History of Guadeloupe
Encyclopedia
Pre-Columbian and Colonial Settlement
The earliest settlers on GuadeloupeGuadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
arrived around 300 BC and developed agriculture on the island. They were removed by the more warlike Caribs. It was the Caribs who called the island "Karukera," which is roughly translated as "island with beautiful waters."
They were also the tribe to meet all of the later settlers to the island. Archaeologists suggest that between 800 and 1000 AD drought, desertification and expansion of sand dunes on Guadeloupe led to a period with no active habitation based on the scarcity of remains from the period; this period coincides historically with the droughts and subsequent collapse of the Mayan civilizations in Mesoamerica. Gradual resettlement and recultivation of the land on Guadeloupe occurred between 1000 AD and the arrival of Columbus.
Columbus' second journey brought him to this island on November 14, 1493. He named it for an image in a Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
he had visited: Santa María de Guadalupe de Extremadura, an image of the Virgin Mary
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
venerated at Villuercas, in Guadalupe, Extremadura.
No settlements were established on the island for many years but it was used as a trading post until 1635 after Captain Pierre Belain d’Ensambuc had sent explorers to Guadeloupe and decided it would be lucrative to settle and cultivate tobacco on the island; thus his corporation, the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique
Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique
The Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique, French for Company of the American Islands, was a French chartered company that in 1635 took over the administration of the French portion Saint-Christophe island from Compagnie de Saint-Christophe which was the only French settlement in the Caribbean at that...
sent 550 men under the leadership of Charles Liénard de l’Olive to Guadeloupe on June 27, 1635 . De L’Olive waged brutal war against the Caribs in Guadeloupe from 1636 to 1639, throughout which only 30 to 40 French died. Then in 1640, reinforcements from St. Christophe of Frenchmen allowed for the colonists to completely crush Carib resistance except for some few who fled to Basse-Terre and would sign a peace treaty with the French colonists in 1641.
Early tobacco cultivation in Guadeloupe through the first half of the seventeenth century was sustained by relatively small numbers of indentured servants and European laborers under small scale proprietors, and in 1654 80% of the population of Guadeloupe was of European origin, with two-thirds being indentured servants. Both the numbers of Europeans and the proportion of indentured labor would drop dramatically over the second half of the seventeenth century with the importation of African slaves: in 1654 67% of the population was of European origin, by 1671 that number dropped to 13%.
From 1672 until 1678–allied with Britain until 1674–France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
was at war with the Dutch and faced enormous difficulty defending its colonies in the Caribbean; it was in this context of defense that Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
was royally annexed into the Kingdom of France in 1674. In 1714, the French general government of the American islands divided in two, and Guadeloupe was placed under the control of the governor on Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
.
Changes in Europe
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
, the British took control of the island and the main city Pointe-à-Pitre
Pointe-à-Pitre
Pointe-à-Pitre is the largest city of Guadeloupe, an overseas région and département of France located in the Lesser Antilles, of which it is a sous-préfecture, being the seat of the Arrondissement of Pointe-à-Pitre....
was established during these years. Proof of the island's importance came in 1763 when in the Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1763)
The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
the French traded their territory in Canada
Canada, New France
Canada was the name of the French colony that once stretched along the St. Lawrence River; the other colonies of New France were Acadia, Louisiana and Newfoundland. Canada, the most developed colony of New France, was divided into three districts, each with its own government: Quebec,...
to Britain in return for control of Guadeloupe. Many in Britain had wanted to annexe the island, as a reward for Britain's success in the war
Great Britain in the Seven Years War
The Kingdom of Great Britain was one of the major participants in the Seven Years' War which lasted between 1756 and 1763. Britain emerged from the war as the world's leading colonial power having gained a number of new territories at the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and established itself as the...
.
The French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
also caused political turmoil, and control of Guadeloupe changed hands a couple of times including 1789 and 1792. Slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
was abolished during this tumultuous time and within the year Britain had again occupied the island. Guadeloupe experienced the effects of the Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
from 1794 to 1798.
Meanwhile Louis Delgrès
Louis Delgrès
Louis Delgrès was a mulatto leader of the movement in Guadeloupe resisting reoccupation by Napoleonic France in 1802...
, a mulatto officer, led an uprising in 1802. He and 800 rebels chose to die rather than submit to the French army. Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
reinstated slavery when the French retook the island.
The British again held the island for three years beginning in 1810. It was ceded to Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
in 1813 after the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. However, the Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1814)
The Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 May 1814, ended the war between France and the Sixth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars, following an armistice signed on 23 May between Charles, Count of Artois, and the allies...
in 1814 left the island to France again, though the British and Swedish did not fully acknowledge the secession. French control of the island was recognized in the Treaty of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
in 1815.
Ending slavery
Like many CaribbeanCaribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
islands, Guadeloupe struggled with the end of slavery. In 1848, slavery was abolished completely. In place of the slaves, indentured servant
Indentured servant
Indentured servitude refers to the historical practice of contracting to work for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities during the term of indenture. Usually the father made the arrangements and signed...
s were imported from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The first indentured servants arrived in 1854.
A worldwide sugar slump began in 1870, hurting Guadeloupe's economy. Sugar was bolstered during the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Guadeloupe was of little international concern between this time. Just after the war, in 1923, it exported its first bananas.
Modern times
Though Guadeloupe has been relatively peaceful, political changes have not always been easy. A compulsory work program was instituted by the Vichy government under Governor Sorin between 1940 and 1943.In 1946, after another change of political power, Guadeloupe became an overseas Department of France. Other French Caribbean islands were added to this Department and in 1995 Guadeloupe became an observer in the Association of Caribbean States
Association of Caribbean States
The Association of Caribbean States was formed with the aim of promoting consultation, cooperation, and concerted action among all the countries of the Caribbean. It comprises twenty-five member states and four associate members...
.
In early 2009, Guadeloupe experienced widespread public unrest as part of the 2009 French Caribbean general strikes
2009 French Caribbean general strikes
The 2009 French Caribbean general strikes began in the French overseas region of Guadeloupe on 20 January 2009, and spread to neighbouring Martinique on 5 February 2009. Both islands are located in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean...
, with protests focusing on low wages, high costs of living and social inequality.