Skip to main content

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.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post #3: Saint Barthélemy

  The island of Saint Barthélemy is a Caribbean island that is part of the overseas collectivity of France. The French overseas collective are islands that were once French colonies or outposts that now operate as semi-autonomous nations, meaning they make their own local laws but are still bound to the federal laws of France. Many of these islands still use the French flag as their own national flag Saint Barthélemy  being one of them. The island is believed to be uninhabited, due to a lack of water sources and poor soil, until 1493 when Christopher Columbus arrived making him the first European to land there, naming the island after his brother Bartholomew Columbus. He passed through the island occasionally but never officially colonized the island, that achievement was claimed by the French is 1648. The island was abandoned in 1656 due to an attack on the new settlement by the Caribs and was later purchased by the French West India Company in 1660 but by 1674 the company dissolved a
1 comment
Read more

Blog Post #5: Self Assesment

  In terms of the rubric criteria, my blog almost meets all the criteria. I need to remember to put my sources, I’ve done it for some but not for others so if I can consistently ass my sources at the end of my posts then my blog should great in terms of the rubric. There aren’t any aspects of these assignments that I would say are confusing or cause stress, I enjoy writing and doing research so all of this has been quite enjoyable actually. I do put my best effort into each post all though I definitely procrastinate. I don’t really have trouble completing the work when I get around to doing it, the hurdle is just getting around to doing it. But have gotten better with my time management, it seems that I lost all of those skills over the long winter break. But when I do the blog post I revise the writing extensively, bad grammar is a huge pet peeve of mine and I truly don’t think I can physically submit an assignment that isn’t good quality because I will constantly think about the erro
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog Post #4: Getting to know Saint-Barthélemy

The island is very small only spanning 11 miles in length and 2.5 miles in width making the island smaller than many cities in most major countries. Due to this the Island only has one town, the capital of Gustavia. Although the island is now part of France and it was first colonized by them as well, the town of Gustavia was named after Sweden’s king, Gustav III, who was king of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. The town is his namesake because the Island was sold to Sweden in 1784 with King Gustav III overseeing the transaction and the Island belonged to the Swedish for almost a century until 1878 when the Island was returned to the French due to it being ravaged by a large hurricane causing the economy to once again struggle. It was Sweden that brought slaves to the island in 1790 although there were never any slave plantations on the island due to the limited space and the mountainous geography. This puts Saint-Barthélemy   on a short list of Caribbean Islands with l
Post a Comment
Read more