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Caribbean Islands ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
COUNTRY PROFILE: Antigua and Barbuda
Official Name: Antigua and Barbuda
Term for Citizens: Antiguan(s) and Barbudan(s)
Capital: St John's
Political Status: Independent, 1981
Form of Government: Parliamentary democracy and
constitutional monarchy
GEOGRAPHY
Size: 445 sq km
Topography: Low-lying islands with limestone
formations
Climate: Tropical, dry
POPULATION
Total estimated in 1985: 80,000
Annual growth rate (in percentage) in 1982-85: 1 3
Life expectancy at birth in 1985: 72
Adult literacy rate (in percentage) in 1986: 90
Language: English
Ethnic groups: Primarily black
Religion: Anglican (75 percent); remainder other
Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Rastafarian
ECONOMY
Currency: Eastern Caribbean dollar (EC$)
Exchange rate: EC$2.70=US$1.00
Gross domestic product (GDP) in 1986: US$109 million
Per capita GDP in 1986: US$1,346
Distribution of GDP (in percentage) in 1984
Other services and government 44
Tourism 40
Manufacturing 8
Agriculture 8
NATIONAL SECURITY
Armed forces personnel: 115
Paramilitary personnel: 0
Police: 350
The islands of Antigua and Barbuda form a small nation whose
strategic importance is greater than its size. Located at the outer
curve of the Leeward Islands, Antigua and Barbuda are well placed
for strategic defense of the Caribbean against outside forces. The
natural harbors along Antigua's indented coast also offer havens
for naval forces (see Current Strategic Considerations, ch. 7).
By the eighteenth century B.C., Antigua and Barbuda had been
settled by their first inhabitants, the Ciboney (or Guanahuatebey)
Indians. They were followed by the Arawaks, a peaceful Indian tribe
that migrated from northern South America through the Caribbean
islands and arrived on Antigua around A.D. 35. They began slashand -burn cultivation of the island and introduced such crops as
corn, sweet potatoes, beans, pineapples, indigo, and cotton. The
Arawaks were uprooted by the Carib Indians around A.D. 1200;
however, the Caribs did not settle on Antigua but used it as a base
for gathering provisions (see The Pre-European Population, ch. 1).
In 1493, on his second voyage, Christopher Columbus sighted the
island of Antigua and named it after Santa Maria de la Antigua.
Early settlement, however, was discouraged by insufficient water on
the island and by Carib raids. Europeans did not establish
settlements on Antigua until the English claimed the island in
1632. Antigua fell into French hands in 1666 but was returned to
the English the following year under the Treaty of Breda. Antigua
remained under British control from 1667 until independence was
granted in 1981.
From the start, Antigua was used as a colony for producing
agricultural exports. The first of these were tobacco, indigo, and
ginger. The island was dramatically transformed in 1674 with the
establishment by Sir Christopher Codrington of the first sugar
plantation. Only four years later, half of Antigua's population
consisted of black slaves imported from the west coast of Africa to
work on the sugar plantations. Antigua became one of the most
profitable of Britain's colonies in the Caribbean (see The Sugar
Revolutions and Slavery, ch. 1).
In 1685 the Codrington family leased the island of Barbuda from
the English crown for the nominal price of "one fat pig per year if
asked." The Codringtons used Barbuda as a source of supplies--such
as timber, fish, livestock, and slaves--for their sugar plantations
and other real estate on Antigua. This lease continued in the
Codrington family until 1870. Barbuda legally became part of
Antigua in 1860.
Although the British Parliament enacted legislation in 1834
abolishing slavery throughout the empire, it mandated that former
slaves remain on their plantations for six years (see The PostEmancipation Societies, ch. 1). Choosing not to wait until 1840,
the government on Antigua freed its slaves in August 1834. This was
done more for economic than for humanitarian reasons, as the
plantation owners realized that it cost less to pay emancipated
laborers low wages than to provide slaves with food, shelter, and
other essentials. The plantation owners continued to exploit their
workers in this way into the twentieth century. The workers
perceived little opportunity to change the situation, and sugar's
dominance precluded other opportunities for employment on the
island.
The Antigua sugar industry was severely jolted in the 1930s, as
the dramatic decline in the price of sugar that resulted from the
Great Depression coincided with a severe drought that badly damaged
the island's sugar crop. Social conditions on Antigua, already bad,
became even worse, and the lower and working classes began to
protest to the point that law and order were threatened. The Moyne
Commission was established in 1938 to investigate the causes of the
social unrest in Antigua and elsewhere in the Caribbean (see Labor
Organizations, ch. 1). In 1940, in response to the situation, the
president of the British Trades Union Congress recommended that the
workers on Antigua form a trade union. Two weeks later, the Antigua
Trades and Labour Union (ATLU) was created. The union soon began to
win a series of victories in the struggle for workers' rights.
Despite these victories, the ATLU recognized the need to
participate in the political life of the island, as the plantation
owners still held all political power. Thus, in 1946, the union
established a political arm, the Antigua Labour Party (ALP), and
ran five parliamentary candidates who met the qualification of
being property owners. All were elected; in addition, one of the
five, Vere Cornwall Bird, Sr., was selected to serve on the
government's Executive Council. Bird and the ATLU continued to push
for constitutional reforms that would give the lower and working
classes more rights. Largely because of these efforts, Antigua had
full adult suffrage by 1951, unrestricted by minimum income or
literacy requirements. With each general election, the union and
the ALP put forth more candidates and won more seats in the
Antiguan Parliament. In 1961 Bird was appointed to fill the newly
created position of chief minister. Five years later, he led a
delegation to London to consider the issue of Antiguan
independence. Following a constitutional conference, Antigua became
an associated state (see Glossary) in February 1967, with Barbuda
and the tiny island of Redonda as dependencies. Antigua was
internally independent, but its foreign affairs and defense still
were controlled by Britain.
During the period of associated statehood (1967-81), Antigua
saw the rise of a second labor union and its affiliated political
party and the beginnings of a secessionist movement in Barbuda, as
well as the replacement of sugar by tourism as the dominant force
in the economy. In 1978 Deputy Prime Minister Lester Bird (younger
son of Vere Cornwall Bird, Sr.) and other like-minded political
leaders called for full independence. Following their return to
office in the 1980 general election, which was regarded as a
popular mandate on independence, another constitutional conference
was held in London in December 1980. An obstacle to achieving
independence was the issue of Barbudan secession; this barrier was
overcome when a compromise was reached that made Barbuda relatively
autonomous internally. Complete independence was granted to the new
nation of Antigua and Barbuda in 1981.
Data as of November 1987
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