![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Antigua-and-Barbuda-on-the-Globe-300x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n
The island of Antigua was explored by Christopher Columbus<\/a> in 1493 and named for the Church of Santa Mar\u00eda La Antigua<\/a>. Antigua was colonized by Britain<\/a> in 1632; Barbuda island was first colonized in 1678. Antigua and Barbuda joined the West Indies Federation<\/a> in 1958. With the breakup of the federation, it became one of the West Indies Associated States<\/a> in 1967. Followed by self-governing on its internal affairs, independence was granted from United Kingdom on 1 November 1981.<\/p>\n Antigua and Barbuda remains a member of the Commonwealth<\/a> and Elizabeth II<\/a> is the country’s queen and head of state.<\/p>\n Antigua is Spanish for “ancient” and barbuda is Spanish for “bearded”. The island of Antigua was originally called Wadadli by Arawaks and is locally known by that name today; Caribs<\/a> possibly called it Wa’omoni. Christopher Columbus, while sailing by in 1493 may have named it Santa Maria la Antigua, after an icon in the Spanish Seville Cathedral<\/a>.<\/p>\n Antigua was first settled by pre-agricultural Amerindians known as “Archaic People” (although they are commonly, but erroneously known in Antigua as Siboney<\/a>, a pre-ceramic Cuban people). The earliest settlements on the island date to 2900 BC. They were succeeded by ceramic-using agriculturalist Saladoid<\/a> people who migrated up the island chain from Venezuela. They were later replaced by Arawakan speakers<\/a> around 1200 AD and around 1500 by Island Caribs.<\/p>\n The Arawaks were the first well-documented group of Antiguans. They paddled to the island by canoe (piragua) from Venezuela<\/a>, and were ejected by the Caribs\u2014another people indigenous to the area.<\/p>\n Arawaks introduced agriculture to Antigua and Barbuda, raising, among other crops, the famous Antiguan “black” pineapple<\/a>. They also cultivated various other foods including:<\/p>\n Some of the vegetables listed, such as corn and sweet potatoes, still play an important role in Antiguan cuisine.<\/p>\n For example, a popular Antiguan dish, ducuna<\/a>, is a sweet, steamed dumpling made from grated sweet potatoes, flour and spices. In addition, one of the Antiguan staple foods, fungee<\/a>, is a cooked paste made of cornmeal and water.<\/p>\n The bulk of the Arawaks left Antigua about 1100 AD. Those who remained were subsequently raided by the Caribs. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia<\/a>, the Caribs’ superior weapons and seafaring prowess allowed them to defeat most Arawak nations in the West Indies\u2014enslaving some and cannibalizing others.<\/p>\n The Catholic Encyclopedia does make it clear that the Spanish explorers had some difficulty identifying and differentiating between the various native peoples they encountered. As a result, the number and types of ethnic-tribal-national groups in existence at the time may be much more varied and numerous than the two mentioned.<\/p>\n According to A Brief History of the Caribbean<\/a> (Jan Rogozinski<\/a>, Penguin Putnam, Inc<\/a>. September 2000), European and African diseases, malnutrition and slavery eventually destroyed the vast majority of the Caribbean’s native population. No researcher has conclusively proven any of these causes as the real reason for the destruction of West Indian natives. Some historians believe that the psychological stress of slavery may also have played a part in the massive number of native deaths while in servitude. Others believe that the reportedly abundant, but starchy, low-protein diet may have contributed to severe malnutrition of the “Indians” who were used to a diet fortified with protein from sea-life.<\/p>\n The Indigenous West Indians made sea vessels that they used to sail the Atlantic and Caribbean. As a result, Caribs and Arawaks populated much of South American and the Caribbean Islands. Relatives of the Antiguan Arawaks and Caribs still live in various countries in South America, notably Brazil<\/a>, Venezuela and Colombia<\/a>. The smaller remaining native populations in the West Indies maintain a pride in their heritage.<\/p>\n Christopher Columbus sighted islands in 1493 during his second voyage naming the larger one Santa Maria de la Antigua. However, early attempts by Europeans to settle the islands failed due to the Caribs’ excellent defenses. England succeeded in colonizing the islands in 1632, with Thomas Warner<\/a> as the first governor. Settlers raised tobacco, indigo<\/a>, ginger<\/a> and sugarcane<\/a> as cash crops. Sir Christopher Codrington<\/a> established the first large sugar estate in Antigua in 1674, and leased Barbuda<\/a> to raise provisions for his plantations. Barbuda’s only town<\/a> is named after him. In the fifty years after Codrington established his initial plantation, the sugar industry became so profitable that many farmers replaced other crops with sugar, making it the economic backbone of the islands.<\/p>\n Slavery was common in Barbuda in the 1700s and until 1834. The island was a source of slaves for other locations, too. No new slaves had arrived on the island since the mid-1700s but their population grew naturally. An estimate in 1977 by Lowenthal and Clark indicated that during 1779 to 1834 the number of slaves exported totaled 172; most were taken to Antigua but 37 went to the Leeward and Windward islands<\/a> and some to the southern US. Several slave rebellions took place on the island, with the most serious in 1834-5. Britain emancipated slaves in most of its colonies in 1834, but that did not include Barbuda, so the island then freed its own slaves. For some years thereafter, the freed slaves had little opportunity of survival on their own because of limited agricultural land and the lack of available credit to buy some. Hence, they continued to work on the plantations for nominal wages or lived in shantytowns and worked as occasional laborers. Sugar cane production remained the primary economy for over a century.<\/p>\n During the 18th century, Antigua was used as the headquarters of the British Royal Navy<\/a> Caribbean fleet. English Harbour Dockyard<\/a>, as it came to be called, a sheltered and well-protected deep-water port, was the main base and facilities there were greatly expanded during the later 18th century. Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson<\/a> commanded the British fleet for much of this time, and made himself unpopular with local merchants by enforcing the Navigation Act<\/a>, a British ruling that only British-registered ships could trade with British colonies. As the United States were no longer British colonies, the act posed a problem for merchants, who depended on trade with the fledgling country.<\/p>\n Poor labor conditions persisted until 1939 when a member of a royal commission urged the formation of a trade union movement.<\/p>\n The Antigua Trades and Labour Union<\/a>, formed shortly afterward, became the political vehicle for Vere Cornwall Bird<\/a> who became the union’s president in 1943. The Antigua Labour Party (ALP)<\/a>, formed by Bird and other trade unionists, first ran candidates in the 1946 elections and became the majority party in 1951 beginning a long history of electoral victories.<\/p>\n Voted out of office in the 1971 general elections that swept the progressive labor movement into power, Bird and the ALP returned to office in 1976.<\/p>\n Behind the late 20th century reviving and re-specifying of the place of African-Antiguans and Barbudans in the cultural life of the society, is a history of race\/ethnic relations that systematically excluded them. A colonial framework was established by the English soon after their initial settlement of Antigua in 1623.<\/p>\n Mixed-race relationships and later immigration resulted by the late 19th century in the emergence of five distinct and carefully ranked race\/ethnic groups. Among themselves, there were divisions between British Antiguans and non-creolized British.<\/p>\n Immediately below the British, were the mulattoes<\/a>, a mixed-race group resulting from unions between, generally, white European males and enslaved African women, many of which took place in the years before the expansion of enslaved African population. Mulattoes were lighter in shade than the masses of Africans. Some white fathers had their sons educated or trained in crafts. They sometimes benefited them in other ways, which led to the development of a separate class. Mulattoes gradually distinguished themselves from the masses of enslaved Africans. They developed complex ideologies of shade to legitimate their claims to higher status. These ideologies of shade paralleled in many ways British ideologies of white supremacy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Next in this hierarchy were the Portuguese<\/a> 2500 of whom migrated as workers from Madeira<\/a> between 1847 and 1852 because of a severe famine. Many established small businesses and joined the ranks of what was by then the mulatto middle class. The British never really considered Portuguese as their equals, so they were not allowed into their ranks. Among Portuguese Antiguans and Barbudans, status differences move along a continuum of varying degrees of assimilation into the Anglicized practices of the dominant group.<\/p>\n Below the Portuguese were the Middle Easterners, who began migrating to Antigua and Barbuda around the turn of the 20th century. Starting as itinerant traders, they soon worked their way into the middle strata of the society. Although Middle Easterners came from a variety of areas in the Middle East, as a group they are usually referred to as Syrians<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Irish<\/a> were first sent to the island as indentured and unpaid servants by Oliver Cromwell<\/a> during the early to mid-17th century. They were treated harshly and had to live in depraved conditions. Many of Irish died from severe sunstroke and sickness and those who survived lived in extreme poverty. Irish Indentured servant were replaced by African slaves in the mid to late 17th century as they were more suited to working in the sun and heat. The Irish were used by the British as a buffer group between them and the African slaves and became overseers on sugar plantations on the island. Many of the Irish had children with the Africans, which is why many Antiguans and Barbudans have Irish surnames to this day.<\/p>\n Sixth and finally were the African-Antiguans and Barbudans who were located at the bottom of this hierarchy. Enslaved and forcefully transported, Africans started arriving in Antigua and Barbuda in large numbers during the 1670s. Very quickly they came to constitute the majority of the population. As they entered this hierarchy, Africans were profoundly racialized<\/a>. They ceased being Ashanti<\/a>, Ewe<\/a>, Yoruba<\/a> and became Negroes or blacks. In the 20th century, the colonial hierarchy gradually began to come apart as a result of universal education and better economic opportunity. This process gave rise to Africans reaching the highest strata of society and government.<\/p>\n The islands achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1981, becoming the nation of Antigua and Barbuda. However, it remains part of the Commonwealth of Nations, and remains a constitutional monarchy<\/a>, with Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of Antigua and Barbuda.<\/p>\n In 1997, Prime Minister Lester Bird<\/a> announced that a group of ecologically sensitive islands just off Antigua’s northeastern coast, previously proposed for national park status, were being turned over to Malaysian developers. The Guiana Island Development Project<\/a> deal, calling for a 1000-room hotel, an 18-hole golf course and a world-class casino, sparked widespread criticism by environmentalists, minority members in parliament and the press. The issue came to a head when a local resident shot the PM’s brother. Today, the proposed development is mired in lawsuits and politics.<\/p>\n The ALP won renewed mandates in the general elections in 1984 and 1989. In the 1989 elections, the ruling ALP won all but two of the 17 seats. During elections in March 1994, power passed from Vere Bird to his son, Lester Bird, but remained within the ALP which won 11 of the 17 parliamentary seats. The United Progressive Part<\/a>y won the 2004 elections<\/a> and Baldwin Spencer<\/a> became Prime Minister, removing from power the longest-serving elected government in the Caribbean. In 2014 the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party regained power from a massive win with the leader being the “World Boss”, Gaston A. Browne<\/a>. A snap election was called 3 years later, and the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party led by the incumbent leader Hon. Gaston Browne dominated the elections with a landslide victory of 15-1-1.<\/p>\n Antigua and Barbuda both are generally low-lying islands whose terrain has been influenced more by limestone<\/a> formations than volcanic activity<\/a>. The highest point on Antigua is Mount Obama<\/a> (formerly Boggy Peak), the remnant of a volcanic crater rising 1,319 feet.<\/p>\n The shorelines of both islands are greatly indented with beaches, lagoons, and natural harbors. The islands are rimmed by reefs and shoals. There are few streams as rainfall is slight. Both islands lack adequate amounts of fresh groundwater.<\/p>\n Antigua and Barbuda are the only inhabited islands although the country includes numerous small rocky islets close to shore as well as the more distant Redonda Island.<\/p>\n Tourism<\/a> dominates the economy, accounting for more than half of the gross domestic product (GDP). Antigua is famous for its many luxury resorts. Weak tourist activity since early 2000 has slowed the economy, however, and squeezed the government into a tight fiscal corner.<\/p>\n Investment banking and financial services also make up an important part of the economy. Major world banks with offices in Antigua include the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)<\/a> and Scotiabank<\/a>. Financial-services corporations with offices in Antigua include PriceWaterhouseCoopers<\/a>.<\/p>\n The twin-island nation’s agricultural production is focused on its domestic market and constrained by a limited water supply and a labor shortage stemming from the lure of higher wages in tourism and construction work.<\/p>\n Manufacturing is made up of enclave-type assembly for export, the major products being bedding, handicrafts and electronic components. Prospects for economic growth in the medium term will continue to depend on income growth in the industrialized world, especially in the United States, from which about one-third of all tourists come.<\/p>\n Following the opening of the American University of Antigua College of Medicine<\/a> by investor and attorney Neil Simon in 2003, a new source of revenue was established. The university employs many local Antiguans and the approximate 1000 students consume a large amount of the goods and services.<\/p>\n Antigua and Barbuda also utilizes an economic citizenship program<\/a> to spur investment into the country.<\/p>\n Antigua and Barbuda’s transport systems include both public and privately run services. Roads in the country are steep, winding, unpaved, and full of potholes<\/a>. Driving is on the left-hand side. Volcanic ash<\/a> which sometimes covers roads can make them slippery. The speed limit is set at 40 mph, but it isn’t well-enforced. Because there are few traffic signs, driving in unfamiliar areas can be confusing.<\/p>\n Public transportation<\/a> vehicles contain the letters “BUS” for buses or “TX” for taxis on their yellow licence plates<\/a>. The government regulates taxi<\/a> service, setting fixed fares rather than using a metered system. Taxi cabs are supposed to keep a copy of the rates inside the vehicle. On Antigua, taxis are easily found, particularly at the airport and at major hotels. Many taxi drivers also will act as tour guides.<\/p>\n Buses<\/a> operate from 5:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily on Antigua, running between the capital city, St. John’s, and various villages. However, buses do not stop at the airport or the northern tourist area. Although departure times are often left up to the driver, buses generally follow a set schedule. Most buses have their routes posted in the front windows, and they’re usually privately owned mini-vans seating about 15 people. St. John’s has two bus stations, the East Bus Station near the Botanical Gardens on Independence Ave and another one on Market St. near the Central Market. Several buses are also available on Barbuda.<\/p>\n Tourists are allowed to rent cars, provided they have a valid driver’s license from their home country. They must first purchase a temporary driver’s license, which can often be arranged through rental agencies.<\/p>\n Several ports and harbors provide docking for cruise ships<\/a>, sailboats<\/a>, yachts<\/a>, and other boats. All boats are required to enter in Antigua before continuing to Barbuda, and they must obtain a permit from the Port Authority<\/a> to do so. Fees apply both for entering and docking in the country. The main port is at St. John’s, receiving cruise ships and the Barbuda Express<\/a>. The Barbuda Express travels between St. John’s and Barbuda five days a week. Cruise ships also dock at Heritage Quay<\/a>. English Harbour<\/a>, the site of Nelson’s Dockyard, began as an important port on Antigua centuries ago.<\/p>\n Other ports and harbors include Jolly Harbour<\/a>, Deepwater Harbour<\/a>, High Point Crabbs Peninsula, and Codrington (Barbuda).<\/p>\n The country’s major airport is V. C. Bird International Airport<\/a>, which serves both international and local carriers. Located near St. John’s on Antigua’s northern coast, all commercial flights to the country first enter at this airport. With its recently built terminal building, constructed in 1981, its facilities are better than many airports in the Caribbean. After arriving at the airport, travelers can take chartered flights or boats to Barbuda or other Caribbean destinations.\u00a0 Codrington Airport<\/a> serves the island of Barbuda.<\/p>\n Total roadways are 1,165 km of which 384 km are paved.<\/p>\n Small gauge rail existed to serve the sugarcane plantation economy but this system is no longer used.<\/p>\n The national flag of Antigua and Barbuda was adopted on 27 February 1967 to mark the achievement of self-government. A competition to design the flag was held in which more than 600 local people entered. The winning design was put forth by nationally well-known artist and sculptor Sir Reginald Samuel.<\/p>\n The design is a red field with an inverted isosceles triangle based on the top edge of the field pointed toward the bottom edge of the field bearing the horizontal tricolor of black, light blue (half width) and white with the rising sun centered on top of the black band. The rising sun symbolizes the dawning of a new era.<\/p>\n The colors have different meanings: the black is for the African ancestry of the people, the blue for hope, the red for energy or life of the people. The successive coloring of yellow, blue, and white (from the sun down) also stands for the sun, sea, and sand. The blue also represents the Caribbean Sea, and the V-shape is the symbol of victory.<\/p>\n Antigua and Barbuda is a country in the West Indies in the Americas, lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of two major islands, Antigua and Barbuda, and a number of smaller islands (including Great Bird, Green, Guiana, Long, Maiden and York Islands and further south, the island of Redonda). The permanent population numbers about 81,800 (at the 2011 Census) and the capital and largest port and city is St. John’s on Antigua. Lying near each other (the main Barbuda airport is less than 30 nautical miles north of the main Antigua airport), Antigua and Barbuda are in the middle of the Leeward Islands, part of the Lesser Antilles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32,5,6,7,29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Etymology:<\/h2>\n
![\"Virgin](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Virgin-de-la-Antigua-in-Seville-225x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
History:<\/h2>\n
Pre-European History:<\/h3>\n
![\"Arawak](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Arawak-Village-205x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/A-Brief-History-of-the-Caribbean-203x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
European Colonization (1632\u20131981):<\/h3>\n
![\"Antigua](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Antigua-1823-300x209.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Political Development:<\/h3>\n
Ethnicity and Social Class:<\/h3>\n
![\"Madeira\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Madeira-300x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Independent Antigua and Barbuda (1981\u2013present):<\/h3>\n
![\"St](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/St-Johns-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Geography:<\/h2>\n
![\"Map](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Map-of-Antigua-and-Barbuda-300x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
Economy:<\/h2>\n
![\"Exports\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Exports-300x234.jpeg\" "\\"\\"")
Transportation:<\/h2>\n
![\"English](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/English-Harbor-300x169.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Airports:<\/h3>\n
![\"V.](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/V.-C.-Bird-International-Airport-300x116.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Roads:<\/h3>\n
Railroads:<\/h3>\n
Flag of Antigua and Barbuda:<\/h2>\n
Present Day Flag:<\/h3>\n
![\"Flag](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Flag-of-Antigua-and-Barbuda-1967-present-300x200.png\" "\\"\\"")
Historic Flags:<\/h3>\n
![\"Flag](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Flag-of-Antigua-and-Barbuda-1956-1962-300x150.png\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Flag](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/06\/Flag-of-Antigua-and-Barbuda-1962-1967-300x150.png\" "\\"\\"")