Antigua

The first inhabitants were the Guanahatabey people. Eventually, the Arawak migrated from the mainland, followed by the Carib. Prior to European colonialism, Christopher Columbus was the first European to visit Antigua, in 1493.[8]

The Arawak were the first well-documented group of indigenous people to settle Antigua. They paddled to the island by canoe (piragua) from present-day Venezuela, pushed out by the Carib, another indigenous people. The Arawak introduced agriculture to Antigua and Barbuda. Among other crops, they cultivated the Antiguan "Black" pineapple. They also grew Corn, Sweet potatoes (white with firmer flesh than the bright orange "sweet potato" grown in the United States), Chili peppers, Guava, Tobacco, and Cotton.

Some of the vegetables listed, such as corn and sweet potatoes, continue to be staples of Antiguan cuisine. Colonists took them to Europe, and from there, they spread around the world. For example, a popular Antiguan dish, dukuna (/ˈduːkuːnɑː/), is a sweet, steamed dumpling made from grated sweet potatoes, flour and spices. Another staple, fungi (/ˈfuːndʒi/), is a cooked paste made of cornmeal and water.

Most of the Arawak left Antigua about A.D. 1100. Those who remained were raided by the Carib coming from Venezuela. According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, the Caribs' superior weapons and seafaring prowess allowed them to defeat most Arawak nations in the West Indies. They enslaved some and cannibalised others.[9] Watson points out that the Caribs had a much more warlike culture than the Arawak.[9]

The indigenous people of the West Indies built excellent sea vessels, which they used to sail the Atlantic and Caribbean resulting in much of the South American and the Caribbean islands being populated by the Arawak and Carib. Their descendants live throughout South America, particularly Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia.

Aerial view of Jolly Harbour on the western coast of Antigua

Christopher Columbus named the island "Antigua" in 1493 in honour of the "Virgin of the Old Cathedral"[3] (Spanish: La Virgen de la Antigua) found in Seville Cathedral in southern Spain. On his 1493 voyage, honouring a vow, he named many islands after different aspects of St. Mary, including Montserrat and Guadeloupe.

In 1632, a group of English colonists left St. Kitts to settle on Antigua. Sir Christopher Codrington, an Englishman, established the first permanent British settlement.[8] The island rapidly developed as a profitable sugar colony. For a large portion of Antigua history, the island was considered Britain's "Gateway to the Caribbean". It was on the major sailing routes among the region's resource-rich colonies. Lord Horatio Nelson, a major figure in Antigua history, arrived in the late 18th century to preserve the island's commercial shipping prowess.

According to A Brief History of the Caribbean,[10] British diseases, malnutrition and slavery eventually destroyed the vast majority of the Caribbean's native population. There are some differences of opinions as to the relative importance of these causes.

Slaves planting and tilling, 1823

Slaves working in the boiling house, 1823

Slaves loading barrels into a boat, 1823

Sugar became Antigua's main crop in about 1674, when Christopher Codrington (c. 1640–1698) settled at Betty's Hope plantation. He came from Barbados, bringing the latest sugar technology with him. Betty's Hope, Antigua's first full-scale sugar plantation, was so successful that other planters turned from tobacco to sugar. This resulted in their importing slaves to work the sugar cane crops.[8]

According to A Brief History of the Caribbean, many West Indian colonists initially tried to use locals as slaves. These groups succumbed easily to disease and/or malnutrition, and died by the thousands. The enslaved Africans adapted better to the new environment and thus became the number one choice of unpaid labour; they also provided medical services and skilled labour, including carpentry, for their masters. However, according to a Smithsonian Institution article, the West African slave population in the Caribbean also had a high mortality rate, which was compensated by regular imports of very high numbers of new slaves from West and Central Africa.[11]

Sugar cane was one of the most grueling and dangerous crops slaves were forced to cultivate. Harvesting cane required backbreaking long days in sugar cane fields under the hot island sun. Sugar cane spoiled quickly after harvest, and the milling process was slow and inefficient, forcing the mill and boiling house to operate 24 hours a day during harvest season.

Sugar mills and boiling houses were two of the most dangerous places for slaves to work on sugar plantations. In mills wooden or metal rollers were used to crush cane plants and extract the juices. Slaves were at risk of getting their limbs stuck and ripped off in the machines. Similarly, in sugar boiling houses slaves worked under extremely high temperatures and at the risk of being burned in the boiling sugar mixture or getting their limbs stuck.

Today, collectors prize the uniquely designed colonial furniture built by West Indian slaves. Many of these works feature what are now considered "traditional" motifs, such as pineapples, fish and stylized serpents.

By the mid-1770s, the number of slaves had increased to 37,500, up from 12,500 in 1713. The British population had fallen from 5,000 to below 3,000.[12] The slaves lived in wretched and overcrowded conditions and could be mistreated or even killed by their owners with impunity. The Slave Act of 1723 made arbitrary murder of slaves a crime, but did not do much to ease their lives.[13]

Unrest against enslavement among the Black Antiguans became increasingly common. In 1729, a man named Hercules was hanged, drawn, and quartered and three others were burnt alive, for conspiring to kill the slave owner Crump and his family. In 1736, an enslaved man called "Prince Klaas" (whose slave name was Court) allegedly planned an uprising in which British slavers would be massacred. Court was crowned "King of the Coromantees" in a pasture outside the capital of St. John's. The coronation appeared to be just a colourful spectacle but was, for the enslaved people, a ritual declaration of war on the British slavers. Due to information obtained from other slaves, colonists discovered the plot and suppressed it. Prince Klaas and four accomplices were caught and executed by the breaking wheel. (However, some doubts exist about Court's guilt.)[14][11] Six of the rebels were hanged in chains and starved to death, and another 58 were burned at the stake. The site of these executions is now the Antiguan Recreation Ground.[15][11]

The American War of Independence in the late 18th century disrupted the Caribbean sugar trade. At the same time, public opinion in Great Britain gradually turned against slavery.[16] "Traveling ... at slavery's end, [Joseph] Sturge and [Thomas] Harvey (1838 ...) found few married slaves residing together or even on the same estate. Slaveholders often counted as 'married' only those slaves with mates on the estate."[17][lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 3] Great Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, and all existing slaves were emancipated in 1834.[8]

Horatio Nelson (who was created 1st Viscount Nelson in 1801) was Senior Naval Officer of the Leeward Islands from 1784 to 1787 on HMS Boreas. During his tenure, he tried to enforce the Navigation Acts. These acts prohibited trade with the newly formed United States of America. Most of the merchants in Antigua depended upon American trade, so many of them despised Captain Nelson. As a result, he was unable to get a promotion for some time after his stint on the island.

Unlike the Antiguan merchants, Nelson had a positive view of the controversial Navigation Acts:[18]

The Americans were at this time trading with our islands, taking advantage of the register of their ships, which had been issued while they were British subjects. Nelson knew that, by the Navigation Act, no foreigners, directly or indirectly, are permitted to carry on any trade with these possessions. He knew, also, that the Americans had made themselves foreigners with regard to England; they had disregarded the ties of blood and language when they acquired the independence which they had been led on to claim, unhappily for themselves, before they were fit for it; and he was resolved that they should derive no profit from those ties now. Foreigners they had made themselves, and as foreigners they were to be treated.[18]

Nelson said: "The Antiguan Colonists are as great rebels as ever were in America, had they the power to show it."[18]

A dockyard started in 1725, to provide a base for a squadron of British ships whose main function was to patrol the West Indies and thus maintain Britain's sea power, was later named "Nelson's Dockyard" in his honour.

While Nelson was stationed on Antigua, he frequently visited the nearby island of Nevis, where he met and married a young widow, Fanny Nisbet, who had previously married the son of a plantation family on Nevis.

Following the foundation of the Ulotrichian Universal Union, a friendly society which acted as a trade union (which were banned), the sugar cane workers were ready to confront the plantation owners when they slashed their wages. The cane workers went on strike and rioted when their leaders were arrested.[19]

In 1968, with Barbuda and the tiny island of Redonda as dependencies, Antigua became an associated state of the Commonwealth, and in 1981 it was disassociated from Britain.[8]

Commissioned, 9 August 1956, the Naval Facility (NAVFAC) Antigua was one of the shore terminal stations that were part of the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) and the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS), which were used to track Soviet submarines. NAVFAC Antigua was decommissioned 4 February 1984.[20]

From 1958 through 1960 the United States installed the Missile Impact Location System (MILS) in the Atlantic Missile Range, later the Eastern Range, to localize the splash downs of test missile nose cones. MILS was developed and installed by the same entities that had completed the first phase of the Atlantic SOSUS system. A MILS installation consisting of both a target array for precision location and a broad ocean area system for good positions outside the target area was installed at Antigua, 1,300 nmi (1,500 mi; 2,400 km) down range. The island was the second down range MILS installation with the furthest being 4,400 nmi (5,100 mi; 8,100 km) down range at Ascension Island.[21][22]

Until July 7, 2015, the United States Air Force maintained a small base near the airport, designated Detachment 1, 45th Operations Group, 45th Space Wing (known as Antigua Air Station). The mission provided high rate telemetry data for the Eastern Range and its space launches. The unit was deactivated due to US government budget cuts and the property given to the Antiguan Government.[23]

The Antiguan racer is among the rarest snakes in the world. The Lesser Antilles are home to four species of racers. All four have undergone severe range reductions; at least two subspecies are extinct and another, A. antiguae, now occupies only 0.1 percent of its historical range.[24]

Griswold's ameiva (Ameiva griswoldi) is a species of lizard in the genus Ameiva. It is endemic to Antigua and Barbuda. It is found on both islands.

Antigua's economy relies largely on tourism, and the island is promoted as a luxury Caribbean escape. Many hotels and resorts are located around the coastline. The island's single airport, VC Bird Airport, is served by several major airlines, including Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Caribbean Airlines, Air Canada, WestJet, and JetBlue. There is regular air service to Barbuda.

Antigua has two international primary/secondary schools: CCSET International, which offers the Ontario Secondary School Diploma, and Island Academy, which offers the International Baccalaureate. There are also many other private schools but these institutions tend to follow the same local curriculum (CXCs) as government schools.

The island of Antigua currently has two foreign-owned for-profit offshore medical schools, the American University of Antigua (AUA),[25] founded in 2004, and The University of Health Sciences Antigua (UHSA),[26] founded in 1982. The island's medical schools cater mostly to foreign students but contribute to the local economy and health care.

Antigua was one of the first nations to legalize, license, and regulate online gambling and is a primary location for incorporation of online gambling companies. Some countries, most notably the United States, argue that if a particular gambling transaction is initiated outside the country of Antigua then that transaction is governed by the laws of the country where the transaction was initiated. This argument was brought before WTO and was deemed incorrect.[27]

In 2006, the United States Congress voted to approve the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act which criminalized the operations of offshore gambling operators which take wagers from American-based gamblers. This was a prima facie violation of the GATS treaty obligations enforced by the WTO, resulting in a series of rulings unfavorable to the US.

On 21 December 2007, an Article 22 arbitration panel ruled that the United States' failure to comply with WTO rules would attract a US$21 million sanction.[28]

The WTO ruling was notable in two respects:

First, although technically a victory for Antigua, the $21 million was far less than the US$3.5 billion which had been sought; one of the three arbitrators was sufficiently bothered by the propriety of this that he issued a dissenting opinion.

Second, a rider to the arbitration ruling affirmed the right of Antigua to take retaliatory steps in view of the prior failure of the US to comply with GATS. These included the rare, but not unprecedented, right to disregard intellectual property obligations to the US.[29]

Antigua's obligations to the US in respect of patents, copyright, and trademarks are affected. In particular, Berne Convention copyright is in question, and also material not covered by the Berne convention, including TRIPS accord obligations to the US. Antigua may thus disregard the WIPO treaty on intellectual property rights, and therefore the US implementation of that treaty (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA)—at least up to the limit of compensation.[30]

Since there is no appeal to the WTO from an Arbitration panel of this kind, it represents the last legal word from the WTO on the matter. Antigua is therefore able to recoup some of the claimed loss of trade by hosting (and taxing) companies whose business model depends on immunity from TRIPS provisions.[31]

Software company SlySoft was based in Antigua, allowing it to avoid nations with laws that are tough on anti-circumvention of technological copyright measures, in particular the DMCA in the United States.[32]

Swiss American Bank Ltd., later renamed Global Bank of Commerce, Ltd, was formed in April 1983 and became the first Off-shore International Financial institution governed by the International Business Corporations, Act of 1982 licensed bank in Antigua.[33] The bank was later sued by the United States for failure to release forfeited funds from one of its account holders.[34] Swiss American Bank was founded by Bruce Rappaport.[35]

Stanford International Bank was formed by Allen Stanford in 1986 in Montserrat where it was called Guardian International Bank. On 17 February 2009, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Allen Stanford, Laura Pendergest-Holt and James Davis with fraud[36][37][38] in connection with the bank's US$8 billion certificate of deposit (CD) investment scheme that offered "improbable and unsubstantiated high interest rates".[39] This led the federal government to freeze the assets of the bank and other Stanford entities.[36][40] On 27 February 2009, Pendergest-Holt was arrested by federal agents in connection with the alleged fraud.[41] On that day, the SEC said that Stanford and his accomplices operated a "massive Ponzi scheme", misappropriated billions of investors' money and falsified the Stanford International Bank's records to hide their fraud. "Stanford International Bank's financial statements, including its investment income, are fictional," the SEC said.[37][42]

Antigua Overseas Bank (AOB) was part of the ABI Financial Group and was a licensed bank in Antigua. On 13 April 2012, AOB was placed into receivership by the government of Antigua.[43]

On 27 November 2018, Scotiabank, the leading commercial bank on the island, announced plans to sell its banking operations in Antigua and 9 other non-core Caribbean markets to Republic Financial Holdings Limited.[44]

• Antigua Nice (The Antigua Nice article was extracted by D.V. Nicholson's writings for the Antigua Historic Sites and Conservation Commission.)
• The Torture Museum Site
• The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson by Robert Southey
• The Catholic Encyclopedia
• Veranda Magazine, Island Flourish: West Indian Furnishings by Dana Micucci, March – April 2004
• A Brief History of the Caribbean from the Arawak and the Carib to the Present, by Jan Rogozinski, Penguin Putnam, Inc September 2000
• Article on Antiguan real estate.

• Jedidiah Morse (1797), "Antigua", The American Gazetteer, Boston, Massachusetts: At the presses of S. Hall, and Thomas & Andrews