ORIGINAL INHABITANTS & SPANISH DISCOVERY

Like many other Caribbean islands, Guadeloupe’s takes its modern name from the explorer Christopher Columbus, who called it Santa María de Guadalupe, in honour of the Virgin Mary venerated in the Spanish town of Guadalupe.  

But like many other Caribbean islands, Guadeloupe took its first name from its original occupants, the Arawak, who settled there in 300 AD, giving it the name of Karukera, or “The Island of Beautiful Waters”. The Arawakpeople lived in Guadeloupe until the 8th century, when the population was decimated with the arrival of the Caribs.

Columbus came across Guadeloupe during his second trip to the Americas, landing South of Capesterre whilst looking for fresh water. Although it is believed that Columbus’ time there resulted in the discovery of the pineapple, no settlers were left behind at the time and it is not until the 17th century that Spanish settlers came back to fight the Carib people, unsuccessfully.

COLONIAL ERA

After having settled the island of St Kitts, the French set out to colonise neighbouring islands including Martinique, and Guadeloupe, which they reached in 1635 and took over in 1674, after decades spent fighting the Caribs.

The island’s bountiful sugar trade made it increasingly attractive to other colonial nations such as the British, who struggled to take control of the island over the following century, successfully at times. However, the 1763 Treaty of Paris that concluded the Seven Years War saw the British return Guadeloupe to the French in favour of keeping Canada.

With the revolution in full swing in continental France, the tension was rising on the island as traditional monarchists there were refusing to accept the new ideology of equality between races, resulting in an attempt of independance. However, the island’s republicans rebelled against the monarchists and, in the conflict, a third of Pointe-à-Pitre was destroyed in a fire. The monarchists eventually took control of the island and declared independence in 1791, refusing the new governor sent by Paris in 1792.

The following year was stage to slave rebellions so strong the monarchists turned for help to the British, asking them to occupy the island, which they did from April to December 1794, when republican governor Victor Hugues forced the British general to surrender and freed the slaves of the island.

In 1802, Napoléon Bonaparte issued a law aimed to restore slavery throughout the colonies that had been occupied by the British during the French Revolution. With the freed slaves rebelling against the new law, Bonaparte sent his troops to fight the rebels and take control of the island, killing no less than 10,000 Guadeloupeans in the process - including resistance leader Louis Delgrès, who jumped to his death off the Matouba volcano.

The island was once again under British occupation from 1810 until 1816, during which they ceded Guadeloupe to Sweden for 15 months, following the Anglo-Swedish treaty of 1813, whilst still keeping their governors and administration in place.

The 1814’s Treaty of Paris saw Sweden give Guadeloupe back to France, who fully regained possession of the island with the 1815 Treaty of Vienna. But it’s not until the 28rd May 1848 that slavery was officially abolished there and in all of France’s colonies, following the work of Victor Schoelcher.

In 1865 and 1866, a cholera epidemic stroke the island, killing 12,000 of its 150,000 inhabitants.

20TH CENTURY 

It is not until 1925 that the indigenous inhabitants of the island were granted French nationality as well as the right to vote, following the trial of Justice of the Peace leader Henry Sidambarom, who fought for the rights of Indian workers in Guadeloupe.

Guadeloupe officially became a French Overseas Department in 1946, and an administrative centre in 1974, with its deputies holding a place at the French Assemblée Nationale

21ST CENTURY

Originally considered as communes of Guadeloupe, the island of Saint-Barthélémy and Saint-Martin were officially detached from the island in 2007, to become two distinctive French Overseas Territories with their own administrative representation.