Anguilla – a small island that chose its own path in 1967
Anguilla was settled for centuries by Indigenous Arawak-speaking peoples, who left traces of their villages and ceremonial sites in caves and along the coast. The island's name is usually traced back to the Spanish or French word for eel, a reference to its long, narrow shape.
English settlers arrived in the mid-seventeenth century and tried to establish tobacco, cotton and later sugar plantations, worked by enslaved Africans. Because the soil was thin and rain scarce, plantation agriculture never flourished as on other islands, and many Anguillians became small farmers, fishermen, salt workers and seafarers. After the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in the 1830s, the island remained poor and was administered for a long time together with St Kitts and Nevis.
When Britain grouped the three islands into a single associated state in 1967, many Anguillians rejected rule from St Kitts. The so-called Anguillian Revolution expelled the St Kitts police and led to a period of self-declared independence, until Britain sent officials and security forces in 1969 and resumed direct administration. In 1980 Anguilla was formally separated from St Kitts and Nevis and became a separate British dependency, today a British Overseas Territory with its own elected government.
Today Anguilla is shaped by its strong sense of community, its maritime traditions and tourism built around its quiet beaches.
Do you have stories, photos or memories of Anguilla? Share them with the community in the local history section.