The British Caribbean (étude en anglais)

Introduction

The British Caribbean is made up of three groups :continental territories(Belize, Guyana), Leeward Islands( Antigua, Dominica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, Virgin Islands), Windward Islands(Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent, Tobago).

FIRST PART: FROM CONQUEST TO PLANTATION SOCIETY

Contrary to belief which speculates that Christopher Colombus was the first inhabitant of the Caribbean, it’s really the Amerindians who first occupied the territories. They consist of Caribs and Arawaks. They were settled by European colonies in the 15th century and transformed into plantation societies.

1. The conquest of territory involved intense competition with rival powers

The English speaking Caribbean is referred to as the West Indies. This term is based on Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the Caribbean, he wanted to sail to India but ended up traveling to the Caribbean which he had mistaken for India. His journey to India sole objective was commercial reasons. For ‘’God, Glory and Gold’’ as they say. At that time, the spice trade were controlled by Italian merchants especially in Venice so other parts of Europe were in need of spices. This is what can be called: Italian monopoly. [j nn…]

From 1492 to 1493, Christopher Columbus discovered the American Islands. The first American Island he discovered was Hispaniola, where he settled with a group of Indians. The population gradually died or was exterminated after the arrival of Europeans 50 years later. But before disappearing, they were used as a tool to help Spaniards colonize other Caribbean islands. In 1509, the Spaniards occupied Jamaica and used Jamaica for cattle-rearing. They founded a creole owning land class. The society was thus divided into two classes: a dominant class (Spaniard masters) and a subdominant-class (Amerindians workers in plantations and mines). Soon after their discovery, the Spanish found of that there was gold in the Americas so they abandoned the Caribbean to go the mainland (the continent). Apart from gold they discovered diamonds, emerald… in Mexico and in Peru. Trinidad was used as a base from which they went to America. All of this contributed to Spain’s prosperity. So the other European countries wanted to attain the same good fortune as Spain. This is the reason why the Europeans decided to weaken Spain fleed that carried ships with two strategic standpoints: illicite trading, lauching pirate attacks on Spanish ships. As some islands had not been occupied by Spaniards, the other European countries took that opportunity in their hands ( France, Holland, England). […] Most pirates’ base were on the Island of Tortuga, isle of Torture (Ayiti), considered as a secure hiding place. Cromwell then decided to send force to capture Jamaica. English pirates’ guaranteed protection of the colony of England, no Spaniards couldn’t attack the colony under their control. One of the most successful, notorious English pirate is Sir Henry Morgan also known as the Admiral of the Royal Navy. It’s only after seeing how hard life was hard as a servant in Barbados that he became a buccaneer (a pirate). In 1670, he was captured in Panama and his career came to an end with the Treaty of Madrid between England and Spain where Spain recognized English possessions in the Caribbean Sea. This was a step into gradually getting rid of pirates’. They knew how powerful Sir Henry Morgan was, especially after being knighted, so the appointed him governor of Jamaica but as we know representatives have to get rid of pirates. Piracy was used as an important weapon at the hand of the government, useful in competition against Spain. This competition with Spain was replaced with a competition with France. Conflicts now took place in St Kitts, occupied by France and England settlers. But in 1713, England force France to leave St Kitts, thus St Kitts becoming English. Seven years war[…]It was a success for british. In 1763, England signed a Treaty allowing Britain to keep Dominica, Tobago, St Vincent , Grenada and Canada (in exchange for Guadeloupe). St Lucia was French, had been taken by English but after given back to france. In exchange british got act of Navigation.

2. Settlement and colonization: from private enterprise to national business

In the beginning, colonization was private (no involvement of the government) and it was a capitalistic enterprise. It was considered private because it was founded by joint-stock companies, where two or more individuals are stock holders; the queen herself granted patents (privileges) which gave them monopoly over islands (no one outside the company could trade in the area). The oldest colonies were: St Kitts, Grenada, and Barbados which were used to conquer Montserrat, Antigua, and Nevis. The first settlers were pioneers whose main activity was cutting down timber to build houses and clearing the land for agriculture. Some of them thought they could live comfortably in the Caribbean and didn’t know the hard reality of life. But once they knew the truth, fewer were willing to come so English people were kidnapped to come to the Caribbean. Settlers started agriculture after the land was cleared. The choice of the crops depended on material conditions of exportation. In the 17th century, ships were small so sailors were not capable of carrying a lot so they avoided carrying corn because it took up too much space on ships. Instead they produced tobacco. In St Kitts and Barbados they exported 1000s of pounds of tobacco. In Europe the consumption of tea was very high so they needed to add sweetness to the tea. We can see a tobacco/tea shift. The next reason there was no tobacco: competition from Virginia. In the mid-17th century, tobacco dropped for sugar cane. Government started to interfere more in more in produce, an indirect control (the colonies remained private properties but they need approval of queen). In 1627, the proprietor Earl of Carliste which his rule was allow to raise taxes and duty, to support the agriculture, to defend the island against European attack […].

In 1647 there was a new proprietor: Lord Francis Willoughby. English took advantage of this new propriter. Start new direct control on colony.The monarch could impose his way on them directly

English Caribbean took advantage of taking colonist under control. It had economic reasons: more profit from the colonist and from England. The government decided to control first train and start Navigation act which was 1651 (The English Navigation Acts were a series of laws that restricted the use of foreign shipping for trade between England (after 1707 Great Britain) and its colonies, a process which had started in 1651. Their goal was to force colonial

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