Guadeloupe - History
The islands were inhabited by Caribe tribes when Christopher Columbus landed on Guadeloupe for the first time on November 3, 1493. The name, given to the islands by Columbus himself, was a reminder of the Virgin of Guadeloupe Monastery built in the self-governing Spanish community of Extremadura. The French Company of the American Islands established settlements in 1635 and it gradually conquered the Caribe people. After four royal-entitled companies failed to permanently colonize the islands, they were annexed to France in 1674 and turned into a Martinique’s dependency. The French founded Basse-Terre in 1643. The city lost some importance in the late 18th Century, though, when Point-à-Pitre became the island nation’s major economic center. In 1979, the city was virtually destroyed by a hurricane.
Archaeological remains found testify to a human presence in Guadeloupe at least 3,000 years BC Guadeloupe was populated by the Indians Arawaks first and then the Caribbean Indians in the VIIIth century. Two peoples from Venezuela. In the Caribbean language, the island was called "Karekura", "the island with beautiful waters" and is called Gwadloup in Creole.
Christopher Columbus landed there in November 1493 and baptized Guadeloupe in reference to the monastery of Santa Maria de Guadalupe in Extremadura. The Spaniards will make some attempts to conquer it but without success. In the 17th century, under the patronage of Cardinal Richelieu, French merchants founded the Compagnie des Îles d'Amérique and organized colonization. Liénard de L'Olive and Plessis d'Ossonville took possession of the archipelago on 28 June 1635, a merciless war was fought over to the Caribbean Indians.
Charles Houel, governor from 1643 to 1664, founded the city of Basse-Terre and designed the economic vocation of Guadeloupe with the cultivation of sugarcane. Africans enslaved were then brought into the plantations to meet the high demand for labor. In 1685, is proclaimed the Black Code, it governs the slavery and the slave trade in the French colonies.
The revolutionary period was a turbulent time for Guadeloupe, which was occupied in 1794 by the British troops, but was quickly taken over by Convention Commissioner Victor Hugues. He proclaimed the abolition of slavery. In 1802, Bonaparte re-established it and repressed the abolitionist uprising of Delgres. It was on the proposal of Victor Schoelcher that the Republic decided the definitive enfranchisement of the slaves by a decree which was to be imposed on 27 May 1848. Since 1871, Guadeloupe has been represented in Parliament without interruption.
Guadeloupe is a French overseas department, since the law of 19 March 1946 adopted after important debates in the Parliament. Deputy Paul Valentino, famous for his struggle against the Vichy regime represented on the island by Admiral Robert, opposed the departmentalization. It is finally welcomed in Guadeloupe as in Martinique, with enthusiasm and first prefect, Henry Poignet, was installed solemnly in 1947 by the minister, Jules Much.
General de Gaulle presented decrees aimed at strengthening the powers of consultation of the general councils of the overseas departments in May 1960. The latter saw their powers increased in the legislative and regulatory field as well as in financial matters. In 1982, under the impetus of the law Defferre, Guadeloupe is erected in a monodépartementale region. In 2003, following a constitutional reform that made it possible, the Guadeloupeans and Guadeloupeans refused a referendum to 72.98% (with a participation rate of 50.34%), creating a single community that would have merged the skills of the region and the department.
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