This article is about the island. For the sovereign state that includes the island, see Antigua and Barbuda. For other places named Antigua, see Antigua (disambiguation). For the Guatemalan city, see Antigua Guatemala. For the associated state, see Associated State of Antigua. Antigua Native name: Waladli or Wadadli

Aerial view of Antigua

Map of Antigua showing the parishes Antigua is located in Antigua and BarbudaAntiguaAntigua Show map of Antigua and Barbuda Show map of Lesser Antilles Show map of Caribbean Show all Geography Location Caribbean Sea Coordinates 17°05′06″N 61°48′00″W Archipelago Leeward Islands Total islands 1 Area 281 km2 (108 sq mi) Coastline 87 km (54.1 mi) Highest elevation 402 m (1319 ft) Highest point Boggy Peak Administration Antigua and Barbuda Largest settlement St. John's (pop. 22,000) Magistrate for Districts "A" and "B" Carden Conliffe Clarke Demographics Population 95,882 (July 2018) Pop. density 285.2/km2 (738.7/sq mi) Ethnic groups 87.12% Black, 3.86% Other Mixed Race, 1.7% White, 5.64% Other[1]

Turner Beach in Antigua Antigua (/ænˈtiːɡə/ ann-TEE-gə),[2] also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the local population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the most populous island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Barbuda became an independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations on 1 November 1981.[3]

The island's perimeter is roughly 87 km (54 mi) and its area 281 km2 (108 sq mi). Its population was 83,191 (at the 2011 Census).[4] The economy is mainly reliant on tourism, with the agricultural sector serving the domestic market.

Over 22,000 people live in the capital city, St. John's. The capital is situated in the north-west and has a deep harbour which is able to accommodate large cruise ships. Other leading population settlements are All Saints (3,412) and Liberta (2,239), according to the 2001 census.

English Harbour on the south-eastern coast provides one of the largest deep water, protected harbors in the Eastern Caribbean. It is the site of UNESCO World Heritage Site Nelson's Dockyard, a restored British colonial naval station named after Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson.[5][6] English Harbour and the neighbouring village of Falmouth are yachting and sailing destinations and provisioning centres. During Antigua Sailing Week, at the end of April and beginning of May, an annual regatta brings a number of sailing vessels and sailors to the island to take part in sporting events. Every December for the past 60 years, Antigua has been home to one of the largest charter yacht shows, welcoming super-yachts from around the world.[7]

Etymology Antigua means "ancient" or "old" in Spanish. In 1493, Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain, named the island Santa María de la Antigua [es]. Some sources claim Columbus named the island after a church in Seville called Santa María de la Antigua.[8][9][10] However, there is no church by that name in Seville. Columbus may have actually named the island in honor of the Santa María de la Antigua chapel in Seville Cathedral,[11][12] or more specifically in honor of the iconic mural Virgen de la Antigua (or Santa María de la Antigua) in Seville Cathedral.[13][14]

The name Waladli[15] comes from the island's indigenous inhabitants and means approximately "our own".[citation needed]

History

Rocky shoreline near St. John's

Dickenson Bay beach, Antigua Early Antiguans The first inhabitants were the Guanahatabey people. Eventually, the Arawak migrated from the mainland[where? — see talk page], followed by the Carib. Prior to European colonization, Christopher Columbus was the first European to visit Antigua, in 1493.[16]

The Arawak were the first well-documented group of indigenous people to settle Antigua. They paddled to the island by canoe (piragua) from present-day Venezuela, pushed out by the Carib, another indigenous people. The Arawak introduced agriculture to Antigua and Barbuda. Among other crops, they cultivated the Antiguan "black" pineapple. They also grew corn, sweet potatoes (white with firmer flesh than the bright orange "sweet potato" grown in the United States), chili peppers, guava, tobacco, and cotton.

Some of the vegetables listed, such as corn and sweet potatoes, continue to be staples of Antiguan cuisine. Colonists took them to Europe, and from there, they spread around the world. For example, a popular Antiguan dish, dukuna (/ˈduːkuːnɑː/), is a sweet, steamed dumpling made from grated sweet potatoes, flour and spices. Another staple, fungi (/ˈfuːndʒi/), is a cooked paste made of cornmeal and water.

Most of the Arawak left Antigua about A.D. 1100. Those who remained were raided by the Carib coming from Venezuela. According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, the Caribs' superior weapons and seafaring prowess allowed them to defeat most Arawak nations in the West Indies. They enslaved some and cannibalised others.[17] Watson points out that the Caribs had a much more warlike culture than the Arawak.[17]

The indigenous people of the West Indies built excellent sea vessels, which they used to sail the Atlantic and Caribbean resulting in much of the South American and the Caribbean islands being populated by the Arawak and Carib. Their descendants live throughout South America, particularly Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia. According to A Brief History of the Caribbean, infectious diseases introduced from Europe, high rates of malnutrition and enslavement led to a rapid population decline among the Caribbean's native population. There are some differences of opinions as to the relative importance of these causes.[18]

British

Aerial view of Jolly Harbour on the western coast of Antigua Christopher Columbus named the island "Antigua" in 1493 in honour of the "Virgin of the Old Cathedral"[19] (Spanish: La Virgen de la Antigua) found in Seville Cathedral in southern Spain. On his 1493 voyage, honouring a vow, he named many islands after different aspects of St. Mary, including Montserrat and Guadeloupe.

In 1632, a group of English colonists left St Kitts to settle on Antigua. Christopher Codrington, an Englishman, established the first permanent English settlement on the island.[16] Antigua rapidly developed as a profitable sugar colony. For a large portion of Antigua's history, the island was considered Britain's "Gateway to the Caribbean". It was on the major sailing routes among the region's resource-rich colonies. Lord Horatio Nelson, a major figure in Antigua's history, arrived in the late 18th century to defend the island's commercial shipping prowess.

Slavery

Slaves planting and tilling, 1823

Slaves working in the boiling house, 1823

Slaves loading barrels into a boat, 1823 Sugar became Antigua's main crop in about 1674, when Christopher Codrington (c. 1640–1698) settled at Betty's Hope plantation. He came from Barbados, bringing the latest sugar technology with him. Betty's Hope, Antigua's first full-scale sugar plantation, was so successful that other planters turned from tobacco to sugar.[citation needed] This resulted in their importing slaves to work the sugar cane crops.[16]

According to A Brief History of the Caribbean, many West Indian colonists initially tried to use locals as slaves. These groups succumbed easily to disease and/or malnutrition, and died by the thousands. The enslaved Africans adapted better to the new environment and thus became the number-one choice of unpaid labour; they also provided medical services and skilled labour, including carpentry, for their masters. However, the West African slave population in the Caribbean also had a high mortality rate, which was offset by regular imports of very high numbers of new slaves from West and Central Africa.[20]

Sugar cane was one of the most gruelling and dangerous crops slaves were forced to cultivate. Harvesting cane required backbreaking long days in sugar cane fields under the hot island sun. Sugar cane spoiled quickly after harvest, and the milling process was slow and inefficient, forcing the mill and boiling house to operate 24 hours a day during harvest season.[21] Sugar mills and boiling houses were two of the most dangerous places for slaves to work on sugar plantations. In mills wooden or metal rollers were used to crush cane plants and extract the juices. Slaves were at risk of getting their limbs stuck and ripped off in the machines.[21] Similarly, in sugar boiling houses slaves worked under extremely high temperatures and at the risk of being burned in the boiling sugar mixture or getting their limbs stuck.[21]

Today, collectors prize the uniquely designed colonial furniture built by West Indian slaves. Many of these works feature what are now considered "traditional" motifs, such as pineapples, fish and stylized serpents.

By the mid-1770s, the number of slaves had increased to 37,500, up from 12,500 in 1713. The white population, in contrast, had fallen from 5,000 to below 3,000.[22] The slaves lived in wretched and overcrowded conditions and could be mistreated or even killed by their owners with impunity. The Slave Act of 1723 made arbitrary murder of slaves a crime, but did not do much to ease their lives.[23]

Unrest against enslavement among the island's enslaved population became increasingly common. In 1729, a man named Hercules was hung, drawn and quartered and three others were burnt alive, for conspiring to kill the slave owner Nathaniel Crump and his family. In 1736, an enslaved man called "Prince Klaas" (whose slave name was Court) allegedly planned to incite a slave rebellion on the island. Court was crowned "King of the Coromantees" in a pasture outside the capital of St. John's. The coronation appeared to be just a colourful spectacle but was, for the enslaved people, a ritual declaration of war on the colonists. From information obtained from other slaves, the colonists discovered the plot and implemented a brutal crackdown on suspected rebels. Prince Klaas and four accomplices were caught and executed on the breaking wheel. (However, some doubts exist about Court's guilt.)[24][20] Six of the rebels were hanged in chains and starved to death, and another 58 were burnt at the stake. The site of these executions is now the Antiguan Recreation Ground.[25][20]

The American War of Independence in the late 18th century disrupted the Caribbean sugar trade. At the same time, public opinion in Great Britain gradually turned against slavery.[26] "Traveling ... at slavery's end, [Joseph] Sturge and [Thomas] Harvey (1838 ...) found few married slaves residing together or even on the same estate. Slaveholders often counted as 'married' only those slaves with mates on the estate."[27][a][b][c] Great Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, and all existing slaves were emancipated in 1834.[16]

chyna has been buying up American ports too.