Saint Lucia was inhabited by theArawak andKalinago Caribs before European contact in the early 16th century. It was colonized by the British and French in the 17th century and was the subject of several possession changes until 1814, when it was ceded to the British by France for the final time. In 1958, St. Lucia joined the short-lived semi-autonomousWest Indies Federation. Saint Lucia was an associated state of the United Kingdom from 1967 to 1979 and then gained full independence on February 22, 1979.

Saint Lucia was first inhabited sometime between 1000 and 500BC by theCiboney, but there is not much evidence of their presence on the island. The first proven inhabitants were the peacefulArawaks, believed to have come from northernSouth America around 200-400AD, as there are numerousarchaeological sites on the island where specimens of the Arawaks' well-developedpottery have been found. There is evidence to suggest that these first inhabitants called the islandIouanalao, which meant 'Land of the Iguanas', due to the island's high number ofiguanas.^[1]

The more aggressiveCaribs arrived around 800 AD, and seized control from the Arawaks by killing their men and assimilating the women into their own society.^[1] They called the islandHewanarau, and laterHewanorra (Ioüanalao, or "there where iguanas are found").^[2] This is the origin of the name of theHewanorra International Airport inVieux Fort. The Caribs had a complex society, with hereditary kings andshamans. Their war canoes could hold more than 100 men and were fast enough to catch a sailing ship. They were later feared by the invadingEuropeans for their ferocity in battle.

Christopher Columbus may have sighted the island during hisfourth voyage in 1502, since he made landfall on Martinique, yet he does not mention the island in his log.Juan de la Cosa noted the island on his map of 1500, calling itEl Falcon, and another island to the southLas Agujas. A SpanishCedula from 1511 mentions the island within the Spanish domain, and aglobe in theVatican made in 1502, shows the island asSanta Lucia. A 1529 Spanish map showsS. Luzia.^{[1][2]: 13–14}

In the late 1550s the FrenchpirateFrançois le Clerc (known asJambe de Bois, due to his wooden leg) set up a camp onPigeon Island, from where he attacked passing Spanish ships.^[1][2]: 21

In 1605, an English vessel called theOliphe Blossome was blown off-course on its way toGuyana, and the 67 colonists started a settlement on Saint Lucia, after initially being welcomed by the Carib chief Anthonie. By 26 Sept. 1605, only 19 survived, after continued attacks by the Carib chief Augraumart, so they fled the island.^{[2]: 16–21} In 1626, theCompagnie de Saint-Christophe was chartered byCardinal Richelieu, chief minister ofLouis XIII, to colonise theLesser Antilles, between the eleventh and eighteenth parallels.^[3][4][5] The following year, a royal patent was issued toJames Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle byCharles I of England granting rights over the Caribbean islands situated between 10° and 20° north latitude, creating a competing claim.^[6] In 1635, the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe was reorganized under a new patent for theCompagnie des Îles de l'Amérique, which gave the company all the properties and administration of the former company and the rights to continue colonizing neighboring vacant islands.^[7]

English documents claim colonists from Bermuda settled the island in 1635, while a French letter of patent claims settlement on 8 March 1635 by aPierre Belain d'Esnambuc, who was succeeded by his nephew,Jacques Dyel du Parquet.Thomas Warner sent Capt. Judlee with 300-400 Englishmen to establish a settlement at Praslin Bay but they were attacked over three weeks by Caribs, until the few remaining colonists fled on 12 October 1640.^{[2]: 22–27} In 1642, Louis XIII extended the charter of the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique for twenty years.^[8] The following year, du Parquet, who had become Governor of Martinique, noted that the British had abandoned Saint Lucia and he began making plans for a settlement.^[9][10][11] In June 1650, he sentLouis de Kerengoan, Sieur de Rousselan and 40 Frenchmen to establish a fort at the mouth of the Rivière du Carenage, near present dayCastries.^[9] As the Compagnie was facing bankruptcy, du Parquet sailed to France in September 1650 and purchased the soleproprietorship forGrenada, theGrenadines, Martinique and Sainte-Lucie for ₣41,500.^[12] The French drove off an attempted English invasion in 1659, but allowed the Dutch to build a redoubt near Vieux Fort Bay in 1654. On 6 April 1663, the Caribs sold St. Lucia toFrancis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham, English governor of the Caribbean. He invaded the island with 1100 Englishmen and 600 Amerindians in 5 ships-of-war and 17pirogues forcing the 14 French defenders to flee.However, the English colony succumbed to disease. The French took over again, but the English came back in June 1664 and retained possession until 20 Oct. 1665 when diplomacy gave the island back to the French. The English invaded again in 1665, but disease, famine and the Caribs forced their fleeing in Jan. 1666. TheTreaty of Breda (1667) gave control of the island back to the French. The English raided the island in 1686, but relinquished all claims in a 1687 treaty and the 1697Treaty of Ryswick.^{[2]: 22–27 [13]}

Both the British, with their headquarters inBarbados, and the French, centered onMartinique, found Saint Lucia attractive after the slave-basedsugar industry developed in 1763, and during the 18th century the island changed ownership or was declared neutral territory a dozen times, although the French settlements remained and the island was a de facto a French colony well into the 18th century.

In 1722, theGeorge I of Great Britain granted both Saint Lucia andSaint Vincent toJohn Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu. He in turn appointedNathaniel Uring, a merchant sea captain and adventurer, as deputy-governor. Uring went to the islands with a group of seven ships, and established settlement at Petit Carenage. Unable to get enough support from British warships, he and the new colonists were quickly run off by the French.^[14]

The 1730 census showed 463 occupants of the island, which included just 125 whites, 37 Caribs, 175 slaves, and 126 free blacks or mixed race. The French took control of the island in 1744, and by 1745, the island had a population of 3455, including 2573 slaves.^{[2]: 31, 36}

During theSeven Years' War Britain occupied Saint Lucia in 1762, but gave the island back at theTreaty of Paris on 10 February 1763. Britain occupied the island again in 1778 after theGrand Battle of Cul de Sac during theAmerican Revolutionary War. British AdmiralGeorge Rodney then builtFort Rodney from 1779 to 1782.^{[2]: 36, 47–50}

By 1779, the island's population had increased to 19,230, which included 16,003 slaves working 44 sugar plantations. Yet, theGreat Hurricane of 1780 killed about 800. By the time the island was restored to French rule in 1784, as a consequence of thePeace of Paris (1783), 300 plantations had been abandoned and some thousandmaroons lived in the interior.^{[2]: 40, 49–50}

In Jan. 1791, during theFrench Revolution, theNational Assembly sent fourCommissaries to St. Lucia to spread the revolution philosophy. By August, slaves began to abandon their estates and Governor de Gimat fled. In Dec. 1792, Lt.Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse arrived with revolutionary pamphlets, and the poor whites and free people of color began to arm themselves aspatriots. On 1 Feb. 1793, France declared war on England and Holland, and GeneralNicolas Xavier de Ricard took over as Governor. TheNational Convention abolished enslavement on 4 Feb. 1794, but St. Lucia fell to a British invasion led by Vice AdmiralJohn Jervis on 1 April 1794.Morne Fortune becameFort Charlotte. Soon, a patriot army of resistance,L'Armee Francaise dans les Bois, began to fight back. Thus started theFirst Brigand War.^{[2]: 60–65}

A short time later, the British invaded in response to the concerns of the wealthy plantation owners, who wanted to keep sugar production going. On 21 February 1795, a group of rebels, led byVictor Hugues, defeated a battalion of British troops. For the next four months, a group of recently freed slaves known as the Brigands forced out not only the British army, but every white slave-owner from the island (coloured slave owners were left alone, as inHaiti). The English were eventually defeated on June 19, and fled from the island. The Royalist planters fled with them, leaving the remaining Saint Lucians to enjoy “l’Année de la Liberté”, “a year of freedom from slavery…”. Gaspard Goyrand, a Frenchman who was Saint Lucia's Commissary later became Governor of Saint Lucia, and proclaimed the abolition of slavery. Goyrand brought the aristocratic planters to trial. Several lost their heads on the guillotine, which had been brought to Saint Lucia with the troops. He then proceeded to re-organize the island.^[15]

The British continued to harbor hopes of recapturing the island and in April 1796 Sir Ralph Abercrombie and his troops attempted to do so.Castries was burned as part of the conflict, and after approximately one month of bitter fighting the French surrendered at Morne Fortune on 25 May. General Moore was elevated to the position of Governor of Saint Lucia by Abercrombie and was left with 5,000 troops to complete the task of subduing the entire island.^[15]

British Brig. Gen.John Moore was appointed Military Governor on 25 May 1796, and engaged in theSecond Brigand War. SomeBrigands began to surrender in 1797, when promised they would not be returned to slavery. Final freedom and the end to hostilities came withEmancipation in 1838.^{[2]: 74–86 [16]}

The 1802Treaty of Amiens restored the island to French control, andNapoleon Bonaparte reinstated slavery. The British regained the island in June 1803, when CommodoreSamuel Hood defeated French Governor Brig. Gen.Antoine Noguès. The island was officially ceded to Britain in 1814.^[2]: 113

Also in 1838, Saint Lucia was incorporated into the BritishWindward Islands administration, headquartered in Barbados. This lasted until 1885, when the capital was moved toGrenada.

Increasing self-government has marked St Lucia's 20th-century history. A 1924 constitution gave the island its first form of representative government, with a minority of elected members in the previously all-nominated legislative council.

During theBattle of the Caribbean, a GermanU-boat attacked and sank two British ships inCastries harbour on 9 March 1942.^{[2]: 275 [17]}

Universal adultsuffrage was introduced in 1951, and elected members became a majority of the council. Ministerial government was introduced in 1956, and in 1958 St. Lucia joined the short-livedWest Indies Federation, a semi-autonomous dependency of the United Kingdom. When the federation collapsed in 1962, followingJamaica's withdrawal, a smaller federation was briefly attempted. After the second failure, the United Kingdom and the six windward and leeward islands—Grenada,St. Vincent,Dominica,Antigua,St. Kitts and Nevis andAnguilla, and St. Lucia—developed a novel form of cooperation called associated statehood.

By 1957, bananas exceed sugar as the major export crop.^[2]: 303

As an associated state of the United Kingdom from 1967 to 1979, St. Lucia had full responsibility for internal self-government but left its external affairs and defence responsibilities to the United Kingdom. This interim arrangement ended on 22 February 1979, when St. Lucia achieved complete independence. St. Lucia is aconstitutional monarchy withKing Charles III asKing of St. Lucia and is an active member of theCommonwealth of Nations. The island continues to cooperate with its neighbours through the Caribbean community and common market (CARICOM), the East Caribbean Common Market (ECCM), and theOrganisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).

In June 2016, theUnited Workers Party (UWP), led byAllen Michael Chastanet, won 11 of the 17 seats in thegeneral election, ousting theSt Lucia Labour Party (SLP) of the incumbent Prime MinisterKenny Anthony.^[18] However, Saint Lucia Labour Party won the nextelection in July 2021, meaning its leaderPhilip J Pierre became the ninth Prime Minister of Saint Lucia since the independence.^[19]

• British colonization of the Americas
• French colonization of the Americas
• History of the Americas
• History of the British West Indies
• History of North America
• History of the Caribbean
• List of colonial governors of Saint Lucia
• List of prime ministers of Saint Lucia
• Politics of Saint Lucia
• Spanish colonization of the Americas

• Crouse, Nellis M. (1940).French Pioneers in the West Indies 1624-1664. New York, New York:Columbia University Press.ISBN 978-0-374-91937-5.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Higgins, Chris (2001).St. Lucia. Montreal: Ulysses Travel Guides.ISBN 2-89464-396-9.
• Honychurch, Lennox (1995).The Dominica Story: A History of the Island (3rd ed.). London:Macmillan Publishers.ISBN 0-333-62776-8.
• Philpott, Don (1999).St Lucia. Derbyshire: Landmark Publishing Ltd.ISBN 1-901522-28-8.
• Roulet, Éric (2014)."«Mousquets, piques et canons…». La défense des Antilles françaises au temps de la Compagnie des îles (1626–1648) ['Muskets, Pikes and Cannons…': The Defense of the French Antilles in the Days of the Compagnie des Îles (1626–1648)]". In Plouviez, David (ed.).Défense et colonies dans le mode atlantique: XVe-XXe siècle [The Atlantic Style of Defense and Colonies: XV-XX Centuries] (in French). Rennes, France:Presses Universitaires de Rennes. pp. 201–217.ISBN 978-2-7535-6422-0.
• Servant, Georges (1914).Les compagnies de Saint-Christophe et des îles de l'Amérique (1626-1653) [The Companies of Saint-Christophe and the Islands of America (1626–1653)] (in French). Paris: Édouard Champion for the Société de l’Histoire des Colonies françaises.OCLC 461616576.
• "History of Saint Lucia". Archived fromthe original on August 2, 2005. RetrievedSeptember 23, 2005.

• Jedidiah Morse (1797)."St. Lucia".The American Gazetteer. Boston, Massachusetts: At the presses of S. Hall, and Thomas & Andrews.OL 23272543M.
• Website for the Permanent Mission of St. Lucia to the United Nations:History of Saint Lucia

• History of Saint Lucia

• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
• Articles incorporating Cite DNB template
• Articles incorporating DNB text with Wikisource reference
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from September 2019
• CS1 errors: ISBN date