Saint Kitts and Nevis – from the 'Mother Colony' of the Caribbean to independence
Saint Kitts and Nevis were first settled by Amerindian peoples; at the time of European contact the islands were home to the Kalinago, who called Saint Kitts Liamuiga, 'the fertile land'. Christopher Columbus sighted the islands in 1493.
In 1623 Thomas Warner founded the first English settlement in the Caribbean on Saint Kitts, which is why the island is often called the 'Mother Colony of the West Indies'. French settlers arrived soon afterwards, and in 1626 English and French forces killed many Kalinago at the place now known as Bloody Point. For more than a century the island was divided and fought over by Britain and France, until British control was confirmed in 1783. The massive Brimstone Hill Fortress, today a World Heritage Site, bears witness to these conflicts.
The islands' wealth came from sugar plantations worked by enslaved Africans under brutal conditions; Nevis was also the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton. Slavery was abolished in the 1830s, but the plantation economy and widespread poverty endured. Labour unrest in the 1930s gave rise to trade unions and political movements. After a period in the West Indies Federation, Saint Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla became an associated state in 1967; Anguilla broke away, and Saint Kitts and Nevis gained independence on 19 September 1983. The state-run sugar industry closed in 2005.
Today the federation is shaped by tourism, its colonial heritage and a strong sense of identity on both islands.
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