Christopher Columbus must have had a dream run through this part of the world in 1493. Antigua was yet another island he discovered that year, but the Arawaks were the original inhabitants, with current archeological finds showing these people to have been on the island from around 3000BC.
The Arawaks were generally a peace-loving people. Their lives were spent growing food, fishing and making pottery, but the most remarkable of their inventions was the hammock, and they would smoke tobacco while relaxing. In the 12 century, this idyllic lifestyle was interrupted by the Caribs, warriors and cannibals who also hailed from South America. The Caribs were happy to cook up the massacred Arawak males and keep the females for their own pleasure and to keep the art of pottery alive....nice people!!
Then came in distant Europe the desire to discover the ends of the world. In 1492, three ships of the small fleet (Pinta, Nina and Santa Maria) made landfall on an island in the Bahamas. Spanish colonisation was to set in train the extinction of the Arawaks. The thirst for gold drove the Spanish colonisation but their greed was counterproductive because by the 16 century the English, French and Dutch had established themselves in the smaller islands, in order to intercept the rich treasure fleets on their return voyages to Spain.
This is the origin of the romantic figures of the filibusters whose ships, lying in ambush, fell upon the Spanish. A 'Letter de Marque' from their King meant they were privateers and wore their national flags. The rest were pirates, who operated outside the law until they were captured and hanged. They were 'beyond faith and law' as their skull and crossbones emblem , the Jolly Roger, bore witness.
Depending on what alliances and wars that raged in Europe, the French and English fleets shared in the pillage. Spain was soon unable to ensure its monopoly and from the 17 century abandoned claims over the Lesser Antilles. The major targets of plunder, gold and treasure soon dried up. The filibusters also soon dried up, as did the Pirates. What followed was the Colonialism era.
Having decimated the Arawaks, the enormous quantity of labour that the sugar cane fields required, meant the English, French and Dutch turned to Africa's reservoir of humanity and the trade in slaves. This traffic which the Portuguese began as early as the 15 century, offered slave labour for the least cost, under the gaze of the church and authorities of the day. It is this massive transfer by slave ships of the African population that the ethnic population of almost all Antilean people stem.
What followed for two centuries between the French and the English was a monumental struggle for possession of the most fertile islands and over supremacy at sea. From the end of the 17 century until 1815, the struggle was continuous. The rivalry caused an incredible turnover of sovereignty of the islands, even the smallest of them. Although treaties were made with the fierce Ameridian Caribs at times, the real aim was conquest. In the end the Carib warriors faced inevitable defeat. The sole remnants today are a group the survived on the windward side of Dominica, that we visited in the highlands on our tour with Octavius.
In Antigua's case, following the Treaty of Breda in 1667, the British ruled the island. Three centuries of English presence have made the island a very British place. Thanks to its natural havens, the best known being English Harbour, Antigua became the stronghold of the English Leeward Isles Squadron. From 1784, Horatio Nelson and Admiral Rodney before him, could easily control the whole of the Antilles. Antigua was therefore one of the major British naval assets in the West Indies.
In the 17 century, the British colonists created sugar plantations, which required slaves from Africa and from that point on the island became ethnically divided. With the abolition of slavery in 1834, the land was divided into small landholdings and today most Antiguans own their own small plot. Antigua gained full independence in 1981. The sugar cane industry has collapsed due to international competition and now the fragile economy is turning to tourism for support.
Reference: Patuelli, J.(2013) Grenada to Virgin Islands: a cruising guide to the Lesser Antilles. pp2-3.