Saint Kitts

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Saint Christopher
Country	Saint Kitts and Nevis
Archipelago	Leeward Islands
Region	Caribbean
Area	68 sq. mi. 168 km²
Coastline	- km
Highest elevation	Mt. Liamunga 3,796 ft. 1,156 m
Population  - Density	35,000 ppl. - 538.5 ppl./sq.mi. 208.3 ppl./km²

Saint Kitts (also/previously known as Saint Christopher) is an island in the Caribbean. Together with the island of Nevis it, constitutes the nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. The island is situated at 17°15′N 62°40′W, about 1,300 miles (2,100 km) southeast of Miami, Florida, in the United States. It has a land area of about 68 sq. miles (168 km²), being 18 by 5 miles (29 by 8 km).

It has a population of around 35,000, the majority of whom are of African descent. The main language is English, although there is also a lingering French presence, and the literacy rate is approximately 98%. Residents call themselves Kittitians.

St. Kitts is home to Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Warner Park Cricket Stadium, the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine [1], and the Windsor University School of Medicine. [2]

Contents 1 Parishes 2 Geography 3 Economy 4 History 4.1 African slavery 5 Gallery 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Parishes

Main article: Parishes of Saint Kitts and Nevis

There are nine parishes on the island of St. Kitts:

• Christ Church Nichola Town
• Saint Anne Sandy Point
• Saint George Basseterre
• Saint John Capisterre
• Saint Mary Cayon
• Saint Paul Capisterre
• Saint Peter Basseterre
• Saint Thomas Middle Island
• Trinity Palmetto Point

[edit] Geography

The capital of the two-island nation, and also its largest port, is the city of Basseterre on Saint Kitts. There is a modern facility for handling large cruise ships here. There is a ring road which goes around the perimeter of the island; the interior of the island is too steep for inhabitation.

St. Kitts is six miles (10 km) away from Saint Eustatius to the north and two miles (3 km) from Nevis to the south. St. Kitts has three distinct groups of volcanic peaks: the North West or Mount Misery Range; the Middle or Verchilds Range and the South East or Olivees Range. The highest peak is Mount Liamuiga, formerly Mount Misery, a dormant volcano some 3,792 feet (1,156 m) high.

[edit] Economy

Kittitians use the Eastern Caribbean dollar which maintains a fixed exchange rate of 2.70-to-one with the United States dollar. The US dollar is just as widely accepted as the Eastern Caribbean dollar.

For hundreds of years, St. Kitts operated as a sugar monoculture. But due to decreasing profitability, the government closed the industry in 2005. Tourism is a major and growing source of income to the island, although the number and density of resorts is less than on other Caribbean islands. Transportation, non-sugar agriculture, manufacturing and construction are the other growing sectors of the economy [3].

[edit] History

Main article: History of Saint Kitts and Nevis

During the last Ice Age, the sea level was 200 feet (60 m) lower and St. Kitts and Nevis were one island with Saint Eustatius (also known as Statia) and Saba.

St. Kitts was originally settled by pre-agricultural, pre-ceramic "Archaic people", who migrated down the archipelago from Florida. In a few hundred years they disappeared, to be replaced by the ceramic-using and agriculturalist Saladoid people around 100 BC, which migrated to St. Kitts up the archipelago from the banks of the Orinoco River in Venezuela. Around 800 AD, they were replaced by the Igneri people, members of the Arawak tribe.

Around 1300, the Kalinago, or Carib people arrived on the islands. These war-like people quickly dispersed the Igneri, and forced them northwards to the Greater Antilles. They named Saint Kitts "Liamuiga" meaning "fertile island", and would likely have expanded further north if not for the arrival of Europeans.

Early European contact with St. Kitts included the Spanish under Christopher Columbus, and a French Jesuit settlement at Dieppe in 1538. The first permanent settlement was an English colony in 1623, followed by a French colony in 1625. The British and French briefly united to massacre the local Kalinago (preempting a Kalinago plan to massacre the Europeans), and then partitioned the island, with the English in the middle and the French on either end.

The island alternated repeatedly between English and French control over the century, as one power took the whole island, only to have it switch hands due to treaties or further military action. Parts of the island were heavily fortified, as exemplified by UNESCO World Heritage Site at Brimstone Hill and the now-crumbling Fort Charles. The island became British for the final time in 1783.

[edit] African slavery

The island originally produced tobacco, but changed to sugar cane in 1640 due to stiff competition from the colony of Virginia. The labour-intensive farming of sugar cane was the reason for the large-scale importation of African slaves. The importation began almost immediately upon the arrival of Europeans to the region. According to one source:^{[citation needed]}

The transportation of enslaved Africans to the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis began soon after Europeans began to colonise islands. The first recorded presence of African slaves in Nevis can be found in the will of James Hewitt dated the 9th August 1649. He left half a plantation in Gingerland and another plantation in Indian Castle to his wife which also included three indentured servants and four nigroes. One of the slaves was also noted to be "out in rebellion", another way of describing a slave who was a runaway.

The purchasing of enslaved Africans was outlawed in the British Empire by an Act of Parliament in 1807. Slavery was abolished by an Act of Parliament became law on the 1st August 1834. This emancipation was followed by four years of apprenticeship, put in place to protect the plantation owners from losing their labour force. The 1st August is now celebrated as a public holiday and is called Emancipation Day. In 1883 St. Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla were all linked under one presidency, located on St. Kitts, to the dismay of the Nevisians and Anguillans. Anguilla eventually separated out of this arrangement in 1971, after an armed raid on St. Kitts.

Sugar production continued to dominate the local economy until 2005, when, after 365 years as a monoculture, the government closed the sugar industry. This was due to the industry's huge losses and European Union plans to cut sugar prices by large amounts in the near future.

• Lord Hercules George Robert Robinson was governor of Saint Christopher from 1855 to 1859.
• Robert Bradshaw was a major political figure in St. Kitts from 1932 to his death in 1978.
• Official Name: The Federation of St. Christopher and Nevis
• The History of St. Kitts Nevis: a Black Perspective

[edit] Gallery

The peninsula on the south-east tip of St. Kitts. The island on the left is Nevis.	Downtown Basseterre	Downtown Basseterre	Fishing boat, Basseterre harbor
Flamingo Tongue shell on a Sea Fan	Divers and anemone on the MV River Taw wreck	Juvenile French Angelfish near a sunken van	Diver and fish, MV River Taw wreck
Diver and sponges	Royal Gramma or Fairy Basslet

[edit] See also

• Culture of St. Kitts and Nevis

[edit] External links

• Saint Kitts Tourism Authority - Official Site
• Christmas Sports in Saint Kitts/Nevis