Christopher Columbus sighted islands in 1493 during his
second voyage naming the larger one
Santa Maria de la Antigua. However, early attempts by Europeans to settle the islands failed due to the Caribs' excellent defenses. England succeeded in colonising the islands in 1632, with
Thomas Warner as the first governor. Settlers used slave labor to raise tobacco,
indigo,
ginger and
sugarcane as cash crops.
Sir Christopher Codrington established the first large sugar estate in Antigua in 1674, and leased
Barbuda to raise provisions for his plantations.
Barbuda's only town is named after him. In the fifty years after Codrington established his initial plantation, the sugar industry became so profitable that many farmers replaced other crops with sugar, making it the economic backbone of the islands. Slavery was common in Barbuda in the 1700s and until 1834. The island was a source of slaves for other locations, too. No new slaves had arrived on the island since the mid-1700s but their population grew naturally. An estimate in 1977 by Lowenthal and Clark indicated that during 1779 to 1834 the number of slaves exported totalled 172; most were taken to Antigua but 37 went to the Leeward and Windward islands and some to the southern US. Several slave rebellions took place on the island, with the most serious in 1834–5. Britain emancipated slaves in most of its colonies in 1834, but that did not include Barbuda, so the island then freed its own slaves. For some years thereafter, the freed slaves had little opportunity of survival on their own because of limited agricultural land and the lack of available credit to buy some. Hence, they continued to work on the plantations for nominal wages or lived in shantytowns and worked as occasional labourers. Sugar cane production remained the primary economy for over a century. Over time, the importance of crops and produce went into decline as other nations were able to sell goods at a price no longer feasible to sustain in the Antiguan economy. In more recent times, however, Antigua has developed a primarily service-based economy relying on tourism as their leading source of income. Much like other islands and nations that rely on tourism, this can become problematic as their success depends on the willingness of others to travel and explore the area. Moreover, this has tendency to follow a seasonal pattern leaving the country vulnerable at certain times in the year.
Political development Along with most colonies of the
British Empire, all slaves in Antigua were
emancipated in 1833, but remained economically dependent upon the island's white
plantation owners. Economic opportunities for the freed population were limited by a lack of surplus farming land, no access to credit and an economy built on agriculture rather than manufacturing. Poor labour conditions persisted until 1939 when a member of a British Crown commission urged the formation of a trade union movement. The
Antigua Trades and Labour Union, formed shortly afterward, became the political vehicle for
Sir Vere Cornwall Bird, who became the union's president in 1943. Voted out of office in the
1971 general elections that swept the progressive labour movement into power, Bird and the ALP returned to office in 1976. Until 1958, Antigua and Barbuda were part of the
British Leeward Islands. From 1958 to 1962, Antigua and Barbuda were part of the
West Indies Federation.
Social class and ethnic composition The development of social class of Antigua and Barbuda primarily occurred during the
colonial era, where the
immigration of British colonists (and subsequent
importation of African slaves) created a strict hierarchy based both on race and class; Antigua and Barbuda has been described as "a classic case of the superimposition of race on class and vice versa." Both before and after the abolition of slavery in 1833, the two islands were dominated by a small minority of white plantation owners who constituted the colonial
upper class. Beneath them were the
Afro-Caribbean population, who "constituted the subordinate
working class." In between these two groups were several
middlemen minorities:
free people of color, along with
Portuguese and
Syrian immigrants, who dominated the professions of law, medicine, and architecture "and the white-collar positions in banks, businesses, and the civil service." In contrast to the Portuguese, Syrian immigrants to Antigua and Barbuda did not start arriving until the 1950s, and "are primarily involved in the import business and have managed to establish themselves in academic professions." As of 2008, there were approximately 475 to 500 permanent residents of Antigua and Barbuda who are of Syrian descent. The
Irish first came to Antigua either as
indentured servants or merchants; Irish indentured servants were primarily transported to Antigua during the
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. As increasing numbers of African slaves were transported to Antigua, the island's Irish population began to leave in search of opportunities in the rest of the
British West Indies or in
Britain's North American colonies. Numerous Irish merchants in Antigua belonged to business families from
County Galway, and several Irish-Antiguans formed relationships with
Irish servants in Montserrat. The Afro-Caribbean inhabitants of Antigua and Barbuda, who "account for about 91% of the country’s population", are primarily descended from African slaves who were transported from
West and
Central Africa during the slave trade, in regions such as the
Bight of Biafra, the
Gold Coast,
Sierra Leone, the
Gulf of Guinea, the
Bight of Benin, and
Senegambia. 4.4% of the Black Antiguan and Barbudan population are
mixed-raced. ==Independent Antigua and Barbuda (1981–present) ==