Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – Garifuna resistance and island independence
The islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines were first settled by Indigenous peoples from South America, later known as the Kalinago or Island Caribs. On Saint Vincent, Kalinago and Africans who had escaped slavery or survived shipwrecks mixed to form the Garifuna, known to Europeans as the "Black Caribs". Because of their fierce resistance, the island remained one of the last in the Caribbean to be colonised by Europeans.
In the 18th century French settlers established farms, and after the Seven Years' War the island was ceded to Britain in 1763. The British expanded sugar plantations worked by enslaved Africans. The Garifuna resisted the seizure of their land in two Carib Wars; after the second war and the death of their paramount chief Joseph Chatoyer in 1795, most of the surviving Garifuna were deported to the island of Roatán off Central America in 1797. Their descendants live today along the Caribbean coast of Central America. Slavery was abolished in the 1830s, after which Portuguese and Indian indentured labourers arrived.
The eruption of La Soufrière volcano in 1902 caused many deaths, and the volcano erupted again in 1979 and 2021. After a period as part of the West Indies Federation and as an associated state, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines became independent on 27 October 1979, remaining a Commonwealth realm.
Today the country is shaped by its volcanic mountains, its many small Grenadine islands and a mix of African, Kalinago, European and Asian heritage.
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