Saint Kitts

State of Saint Kitts

Nickname: "Sugar City"
Geography
Location	Caribbean Sea
Coordinates	17°15′N 62°40′W
Archipelago	Leeward Islands
Area	174 km2 (67 sq mi)
Length	29 km (18 mi)
Width	8 km (5 mi)
Highest elevation	1,156 m (3793 ft)
Administration
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Demographics
Population	34,983
Pop. density	208.33/km2 (539.57/sq mi)

Saint Kitts, also known more formally as Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Saint Kitts and Nevis are separated by a shallow 3-kilometre (2 mi) channel known as "The Narrows".

The island is one of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. It is situated about 2,100 km (1,300 mi) southeast of Miami, Florida. The land area of St. Kitts is about 168 km² (65 sq mi), being approximately 29 km (18 mi) long and on average about 8 km (5.0 mi) across.

Saint Kitts has a population of around 35,000, the majority of whom are mainly of African descent. The primary language is English, with a literacy rate of approximately 98%. Residents call themselves Kittitians.

Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the largest fortress ever built in the Eastern Caribbean. The island of Saint Kitts is home to the Warner Park Cricket Stadium, which was used to host 2007 Cricket World Cup matches. This made St. Kitts and Nevis the smallest nation to ever host a World Cup event. Saint Kitts is also home to several institutions of higher education, including Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, Windsor University School of Medicine, and the University of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Geography

The capital of the two-island nation, and also its largest port, is the town of Basseterre on Saint Kitts. There is a modern facility for handling large cruise ships there. A ring road goes around the perimeter of the island with smaller roads branching off it; the interior of the island is too steep for habitation.

Saint Kitts is 10 km (6.2 mi) away from Sint Eustatius to the north and 3 km (1.9 mi) from Nevis to the south. St. Kitts has three distinct groups of volcanic peaks: the North West or Mount Misery Range; the Middle or Verchilds Range and the South East or Olivees Range. The highest peak is Mount Liamuiga, formerly Mount Misery, a dormant volcano 1,156 m high.

Parishes

Main article: Parishes of Saint Kitts and Nevis

There are nine parishes on the island of St. Kitts:

• Christ Church Nichola Town
• Saint Anne Sandy Point
• Saint George Basseterre
• Saint John Capisterre
• Saint Mary Cayon
• Saint Paul Capisterre
• Saint Peter Basseterre
• Saint Thomas Middle Island
• Trinity Palmetto Point

Economy

St. Kitts & Nevis uses the Eastern Caribbean dollar, which maintains a fixed exchange rate of 2.7-to-one with the United States dollar. The US dollar is almost as widely accepted as the Eastern Caribbean dollar.

For hundreds of years, St. Kitts operated as a sugar monoculture, but due to decreasing profitability, the government closed the industry in 2005. Tourism is a major and growing source of income to the island, although the number and density of resorts is less than on many other Caribbean islands. Transportation, non-sugar agriculture, manufacturing and construction are the other growing sectors of the economy.

St. Kitts is dependent on tourism to drive its economy. Tourism has been increasing since 1978. In 2009, there were 587,479 arrivals to Saint Kitts compared to 379,473 in 2007, which represents an increase of just under 40% growth in a two-year period. As tourism grows, the demand for vacation property increases in conjunction.

St. Kitts & Nevis also acquires foreign direct investment from their unique citizenship by investment program, outlined in their Citizenship Act of 1984. Interested parties can acquire citizenship if they pass the government's strict background checks and make an investment into an approved real estate development. Purchasers who pass government due diligence and make a minimum investment of US$400,000, into qualifying government approved real estate, are entitled to apply for citizenship of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. Many projects are approved under the citizenship by investment program, and the main qualifying projects of interest can be found within the Henley Estates market overview .

In addition to this, in hopes of expanding tourism, the country hosts its annual St. Kitts Music Festival.

History

Siege of Brimstone Hill, 1782, as described by an observer in a French engraving titled "Attaque de Brimstomhill".

Main article: History of Saint Kitts and Nevis

During the last Ice Age, the sea level was 200 feet (61 m) lower and St. Kitts and Nevis were one island along with Sint Eustatius (also known as Statia).

St. Kitts was originally settled by pre-agricultural, pre-ceramic "Archaic people", who migrated south down the archipelago from Florida. In a few hundred years they disappeared, to be replaced by the ceramic-using and agriculturalist Saladoid people around 100 BC, who migrated to St. Kitts north up the archipelago from the banks of the Orinoco River in Venezuela. Around 800 AD, they were replaced by the Igneri people, members of the Arawak group.

Around 1300, the Kalinago, or Carib people arrived on the islands. These war-like people quickly dispersed the Igneri, and forced them northwards to the Greater Antilles. They named Saint Kitts "Liamuiga" meaning "fertile island", and would likely have expanded further north if not for the arrival of Europeans.

A Spanish expedition under Christopher Columbus arrived and claimed the island for Spain in 1493. A short-lived French Huguenot settlement was established at Dieppe Bay in 1538.

The first English colony was established in 1623, followed by a French colony in 1625. The English and French briefly united to massacre the local Kalinago (preempting a Kalinago plan to massacre the Europeans), and then partitioned the island, with the English colonists in the middle and the French on either end. In 1629, a Spanish force sent to clear the islands of foreign settlement seized St. Kitts. The English settlement was rebuilt following the 1630 peace between England and Spain.

The island alternated repeatedly between English (then British) and French control during the 17th and 18th centuries, as one power took the whole island, only to have it switch hands due to treaties or military action. Parts of the island were heavily fortified, as exemplified by the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Brimstone Hill and the now-crumbling Fort Charles.

Since 1783, St. Kitts has been affiliated with the Kingdom of Great Britain, which became the United Kingdom.

Slavery

The island originally produced tobacco; but it changed to sugar cane in 1640, due to stiff competition from the colony of Virginia. The labour-intensive cultivation of sugar cane was the reason for the large-scale importation of African slaves. The importation began almost immediately upon the arrival of Europeans to the region.

The purchasing of enslaved Africans was outlawed in the British Empire by an Act of Parliament in 1807. Slavery was abolished by an Act of Parliament which became law on 1 August 1834. This emancipation was followed by four years of apprenticeship, put in place to protect the planters from losing their labour force.

August the 1st is now celebrated as a public holiday and is called Emancipation Day. In 1883, St. Kitts, Nevis, and Anguilla were all linked under one presidency, located on St. Kitts, to the dismay of the Nevisians and Anguillans. Anguilla eventually separated out of this arrangement, in 1971, after an armed raid on St. Kitts.

Sugar production continued to dominate the local economy until 2005, when, after 365 years of having a mono-culture, the government closed the sugar industry. This was due to huge losses and European Union plans to greatly cut sugar prices.

Transportation

Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport serves St. Kitts. British Airways (BA) flies in twice a week from London and daily connections from Miami and New York are available.

The Basseterre Ferry Terminal facilitates travel between St. Kitts and sister island Nevis.

The narrow-gauge (30 inches) St Kitts Scenic Railway circles the island and offers passenger service from its headquarters near the airport, although the service is geared more for tourists than as day-to-day transportation for residents. Built between 1912 and 1926 to haul sugar cane from farms to the sugar factory in Basseterre, since 2003 the railway has offered a 3.5 hour, 30-mile circle tour of the island on specially designed double-decker open-air coaches, with 12 miles of the trip being by bus.

Notable residents

Saint Kitts is or was the residence of:

• Joan Armatrading, singer/songwriter.
• George Astaphan, born in St. Kitts, was a physician who gave steroids to the sprinter Ben Johnson.
• Imruh Bakari, born in St. Kitts, film maker and writer
• Robert Bradshaw was a major political figure in St. Kitts from 1932 to his death in 1978.
• Burt Caesar, born in St. Kitts, actor, broadcaster and director.
• Pogus Caesar is a British artist, television producer and director.
• Kim Collins is a former world champion sprinter (2003).
• Felix Dexter was an actor, comedian, and writer.
• Bertil Fox was born in St. Kitts, became a professional bodybuilder and was convicted of murder.
• Keith Gumbs is an International football player who currently plays as a striker for the Liga Indonesia side Sriwijaya FC.
• Sir James Harford was Administrator of Saint Christopher from 1940 to 1946.
• Atiba Harris is a Kittitian footballer who currently plays for FC Dallas in Major League Soccer.
• Virgil Hodge is a female sprinter specialising in the 200 metres event.
• Konris Maynard is a Calypso musician.
• Major-General Sir Robert Nickle was governor of Saint Christopher from 1830.
• Tiandra Ponteen is a female sprinter specialising in the 200 metres and the 400 metres.
• Lord Hercules George Robert Robinson was governor of Saint Christopher from 1855 to 1859.
• Cuthbert Sebastian was the oldest de facto head of state in the world. He served as Governor-General of St Kitts-Nevis from 1 January 1996 to 31 December 2012, his retirement.
• Joseph Matthew Sebastian was a major political figure in St. Kitts from 1918 to his death in 1944.
• Julius Soubise was a freed Afro-Caribbean slave who became a well-known fop in the UK during the 1760s and 1770s.
• Neil Strauss writer.
• Desai Williams is a former sprinter who won a bronze medal in the 1984 Olympics.
• Tina Woodley was born in St. Kitts and was the first woman in the world to hold a gold medal in Powerlifting and Bodybuilding at the same time. She was World champion in Powerlifting in 1985, European Championship bodybuilding in 1985.
• Caryl Phillips was born in St. Kitts and is a novelist playwright and essayist, winning the literary awards: Commonwealth Writers' Prize (2003, 2006); James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1994).

Gallery

• 
  View from Sir Timothy's Hill
• 
  Southeast Peninsula (Saint Kitts). The island on the left is Nevis.
• 
  St. Kitts at dawn as seen from a ship entering the port of Basseterre
• 
  Downtown Basseterre
• 
  Downtown Basseterre
• 
  Fishing boat, Basseterre harbour
• 
  Flamingo Tongue snail Cyphoma gibbosum on a Sea Fan
• 
  Divers and anemone on the MV River Taw wreck
• 
  Juvenile Black or Grey Angelfish with a sunken van behind it
• 
  Diver and fish, MV River Taw wreck
• 
  Diver and sponges
• 
  Royal Gramma or Fairy Basslet
• 
  Brimstone Hill Fortress
• 
  Cannon battery at Brimston Hill
• 
  Cannon at Brimstone Hill
• 
  Ruins at Brimstone Hill
• 
  Battle of St. Kitts in January 1782
• 
  Flying towards the north end of the island, looking down part of the west or Caribbean coast

See also

• Culture of St. Kitts and Nevis
• Map of Saint Kitts
• Nevis, St. Kitts' sister island
• List of people on stamps of Saint Kitts
• Chief Justices

External links

• Official Government of Saint Kitts & Nevis website
• Saint Kitts & Nevis News
• Saint Kitts & Nevis Media Portal
• Mustrad.org.uk: "Christmas Sports in Saint Kitts"