U.S. Virgin Islands – from the Danish West Indies to an American territory
The islands now known as the U.S. Virgin Islands were first inhabited by Arawakan-speaking peoples, possibly as early as 1000 BC, and later by the Kalinago. Christopher Columbus saw them on his second voyage in 1493 and gave the Virgin Islands their name. In the following period the islands were contested by Spain, France, Britain and the Netherlands.
Denmark–Norway took a growing interest: the Danish West India Company settled Saint Thomas in 1672 and Saint John in 1694, and bought Saint Croix from France in 1733. The islands became royal Danish colonies in 1754. Sugar plantations, worked by enslaved Africans, dominated the economy, and a notable Jewish community also settled there. In 1733 enslaved Akwamu people on Saint John rose up and held the island for about six months. In 1848, after a large uprising on Saint Croix, the Danish governor Peter von Scholten proclaimed emancipation.
After the decline of the sugar economy, the United States bought the islands from Denmark in 1917, largely for strategic reasons during the First World War. Residents received U.S. citizenship in 1927, and the territory gradually gained more self-government, including an elected governor from 1970. Tourism became the main economic pillar, though hurricanes such as Irma and Maria in 2017 caused severe damage.
Today the U.S. Virgin Islands are shaped by their Caribbean culture, Danish colonial architecture and a close connection to the sea.
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