies tourist destination, and the city acts as an important financial, informatics, convention centre, on 25 June 2011, Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison were added as a World Heritage Site of UNESCO. It was thought that bridge was created by a people indigenous to the Caribbean known as the Tainos. Upon finding the structure, the British settlers began to call what is now the Bridgetown area Indian Bridge, scholars widely believe that the Tianos were driven from Barbados to the neighbouring island of Saint Lucia, during an invasion by the Kalinagos, another indigenous people of the region. Eventually after 1654 when a new bridge was constructed over the Careenage by the British, Bridgetown is the only city outside the present United States that George Washington visited. Two of Washingtons ancestors, Jonathon and Gerrard Hawtaine, were early planters on the island and their grandmother was Mary Washington of Sulgrave, Northamptonshire, England. In 2011, historic buildings in Bridgetown were designated as an area by UNESCO. English settlement of Bridgetown began on the 5th July,1628 under Charles Wolverstone, who brought with him 64 settlers to these lands formally claimed by James Hay, Wolverstone, had been dispatched by a group of London Merchants, headed by Sir Marmaduke Rawdon. The group had been granted a lease to 10,000 acres of area by the Earl of Carlisle in settlement of debts. Each of the settlers with Wolverstone were granted by him 100 acres of land, lying on the northern side of the Careenage waterway for the purpose of general settlement. The southern shore on Needhams Point, were claimed by Carlisles agents that coming October, and in 1631, many acres of land directly facing Carlisle Bay were passed to Henry Hawley, reports of dishonest behaviour about this Governor led to his arrest and rendition to England in 1639. After investigation by Commission in 1640, it was found much of Hawleys land transactions were legitimate and properly showed these lands. Bridgetown was built upon a street layout resembling early English Medieval or market towns with its narrow serpentine street and alley configuration
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Barbados
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Barbados is a sovereign island country in the Lesser Antilles, in the Americas. It is 34 kilometres in length and up to 23 km in width, Barbados is outside of the principal Atlantic hurricane belt. Inhabited by Kalinago people since the 13th century, and prior to that by other Amerindians, Barbados was visited by Spanish navigators in the late 15th century and it first appeared in a Spanish map in 1511. The Portuguese visited the island in 1536, but they left it unclaimed, an English ship, the Olive Blossom, arrived in Barbados in 1625, its men took possession of it in the name of King James I. In 1627, the first permanent settlers arrived from England, and it became an English, in 1966, Barbados became an independent state and Commonwealth realm with the British Monarch as hereditary head of state. It has a population of 280,121 people, predominantly of African descent, despite being classified as an Atlantic island, Barbados is considered to be a part of the Caribbean, where it is ranked as a leading tourist destination. Forty percent of the come from the UK, with the US. In 2014, Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Barbados joint second in the Americas, the name Barbados is either the Portuguese word Barbados or the Spanish equivalent los Barbados, both meaning the bearded ones. In 1519, a map produced by the Genoese mapmaker Visconte Maggiolo showed and named Barbados in its correct position, furthermore, the island of Barbuda in the Leewards is very similar in name and was once named Las Barbudas by the Spanish. It is uncertain which European nation arrived first in Barbados, one lesser known source points to earlier-revealed works predating contemporary sources indicating it could have been the Spanish. Others believe the Portuguese, en route to Brazil, were the first Europeans to come upon the island, colloquially Barbadians refer to their home island as Bim or other nicknames associated with Barbados includes Bimshire. The origin is uncertain but several theories exist, the name could have arisen due to the relatively large percentage of enslaved Igbo people from modern-day southeastern Nigeria arriving in Barbados in the 18th century. The words Bim and Bimshire are recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary, another possible source for Bim is reported to be in the Agricultural Reporter of 25 April 1868, where the Rev. N. Greenidge suggested the listing of Bimshire as a county of England. Expressly named were Wiltshire, Hampshire, Berkshire and Bimshire, lastly, in the Daily Argosy of 1652 there is a reference to Bim as a possible corruption of Byam, the name of a Royalist leader against the Parliamentarians. That source suggested the followers of Byam became known as Bims, amerindian settlement of Barbados dates to about the 4th to 7th centuries AD, by a group known as the Saladoid-Barrancoid. In the 13th century, the Kalinago arrived from South America, the Spanish and Portuguese briefly claimed Barbados from the late 16th to the 17th centuries. The Arawaks are believed to have fled to neighbouring islands, apart from possibly displacing the Caribs, the Spanish and Portuguese made little impact and left the island uninhabited. Some Arawaks migrated from British Guiana in the 19th century and continue to live in Barbados, during the Cromwellian era this included a large number of prisoners-of-war, vagrants and people who were illicitly kidnapped, who were forcibly transported to the island and sold as servants
31.
Castries
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53,639, is the capital and largest city of Saint Lucia, a country in the Caribbean. The quarter with the name had a population of 70,000 on 22 May 2013. Castries is in a gut and is built on reclaimed land. It houses the seat of government and the offices of many of foreign. The citys design is in a grid pattern and its sheltered harbour receives cargo vessels, ferry boats, and cruise ships. It houses duty-free shopping facilities such as Point Seraphine and La Place Carenage, many restaurants offer menus from local to Chinese. Supermarkets and other shopping facilities provide goods, the city is well served by a bus system and taxi service. St Lucias main post office is in Castries, because most parts of the country do not use standard street addresses, mail is largely sent to P. O. boxes. Any mail sent without a town name ends up in the Castries post office, Castries is the birthplace of Arthur Lewis, winner of the 1979 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. Castries was founded by the French in 1650 as Carénage when St. Lucia was purchased by Jacques Dyel du Parquet and it was renamed in 1756 after Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix, marquis de Castries, commander of a French expeditionary force to Corsica that year. The earlier settlement across the harbour at Vigie, started in 1651, was abandoned after a hurricane in 1780. From 1803 to 1844, the British made the town a major port and built fortifications on Morne Fortune. By 1844, Castries had a population of 4,000, by the end of the century it had become a major coaling station, because it was the only port in the Caribbean capable of accommodating the Royal Navy. Castries has been many times, following major fires in 1796 and 1813. One of the major tourist areas in St. Lucia, Castries is a port of call for cruise ships and they dock at Pointe Seraphine, to the north of the harbour, which is also a duty-free shopping centre. A taxi service is available to take visitors on tours of the rest of the country or the city. A water taxi takes passengers from there to the city, the greatest concentration of hotels, resorts, and restaurants are near Castries and the islands other main towns, Gros Islet, Soufrière, and Rodney Bay. The city maintains three tourist offices and one at the airport, there are many duty-free shops, several restaurants, and other eating establishments, including Burger King, Dominos pizza, and KFC
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Saint Lucia
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Saint Lucia is a sovereign island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and it covers a land area of 617 km2 and reported a population of 165,595 in the 2010 census. The French were the islands first European settlers and they signed a treaty with the native Carib Indians in 1660. England took control of the island from 1663 to 1667, in ensuing years, it was at war with France 14 times, and rule of the island changed frequently. In 1814, the British took definitive control of the island, because it switched so often between British and French control, Saint Lucia was also known as the Helen of the West Indies. Representative government came about in 1840, from 1958 to 1962, the island was a member of the Federation of the West Indies. On 22 February 1979, Saint Lucia became an independent state of the Commonwealth of Nations associated with the United Kingdom, Saint Lucia is a mixed jurisdiction, meaning that it has a legal system based in part on both the civil law and English common law. The Civil Code of St. Lucia of 1867 was based on the Quebec Civil Code of 1866 and it is also a member of La Francophonie. One of the Windward Islands, Saint Lucia was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse by the French, the islands first European settlers, the French pirate François le Clerc frequently visited Saint Lucia in the 1550s. It was not until around 1600 that the first European camp was started by the Dutch at what is now Vieux Fort, in 1605 an English vessel called the Olive Branch was blown off-course on its way to Guyana, and the 67 colonists started a settlement on Saint Lucia. After five weeks only 19 survived due to disease and conflict with the Caribs, the French officially claimed the island in 1635. The English attempted the next European settlement in 1639, and that too was wiped out by Caribs, in 1643 a French expedition sent out from Martinique established a permanent settlement on the island. De Rousselan was appointed the governor, took a Carib wife. In 1664, Thomas Warner claimed Saint Lucia for England and he brought 1,000 men to defend it from the French, but after two years, only 89 survived with the rest dying mostly due to disease. In 1666 the French West India Company resumed control of the island, in 1722, George I of Great Britain granted both Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent to The 2nd Duke of Montagu. He in turn appointed Nathaniel Uring, a merchant sea captain and adventurer, Uring went to the islands with a group of seven ships, and established settlement at Petit Carenage. Unable to get support from British warships, he and the new colonists were quickly run off by the French. During the Seven Years War Britain occupied Saint Lucia for a year, Britain handed the island back to the French at the Treaty of Paris in 1763
33.
Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
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Charlotte Amalie, located on St. Thomas, is the capital and the largest city of the U. S. Virgin Islands, founded in 1666 as Taphus. In 1691, the town was renamed to Amalienborg after Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel, protected by Hassel Island, the harbor has docking and fueling facilities, machine shops, and shipyards and was a U. S. submarine base until 1966. The town has been inhabited for centuries, when Christopher Columbus came here in 1493, the area was inhabited by Island Caribs and Taíno. It is on the shore at the head of Saint Thomas Harbor. In 2010 the city had a population of 18,481, hundreds of ferries and yachts pass through town each week, and at times the population more than doubles. The city is known for its Danish colonial architecture, building structure and history, the town has a long history of pirates, especially stories of Bluebeard and Blackbeard. In the 17th century, the Danes built both Blackbeards Castle and Bluebeards Castle attributed to the pirates, Blackbeards Castle is a U. S. National Historic Landmark. Another tourist attraction is Fort Christian, the oldest standing structure in the Virgin Islands Archipelago, a copy of the Liberty Bell is in Emancipation Park, which is a tourist attraction. Before the time of the Danish West Indies, the city was known as Taphus for its many beer halls, Taphus is Danish and directly translates to beer houses, beer halls, or taphouse. In 1691 the town received a respectable name by being named Amalienborg in honor of Danish king Christian V’s wife. In English, Charlotte Amalie is pronounced SHAR-lut uh-MAHL-yuh or AH-muh-leh, between 1921 and 1936, the city was named St. Thomas. In 1936 it was renamed Charlotte Amalie, on his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus encountered Native Americans living in the present-day archipelago of the United States Virgin Islands. Archaeological records indicate that the islands have been home to Indian tribes, including the Taíno people, Arawak people, Kalinago people, several of them lived in present-day Charlotte Amalie in small fishing communities. As was the case in most of the Americas, the population died relatively quickly from disease when the Europeans settled. The Danish West India Company chartered Charlotte Amalie in 1671 after King Christian V decided to secure them for plantations, as early as in 1672, the Danish government began the construction of Fort Christian on Saint Thomas Harbor in Charlotte Amalie. In 1675, the Danes constructed four pubs near the edge on the western side of the fort. The Danish government supplied convicts to work the plantations but soon allowed colonists from neighboring islands to settle there, in 1680, there were more black African slaves than white European settlers. Adjacent Water and Buck Islands served as pasture lands for the city and it was the main port of the Virgin Islands Archipelago and was connected to about 50 plantations by one road, which remains the main highway today
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United States Virgin Islands
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The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of islands in the Caribbean that are an insular area of the United States. The islands are part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles. The U. S. Virgin Islands consist of the islands of Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas. The total land area of the territory is 133.73 square miles, the territorys capital is Charlotte Amalie on the island of Saint Thomas. Previously the Danish West Indies of the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway, they were sold to the United States by Denmark in the Treaty of the Danish West Indies of 1916. They are classified by the U. N. as a Non-Self-Governing Territory, the U. S. Virgin Islands are organized under the 1954 Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands and have since held five constitutional conventions. The Fifth Constitutional Convention of the U. S. Virgin Islands met in October 2012 to address these concerns, in 2010 the population was 106,405, and mostly Afro-Caribbean. Tourism and related categories are the economic activity, employing a high percentage of the civilian non-farm labor force that totalled 42,752 persons in 2016. Private sector jobs made up 71 percent of the total workforce, the average private sector salary was $34,088 and the average public sector salary was $52,572. In a May 2016 report, some 11,000 people were categorized as being involved in some aspect of agriculture in the first half of 2016, at that time, there were approximately 607 manufacturing jobs and 1,487 natural resource and construction jobs. The single largest employer was the government, in mid February 2017, the USVI was facing a financial crisis due to a very high debt level of $2 billion and a structural budget deficit of $110 million. The U. S. Virgin Islands were originally inhabited by the Ciboney, Carib, the islands were named by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493 for Saint Ursula and her virgin followers. Over the next two hundred years, the islands were held by many European powers, including Spain, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Denmark-Norway. The Danish West India Company settled on Saint Thomas in 1672, settled on Saint John in 1694, the islands became royal Danish colonies in 1754, named the Danish West Indian Islands. Sugarcane, produced by labor, drove the islands economy during the 18th and early 19th centuries. The Danish West India and Guinea Company are also credited with naming the island St. John, the Danish crown took full control of Saint John in 1754 along with St. Thomas and St. Croix. Sugarcane plantations such as the famous Annaberg Sugar Plantation were established in great numbers on St. John because of the intense heat, the establishment of sugarcane plantations also led to the buying of more slaves from Africa. In 1733 St. John was the site of one of the first significant slave rebellions in the New World when Akwamu slaves from the Gold Coast took over the island for six months, the Danish were able to defeat the enslaved Africans with help from the French in Martinique
35.
Cockburn Town
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Cockburn Town is the capital city of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Cockburn Town is located on the largest island in the Turks Islands archipelago, historic 18th and 19th century Bermudian architecture line Duke and Front Streets in the town. The town is known for its long, narrow streets and old street lamps, the closest anchorage to Cockburn Town is Hawks Nest Anchorage, which, though sheltered, should only be entered in good light because of reefs near the entrance. The seat of government ever since 1766, Cockburn Town was the first permanent settlement on any of the islands, founded in 1681 by salt collectors who arrived in the Turks, the city supposedly lies on the place where Juan Ponce de León first landed on the island. Cockburn Town is home to the Turks & Caicos National Museum, the house is believed to be over 180 years old and much of its structural material came from local shipwrecks, including a ships mast, which is one of the buildings main supports. The site was donated to the Museum in 1990, among the National Museums collections is an exhibit of shipwrecks, including the oldest known European shipwreck in the Americas, the Molasses Reef Wreck, dated 1505. The museum also maintains a garden, which is adjacent to the Guinep House, also of interest are the museums research projects, including its Message in a Bottle Project, recording nearly 40 years worth of messages to wash upon the shores of Grand Turk. Her Majestys Prison on Pond Street was built in the 1830s, in addition to the main cell block and offices for prison officials, it hosts a bell tower and its own museum. Media related to Cockburn Town at Wikimedia Commons
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Turks and Caicos Islands
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They are known primarily for tourism and as an offshore financial centre. The resident population is 31,458 as of 2012 of whom 23,769 live on Providenciales in the Caicos Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands lie southeast of Mayaguana in the Bahamas island chain and north of the island of Hispaniola and the other Antilles archipelago islands. Cockburn Town, the capital since 1766, is situated on Grand Turk Island about 1,042 kilometres east-southeast of Miami, the islands have a total land area of 430 square kilometres. The first recorded European sighting of the now known as the Turks. In the subsequent centuries, the islands were claimed by several European powers with the British Empire eventually gaining control, for many years the islands were governed indirectly through Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Jamaica. When the Bahamas gained independence in 1973, the islands received their own governor, in August 2009, the United Kingdom suspended the Turks and Caicos Islands self-government following allegations of ministerial corruption. Home rule was restored in the islands after the November 2012 elections, the Turks and Caicos Islands are named after the Turks cap cactus, and the Lucayan term caya hico, meaning string of islands. The first inhabitants of the islands were Arawakan-speaking Taíno people, who crossed over from Hispaniola sometime from AD500 to 800, together with Taino who migrated from Cuba to the southern Bahamas around the same time, these people developed as the Lucayan. Around 1200, the Turks and Caicos Islands were resettled by Classical Taínos from Hispaniola, the southern Bahama Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands were completely depopulated by about 1513, and remained so until the 17th century. The first European documented to sight the islands was Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León, during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, the islands passed from Spanish, to French, to British control, but none of the three powers ever established any settlements. Bermudian salt collectors settled the Turks Islands around 1680, for several decades around the turn of the 18th century, the islands became popular pirate hideouts. From 1765–1783, the islands were under French occupation, and again after the French captured the archipelago in 1783, after the American War of Independence, many Loyalists fled to British Caribbean colonies, in 1783, they were the first settlers on the Caicos Islands. They developed cotton as an important cash crop, but it was superseded by the development of the salt industry, in 1799, both the Turks and the Caicos island groups were annexed by Britain as part of the Bahamas. The processing of sea salt was developed as an important export product from the West Indies. Salt continued to be an export product into the nineteenth century. In 1807, Britain prohibited the trade and, in 1833. British ships sometimes intercepted slave traders in the Caribbean, and some ships were wrecked off the coast of these islands, in 1837, the Esperanza, a Portuguese slaver, was wrecked off East Caicos, one of the larger islands. While the crew and 220 captive Africans survived the shipwreck,18 Africans died before the survivors were taken to Nassau, Africans from this ship may have been among the 189 liberated Africans whom the British colonists settled in the Turks and Caicos from 1833 to 1840
37.
Fort-de-France
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Fort-de-France is the capital of Frances Caribbean overseas department of Martinique. It is also one of the cities in the Caribbean. Exports include sugar, rum, tinned fruit, and cacao, in 1638, Jacques Dyel du Parquet, nephew of Pierre Belain dEsnambuc and first governor of Martinique, decided to have Fort Saint Louis built to protect the city against enemy attacks. The fort was destroyed, and rebuilt in 1669, when Louis XIV appointed the Marquis of Baas as governor general. Under his orders and those of his successors, particularly the Count of Blénac, the name of Fort-Royal was changed to a short-lived Fort-La-Republique during the French Revolution, and finally settled as Fort-de-France sometime in the 19th century. The old name of Fort-Royal is still used today familiarly in its Creole language form of Foyal, the city had its share of disasters, being captured by a British expedition in 1762, partially destroyed by an earthquake in 1839 and devastated by fire in 1890. At the turn of the 20th century, however, Fort-de-France became economically important after the eruption of Mount Pelée destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre in 1902. Until 1918, when its commercial growth began, Fort-de-France had a water supply, was partly surrounded by swamps. Now the swamps are drained to make room for extensive suburbs, Fort-de-France, also known as the Fort of France, lies on Martiniques west coast at the northern entrance to the large Fort-de-France Bay, at the mouth of the Madame River. The city occupies a plain between the hills and the sea but is accessible by road from all parts of the island. Fort Saint Louis in Fort-de-France is a French naval base, as is Degrad des Cannes and it was vandalized in the 1990s, presumably by individuals who blamed her for supporting the reestablishment of slavery on the island. Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport is located in a suburb outside Fort-de-France and is accessible via the A1 autoroute, communes of the Martinique department Official website Mérimée database – Cultural heritage Fort Royal
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Martinique
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Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. One of the Windward Islands, it is north of Saint Lucia, southeast of Puerto Rico, northwest of Barbados. As with the overseas departments, Martinique is one of the eighteen regions of France. As part of France, Martinique is part of the European Union, the official language is French, and virtually the entire population also speak Antillean Creole. Martinique owes its name to Christopher Columbus, who sighted the island in 1493, the island was then called Jouanacaëra-Matinino, which came from a mythical island described by the Tainos of Hispaniola. According to historian Sydney Daney, the island was called Jouanacaëra by the Caribs, when Columbus returned to the island in 1502, he rechristened the island as Martinica. The name then evolved into Madinina, Madiana, and Matinite, finally, through the influence of the neighboring island of Dominica, it came to be known as Martinique. The island was occupied first by Arawaks, then by Caribs, the Carib people had migrated from the mainland to the islands about 1201 CE, according to carbon dating of artifacts. They were largely displaced, exterminated and assimilated by the Taino, Martinique was charted by Columbus in 1493, but Spain had little interest in the territory. On 15 September 1635, Pierre Belain dEsnambuc, French governor of the island of St. Kitts, dEsnambuc claimed Martinique for the French King Louis XIII and the French Compagnie des Îles de lAmérique, and established the first European settlement at Fort Saint-Pierre. DEsnambuc died in 1636, leaving the company and Martinique in the hands of his nephew, in 1637, his nephew Jacques Dyel du Parquet became governor of the island. In 1636, the indigenous Caribs rose against the settlers to drive them off the island in the first of many skirmishes. The French successfully repelled the natives and forced them to retreat to the part of the island. When the Carib revolted against French rule in 1658, the Governor Charles Houël du Petit Pré retaliated with war against them, many were killed, those who survived were taken captive and expelled from the island. Some Carib had fled to Dominica or St. Vincent, where the French agreed to them at peace. They were quite industrious and became quite prosperous, from September 1686 to early 1688, the French crown used Martinique as a threat and a dumping ground for mainland Huguenots who refused to reconvert to Catholicism. Over 1,000 Huguenots were transported to Martinique during this period, usually under miserable and those that survived the trip were distributed to the island planters as Engagés under the system of serf peonage that prevailed in the French Antilles at the time. Many of them were encouraged by their Catholic brethren who looked forward to the departure of the heretics, by 1688, nearly all of Martiniques French Protestant population had escaped to the British American colonies or Protestant countries back home
39.
Cayman Islands
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The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory in the western Caribbean Sea. Its population is approximately 60,000, and its capital is George Town, the Cayman Islands are considered to be part of the geographic Western Caribbean Zone as well as the Greater Antilles. The territory is considered a major world offshore financial haven for many wealthy individuals. The Cayman Islands remained largely uninhabited until the 17th century, the first recorded permanent inhabitant of the Cayman Islands, Isaac Bodden, was born on Grand Cayman around 1661. He was the grandson of the original settler named Bodden who was one of Oliver Cromwells soldiers at the taking of Jamaica in 1655. England took formal control of the Cayman Islands, along with Jamaica, following several unsuccessful attempts at settlement, a permanent English-speaking population in the islands dates from the 1730s. With settlement, after the first royal land grant by the Governor of Jamaica in 1734, many were brought to the islands from Africa, this is evident today with the majority of native Caymanians being of African and English descent. The results of the first census taken in the islands in 1802 showed the population on Grand Cayman to be 933 with 545 of those inhabitants being enslaved, slavery was abolished in the Cayman Islands in 1833. At the time of abolition, there were over 950 Blacks of African ancestry enslaved by 116 white families of English ancestry. The islands continued to be governed as part of the Colony of Jamaica until 1962, the Cayman Islands historically have been a tax-exempt destination. On 8 February 1794, the Caymanians rescued the crews of a group of ten merchant ships, including HMS Convert, the ships had struck a reef and run aground during rough seas. Legend has it that King George III rewarded the island with a never to introduce taxes as compensation for their generosity. While this remains a legend, the story is not true. However, whatever the history, in practice the government of the Cayman Islands has always relied on indirect, the islands have never levied income tax, capital gains tax, or any wealth tax, making them a popular tax haven. On 11 September 2004 the island of Grand Cayman, which lies largely unprotected at sea level, was hit by Hurricane Ivan, an estimated 83% of the dwellings on the island were damaged including 4% requiring complete reconstruction. A reported 70% of all dwellings suffered severe damage from flooding or wind, another 26% sustained minor damage from partial roof removal, low levels of flooding, or impact with floating or wind driven hurricane debris. Power, water and communications were disrupted for months in areas as Ivan was the worst hurricane to hit the islands in 86 years. Grand Cayman began a rebuilding process and within two years its infrastructure was nearly returned to pre-hurricane status.23 years
40.
Guatemala City
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Guatemala City, locally known as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala, and the most populous in Central America. The city is located in the part of the country. In 2009, it had a population of 1,075,000, Guatemala City is also the capital of the local Municipality of Guatemala and of the Guatemala Department. Human settlement on the present site of Guatemala City began with the Maya who built a city at Kaminaljuyu, the Spanish colonists established a small town, which was made a capital city in 1775. At this period the Central Square with the Cathedral and Royal Palace were constructed, after Central American independence from Spain the city became the capital of the United Provinces of Central America in 1821. The 19th century saw the construction of the monumental Carrera Theater in the 1850s, at this time the city was expanding around the 30 de junio Boulevard and elsewhere, displacing native settlements from the ancient site. Earthquakes in 1917–1918 destroyed many historic structures, during the Guatemalan Civil War, terror attacks beginning with the burning of the Spanish Embassy in 1980 led to severe destruction and loss of life in the city. In May 2010 two disasters struck, the eruption of the Pacaya volcano, and two days later Tropical Storm Agatha, Guatemala City serves as the economic, governmental, and cultural epicenter of the nation of Guatemala. Guatemala City is subdivided into 22 zones designed by the engineering of Raúl Aguilar Batres, each one with its own streets and avenues. Zones are numbered 1-25 with Zones 20,22 and 23 not existing as they would have fallen in two other municipalities territory. Addresses are assigned according to the street or avenue number, followed by a dash, the zones are assigned in a spiral form starting in downtown Guatemala city. Efforts to revitalize this important part of the city have been undertaken by the government and have been very successful thus far. This plan denominated POT aims to allow taller building structures of mixed uses to be next to large arterial roads and gradually decline in height. It is also worth mentioning, that due to the Airport being in the city, to the south and this limits the maximum height for a building, at 60 metres in Zone 10, up to 95 metres in Zone 1. The city is located in the South-Central area of the country and has a lot of green areas, besides the parks, the city offers a portfolio of entertainment in the region, focused on the so-called Zona Viva and the Calzada Roosevelt as well as four degrees North. Also include projects such as Zona Pradera and Interamerica´s World Financial Center http, the location of the La Aurora international airport within the city limits the construction of skyscrapers, changing the limits permitted directly by its location within the urban area. According to the 2017 census, the Guatemala City metropolitan area had a population of 3.3 million, making it the most populous urban agglomeration in Central America. The growth of the population has been robust since then
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Guatemala
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With an estimated population of around 15.8 million, it is the most populated state in Central America. Guatemala is a democracy, its capital and largest city is Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción. The territory of modern Guatemala once formed the core of the Maya civilization, most of the country was conquered by the Spanish in the 16th century, becoming part of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Guatemala attained independence in 1821 as part of the Federal Republic of Central America, from the mid to late 19th century, Guatemala experienced chronic instability and civil strife. Beginning in the early 20th century, it was ruled by a series of dictators backed by the United Fruit Company, in 1944, authoritarian leader Jorge Ubico was overthrown by a pro-democratic military coup, initiating a decade-long revolution that led to sweeping social and economic reforms. A U. S. -backed military coup in 1954 ended the revolution, from 1960 to 1996, Guatemala endured a bloody civil war fought between the US-backed government and leftist rebels, including genocidal massacres of the Maya population perpetrated by the military. As of 2014, Guatemala ranks 31st of 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries in terms of the Human Development Index, Guatemalas abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems includes a large number of endemic species and contributes to Mesoamericas designation as a biodiversity hotspot. The country is known for its rich and distinct culture. The name Guatemala comes from the Nahuatl word Cuauhtēmallān, or place of many trees and this was the name the Tlaxcaltecan soldiers who accompanied Pedro de Alvarado during the Spanish Conquest gave to this territory. The first evidence of habitation in Guatemala dates back to 12,000 BC. Evidence, such as obsidian arrowheads found in parts of the country. There is archaeological proof that early Guatemalan settlers were hunters and gatherers, pollen samples from Petén and the Pacific coast indicate that maize cultivation had been developed by 3500 BC. Sites dating back to 6500 BC have been found in the Quiché region in the Highlands, archaeologists divide the pre-Columbian history of Mesoamerica into the Preclassic period, the Classic period, and the Postclassic period. Until recently, the Preclassic was regarded as a period, with small villages of farmers who lived in huts. This period is characterized by urbanisation, the emergence of independent city-states and this lasted until approximately 900 AD, when the Classic Maya civilization collapsed. The Maya abandoned many of the cities of the lowlands or were killed off by a drought-induced famine. The cause of the collapse is debated, but the Drought Theory is gaining currency, supported by such as lakebeds, ancient pollen. A series of prolonged droughts, among other such as overpopulation, in what is otherwise a seasonal desert is thought to have decimated the Maya
42.
Hamilton, Bermuda
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Hamilton is the capital of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. It is the financial centre and a major port and tourist destination. Its population of 1,010 is one of the smallest of any capital cites, the Colonys capital relocated to Hamilton from St. Georges in 1815. The City has been at the political and military heart of Bermuda ever since, the Town of Hamilton became a City in 1897, ahead of the consecration in 1911 of the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, which was under construction at the time. A Catholic cathedral, St. Theresas, was later constructed, today, the city overlooking Hamilton Harbour is primarily a business district, with few structures other than office buildings and shops. The City of Hamilton has long maintained a building height and view limit, in the 21st century, buildings have been planned and some are under construction that are as high as 10 stories in this area. Bermudas local newspaper, The Royal Gazette, reports If you dont recognise the city, from 15 years ago, Hamilton is located on the north side of Hamilton Harbour, and is Bermudas main port. Although there is a parish of the name, the city of Hamilton is in the parish of Pembroke. The City is named after Sir Henry Hamilton, governor from 1786 to 1793, the administrative capital of Bermuda, Hamilton has a limited permanent population of approximately 1,010, however,13,340 work here on a daily basis. The only incorporated city in Bermuda, Hamilton is smaller than the town of St. Georges. A more representative measure of Bermuda local residential populations tends to be by parish, finance and international business constitute the largest sector of Bermudas economy, and virtually all of this business takes place within the borders of Hamilton. Numerous leading international insurance companies are based in Hamilton, as it is a global reinsurance centre, around 400 internationally owned and operated businesses are physically based in Bermuda, and many are represented by the Association of Bermuda International Companies. In total, over 1,500 exempted or international companies are registered with the Registrar of Companies in Bermuda. Its low corporate tax rate makes it attractive to US companies, in addition, the corporate headquarters of the Bermuda grocery store chain The MarketPlace is located within the chains Hamilton MarketPlace location, the largest grocery store in Bermuda. This shield is supported by a mermaid and heraldic sea horse, the shield is topped by a crest featuring a closed helm topped with a torque above which an heraldic seahorse is emerging from the sea holding a flower. The citys full motto is Hamilton sparsa collegit, the citys flag is a banner of arms, featuring the same details as on the shield of the citys coat of arms, but with the flowers in white rather than gold. The city of Hamilton has many parks for its size, probably the most notable park in the city is Victoria Park. This park occupies a block and was named after the former Queen Victoria
43.
Bermuda
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Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately 1,070 km east-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina,1,236 km south of Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Bermuda is an associate member of Caribbean Community. The first person known to have reached Bermuda was the Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermúdez in 1503 and he claimed the islands for the Spanish Empire. 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, 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, at that time, the companys charter was revoked, and the English Crown took over administration. The islands became a British colony following the 1707 unification of the parliaments of Scotland and England, after 1949, when Newfoundland became part of Canada, Bermuda became the oldest remaining British Overseas Territory. Since the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997, it is the most populous Territory and its first capital, St. Georges, was established in 1612 and is the oldest continuously inhabited English town in the New World. Bermudas economy is based on insurance and reinsurance, and tourism. Bermuda had one of the worlds highest GDP per capita for most of the 20th century, recently, its economic status has been affected by the global recession. The island is in the belt and prone to severe weather. However, it is protected from the full force of a hurricane by the coral reef that surrounds the island. It is 898 nautical miles northeast of Miami, Florida, and 667 nautical miles from Cape Sable Island, in Nova Scotia, Canada. The islands lie due east of Fripp Island, South Carolina, west-northwest of Cape Verde, southeast of New York City, New York, north-northwest of Brazil and north of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The archipelago is formed by points on the rim of the caldera of a submarine volcano that forms a seamount. The volcano is one part of a range that was formed as part of the process that formed the floor of the Atlantic. It has 103 km of coastline, the two incorporated municipalities in Bermuda are the City of Hamilton and the Town of St George. Bermuda is divided into nine parishes, which have some localities called villages, such as Flatts Village, although usually referred to in the singular, the territory consists of 181 islands, with a total area of 53.3 square kilometres
44.
Havana
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Havana is the capital city, largest city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city extends mostly westward and southward from the bay, which is entered through a narrow inlet, the sluggish Almendares River traverses the city from south to north, entering the Straits of Florida a few miles west of the bay. King Philip II of Spain granted Havana the title of City in 1592, walls as well as forts were built to protect the old city. The sinking of the U. S. battleship Maine in Havanas harbor in 1898 was the cause of the Spanish–American War. Contemporary Havana can essentially be described as three cities in one, Old Havana, Vedado and the suburban districts. The city is the center of the Cuban government, and home to various ministries, headquarters of businesses, the current mayor is Marta Hernández of the Communist Party of Cuba. In 2009, the city/province had the third highest income in the country, the city attracts over a million tourists annually, the Official Census for Havana reports that in 2010 the city was visited by 1,176,627 international tourists, a 20% increase from 2005. Old Havana was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982, the city is also noted for its history, culture, architecture and monuments. As typical of Cuba, Havana also features a tropical climate, in May 2015, Havana was officially recognized as one of the New7Wonders Cities together with Vigan, Doha, La Paz, Durban, Beirut, and Kuala Lumpur. Most native settlements became the site of Spanish colonial cities retaining their original Taíno names, an alternate theory is that Habana is derived from the Middle Dutch word havene, referring to a harbour, etymologically related to the English word haven. All attempts to found a city on Cubas south coast failed, however, an early map of Cuba drawn in 1514 places the town at the mouth of this river. The town that became Havana finally originated adjacent to what was then called Puerto de Carenas, the quality of this natural bay, which now hosts Havanas harbor, warranted this change of location. Pánfilo de Narváez gave Havana – the sixth town founded by the Spanish on Cuba – its name, the name combines San Cristóbal, patron saint of Havana. Shortly after the founding of Cubas first cities, the served as little more than a base for the Conquista of other lands. Havana began as a port, and suffered regular attacks by buccaneers, pirates. The first attack and resultant burning of the city was by the French corsair Jacques de Sores in 1555, ships from all over the New World carried products first to Havana, in order to be taken by the fleet to Spain. The thousands of ships gathered in the bay also fueled Havanas agriculture and manufacture, since they had to be supplied with food, water. On December 20,1592, King Philip II of Spain granted Havana the title of City, later on, the city would be officially designated as Key to the New World and Rampart of the West Indies by the Spanish Crown
45.
Cuba
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Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and it is south of both the U. S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital, other cities include Santiago de Cuba. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of 109,884 square kilometres, prior to Spanish colonization in the late 15th century, Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes. It remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish–American War of 1898, as a fragile republic, Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Further unrest and instability led to Batistas ousting in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. A point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear war broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America, Cuba is a Marxist–Leninist one-party republic, where the role of the vanguard Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Independent observers have accused the Cuban government of human rights abuses. It is one of the worlds last planned economies and its economy is dominated by the exports of sugar, tobacco, coffee, according to the Human Development Index, Cuba is described as a country with high human development and is ranked the eighth highest in North America. It also ranks highly in some metrics of national performance, including health care, the name Cuba comes from the Taíno language. The exact meaning of the name is unclear but it may be translated either as where fertile land is abundant, authors who believe that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese state that Cuba was named by Columbus for the town of Cuba in the district of Beja in Portugal. Before the arrival of the Spanish, Cuba was inhabited by three distinct tribes of indigenous peoples of the Americas, the Taíno, the Guanajatabey, and the Ciboney people. The ancestors of the Ciboney migrated from the mainland of South America, the Taíno arrived from Hispanola sometime in the 3rd century A. D. When Columbus arrived they were the dominant culture in Cuba, having a population of 150,000. The name Cuba comes from the native Taíno language and it is derived from either coabana meaning great place, or from cubao meaning where fertile land is abundant. The Taíno were farmers, while the Ciboney were farmers as well as fishers and hunter-gatherers, Columbus claimed the island for the new Kingdom of Spain and named it Isla Juana after Juan, Prince of Asturias. In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa, other towns soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana, founded in 1515, which later became the capital
46.
Kingston, Jamaica
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Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal. In the Americas, Kingston is the largest predominantly English-speaking city south of the United States. The local government bodies of the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew were amalgamated by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation Act of 1923, to form the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation. Greater Kingston, or the Corporate Area refers to areas under the KSAC, however, it does not solely refer to Kingston Parish. Kingston Parish had a population of 96,052, and St. Andrew parish had a population of 555,828 in 2001, Kingston is only bordered by Saint Andrew to the east, west and north. The city proper is bounded by Six Miles to the west, Stony Hill to the north, Papine to the northeast and Harbour View to the east, communities in urban and suburban Saint Andrew. Communities in rural St. Andrew such as Gordon Town, Mavis Bank, Lawrence Tavern, Mt. Airy, two parts make up the central area of Kingston, the historic Downtown, and New Kingston. Both are served by Norman Manley International Airport and also by the smaller, Kingston was founded in July 1692 as a place for survivors of the 1692 earthquake that destroyed Port Royal. Before the earthquake, Kingston’s functions were purely agricultural, the earthquake survivors set up a camp on the sea front. Approximately two thousand people died due to mosquito-borne diseases, initially the people lived in a tented camp on Colonel Barrys Hog Crawle. The town did not begin to grow until after the destruction of Port Royal by fire in 1703. Surveyor John Goffe drew up a plan for the town based on a grid bounded by North, East, West, by 1716 it had become the largest town and the centre of trade for Jamaica. The government sold land to people with the regulation that they no more than the amount of the land that they owned in Port Royal. Gradually wealthy merchants began to move their residences from above their businesses to the lands north on the plains of Liguanea. The first free school, Wolmerss, was founded in 1729 and there was a theatre, first on Harbour Street, in 1755 the governor, Sir Charles Knowles, had decided to transfer the government offices from Spanish Town to Kingston. It was thought by some to be a location for the Assembly in proximity to the moral distractions of Kingston. By the end of the 18th century, the city contained more than 3,000 brick buildings, the harbour fostered trade, and played part in several naval wars of the 18th century
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Jamaica
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Jamaica is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea, consisting of the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles. The island,10,990 square kilometres in area, lies about 145 kilometres south of Cuba, Jamaica is the fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean, by area. Inhabited by the indigenous Arawak and Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494, Many of the indigenous people died of disease, and the Spanish imported African slaves as labourers. Named Santiago, the island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, under British colonial rule Jamaica became a leading sugar exporter, with its plantation economy highly dependent on slaves imported from Africa. The British fully emancipated all slaves in 1838, and many chose to have subsistence farms rather than to work on plantations. Beginning in the 1840s, the British imported Chinese and Indian indentured labour to work on plantations, the island achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962. With 2.8 million people, Jamaica is the third-most populous Anglophone country in the Americas, Kingston is the countrys capital and largest city, with a population of 937,700. Jamaicans predominately have African ancestry, with significant European, Chinese, Hakka, Indian, due to a high rate of emigration for work since the 1960s, Jamaica has a large diaspora around the world, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Jamaica is a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch and her appointed representative in the country is the Governor-General of Jamaica, an office held by Sir Patrick Allen since 2009. Andrew Holness has served as the head of government and Prime Minister of Jamaica from March 2016, the indigenous people, the Taíno, called it Xaymaca in Arawakan, meaning the Land of Wood and Water or the Land of Springs. Colloquially Jamaicans refer to their island as the Rock. Slang names such as Jamrock, Jamdown, or briefly Ja, have derived from this, the Arawak and Taíno indigenous people, originating in South America, settled on the island between 4000 and 1000 BC. When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1494, there were more than 200 villages ruled by caciques, the south coast of Jamaica was the most populated, especially around the area now known as Old Harbour. The Taino still inhabited Jamaica when the English took control of the island in 1655, the Jamaican National Heritage Trust is attempting to locate and document any evidence of the Taino/Arawak. Christopher Columbus claimed Jamaica for Spain after landing there in 1494 and his probable landing point was Dry Harbour, now called Discovery Bay, although there is some debate that it might have been St. Anns Bay. St. Anns Bay was named Saint Gloria by Columbus, as the first sighting of the land, the capital was moved to Spanish Town, then called St. Jago de la Vega, around 1534. Spanish Town has the oldest cathedral of the British colonies in the Caribbean, the Spanish were forcibly evicted by the English at Ocho Rios in St. Ann. In 1655, the English, led by Sir William Penn and General Robert Venables, the English continued to import African slaves as labourers
Saint Barthélemy travel guide from Wikivoyage
