ARUBA

ARUBA LOCATION

The island of Aruba is part of the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea, and lies about 12 degrees north of the equator, approximately 29km (18 miles) off the Paraguaná Peninsula of Venezuela. One of the Lesser Antilles islands, Aruba is about 30 km (19 miles) long and
about 8 km (5 miles) wide with an area of 193 sq km (75 sq miles). The island's population is about 89,000. The capital is Oranjestad named after the Dutch House of Orange.
Antilles is the term used for the whole of the West Indies except the Bahama Islands. Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico form the Greater Antilles. The Lesser Antilles, extending in an arc from Puerto Rico to the northeastern coast of South America, include the Virgin Islands, Windward Islands, Leeward Islands, southern group of the Netherlands Antilles (including Aruba), and, usually, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

The Netherlands Antilles are an integral part of the Netherlands, comprising two island groups of three islands each, the Netherlands Leeward Islands and the Netherlands Windward islands, in the Caribbean Sea.

The former group, consisting of Curaçao, Bonaire, and until 1986 Aruba, is situated northwest of Caracas, Venezuela. The area of the Netherlands Leeward Islands is 925 sq km (357 sq mi).
The Netherlands Windward Islands consist of the southern half of Saint Martin (Sint Maarten) and all of Saint Eustatius and Saba, covering a total area of about 67 sq km (about 26 sq miles). These islands are situated at the northern end of the Lesser Antilles chain, to the southeast of Puerto Rico.
The Caribbean Sea is partially enclosed on the north and east by the islands of the West Indies, and bounded on the south by South America and Panama, and on the west by Central America. Its name is derived from the Carib people, who inhabited the area when Spanish explorers arrived there in the 1400s.

Practically the entire Caribbean Basin is more than 1830 m (6000 ft) deep. Large areas of the sea exceed 3660 m (12,000 ft) in depth; the greatest depth measured thus far is Cayman Trench (7535 m/24,720 ft) between Jamaica and Cayman Islands. Navigation is open and clear, making the Caribbean a major trade route for Latin American countries. A popular resort area, the Caribbean Sea is noted for its mild tropical climate.




ARUBA HISTORY

Alonzo de Ojeda discovered Aruba in 1499, claiming the island for Spain. However, the Spaniards did not consider the island worth colonizing and left the original Arawak Indian inhabitants to live in virtual peace. The Spaniards’ lack of interest resulted in the island becoming a haven for pirates and buccaneers. Spanish hegemony continued unchallenged, however, until 1634, by which time the war with Holland was well into its seventh decade. Dutch war interests then switched to the Caribbean and the Dutch fleet took over the neglected territory with little opposition. In 1643, the Dutch appointed
a governor to take charge of Aruba and the rest of the Netherlands Antilles. Except for a brief period in the early 19th century, when the British took possession, Aruba has remained under peaceful Dutch jurisdiction ever since.

On 1 January 1986, Aruba achieved internal autonomy, separating it administratively from the rest of the Netherlands Antilles, although it remains an integral part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This was originally conceived as the first step towards independence, for which a 10-year transitional period was planned. In March 1994, however, after consultation with the Dutch government, this plan was shelved. Independence at some later date has not been completely ruled out but it will now require the consent of two-thirds of the population in a referendum.
The reluctance to move towards independence seems to have come from the Arubans themselves, especially the leading political party, the Arubaanse Volkspartij (AVP). The AVP, under the leadership of Jan Hendrik Eman, won both two successive elections in 1993 and 1997, although suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of its major rival the center-left Movimiento Electoral di Pueblo (MEP) at the most recent poll in September 2001. Nelson Oduber took over as Premier.

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA,Map flag

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA,Coat of arms

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA,Naval Jack Flag

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA,British Colony-Historical flag 1870-Leeward Islands

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA,Historical flag 1870-Leeward Islands

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA
GEOGRAPHY
Antigua and Barbuda is an island nation located in the eastern Caribbean Sea, on the sea's boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. There are two major islands - Antigua (IPA: /ænˈtiːgə/) and Barbuda (/bɑrˈbjuːdə/), which are close neighbors within the middle of the Leeward Islands, roughly 17 degrees north of the equator.

The islands of Antigua and Barbuda are part of the Lesser Antilles archipelago. To the south of Antigua and Barbuda lie the islands of Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago. Montserrat lies to the southwest; Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Eustatius are to the west, and Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin and Anguilla are to the northwest.


ANTIGUA and BARBUDA
HISTORY

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA,Historical flag,West Indies Federation 1962

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA,Historical flag,1965


ANTIGUA and BARBUDA,Historical flag,Leeward Islands 1870

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA,Historical flag,Leeward Islands Royality coat of arms-1870

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA,Historical flag,Redonda Kingdom,King Leo-1872

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA,Historical flag,Redonda Kingdom,1872

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA,Historical flag,Redonda Kingdom,1872

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA
HISTORY
It would be difficult to overestimate the impact on Antigua's history of the arrival, one fateful day in 1684, of Sir Christopher Codrington. An enterprising man, Codrington had come to Antigua to find out if the island would support the sort of large-scale sugar cultivation that already flourished elsewhere in the Caribbean. His initial efforts proved to be quite successful, and over the next fifty years sugar cultivation on Antigua exploded. By the middle of the 18th century the island was dotted with more than 150 cane-processing windmills--each the focal point of a sizeable plantation. Today almost 100 of these picturesque stone towers remain, although they now serve as houses, bars, restaurants and shops. At Betty's Hope, Codrington's original sugar estate, visitors can see a fully-restored sugar mill.

Most Antiguans are of African lineage, descendants of slaves brought to the island centuries ago to labor in the sugarcane fields. However, Antigua's history of habitation extends as far back as two and a half millenia before Christ. The first settlements, dating from about 2400 B.C., were those of the Siboney (an Arawak word meaning "stone-people"), peripatetic Meso-Indians whose beautifully crafted shell and stone tools have been found at dozens of sites around the island. Long after the Siboney had moved on, Antigua was settled by the pastoral, agricultural Arawaks (35-1100 A.D.), who were then displaced by the Caribs--an aggressive people who ranged all over the Caribbean. The earliest European contact with the island was made by Christopher Columbus during his second Caribbean voyage (1493), who sighted the island in passing and named it after Santa Maria la Antigua, the miracle-working saint of Seville. European settlement, however, didn't occur for over a century, largely because of Antigua's dearth of fresh water and abundance of determined Carib resistance. Finally, in 1632, a group of Englishmen from St. Kitts established a successful settlement, and in 1684, with Codrington's arrival, the island entered the sugar era.

By the end of the eighteenth century Antigua had become an important strategic port as well as a valuable commercial colony. Known as the "gateway to the Caribbean," it was situated in a position that offered control over the major sailing routes to and from the region's rich island colonies. Most of the island's historical sites, from its many ruined fortifications to the impeccably-restored architecture of English Harbourtown, are reminders of colonial efforts to ensure its safety from invasion.

Horatio Nelson arrived in 1784 at the head of the Squadron of the Leeward Islands to develop the British naval facilities at English Harbour and to enforce stringent commercial shipping laws. The first of these two tasks resulted in construction of Nelson's Dockyard, one of Antigua's finest physical assets; the second resulted in a rather hostile attitude toward the young captain. Nelson spent almost all of his time in the cramped quarters of his ship, declaring the island to be a "vile place" and a "dreadful hole." Serving under Nelson at the time was the future King William IV, for whom the altogether more pleasant accommodation of Clarence House was built.

It was during William's reign, in 1834, that Britain abolished slavery in the empire. Alone among the British Caribbean colonies, Antigua instituted immediate full emancipation rather than a four-year 'apprenticeship,' or waiting period; today, Antigua's Carnival festivities commemorate the earliest abolition of slavery in the British Caribbean.

Emancipation actually improved the island's economy, but the sugar industry of the British islands was already beginning to wane. Until the development of tourism in the past few decades, Antiguans struggled for prosperity. The rise of a strong labour movement in the 1940s, under the leadership of V.C. Bird, provided the impetus for independence. In 1967, with Barbuda and the tiny island of Redonda as dependencies, Antigua became an associated state of the Commonwealth, and in 1981 it achieved full independent status. V.C. Bird is now deceased; his son, Lester B. Bird, was elected to succeed him as prime minister.

ANGUILLA,British Overseas Territory

ANGUILLA,British Overseas Territory Flag

ANGUILLA,map flag


ANGUILLA,Historic Flag-1967
ANGUILLA FACTS
Anguilla (English pronunciation ang-GWILL-ah, IPA: /æŋˈɡwɪlə/) is a British overseas territory in the Caribbean, one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. It consists of the main island of Anguilla itself, approximately 26 km (16 miles) long by 5 km (3 miles) wide at its widest point, together with a number of much smaller islands and cays with no permanent population. The island's capital is The Valley. The total land area of the territory is 102 km² (39.4 square miles), with a population of approximately 13,500 (2006 estimate).
ANGUILLA HISTORY
Around 4000 years ago, Anguilla was a lush island covered in dense rain forest. It was discovered by Amerindian peoples who came by dugout canoes and rafts from South America's mainland. They called Anguilla "Malliouhana" which meant arrow-shape sea serpent and they developed villages, farms and ceremonial sites to their gods.

Evidence of these Amerindians as old as 3300 years has been found at the eastern end of Anguilla. Shell axes, conch shell drinking vessels, flint blades and stone objects from the pre-ceramic era have all been uncovered on Anguilla. There is no record of how long this first group of Amerindians lived on the island.

Christopher Columbus sailed by Anguilla is 1493 but never landed. During this time the Europeans changed the island's name from Malliouhana to Anguilla, for its long eel shape.

Meanwhile, the 1830's brought the union of St. Kitts -Nevis-Anguilla on Britain's recommendation -- a union protested by the majority of Anguilla's freeholders. Anguilla was allowed one freeholder representative to the House of Assembly on the Island of St. Kitts and was mostly neglected by the tri-island legislature.

In 1958, St. Kitts -Nevis-Anguilla became part of the Federation of the West Indies. The Federation collapsed in 1962, which resulted in individual constitutions for most islands St. Kitts -Nevis-Anguilla was made an associated statehood, a political decision that sparked the Anguilla Revolution. Anguilla wanted its independence from the state and the proposed union was not a viable option for the island.

May 30, 1967 is celebrated today as Anguilla Day. This day commemorates the repulsion of the Royal St. Kitts Police Force from the island. Britain intervened and a peacekeeping committee was established. Debates over Anguilla's succession continued to be negotiated for another decade until December 19, 1980, Anguilla became a separate Dependent Territory with some measure of autonomy in Government.