TheBritish Virgin Islands is aBritish Overseas Territory and are part of theVirgin Islands, a chain ofislands in theCaribbean. The islands comprise of the eastern half of the island chain. The British Virgin Islands has sixteen inhabited islands and more than twenty uninhabited islands. Over 22,000 people live there, which is fewer than the neighbouringUnited States Virgin Islands.
Thecapital city,Road Town, is onTortola, one of the islands in the group. Most of the people live on Tortola, but the other main inhabited islands include Anegada, Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke.
The islands were originally lived in by Caribbean Indians calledArawaks. By the time the first European explorers discovered the British Virgin Islands all of the Arawaks had left. The first Europeans to try and settle in the British Virgin Islands were the Dutch, but the English came soon after and the English and the Dutch settlers used to fight. The Spanish also claimed the islands, but no Spanish people ever tried to settle there. But the Spanish did attack the British and Dutch settlers.
In 1672 the British took control of the islands during a war against the Dutch and they have held on to them ever since.
During the early years after European settlement the British Virgin Islands was a plantation economy which relied heavily uponslave labour. After slavery was abolished in the British Virgin Islands there was a long period of decline and many people left. Those who remained were mostly descended from African slaves, although many of them also left to try and find better lives elsewhere.
In the 1950s the British Virgin Islands got its own government, and the economy of the islands began to get better with the introduction oftourism and financial services.
The British Virgin Islands are mostly self-governing, but some parts of the government is run by theUnited Kingdom.
A new constitution was introduced in 2007.[4] It grants more control over everyday life to the Islanders, and lists the protection a person can expect from the government. The head of Government in the British Virgin Islands is called the Premier, and he is in charge of a group of ministers of government which is called the Cabinet. Laws are passed by a group of elected politicians in the House of Assembly. Most of the international relations are still dealt with by the British Government in London on behalf of the people of the British Virgin Islands.
