![]() ![]() By 1965 the negotiations had proved fruitless, and Barbados declared independence in 1966. The eight remaining states of the federation, including Saint Christopher, entered into negotiations with the United Kingdom to form a smaller federation within the empire. In August of that year Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago achieved independence. Thus, in May 1962 the British Parliament dissolved the Federation of the West Indies. Slave trading was abolished in 1807, and the Emancipation Act followed in 1833 Saint Christopher, however, remained predominantly a sugar producer until well into the twentieth century.īy the mid-twentieth century, many British West Indian colonies were clamoring for autonomy, and in the early 1960s these efforts accelerated. Saint Christopher became an important buccaneering base during this era.Īlthough French Bourbons briefly conquered Saint Christopher early in 1782, the Treaty of Versailles later that year returned the island to Great Britain. Nevertheless, after the Spanish departed some fugitives reestablished a provisional government and Warner returned.Ī serious depression resulting from an oversupply of tobacco, and the growing conversion to sugar cultivation after 1630 led some colonists from Saint Kitts to move to Tortuga Island and numerous others to become buccaneers. Later, however, while in England, Warner received the news that on 7 September 1629 a Spanish fleet had taken Saint Christopher and expelled most of the French and English inhabitants. In 1625 Warner obtained from the crown its letters patent, meaning that the English government officially recognized his settlement. According to the terms of the agreement, the French would occupy the northern and southern extremities, and the English, the middle coastal strips. Difficulties arose with the native Carib tribe, however, and in order to secure assistance Warner agreed to the division of the island with some French settlers who had arrived shortly after he had. Having stopped off there briefly in 1620, Warner went to England, secured capital, returned to Saint Christopher with forty to fifty companions, and quickly commenced planting tobacco. Thomas Warner, an Englishman, first settled the island in 1623. It represented the earliest nucleus of French and English colonization in the area. Saint Christopher is a Caribbean island just west and a bit north of Antigua, and east and slightly south of Puerto Rico. ![]() Saint Christopher (Saint Kitts), an island in the Lesser Antilles that was of strategic importance in colonial times.
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