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79-451: Canefield is situated in the area of the former Canefield Estate. The Cane Field estate was owned by Walter Pringle, a merchant of Saint Kitts in the 1700s until his last known association in 1768. Walter Pringle’s son, Vice Admiral Thomas Pringle sold the estate in 1773 to joint owners Samuel Duer, Henrietta Duer, and George Rose , a Scottish politician and plantation owner. Rev. Rowland Duer Sr. inherited his brother Samuel Duer’s share of

158-619: A Governor-General . Kennedy Simmonds went on to win elections in 1984 , 1989 and 1993 , before being unseated when the SKNLP returned to power in 1995 under Denzil Douglas . In Nevis, growing discontent with their perceived marginalisation within the federation led to a referendum to separate from St Kitts in 1998, which though resulting a 62% vote to secede, fell short of the required two-thirds majority to be legally enacted. In late-September 1998, Hurricane Georges caused approximately $ 458,000,000 in damages and limited GDP growth for

237-611: A unicameral legislature, known as the National Assembly . It is composed of fourteen members: eleven elected representatives (three from the island of Nevis ) and three senators, who are appointed by the Governor-General . Two of the senators are appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister, and one, on the advice of the leader of the opposition. Unlike in other countries, the senators do not constitute

316-458: A 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 4.55/10, ranking it 121st globally out of 172 countries. The national bird is the brown pelican . 176 species of bird have been reported from the country. The national flower is Delonix regia . Common plants include palmetto , hibiscus , bougainvillea , and tamarind . Pinus species are common in the dense forests of islands, and are usually covered by various species of ferns . By

395-486: A Carib plan to expel or kill all European settlers. Thereafter, the English and French established large sugar plantations which were worked by imported African slaves. This made the planter-colonists rich, but drastically altered the islands' demographics as black slaves soon came to outnumber Europeans. A Spanish expedition of 1629 sent to enforce Spanish claims destroyed the English and French colonies and deported

474-594: A defence force of 300 personnel. It is mostly involved in policing and drug trade interception. Male homosexuality has been legal in St. Kitts and Nevis since 29 August 2022. In 2011, the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis said it had "no mandate from the people" to abolish the criminalisation of homosexuality among consenting adults. The federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis is divided into fourteen parishes, nine of them on Saint Kitts and five on Nevis. The capital city

553-439: A result, both parties agreed to partition the island into French and English sectors. From 1628 onward the English also began settling on Nevis. The French and English, intent on exploitation of the island's resources, encountered resistance from the native Caribs (Kalinago), who waged war during the first three years of the settlements' existence. The Europeans resolved to rid themselves of this problem. An ideological campaign

632-830: A result. Such wars led to a geopolitical boundary separating the Lesser Antilles , inhabited by the Kalinago, from the Greater Antilles , inhabited by the Taíno . This boundary became known as the " poison arrow curtain". In 1660, France and England signed the Treaty of Saint Charles with Island Caribs. It stipulated that the Kalinago would evacuate all the Lesser Antilles except for Dominica and Saint Vincent , which were recognised as reserves. However,

711-675: A separate senate or upper house of parliament, but sit in the National Assembly alongside representatives. All members serve five-year terms. The Prime Minister and the Cabinet answer to the Parliament. Nevis also maintains its own semi-autonomous assembly . Saint Kitts and Nevis has no major international disputes. Saint Kitts and Nevis is a full and participating member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) ,

790-778: A traditional canoe based on the fishing canoes still used in Dominica, Guadeloupe and Martinique . They launched a voyage by canoe to the Orinoco delta to meet up with the local Kalinago tribes, re-establishing cultural connections with the remaining Kalinago communities along the island chain, documented by the BBC in The Quest of the Carib Canoe . Historically, scholars assumed that Island Carib men and women spoke different languages. To explain this phenomenon, scholars proposed that

869-408: Is Basseterre , located on the larger island of Saint Kitts . Basseterre is also the main port for passenger entry (via cruise ships) and cargo. The smaller island of Nevis lies approximately 3 km (2 mi) to the southeast of Saint Kitts, across a shallow channel called The Narrows . The islands of Sint Eustatius , Saba , Saint Barthélemy , Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten and Anguilla lie to

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948-590: Is 76.9 years. Emigration has historically been very high, so high that the total estimated population in 2007 was little changed from that in 1961. Emigration from St Kitts and Nevis to the United States: English is the sole official language. Saint Kitts Creole is also widely spoken. Religion in Saint Kitts and Nevis (2011) Kalinago The Kalinago , also called Island Caribs or simply Caribs , are an Indigenous people of

1027-588: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis ( /- ˈ k ɪ t s  ...   ˈ n iː v ɪ s / ), officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis , is an island country consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis , both located in the West Indies , in the Leeward Islands chain of

1106-624: Is a sovereign, democratic, and federal state. It is a Commonwealth realm , a constitutional monarchy with the King of Saint Christopher and Nevis , Charles III , as its head of state . The King is represented in the country by a Governor-General , who acts on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. The Prime Minister is the leader of the majority party of the House, and the cabinet conducts affairs of state. St. Kitts and Nevis has

1185-627: Is not known. They were followed by the Arawak peoples , or Taíno , around 1000 BC. The Island Caribs invaded around 800 AD. Christopher Columbus was the first European to sight the islands in 1493. The first settlers were the English in 1623, led by Thomas Warner , who established a settlement at Old Road Town on the west coast of St Kitts after achieving an agreement with the Carib chief Ouboutou Tegremante . The French later also settled on St Kitts in 1625 under Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc . As

1264-753: The Carib Territory that was granted to the people by the British government in 1903. The Dominican Kalinago elect their own chief. In July 2003, the Kalinago observed 100 Years of Territory, and in July 2014, Charles Williams was elected Kalinago Chief, succeeding Chief Garnette Joseph. Several hundred Carib descendants live in the U. S. Virgin Islands , St. Kitts & Nevis , Antigua & Barbuda , Guadeloupe , Martinique , Dominica , Saint Lucia , Grenada , Trinidad and St. Vincent . " Black Caribs ,"

1343-551: The Köppen climate classification , St Kitts has a tropical savanna climate ( Köppen Aw ) and Nevis has a tropical monsoon climate ( Köppen Am ). Mean monthly temperatures in Basseterre varies little from 23.9 °C (75.0 °F) to 26.6 °C (79.9 °F). Yearly rainfall is approximately 2,400 millimetres (90 in), although it has varied from 1,356 millimetres (53.4 in) to 3,183 millimetres (125.3 in) in

1422-655: The Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean . They may have been related to the Mainland Caribs (Kalina) of South America, but they spoke an unrelated language known as Kalinago or Island Carib. They also spoke a pidgin language associated with the Mainland Caribs. At the time of Spanish contact , the Kalinago were one of the dominant groups in the Caribbean (the name of which is derived from "Carib", as

1501-478: The Lesser Antilles . With 261 square kilometres (101 sq mi) of territory, and roughly 48,000 inhabitants, it is the smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere, in both area and population , as well as the world's smallest sovereign federation . The country is a Commonwealth realm , with Charles III as King and head of state . The capital city is Basseterre , located on

1580-690: The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and the Organisation of American States (OAS). St Kitts & Nevis entered the OAS system on 16 September 1984. At a CARICOM meeting, representative of St. Kitts and Nevis Kennedy Simmons signed the Double Taxation Relief (CARICOM) Treaty 1994, on 6 July 1994. The representatives of seven CARICOM countries signed similar agreements at Sherbourne Conference Centre, St. Michael, Barbados. The countries whose representatives signed

1659-428: The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The islands' economy, already shattered by war, was further harmed by natural disasters: In 1690 an earthquake destroyed Jamestown, capital of Nevis, forcing the construction of a new capital at Charlestown . Further damage was caused by a hurricane in 1707. The colony had recovered by the turn of the 18th century, and St Kitts had become the richest British Crown Colony per capita in

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1738-570: The Antilles, notably on the island of Dominica . The Garifuna , who share common ancestry with the Kalinago, also live principally in Central America. The exonym Caribe was first recorded by Christopher Columbus . One hypothesis for the origin of Carib is that it means "brave warrior". Its variants, including the English word Carib , were then adopted by other European languages. Early Spanish explorers and administrators used

1817-476: The Antilles. Irving Rouse proposed that a relatively small scale Carib force conquered but did not displace the Igneri, and the invaders eventually took on the Igneri language while still maintaining their identity as Caribs. Other scholars such as Sued Badillo doubt there was an invasion at all, proposing that the Igneri adopted the "Carib" identity over time due to their close economic and political relations with

1896-477: The Bahamas and the Lesser Antilles , Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano was killed and allegedly eaten by Carib natives on what is now Guadeloupe , near a place called Karukera (“island of beautiful waters”). Historian William Riviere has described most of the cannibalism as related to war rituals. Chief Kairouane and his men from Grenada jumped off the "Leapers Hill" rather than face slavery under

1975-522: The Carib territory, killing a majority of the Yellow Caribs. After the eruption, 130 Yellow Caribs and 59 Black Caribs survived on St. Vincent . Unable to recover from the damage caused by the eruption, 120 of the Yellow Caribs, under Captain Baptiste, emigrated to Trinidad. In 1830, the Carib population numbered less than 100. The population made a remarkable recovery after that, although almost

2054-518: The Caribbean as result of its slave-based sugar industry by the close of the 1700s. The 18th century also saw Nevis, formerly the richer of the two islands, being eclipsed by St Kitts in economic importance. Alexander Hamilton , the future U.S. secretary of the Treasury, was born on Nevis in 1755 or 1757. As Britain became embroiled in war with its American colonies , the French decided to use

2133-517: The Caribbean, the Maipurean -speaking Taínos reportedly relayed stories of the Caribs' war-like nature and cannibalism to him. When he arrived in the Lesser Antilles in 1635, the French missionary Raymond Breton made ethnographic and linguistic notes on the "Caribs", which also informed many of the early stereotypes about the Kalinago. Other missionaries, such as Cesar de Rochefort, would refute

2212-517: The Caribbean. From St Kitts the British settled the islands of Antigua , Montserrat , Anguilla and Tortola , and the French settled Martinique , the Guadeloupe archipelago and Saint Barthélemy . During the late 17th century, France and England fought for control over St Kitts and Nevis, fighting wars in 1667 , 1689–90 and 1701–13 . The French renounced their claim to the islands with

2291-460: The Caribs had a common origin with contemporary groups in the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The transition from Igneri to Island Carib culture may have occurred around 1450. Archaeological evidence in support of either model is sparse, with "no confirmed Carib sites [known] prior to the 1990s." However, Cayo-style pottery found in the Lesser Antilles, and dated between 1000 and 1500, is similar to

2370-609: The Caribs, karibna was apparently associated with ritual eating of war enemies. The Caribs reportedly had a tradition of keeping bones of their ancestors in their houses. Missionaries , such as Père Jean Baptiste Labat and Cesar de Rochefort, described the practice as part of a belief that the ancestral spirits would always look after the bones and protect their descendants. The Caribs have been described by their various enemies as vicious and violent raiders. Rochefort stated they did not practice cannibalism. During his third voyage to North America in 1528, after exploring Florida ,

2449-447: The English later ignored the treaty, and pursue a campaign against the Kalinago in succeeding decades. Between the 1660s and 1700, the English waged an intermittent campaign against the Kalinago. By 1763, the British had annexed St Lucia, Tobago, Dominica and St Vincent. On Saint Vincent the Kalinago intermarried with runaway slaves, forming the ‘Black Caribs’ or Garifuna who were expelled to Honduras in 1797. The British colonial use of

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2528-565: The Igneri. As this tradition was widespread in oral testimonies, and internally consistent, it was accepted as historical by Europeans. The second model proposes that the Kalinago developed out of the indigenous peoples of the Antilles. While the Caribs were commonly believed to have migrated from the Orinoco River area in South America to settle in the Caribbean islands about 1200 CE, an analysis of ancient DNA suggests that

2607-532: The Island Caribs may have killed the men and kept the women, allowing the Igneri language to survive among women. This assumption arose from the fact that by at least the early 17th century, Carib men spoke a Cariban-based pidgin language in addition to the usual Arawakan language used by both sexes. This was similar to pidgins used by mainland Caribs when communicating with their Arawak neighbors. Berend J. Hoff and Douglas Taylor hypothesized that it dated to

2686-539: The Kalinago Territory. As of 2008 , a small population of around 3,400 Kalinago survived in the Kalinago Territory in northeast Dominica, of whom some 70 "defined themselves as 'pure'". The Kalinago of Dominica maintained their independence for many years by taking advantage of the island's rugged terrain. The island's east coast includes a 3,700-acre (15 km ) territory formerly known as

2765-456: The Kalinago had a reputation as warriors who raided neighboring islands. According to the tales of Spanish conquistadors , the Kalinago were cannibals who regularly ate roasted human flesh, although this is considered by the community to be an offensive myth. There is no hard evidence of Caribs eating human flesh, though one historian points out it might be useful to frighten enemy Arawak . The Kalinago and their descendants continue to live in

2844-573: The Kalinago occasionally allied with the Taínos to repel European invaders. When the Spanish attempted to colonize Puerto Rico, Kalinago from St. Croix arrived to aid the local Taíno. Daguao village, initially slated to be the Europeans' new capital, was destroyed by Taínos from the eastern area of Puerto Rico, with the support of Kalinago from neighboring Vieques . By the middle of the 16th century,

2923-520: The Kalinago were once called). They lived throughout north-eastern South America, Trinidad and Tobago , Barbados , the Windward Islands , Dominica , and possibly the southern Leeward Islands . Historically, it was thought their ancestors were mainland peoples who had conquered the islands from their previous inhabitants, the Igneri . However, linguistic and archaeological evidence contradicts

3002-585: The Koriabo complex from which the mainland Carib or Kari'na pottery tradition is descended. Cayo pottery was once thought to have preceded Suazoid pottery (associated with the Igneri) in the Lesser Antilles, but more recent scholarship suggests that Cayo pottery gradually replaced Suazoid pottery in the islands. Cayo-style pottery has been found in the Lesser Antilles from Grenada to Basse-Terre , and, possibly, Saint Kitts . Cayo pottery also shows similarities to

3081-610: The Meillacoid and Chicoid styles of the Greater Antilles, as well as to the South American Koriabo style. Upon his arrival in the Caribbean archipelago in 1492, the Maipurean -speaking Taínos reportedly told Christopher Columbus that Caribs were fierce warriors and cannibals, who made frequent raids on the Taínos, often capturing women. According to Columbus, the Taínos said the Caribs had spent

3160-641: The PAM and the Nevis-based Concerned Citizens' Movement under the ' Team Unity ' banner. In June 2020, Team Unity coalition of the incumbent government, led by Prime Minister Timothy Harris, won general elections by defeating Saint Kitts and Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP). In snap general elections held in August 2022 , the SKNLP again won, and Terrance Drew became the fourth prime minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Saint Kitts and Nevis

3239-453: The bark. The Ceiba pentandra tree is not only functional but spiritual and believed to house spirits that would become angered if disturbed. Canoes have been used throughout the history of the Kalinago and have become a renewed interest within the manufacturing of traditional dugout canoes used for inter-island transportation and fishing. In 1997 Dominica Carib artist Jacob Frederick and Tortola artist Aragorn Dick Read set out to build

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3318-506: The colony from 1966 to 1978; he sought to gradually bring the sugar-based economy under greater state control. The more conservative-leaning People's Action Movement party (PAM) was founded in 1965. After a brief period as part of the West Indies Federation (1958–62), the islands became an associated state with full internal autonomy in 1967. Residents of Nevis and Anguilla were unhappy with St Kitts's domination of

3397-420: The common conception of the Caribs as cannibals. Early European accounts describe the taking of human trophies and the ritual cannibalism of war captives among both Arawak and other Amerindian groups such as the Carib and Tupinambá , though the exact accuracy of cannibalistic reports still remains debated without skeletal evidence to support it. Scholars such as Hilary McD. Beckles have instead suggested that

3476-528: The constitutionally-protected right to unilaterally secede if a referendum on independence resulted in a two-thirds majority in favour. St Kitts and Nevis achieved full independence on 19 September 1983. Kennedy Simmonds of the PAM, Premier since 1980, duly became the country's first Prime Minister . St Kitts and Nevis opted to remain within the British Commonwealth , at that time retaining Queen Elizabeth as Monarch , represented locally by

3555-562: The descendants of the mixture of Africans live in St. Vincent whose total population is unknown. Some ethnic Carib communities remain on the American mainland, in countries such as Guyana and Suriname in South America, and Belize in Central America. The size of these communities varies widely. During the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Island Carib population in St. Vincent

3634-593: The entire tribe died out during the 1902 eruption of La Soufrière . Canoes are a significant aspect of the Kalinago's material culture and economy. They are used for transport from the southern continent and islands of the Caribbean, as well as providing them with the ability to fish more efficiently and to grow their fishing industry. Canoes, constructed from the Burseraceae , Cedrela odorata , Ceiba pentandra , and Hymenaea courbaril trees, serve different purposes depending on their height and thickness of

3713-606: The estate after his death at St. Lucia in 1783. The Duer family’s share of the estate was later acquired by Rawson Aislabie, a London Merchant who was a joint owner until his death, after which his son, Benjamin Aislabie inherited his share of the estate. By 1817 there was a total of 163 enslaved people working on the estate, 94 of whom were female and 69 male. In 1820 23 enslaved people were purchased from Richmond Estate, two people were purchased from RH Nightengale, and 54 enslaved people died. In 1823 Sir George Henry Rose inherited

3792-518: The federation, and Anguilla unilaterally declared independence in 1967. In 1971 Britain resumed full control of Anguilla, but it was formally separated in 1980. Attention then focused on Nevis, with the Nevis Reformation Party seeking to safeguard the smaller island's interests in any future independent state. Eventually it was agreed that the island would have a degree of autonomy with its own Premier and Assembly , as well as

3871-587: The first few decades of the 20th century economic hardship and lack of opportunities led to the growth of a labour movement; the Great Depression prompted sugar workers to go on strike in 1935. The 1940s saw the founding of the St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla Labour Party (later renamed the Saint Kitts and Nevis Labour Party, or SKNLP) under Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw . Bradshaw later became Chief Minister and then Premier of

3950-723: The injury. Formerly the Caribs used an extensive range of medicinal plant and animal products. The Caribs are believed to have practiced polytheism . As the Spanish began to colonise the Caribbean area, they wanted to convert the natives to Catholicism . The Caribs destroyed a church of Franciscans in Aguada, Puerto Rico and killed five of its members, in 1579. Currently, the remaining Kalinago in Dominica practice parts of Catholicism through baptism of children. However, not all practice Christianity . Some Caribs worship their ancestors and believe them to have magical power over their crops. In 1492, when Christopher Columbus arrived in

4029-461: The larger island of Saint Kitts . Basseterre is also the main port for passenger entry (via cruise ships) and cargo. The smaller island of Nevis lies approximately 3 km (2 mi) to the southeast of Saint Kitts, across a shallow channel called The Narrows . The British dependency of Anguilla was historically also a part of this union, which was known collectively as Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla . However, Anguilla chose to secede from

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4108-643: The largest body of water, the Great Salt Pond . To the southeast, in The Narrows, lies the small isle of Booby Island . There are numerous rivers descending from the mountains of both islands, which provide fresh water to the local population. Nevis, the smaller of the two main islands and roughly circular in shape, is dominated by Nevis Peak 985 metres (3,232 ft). Saint Kitts and Nevis contains two terrestrial ecoregions: Leeward Islands moist forests and Leeward Islands dry forests. The country had

4187-440: The last two centuries displacing the Taínos by warfare, extermination, and assimilation. The French missionary Raymond Breton arrived in the Lesser Antilles in 1635, and lived in Guadeloupe and Dominica until 1653. He took ethnographic and linguistic notes on the native peoples of these islands, including St. Vincent , which he visited briefly. Breton was responsible for many of the early stereotypes about Kalinago. Later,

4266-482: The miracle. Today, the Constitution refers to the state as both Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Christopher and Nevis ; the former is the one most commonly used, but the latter is generally used for diplomatic relations. Passports list the nationality of citizens as St. Kitts and Nevis . The name of the first inhabitants, pre-Arawakan peoples who settled the islands perhaps as early as 3,000 years ago,

4345-530: The name San Cristóbal was in fact given by Columbus to the island now known as Saba , 32 km (20 mi) northwest. Saint Kitts was well documented as San Cristóbal by the 17th century. The first English colonists kept the English translation of this name, and dubbed it St. Christopher's Island . In the 17th century, a common nickname for Christopher was Kit(t) ; hence, the island came to be informally referred to as Saint Kitt's Island , later further shortened to Saint Kitts . Columbus gave Nevis

4424-596: The name San Martín ( Saint Martin ). The current name Nevis is derived from a Spanish name Nuestra Señora de las Nieves , meaning " Our Lady of the Snows ", a reference to the 4th-century Catholic miracle of a summertime snowfall on the Esquiline Hill in Rome . It is not known who chose this name for the island, but it is thought that white clouds which usually wreath the top of Nevis Peak reminded someone of

4503-465: The north-northwest of the country. To the east and northeast are Antigua and Barbuda , and to the southeast is the small uninhabited island of Redonda (part of Antigua and Barbuda) and the island of Montserrat . The country consists of two main islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis , separated at a distance of 2 miles (3 km) by The Narrows strait. Both are of volcanic origin, with large central peaks covered in tropical rainforest . The majority of

4582-418: The notion of a mass emigration and conquest; the Kalinago language appears not to have been Cariban , but like that of their neighbors, the Taíno . Irving Rouse and others suggest that a smaller group of mainland peoples migrated to the islands without displacing their inhabitants, eventually adopting the local language but retaining their traditions of a South American origin. In the early colonial period,

4661-595: The opportunity to re-capture St Kitts in 1782; however St Kitts was given back and recognised as British territory in the Treaty of Versailles (1783) . The African slave trade was terminated within the British Empire in 1807, and slavery outlawed completely in 1834. A four-year "apprenticeship" period followed for each slave, in which they worked for their former owners for wages. On Nevis 8,815 slaves were freed, while St Kitts freed 19,780. Saint Kitts and Nevis, along with Anguilla, were federated in 1882. In

4740-438: The origin of the Kalinago. The traditional account, which is almost as old as Columbus, says that the Caribs were a warlike people who were moving up the Lesser Antilles and displacing the original inhabitants. Early missionary texts suggested the original inhabitants of the islands were the Igneri , while the Kalinago were invaders originating in South America (home to the mainland Caribs or Kalina) who conquered and displaced

4819-442: The period 1901–2015. The population of Saint Kitts and Nevis is around 53,000 (July 2019 est.) and has remained relatively constant for many years. At the end of the nineteenth century there were 42,600 residents, the number slowly rising to a little over 50,000 by the mid-twentieth century. Between 1960 and 1990, the population dropped from 50,000 to 40,000, before rising again to its current level. Approximately three-quarters of

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4898-564: The population live along the flatter coastal areas. St Kitts contains several mountain ranges (the North West Range, Central Range and South-West Range) in its centre, where the highest peak of the country, Mount Liamuiga 1,156 metres (3,793 ft) can be found. Along the east coast can be found the Canada Hills and Conaree Hills. The land narrows considerably in the south-east, forming a much flatter peninsula which contains

4977-577: The population live on Saint Kitts, with 15,500 of these living in the capital, Basseterre. Other large settlements include Cayon (population 3,000) and Sandy Point Town (3,000), both on Saint Kitts, and Gingerland (2,500) and Charlestown (1,900), both on Nevis. It ranks number 209 on the list of countries and dependencies by population. The population is primarily Afro-Caribbean (92.5%), with significant minorities of European (2.1%) and Indian (1.5%) descent (2001 estimate). As of 2021 , there were 47,606 inhabitants; their average life expectancy

5056-415: The pre-European inhabitants of Saint Kitts, called the island Liamuiga , roughly translating as 'fertile land'. It is thought that Christopher Columbus , the first European to see the islands in 1493, named the larger island San Cristóbal , after Saint Christopher , his patron saint and that of travellers. New studies suggest that Columbus named the island Sant Yago ( Saint James ), and that

5135-626: The present day, Canefield is home to one of Dominica’s two airports. It is also the location of the Museum at the Old Mill Cultural Centre. The museum is set in a restored building and features important aspects of Dominica’s heritage. The museum displays posters depicting the processing of sugar cane and coffee plantations and provides information about Dominica’s first people, the Kalinago . This Dominica location article

5214-406: The property from his mother Theodora née Duer. At the time there was a total of 123 enslaved persons (68 female and 52 male). Following the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 , Benjamin Aislabie and Sir George Henry Rose filed a claim for compensation for their loss of slaves and were awarded £2342 14s 0d on 12 October 1835 for losing the 111 enslaved people that worked on their estate. In

5293-434: The resistance of Taínos and Kalinago alike was largely quashed across the Greater Antilles. The survivors were enslaved to work in agriculture or mining. The Kalinagos were more successful in repelling the Spanish—and later the French and English—in the Lesser Antilles, retaining their independence. The lack of gold in the area and the large numbers of casualties inflicted upon the Spanish contributed to their survival. In

5372-459: The rising mainland Carib polity. Both theories accept that the historical Island Carib language developed from the existing tongue of the islands, and thus it is also known as Igneri. By the early twenty-first century, a combination of bush medicine and modern medicine was used by the Kalinago of Dominica. For example, various fruits and leaves are used to heal common ailments. For a sprain, oils from coconuts, snakes, and bay leaves are used to heal

5451-425: The settlers back to their respective countries. As part of the war settlement in 1630, the Spanish permitted the re-establishment of the English and French colonies. Spain later formally recognised Britain's claim to St Kitts with the Treaty of Madrid (1670) , in return for British cooperation in the fight against piracy. As Spanish power declined, Saint Kitts became a key base for English and French expansion in

5530-408: The seventeenth century, the Kalinago regularly attacked the plantations of the English and the French in the Leeward Islands. In the 1630s, planters from the Leewards conducted campaigns against the Kalinago, but with limited success. The Kalinago took advantage of divisions between the Europeans, to provide support to the French and the Dutch during wars in the 1650s, consolidating their independence as

5609-400: The stories of "vicious cannibals" may have comprised an "ideological campaign" against the Kalinago to justify "genocidal military expeditions" by European colonizers. The Island Carib word karibna meant "person", although it became the origin of the English word "cannibal" after Columbus shared stories of flesh-eating Kalinago, apparently heard from their historic Taíno enemies. Among

5688-557: The term Black Carib , particularly in William Young 's Account of the Black Charaibs (1795), has been described in modern historiography as framing the majority of the indigenous St. Vincent population as "mere interlopers from Africa" who lacked claims to land possession in St. Vincent. On Dominica the runaways formed distinct Maroon communities while the Caribs remained distinct. A remnant of these Caribs lives on in

5767-459: The terms Arawak and Caribs to distinguish the peoples of the Caribbean, with Carib reserved for Indigenous groups that they considered hostile and Arawak for groups that they considered friendly. The Kalinago language endonyms are Karifuna (singular) and Kalinago (plural). The name was officially changed from 'Carib' to 'Kalinago' in Dominica in 2015. William F. Keegan and Corinne L. Hofman have outlined two major models for

5846-467: The time of the Carib expansion through the islands, and that males maintained it to emphasize their origins on the mainland. Linguistic analysis in the 20th century determined that the main Island Carib language was spoken by both sexes, and was Arawakan , not Cariban . Scholars adopted more nuanced theories to explain the transition from the earlier Igneri to the later Island Carib societies in

5925-657: The treaties in Barbados were: Antigua & Barbuda, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago. This treaty covered income, residence, tax jurisdictions, capital gains, business profits, interest, dividends, royalties and other areas. On 30 June 2014, St. Kitts and Nevis signed a Model 1 agreement with the United States of America in relation to Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Saint Kitts and Nevis has

6004-500: The union in 1967, and remains a British overseas territory . Saint Kitts and Nevis were among the first islands in the Caribbean to be colonised by Europeans. Saint Kitts was home to the first British and French Caribbean colonies, and thus has also been titled "The Mother Colony of the West Indies". It is also the most recent British territory in the Caribbean to become independent, gaining independence in 1983. The Kalinago ,

6083-486: The year and beyond. Meanwhile, the sugar industry, in decline for years and propped up only by government subsidies, was closed completely in 2005. In 2012, Saint Kitts and Nevis was declared free of malaria , according to the World Health Organization . The 2015 Saint Kitts and Nevis general election was won by Timothy Harris and his recently formed People's Labour Party , with backing from

6162-605: Was greater than that in Dominica. Both the Island Caribs (Yellow Caribs) and the Black Caribs ( Garifuna ) fought against the British during the Second Carib War . After the end of the war, the British deported the Garifuna (a population of 4,338) to Roatan Island , while the Island Caribs (whose population consisted of 80 people) were allowed to stay on St. Vincent. The 1812 eruption of La Soufrière destroyed

6241-519: Was waged by colonial chroniclers, dating back to the Spanish, as they produced literature which denied the Kalinagos' humanity (a literary tradition carried through the late-seventeenth century by such authors as Jean-Baptiste du Tertre and Pere Labat). In 1626 the Anglo-French settlers joined forces to massacre the Kalinago at a place that became known as Bloody Point , allegedly to preempt

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