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Grenada

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Jacques Dyel du Parquet

The French named their new colony La Grenade, and the economy was initially based on sugar cane and indigo, worked by African slaves. The French established a capital known as Fort Royal (later St. George’s). To shelter from hurricanes the French navy would often take refuge in the capital’s natural harbor, as no nearby French islands had a natural harbor to compare with that of Fort Royal. The British captured Grenada during the Seven Years’ War in 1762.

British Colonial Period:

Grenada was formally ceded to Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The French re-captured the island during the American Revolutionary War, after Comte d’Estaing won the bloody land and naval Battle of Grenada in July 1779. However the island was restored to Britain with the Treaty of Versailles in 1783. A decade later dissatisfaction with British rule led to a pro-French revolt in 1795–96 led by Julien Fédon, which was successfully defeated by the British.

As Grenada’s economy grew, more and more African slaves were forcibly transported to the island. Britain eventually outlawed the slave trade within the British Empire in 1807, and slavery was outlawed completely in 1834. In an effort to ameliorate the subsequent labor shortage, migrants from India were brought to Grenada in 1857.

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The Island of Grenada and Port Saint-Georges in 1776

Nutmeg was introduced to Grenada in 1843 when a merchant ship called in on its way to England from the East Indies. The ship had a small quantity of nutmeg trees on board which they left in Grenada, and this was the beginning of Grenada’s nutmeg industry that now supplies nearly 40% of the world’s annual crop.

In 1877 Grenada was made a Crown colony. Theophilus A. Marryshow founded the Representative Government Association (RGA) in 1917 to agitate for a new and participative constitutional dispensation for the Grenadian people. Partly as a result of Marryshow’s lobbying, the Wood Commission of 1921–22 concluded that Grenada was ready for constitutional reform in the form of a modified Crown colony government. This modification granted Grenadians the right to elect five of the 15 members of the Legislative Council, on a restricted property franchise enabling the wealthiest 4% of adult Grenadians to vote. Marryshow was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1943.

In 1950 Eric Gairy founded the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP), initially as a trade union, which led the 1951 general strike for better working conditions. This sparked great unrest—so many buildings were set ablaze that the disturbances became known as the “red sky” days—and the British authorities decided to call in military reinforcements to help regain control of the situation. On 10 October 1951, Grenada held its first general elections on the basis of universal adult suffrage, with Gairy’s party winning six of the eight seats contested.

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Eric Gairy

From 1958 to 1962 Grenada was part of the Federation of the West Indies. After the federation’s collapse Grenada was granted full autonomy over its internal affairs as an Associated State on 3 March 1967. Herbert Blaize of the Grenada National Party (GNP) was the first Premier of the Associated State of Grenada from March to August 1967. Eric Gairy served as Premier from August 1967 until February 1974.

Post-Independence Era:

Independence was granted on 7 February 1974, under the leadership of Eric Gairy, who became the first Prime Minister of Grenada. Grenada opted to remain within the British Commonwealth, retaining Queen Elizabeth as Monarch, represented locally by a Governor-General. Civil conflict gradually broke out between Eric Gairy’s government and some opposition parties, including the Marxist New Jewel Movement (NJM). Gairy and the GULP won the 1976 Grenadian general election, albeit with an reduced majority; however the opposition deemed the results invalid due to fraud and the violent intimidation performed by the so-called ‘Mongoose Gang’, a private militia loyal to Gairy.

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