The earliest inhabitants of Antigua were the Siboney Indians, who arrived in 2400 BC. In the years 35-1100 AD Arawak Indians were the main inhabitants but they were later replaced by the fiercer Carib tribes. In 1493, Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage to the Indies, spotted the island, and named it for Santa Maria la Antigua in Spain. Columbus never set foot on the island; it was the British who settled the island in 1632.
In 1674 Sir Christopher Codrington came to the Antigua and established one of the first sugar plantations on the island, called Betty’s Hope after his daughter. Within the next century sugar became the dominant cash crop. Slaves from Africa were brought in to develop the industry. Antigua has the distinction of being one of the few locations where full emancipation was given to slaves on August 1, 1834. Other islands chose to add the four-year Apprenticeship period.
Antigua’s natural harbours provided a perfect location from which the British Navy could fight their wars and protect their commercial fleets. Admiral Horatio Nelson came to the island in 1784 to expand the dockyard, now called Nelson’s Dockyard, the only Georgian dockyard still existing in the world. By the late 18th century, Antigua was also the home of the Governor of the Leeward Islands.
Antigua remained a British colony until its independence in 1981. In the last few decades, tourism and financial services have become the major industries on the island.
