HISTORY
Christopher Columbus landed on Guadeloupe
on November 4, 1493. Though originally called Karukéra
(Island of Beautiful Waters) by the Carib Indians, Columbus named
the island after the famous sanctuary of Santa Maria de Guadalupe
de Estremadura. Lacking gold and silver, the island was not of
great interest to the Europeans until the17th century. For a brief
period the Spanish had tried to settle Guadeloupe but were stopped
by the ferocious Carib Indians. Then around 1635, the French began
to colonize the island. With the institutionalization of slavery
in 1644, the trade of spices, sugar, tobacco and rum prospered
between France, Africa and the Antilles.
Guadeloupe
was officially annexed by the King of France in 1674. As the island
prospered, it became the scene of great battles between the French
and the British, who occupied it from 1759 to 1763. That year
it was restored to France in exchange for all French rights to
Canada. But the tug-of-war continued on and off until 1815, when
the Treaty of Paris designated Guadeloupe as French. In 1848,
thanks to the efforts of Victor Schoelcher, slavery was abolished.
Guadeloupe was represented for the first time in the French Parliament
in 1871. It became a French Départment on March 19, 1946.
