Saint Lucia – from Kalinago homeland to independent island nation
Long before Europeans arrived, Saint Lucia was home to Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean: first Arawak-speaking communities, later the Kalinago, who fiercely resisted early attempts at settlement. In the seventeenth century French and English colonists competed for the island, and over the following two centuries it changed hands between France and Britain so often that it earned the nickname "Helen of the West Indies".
The colonial economy rested on sugar plantations worked by enslaved Africans. French settlers left a lasting mark on the island's place names, its Catholic traditions and its Kwéyòl language. After the Napoleonic Wars, Britain secured control in 1814, and slavery was abolished in the British Empire in the 1830s. Saint Lucia became part of the British Windward Islands and later joined the short-lived West Indies Federation.
In the twentieth century the island moved step by step towards self-government. It became an associated state of the United Kingdom in 1967 and gained full independence on 22 February 1979, remaining a member of the Commonwealth. Bananas and later tourism replaced sugar as the backbone of the economy. The small nation is also proud of two Nobel laureates: the economist Sir Arthur Lewis and the poet Derek Walcott.
Today Saint Lucia is shaped by its blend of African, French and British heritage, its dramatic Pitons landscape and a strong sense of community.
Do you have memories or family stories connected to Saint Lucia? Share them with other members in the Local History section and help keep the island's past alive.