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Anguilla - History

Around 4000 years ago, Anguilla was a lush island covered in dense rain forest. It was discovered by Amerindian peoples who came by dugout canoes and rafts from South America's mainland. They called Anguilla "Malliouhana" which meant arrow-shape sea serpent and they developed villages, farms and ceremonial sites to their gods.

Evidence of these Amerindians as old as 3300 years has been found at the eastern end of Anguilla. Shell axes, conch shell drinking vessels, flint blades and stone objects from the pre-ceramic era have all been uncovered on Anguilla. There is no record of how long this first group of Amerindians lived on the island.

Over the following three thousand years, a succession of tribes and cultures called the island home. Many were deeply religious, including the Arawak people whose belief was based on the sun and moon and two sacred caverns, from where they believed all mankind originated. These caves — Big Springs at Island Harbour and The Fountain at Shoal Bay — remain to this day. The Fountain is the Eastern Caribbean’s most intact ceremonial site of this period. It features petrogylphs, offering bowls and a stalagmite carved in the likeness of Jocahu, their Supreme Deity.

Christopher Columbus sailed by Anguilla is 1493 but never landed. During this time the Europeans changed the island's name from Malliouhana to Anguilla, for its long eel shape.

In 1650, English settlers arrived and colonized Anguilla. They established plantations where corn and tobacco were grown. For six years they were alone on the island until Indians from a neighboring island came and destroyed their settlement. The French temporarily overtook the island in 1666; however, it was returned to Britain the following year under the Treaty of Breda.

In the 1700 and 1800s Anguilla, like most of the Caribbean, exported sugar, rum and mahogany, but poor soil and lack of rain made farming difficult, prevented Anguilla from becoming a major plantation community and caused residents to turn to salt mining and fishing. Men also sought jobs on other islands, which sparked the now national past-time and long tradition of racing sailboats on their return to Anguilla.

By the 1800s Anguilla was thriving as a plantation economy like most of the Caribbean. Rum, sugar, cotton, indigo, fustic and mahogany were its chief exports. Eroding soil and unreliable rainfall made conditions for farming unfavorable. As a result, the size and strength of these plantations dwindled, and fewer people were employed. Eventually these people established their independence through private proprietorships, or by becoming fisherman or sailors.

Meanwhile, the 1830's brought the union of St. Kitts -Nevis-Anguilla on Britain's recommendation -- a union protested by the majority of Anguilla's freeholders. Anguilla was allowed one freeholder representative to the House of Assembly on the Island of St. Kitts and was mostly neglected by the tri-island legislature.

In 1958, St. Kitts -Nevis-Anguilla became part of the Federation of the West Indies. The Federation collapsed in 1962, which resulted in individual constitutions for most islands St. Kitts -Nevis-Anguilla was made an associated statehood, a political decision that sparked the Anguilla Revolution. Anguilla wanted its independence from the state and the proposed union was not a viable option for the island.

May 30, 1967 is celebrated today as Anguilla Day. This day commemorates the repulsion of the Royal St. Kitts Police Force from the island. Britain intervened and a peacekeeping committee was established. Debates over Anguilla's succession continued to be negotiated for another decade until December 19, 1980, Anguilla became a separate Dependent Territory with some measure of autonomy in Government.