The island'sperimeter is roughly 87 km (54 mi) and its area 281 km2 (108 sq mi). Itspopulation was 83,191 (at the 2011 Census).[5] The economy is mainly reliant on tourism, with the agricultural sector serving the domestic market.
More than 22,000 people live in the capital city,St. John's. The capital is situated in the north-west and has a deep harbour which is able to accommodate large cruise ships. Other leading population settlements areAll Saints (3,412) andLiberta (2,239), according to the 2001 census.
English Harbour on the south-eastern coast provides one of the largest deep water, protected harbors in the Eastern Caribbean. It is the site ofUNESCO World Heritage SiteNelson's Dockyard, a restored British colonial naval station named afterVice-AdmiralHoratio Nelson.[6][7] English Harbour and the neighbouring village ofFalmouth are yachting and sailing destinations and provisioning centres. DuringAntigua Sailing Week, at the end of April and beginning of May, an annual regatta brings a number of sailing vessels and sailors to the island to take part in sporting events. Every December for the past 60 years, Antigua has been home to one of the largest charter yacht shows, welcomingsuper-yachts from around the world.[8]
Antigua means "ancient" or "old" in Spanish. In 1493,Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain, named the islandSanta María de la Antigua [es]. Some sources say Columbus named the island after a church inSeville calledSanta María de la Antigua.[9][10][11] However, there is no church by that name in Seville. Columbus may have actually named the island in honor of theSanta María de la Antigua chapel inSeville Cathedral,[12][13] or more specifically in honor of theiconic muralVirgen de la Antigua (orSanta María de la Antigua) in Seville Cathedral.[14][15]
The nameWaladli[16] comes from the island's indigenous inhabitants and means approximately "our own".Wadadli is the Creole approximation of the original name.[17]
The Arawak were the first well-documented group of indigenous people to settle Antigua. They paddled to the island by canoe (piragua) from present-dayVenezuela, 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 grewcorn,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 toThe 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.[19] Watson points out that the Caribs had a much more warlike culture than the Arawak.[19]
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. According toA Brief History of the Caribbean, infectious diseases introduced from Europe, high rates of malnutrition and enslavement led to a rapid population decline among the Caribbean's native population. There are some differences of opinions as to the relative importance of these causes.[20]
Aerial view ofJolly Harbour on the western coast of Antigua
Christopher Columbus named the island "Antigua" in 1493 in honour of the "Virgin of the Old Cathedral"[21] (Spanish:La Virgen de la Antigua) found inSeville Cathedral in southern Spain. On his 1493 voyage, honouring a vow, he named many islands after different aspects ofSt. Mary, includingMontserrat andGuadeloupe.
In 1632, a group of English colonists leftSt Kitts to settle on Antigua.Christopher Codrington, an Englishman, established the first permanent English settlement on the island.[18] Antigua rapidly developed as a profitable sugar colony. For a large portion of Antigua's 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. LordHoratio Nelson, a major figure in Antigua's history, arrived in the late 18th century to defend the island's commercial shipping prowess.
Slaves planting and tilling, 1823Slaves working in the boiling house, 1823Slaves loading barrels into a boat, 1823
Sugar became Antigua's main crop in about 1674, whenChristopher Codrington (c. 1640–1698) settled atBetty'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.[citation needed] This resulted in their importingslaves to work thesugar cane crops.[18]
According toA 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, the West African slave population in the Caribbean also had a high mortality rate, which was offset by regular imports of very high numbers of new slaves from West and Central Africa.[22]
Sugar cane was one of the most gruelling 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.[23] Sugar mills andboiling 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.[23] 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.[23]
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 white population, in contrast, had fallen from 5,000 to below 3,000.[24] The slaves lived in wretched and overcrowded conditions and could be mistreated or even killed by their owners with impunity. TheSlave Act of 1723 made arbitrary murder of slaves a crime, but did not do much to ease their lives.[25]
Unrest against enslavement among the island's enslaved population became increasingly common. In 1729, a man named Hercules washanged, drawn and quartered and three others were burnt alive, for conspiring to kill the slave owner Nathaniel Crump and his family. In 1736, an enslaved man called "Prince Klaas" (whoseslave name was Court) allegedly planned to incite aslave rebellion on the island. Court was crowned "King of theCoromantees" 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 colonists. From information obtained from other slaves, the colonists discovered the plot and implemented a brutal crackdown on suspected rebels. Prince Klaas and four accomplices were caught and executed on thebreaking wheel. (However, some doubts exist about Court's guilt.)[26][22] Six of the rebels were hanged in chains and starved to death, and another 58 wereburnt at the stake. The site of these executions is now the Antiguan Recreation Ground.[27][22]
TheAmerican War of Independence in the late 18th century disrupted the Caribbean sugar trade. At the same time, public opinion inGreat Britain gradually turned against slavery.[28] "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."[29][a][b][c] Great Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, and all existing slaves wereemancipated in 1834.[18]
Horatio Nelson (who was created 1st Viscount Nelson in 1801) was Senior Naval Officer of the Leeward Islands from 1784 to 1787 onHMS Boreas. During his tenure, he tried to enforce theNavigation Acts. These acts prohibited trade with the newly formed United States of America. Most of the merchants in Antigua depended upontrading with the USA, 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:[30]
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.[30]
Nelson said: "The Antiguan Colonists are as great rebels as ever were in America, had they the power to show it."[30]
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 ofNevis, 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 theUlotrichian 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.[31]
In 1967, withBarbuda and the tiny island ofRedonda, Antigua became an associated state of the Commonwealth, and in November 1981 it was disassociated from Britain.[18][dead link][32]
Commissioned, 9 August 1956, the Naval Facility (NAVFAC) Antigua was one of the shore terminal stations that were part of theSound Surveillance System (SOSUS) and the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS), which were used to track Soviet submarines. NAVFAC Antigua was decommissioned 4 February 1984.[33]
From 1958 through 1960 the United States installed theMissile Impact Location System (MILS) in the Atlantic Missile Range, later theEastern Range, to localize the splashdowns 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) downrange. The island was the second downrange MILS installation with the furthest being 4,400 nmi (5,100 mi; 8,100 km) downrange atAscension Island.[34][35]
Until 7 July 2015, theUnited 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.[36]
Located in theLeeward Islands, Antigua has an area of 281 km2 (108 sq mi) with 87 km (54 mi) of coastline. The island is reputed to possess 365 beaches, one for every day of the year.[37][38][39] The highest elevation on the island is 402 m (1,319 ft).
Various natural points, capes, and beaches around the island include: Boon Point, Beggars Point, Parham, Willikies, Hudson Point, English Harbour Town, Old Road Cape, Johnson's Point, Ffryes Point, Jennings, Five Islands, and Yepton Beach, and Runaway Beach.
Several natural harbours are formed by these points and capes, including: Fitches Creek Bay, between Beggars Point and Parham; Nonsuch Bay between Hudson Point and Willikies; Willoughby Bay, between Hudson Point and English Harbour Town; English Harbour leading into English Harbour Town; Falmouth Harbour recessing into Falmouth; Rendezvous Bay between Falmouth and Old Road Cape; Five Islands Harbour, between Jennings and Five Islands; and Green Bay, the main harbour at St. John's, between Yepton Beach and Runaway Beach.
TheAntiguan 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,Alsophis antiguae, now occupies only 0.1 per cent of its historical range.[40]
Griswold's ameiva (Ameiva griswoldi) is a species of lizard in the genusAmeiva. It is endemic to Antigua andBarbuda. It is found on both islands.
The country's official currency is theEast Caribbean dollar. Given the dominance of tourism, many prices in tourist-oriented businesses are shown in US dollars. The EC dollar is pegged to the US dollar at a varied rate and averages about US$1 = EC$2.7.
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.
Antigua was one of the first nations to legalize, license, and regulate online gambling and is a primary location for incorporation ofonline gambling companies. In 2003, Antigua and Barbuda initiated aWTO dispute settlement process with the United States, arguing that although some forms of Internet gambling, such asbetting on horse races, are legal in the United States, theWire Act, theTravel Act and theIllegal Gambling Business Act criminalize all cross-border gambling, constituting a discriminatory measure prohibited under theGATS.[43] In 2004, a panel of the WTODispute Settlement Body found that the United States failed toaccord services and service suppliers of Antigua treatment no less favorable thanthat accorded to its own services and service suppliers.[44]
In 2006, the United States Congress voted to approve theUnlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act which criminalized the operations of offshore gambling operators which take wagers from American-based gamblers. This was aprima facie violation of theGATS treaty obligations enforced by the WTO, resulting in a series of rulings unfavourable 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.[45]
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 adissenting 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.[46]
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, includingTRIPS accord obligations to the US. Antigua may thus disregard theWIPO treaty on intellectual property rights, and therefore the US implementation of that treaty (theDigital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA)—at least up to the limit of compensation.[47]
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.[48]
Software companySlySoft 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.[49]
On 3 June 2024, US Ambassador to Antigua and Barbuda Roger Nyhus stated that the US might offer Antigua and Barbuda concessions to resolve the longstanding dispute over the $21 million compensatory amount.[50]
Swiss American Bank Ltd, later renamedGlobal Bank of Commerce, Ltd, was formed in April 1983 and became the first offshore international financial institution governed by the International Business Corporations, Act of 1982 to become a licensed bank in Antigua.[51] The bank was later sued by the United States for failure to release forfeited funds from one of its account holders.[52] Swiss American Bank was founded byBruce Rappaport.[53]
Established in June 1994 as the East European International Bank, the European Union Bank (EUB) (Russian:Банк Европейского Союза (БЕС)), which was Antigua's first internet bank and was associated withAlex Konanykhin, who had business interests with numerous seniorKGB officials,[d] was shut down in 1996 by Antiguan authorities because the bank had failed to file its 1994 audit and was placed in receivership on 8 August 1997 with two Russians listed as bank directors, Vitali Papsuev (Russian:Виталий Папсуев)[e] and Sergei Ushakov (Russian:Сергей Ушаков).[56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][f][g]
Stanford International Bank was formed byAllen Stanford in 1986 inMontserrat where it was called Guardian International Bank. On 17 February 2009, theU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Allen Stanford,Laura Pendergest-Holt and James Davis with fraud[66][67][68] in connection with the bank's US$8 billioncertificate of deposit (CD) investment scheme that offered "improbable and unsubstantiated high interest rates".[69] This led the federal government to freeze the assets of the bank and other Stanford entities.[66][70] On 27 February 2009, Pendergest-Holt was arrested by federal agents in connection with the alleged fraud.[71] On that day, theSEC said that Stanford and his accomplices operated a "massivePonzi 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.[67][72]
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.[73]
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.[74]
Being surrounded by water, sailing is one of the most popular sports with Antigua Sailing Week and Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta being two of the region's most reputable sailing competitions. Hundreds of yachts from around the world compete around Antigua each year. Sport fishing is also a very popular sport with several big competitions held yearly. Windsurfing was very popular until kite-surfing came to the island. Kitesurfing or kite-boarding is very popular at Jabbawock Beach.
Mary Prince, abolitionist and autobiographer, who wroteThe History of Mary Prince (1831), the first account of the life of a Black woman to be published in the United Kingdom.[91]
Viv Richards, West Indian cricket legend; the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua was named in his honour[92]
Andy Roberts, the first Antiguan to play Test cricket for the West Indies. He was a member of the West Indies teams that won the 1975 and 1979 World Cups.[94]
^Alex Konanykhin has business interests with numerous seniorKGB officials includingLeonid Shebarshin andNikolai Leonov through the 1991 established think tank Russian National Economic Security Service (Russian:Российской национальной службы экономической безопасности) at which Shebarshin and Leonov were president and vice president, respectively.[54][55][56]
^Vitali Papsuev (Russian:Виталий Папсуев) allegedly had property in theBronx.
^Evgeniy Plyusnin (Russian:Евгений Плюснин), in August 2004, as a former employee of the FSB Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, became the head of theGazprombank personnel department.[57]
^abWatson, Jack Brierley (1979).The West Indian Heritage: A history of the West Indies. London: Murray. pp. 9–10.ISBN978-0-7195-3541-3. See alsoThe Catholic Encyclopedia entries for "Arawaks" and "Caribs".
^Morrissey, Marietta,Slave Women in the New World: Gender Stratification in the Caribbean. Lawrence, Kans.: University Press of Kansas, 1989 (ISBN0-7006-0394-8), p. 85 and see p. 99 (author assoc. prof. sociology, University of Toledo).
^Benjamin, Juliet (9 January 2010)."Rappaport dies".Antigua Observer Newspaper. Archived fromthe original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved30 December 2013.
^abДавыдова, Милана (Davydova, Milana); Романова, Людмила (Romanova, Lyudmila) (19 February 2003)."Зачистка "Газпрома"" [Cleaning up Gazprom].www.gzt.ru (in Russian). Archived fromthe original on 19 February 2003. Retrieved3 November 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Alt URL
24Claimed in 1908; territory formed 1962; overlaps portions of Argentine and Chilean claims, borders not enforced but claim not renounced under theAntarctic Treaty.
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