![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/St-Vincent-and-the-Grenadines-on-the-Globe-300x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Its 369 km2 (142 sq mi) territory consists of the main island of Saint Vincent<\/a> and the northern two-thirds of the Grenadines<\/a>, a chain of 32 smaller islands. Some of the Grenadines are inhabited \u2014 Bequia<\/a>, Mustique<\/a>, Union Island<\/a>, Canouan<\/a>, Petit Saint Vincent<\/a>, Palm Island<\/a>, Mayreau<\/a>, Young Island<\/a> \u2014 while others are not: Tobago Cays<\/a>, Baliceaux<\/a>, Battowia<\/a>, Quatre<\/a>, Petite Mustique<\/a>, Savan<\/a> and Petit Nevis<\/a>. Most of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines lies within the Hurricane Alley.<\/a><\/p>\n To the north of Saint Vincent lies Saint Lucia<\/a>, to the east is Barbados<\/a>, and Grenada<\/a> lies to the south. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has a population density of over 300 inhabitants\/km2, with approximately 110,211 total inhabitants.<\/p>\n Kingstown<\/a> is the capital and main port. Saint Vincent has a British colonial history, and is now part of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States<\/a>, CARICOM<\/a>, the Commonwealth of Nations<\/a>, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas<\/a> and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)<\/a>.<\/p>\n In April 2021, the La Soufri\u00e8re volcano erupted several times with “explosive events” continuing. By 12 April, 16,000 residents had evacuated the areas of their homes. Assistance and emergency financial support was being provided by several nearby islands, the United Kingdom and agencies such as the United Nations. The first significant offer of long-term funding, of US$20 million, was announced on 13 April 2021 by the World Bank.<\/p>\n Before the arrival of Europeans and Africans in the 16th century, various Amerindian groups passed through or settled on St. Vincent and the Grenadines, including the Ciboney<\/a>, Arawak<\/a>, and Carib<\/a> people.<\/p>\n The island now known as Saint Vincent was originally named Youloumain by the native Island Caribs who called themselves Kalina\/Carina (“l” and “r” being pronounced the same in their language).<\/p>\n It is thought that Christopher Columbus<\/a> sighted the island in 1498, giving it the name St Vincent. The indigenous Garifuna<\/a> people, who became known as the “Black Caribs”, aggressively prevented European settlement on Saint Vincent.<\/p>\n Various attempts by the English and Dutch to claim the island proved unsuccessful, and it was the French who were first able to colonize the island, settling in the town of Barrouallie<\/a> on the leeward side of St Vincent in 1719. The French brought with them enslaved African prisoners of war to work the plantations of sugar, coffee, indigo, tobacco, cotton and cocoa.<\/p>\n The British captured the island and drove out the French from Barrouallie during the Seven Years’ War<\/a>, a claim confirmed by the Treaty of Paris (1763)<\/a>. On taking control of the island in 1763, the British laid the foundations of Fort Charlotte<\/a> and also brought with them enslaved African prisoners of war to work on the island plantations. The Black Caribs however, opposed to the British presence, entered into open conflict against the British, starting the First Carib War<\/a>, which lasted from 1772 to 1773.<\/p>\n During the Anglo-French War (1778\u20131783)<\/a>, the French recaptured St Vincen<\/a>t in 1779. However, the British regained control under the Treaty of Versailles (1783).<\/a><\/p>\n The uneasy peace between the British and the Black Caribs led to the Second Carib War<\/a>, which lasted from 1795 to 1796. The Black Caribs were led by Garifuna Paramount Chief Joseph Chatoyer<\/a> and supported by the French, notably the radical Victor Hugues<\/a> from the island of Martinique<\/a>. Their revolt and uprising was eventually put down in 1797 by British General Sir Ralph Abercromby<\/a>; a peace treaty agreement was made which resulted in almost 5,000 Black Caribs being exiled to Roat\u00e1n<\/a>, an island off the coast of Honduras<\/a>, and to Belize<\/a> and Baliceaux in the Grenadines.<\/p>\n In 1806, construction of Fort Charlotte was completed.<\/p>\n The La Soufri\u00e8re<\/a> volcano erupted in 1812, resulting in considerable destruction.<\/p>\n The British abolished slavery in Saint Vincent (as well as in all other British West Indies colonies) in 1834, and an apprenticeship period followed which ended in 1838. After its end, labor shortages on the plantations resulted, and were initially addressed by the immigration of indentured servants; in the late 1840s, many Portuguese immigrants arrived from Madeira<\/a>, and between 1861 and 1888 shiploads of Indian laborer’s arrived. Conditions remained harsh for both former slaves and immigrant agricultural workers, as depressed world sugar prices kept the economy stagnant until the turn of the century. The economy then went into a period of decline; many landowners abandoned their estates, leaving the land to be cultivated by liberated slaves.<\/p>\n In 1902, the La Soufri\u00e8re volcano erupted, killing 1,500\u20132,000 people; much farmland was damaged, and the economy deteriorated.<\/p>\n Saint Vincent and the Grenadines passed through various stages of colonial status under the British. A representative assembly was authorized in 1776, Crown Colony government was installed in 1877, a legislative council was created in 1925 with a limited franchise, and universal adult suffrage was granted in 1951. During the period of its control of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Britain made several attempts to unify the island with other Windward Islands as a single entity, with the aim of simplifying British control in the sub-region through a single unified administration. In the 1960s, the British again tried to unify all of its regional islands, including Saint Vincent, into a single politically unified entity under British control. The unification was to be called the West Indies Federation<\/a> and was driven by a desire to gain independence from British government. However, the attempt collapsed in 1962.<\/p>\n Saint Vincent was granted “associate statehood” status by Britain on 27 October 1969. This gave Saint Vincent complete control over its own internal affairs but fell short of full independence in law.<\/p>\n In April 1979, La Soufri\u00e8re erupted again. Although no one was killed, thousands were evacuated and extensive agricultural damage occurred.<\/p>\n On 27 October 1979, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines became the last of the Windward Islands to gain full independence; the date is now the country’s Independence Day, a public holiday. The country opted to remain within the British Commonwealth, retaining Queen Elizabeth as Monarch, represented locally by a Governor-General.<\/a><\/p>\n Saint Vincent and the Grenadines lies to the west of Barbados, south of Saint Lucia and north of Grenada in the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, an island arc of the Caribbean Sea. The islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines include the main island of Saint Vincent<\/a> 344 km2 (133 sq mi) and the northern two-thirds of the Grenadines<\/a> 45 km2 (17 sq mi), which are a chain of smaller islands stretching south from Saint Vincent to Grenada.<\/p>\n The capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is Kingstown<\/a>, Saint Vincent. The main island of Saint Vincent measures 26 km (16 mi) long, 15 km (9.3 mi) in width and 344 km2 (133 sq mi) in area. From the most northern to the most southern points, the Grenadine islands belonging to Saint Vincent span 60.4 km (37.5 mi), with a combined area of 45 km2 (17 sq mi).<\/p>\n The island of Saint Vincent is volcanic and heavily forested, and includes little level ground. The windward side of the island is very rocky and steep, while the leeward side has more sandy beaches and bays. Saint Vincent’s highest peak is La Soufri\u00e8re<\/a> volcano at 1,234 m (4,049 ft). Other major mountains on St Vincent are (from north to south) Richmond Peak, Mount Brisbane, Colonarie Mountain, Grand Bonhomme, Petit Bonhomme and Mount St Andrew.<\/p>\n Agriculture, dominated by banana production, is the most important sector of this lower-middle-income economy. The services sector, based mostly on a growing tourist industry, is also important. The government has been relatively unsuccessful at introducing new industries, and the unemployment rate remains high at 19.8% in the 1991 census to 15% in 2001. The continuing dependence on a single crop represents the biggest obstacle to the islands’ development as tropical storms wiped out substantial portions of bananas in many years.<\/p>\n There is a small manufacturing sector and a small offshore financial sector serving international businesses; its secrecy laws have caused some international concern. There are increasing demands for international financial services like stock exchange and financial intermediaries financial activities in the country. In addition, the natives of Bequia are permitted to hunt up to four humpback whales<\/a> per year under IWC subsistence quotas.<\/p>\n The tourism sector has considerable potential for development. The filming of the Pirates of the Caribbean<\/a> movies on the island has helped to expose the country to more potential visitors and investors. Recent growth has been stimulated by strong activity in the construction sector and an improvement in tourism.<\/p>\n Argyle International Airport<\/a> is the country’s new international airport.<\/p>\n The new facility opened on 14 February 2017, replacing the existing E.T. Joshua Airport<\/a>. The airport is on the island’s east coast about 8.3 km (5.17 miles) from Kingstown.<\/p>\n The flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a Canadian pale<\/a> triband consisting of blue, gold, and green bands charged with three green diamonds at the center. Adopted in 1985 to replace a similar design used from the time of independence, it has been the flag of Saint Vincent since that year. The design of the present flag entailed substituting the country’s coat of arms<\/a> on a breadfruit<\/a> leaf with the diamonds. They are a reference to both the letter “V”, which is the first letter of the country’s name, and its nickname as the “Gems of the Antilles” and “Jewels of the Caribbean”. Accordingly, the flag itself has been given the moniker of “The Gems”.<\/p>\n The colors and symbols of the flag carry cultural, political, and regional meanings. The blue epitomizes the sky and the sea, while the gold represents the color of the islands’ sand, the sunshine, and the “bright spirit” of the islanders. The green symbolizes the country’s plentiful vegetation, as well as the vitality of Vincentians. The three diamonds evoke the nicknames of Saint Vincent as the “Gems of the Antilles” and the “Jewels of the Caribbean”. Their arrangement in the shape of the letter V is a subtle allusion to the first letter in “Vincent”, while its placement on the marginally lower part of the center band indicates the geographical positioning of the islands within the Antilles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a Canadian pale triband consisting of blue, gold, and green bands charged with three green diamonds at the centre. Adopted in 1985 to replace a similar design used from the time of independence, it has been the flag of Saint Vincent since that year. The design of the present flag entailed substituting the country’s coat of arms on a breadfruit leaf with the diamonds. They are a reference to both the letter “V”, which is the first letter of the country’s name, and its nickname as the “Gems of the Antilles” and “Jewels of the Caribbean”. Accordingly, the flag itself has been given the moniker of “The Gems”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","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":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","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":[32,59,5,6,7,29,41,60],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8393"}],"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=8393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Kingstown-St-Vincent-300x199.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>History:<\/h2>\n
Pre-Colonial Period:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Arawak-Woman-177x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>European Arrival and Early Colonial Period:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/04\/Christopher-Columbus-300x169.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/British-Negotiations-with-Black-Caribs-237x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Fort-Charlotte-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>20th Century:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/La-Soufriere-300x199.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Geography:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Map-of-Saint-Vincent-and-the-Grenadines-232x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Economy:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Treemap-of-Saint-Vincent-and-the-Grenadines-Exports-300x234.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Transportation:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Argyle-International-Airport-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Flag-of-Saint-Vincent-and-the-Grenadines-300x200.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>