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History and Politics of St. Barts

 In my opinion, the island of St. Barts has the most interesting history of all the islands in the Caribbean. The island was originally discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493, who named it after his older brother Bartholomeo Columbus. The island lacked fresh water and had rough geology making it difficult to start a colony and the island went uncolonized until 1648 by the French but they were promptly killed by the indigenous Caribs of the island. Another attempt to colonize the island came in 1673 by the French explorer Norman Huguenots and this time the attempt was successful. 


Colonizing the island and making it prosperous was no easy task as fishing wasn’t an option and farming was near impossible due to the geology of the island. In terms of colonization, this makes the island seemingly useless to countries looking to expand their empire west. Colonizing a new area was an investment, it took a lot of money as well as a lot of people so a country only wants to colonize an area that will give them a good return on their investment. St. Barts seemingly offered no return on investment which is part of the reason Columbus didn’t stay, but Huguenots had an idea to make the island and the colony successful. Due to the location of the island, he was able to make it into a way station for French pirates giving them a safe place to regroup after plundering the Spanish (“Saint Barthelemy”).


Despite the success of the island, King Louis XVI of France sold the island to the Swedish king Gustaf III for trading rights in the Swedish city of Gothenburg in 1784. Swedish settlers named the capital city Gustavia, after their king Gustaf III. Gustavia is the only city on the island and although the island was sold back to the French in 1878 due to rampant disease and a devastating fire, the capital city still remains named Gustavia which serves as a reminder of the Swedish presence on the island during its history.


In comparison to the other Caribbean islands, St. Barts didn’t use a lot of slaves although this wasn’t because the settlers were progressive people, there just wasn’t a need for them because there was no farming on the island. Because of this, St. Barts is one of the only islands in the region without a substantial African population (“History of Saint Barthélemy”). Because a lot of Caribbean cultures stemmed from the African presence in the region, the culture on St. Barts is more aligned with French culture but also contains a mix of other cultures from around the region as well as some aspects of Swedish culture that remained on the island from the Swedish settlers that stayed on the island after it was returned back to France. In 2003 the island voted to gain independence from France although it is part of the Overseas Collectivity of France. This means they are fiscally and politically independent from France but technically still a part of France, so it’s more like an autonomous state than an independent country.



References:

CIA. Saint Barthelemy, Central Intelligence Agency, 8 Feb. 2021, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/saint-barthelemy/.

“History of Saint Barthélemy.” Lonely Planet, 2015, www.lonelyplanet.com/st-barthelemy/history.

Comments

  1. AP Bio Jonathan MApril 5, 2021 at 8:09 PM

    Your works cited is the proper way to cite your sources properly. However, you also have to cite your pictures, even if you do not think you do. In short, everything you get from the internet or copy and paste into your page must be cited. The main issue is the cosmetic elements of your page. Mainly the uneven spacing throughout your page. Nothing a simple correction can't fix.

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