Language/Saint-lucian-creole-french/Culture/St-Lucia-Timeline

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Historical Timeline for St. Lucia - A chronology of key events
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St. Lucia Timeline[edit | edit source]

Before European arrival[edit | edit source]

The earliest known inhabitants of Saint Lucia are the Arawaks, who are believed to have arrived from northern South America between 200 and 400. Numerous archaeological sites on the island have produced specimens of Arawak pottery. The Caribbean gradually replaced the Arawaks between 800 and 1000. They called the island Hiwanarau, then Hewanorra. 

European contacts[edit | edit source]

Saint Lucia was discovered by the Spaniards during their first exploratory trips, between 1492 or 1502, without settling there. The discovery of the island is generally attributed to a companion of Christopher Columbus, Alonso de Ojeda, who anchored there during his expeditions. Although the logbooks do not mention the island, a 1500 map drawn up by Juan de la Cosa, who was part of the expedition, shows it with the name "El Falcon". The legend, unsupported, has it that Christopher Columbus discovered it on December 13, 1492, Saint Lucia day. 

Colonization and European rivalries[edit | edit source]

The Dutch, English and French tried to establish trading posts on the island during the first half of the 17th century, but encountered strong opposition from the inhabitants of the Caribbean. The first European encampment on Saint Lucia was set up by the Netherlands around 1600 at the current site of Vieux Fort, but it quickly disappeared. In 1605, the Olive Branch, an English vessel heading for Guyana, was diverted to the island and 67 settlers began encamping; five weeks later, due to illnesses and conflicts with the Caribbean, there were only 19 left and left the island. 

In the following centuries, the island was fought over many times between the English and the French, particularly in view of the strategic importance of the natural port in Castries and its geographical location between Jamaica and Martinique: 

  • 1605: First English attempt at colonization.
  • 1635: Official claim of possession of the island by the French.
  • 1638-1639: New English settlement attempt but the encampment is destroyed by the Caribbean.
  • 1651: First French installation organized from Martinique and commanded by Louis de Kerengoan, sieur de Rousselan, who controlled the island until his death in 1654.
  • 1660: Franco – Caribbean Indian Treaty.
  • 1664: Philipp Warner, son of Thomas Warner, governor of Saint-Kitt-et-Nevis, claims Saint Lucia on behalf of England. He brought 1,000 men to defend the island against the French; after two years, there are only 89 left, most of them having died of illnesses.
  • 1667: Treaty of Breda which returns the island to the French.
  • 1674: Colony of the French crown now attached to Martinique.
  • 1718: Personal attribution of the island to Marshal d'Estrée by Louis XIV.
  • 1722: Grant of the island to Admiral George Rodney and the Duke of Montague by the King of England George I, but this new attempt is opposed by the French.
  • 1723: Neutral territory by agreement between England and France.
  • 1743: Recapture of the island by the French who kept it until the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748,
  • 1748: Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle which restores Saint Lucia's formal neutrality.
  • 1756: French colony.
  • 1762: recapture of the island by the English admiral George Rodney and the English general Robert Monckton
  • 1763: Restitution of the island to France at the end of the Treaty of Paris. Development of cotton and sugar cane plantations, notably under the impetus of French settlers from Saint Vincent and Grenada, deporting slaves from Martinique.
  • The sugar industry developed from 1765, causing an influx of settlers and an increase in conflicts with the Caribbean.  

The capture of Saint Lucia in December 1778 by Barrington's squadron and troops. D'Estaing, with his 12 ships, fails to retake the island.

  • 1778: The Battle of Saint Lucia takes place on December 15, 1778 between French and British forces, during the United States War of Independence. The island returned under the control of the British who used its ports as a naval base.
  • 1783: The Treaty of Versailles restores Saint Lucia to France.
  • During the French Revolution, a revolutionary tribunal was established on the island under the leadership of Captain La Crosse; royalists are executed.
  • In 1793, Flore Gaillard, Marron slave, led a French Army of the woods, until the battle of Rabot in June 1795 (this forgotten story is mentioned in the novel Ormerod by Édouard Glissant).
  • 1794: Landing of British troops coming to support the counter-revolutionary colonists. 

In application of the abolition of slavery proclaimed by the National Convention, the French governor Gaspard Goyrand, in 1794, declared all the slaves of the island free. This decision and the disembarkation of a Republican expeditionary force aiming to dispute the island against the English reinforces the slave revolt against the slave and pro-English settlers. The abolitionist hero Louis Delgrès distinguished himself at the battle of Morne Rabot. 

  • 1796: Castries is burned in 1796 during a battle led by British forces against French slaves and Republicans. The resulting British occupation led to the reestablishment of slavery.
  • 1801-1802: At the end of the Treaty of Amiens, formal restitution to France.
  • from 1803 to 1814: Succession of captures and recoveries by the two rival colonial powers.
  • 1814: Allocation of the island to the United Kingdom under the Treaty of Paris.

British control[edit | edit source]

France definitively cedes Saint Lucia to the United Kingdom in 1814 by the Treaty of Paris. Slavery was abolished on the island in 1834, but all slaves were then forced to undergo a four-year apprenticeship period where they were forced to work for free for their former masters for at least three quarters of the week. In 1838, Saint Lucia was incorporated into the British administration of the Windward Islands, led from Barbados (then from Grenada from 1885). 

Local government and independence[edit | edit source]

In 1924, Saint Lucia received its first form of representative government, when a minority of elected members joined the legislative council, all of whose members were previously appointed. Universal suffrage was introduced in 1951. A ministerial government was introduced in 1956. From June 19 to 20, 1948, a violent fire destroyed the 4/5 th of the capital Castries, without causing any deaths. 

In 1958, Saint Lucia joined the Federation of the West Indies, a semi-autonomous dependency of the United Kingdom. This federation collapsed in 1962, following the withdrawal of Jamaica, and a second, smaller federation was briefly attempted. After this second failure, the United Kingdom and six islands in the Antilles, including Saint Lucia, developed a new form of cooperation called the Associated State. As the Associate State of the United Kingdom from 1967 to 1979, Saint Lucia had full responsibility for its internal affairs, but left its foreign affairs and defense to the United Kingdom. The island obtained its full independence on February 22, 1979.

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