St. Lucia Cruises.

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St. Lucia

St. Lucia Cruises

Saint Lucia, country in the Caribbean Sea, approximately 40 km (25 mi) south of Martinique and 32 km (20 mi) north of Saint Vincent.

As its nickname "The Helen of the West Indies" suggests, Saint Lucia is considered one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean. Its beauty is in large measure due to the fact that it has more forests and more indigenous flora and fauna than many Caribbean islands.

Saint Lucia was inhabited first by the Arawak Indians, who migrated to the island around 200 c.e., and then by the Carib Indians, who replaced the Arawaks by about 800 c.e. The original Native American name for the island was Iouanalao, or "the place where the iguana is found." There has been some debate over when Europeans first sighted Saint Lucia, though tradition holds that Christopher Columbus himself discovered the island on St. Lucy's feast day, December 13, 1502. What is certain, however, is that Carib resistance to European settlement on the island was fierce, and Saint Lucian Caribs were able to resist European colonization until the mid-17th century.

Once colonization began, there was new competition over which European colonial power would control Saint Lucia. Although Spanish explorers had claimed the island first, Spanish colonists never made a serious attempt to settle it, and the real battle for Saint Lucia was fought between the French and the British. Both held other islands close to Saint Lucia, and both coveted the excellent natural harbor at Castries, which is considered the best harbor in the West Indies. The British and French continued fighting over the island until 1814, with the island changing hands seven times. The constant political instability meant that neither country was able to develop the permanent plantation economy on Saint Lucia that they had created on other islands.

This was the fortunate development that left much of Saint Lucia's land untouched—land that might otherwise have been covered in sugar or coffee plantations by the end of the 18th century. But some colonists were able to establish plantations on Saint Lucia, and like plantation owners across the Americas, they turned to Africa for the cheap labor they needed to run their estates. The first African slaves arrived in Saint Lucia around 1763, brought by French planters who had purchased them from the slave traders who abducted them from their West African homes. It was during slavery that the distinctive patois still spoken today developed—a combination of French and several African languages (see Languages, Creole, in the Caribbean).

The fact that most Saint Lucian blacks spoke French patois put them at a disadvantage when the country permanently became a British territory in 1814, and this linguistic difference is one of the factors that continues to contribute to the island's high illiteracy rate. In 1834 slavery was abolished in all British territories, making the 13,291 Saint Lucian slaves free. At the time of emancipation Saint Lucia already had more small estates than any of the other Windward Islands, and this number grew as newly emancipated slaves fled their former owners and established their own farms. This left white planters with a labor shortage, and in response they introduced a sharecropping system in 1838. But this system left much to be desired for its black workers, and poverty, smallpox and yellow fever, and other ills plagued both black and white Saint Lucians for much of the 19th century.

The introduction of the coal industry in 1883 brought relief for a short time, as did the transfer of a British military base to Saint Lucia from Barbados during the same period. But for the most part, Saint Lucia was regarded as a poor, undeveloped nation, even by its Caribbean neighbors. By the middle of the 20th century, even the sugar industry that had been the backbone of much of the Caribbean economy was in decline. The growth of the banana industry in the 1950s finally brought a period of relative prosperity to Saint Lucia, and for the first time the island was able to concentrate on bringing roads, electricity, and a fresh water supply to its large rural population.

Welcome political changes soon followed the economic ones. During its 1st century of British authority Saint Lucia had been ruled by crown colony government, under which all political decisions regarding the island were made by a council appointed by the British Crown. Representative government was introduced in 1924, but it remained limited to the predominantly white elite, and it was not until 1951 that universal adult suffrage was established. For the first time, black Saint Lucians—who had been the majority on the island since the late 18th century—were able to have their say in the country's government.

The first political party to rise to prominence under the new system was the Saint Lucia Labour Party, which was an offshoot of the St. Lucia Workers Union. In 1961 a faction of younger, university-educated members of the Labour Party broke off to found the United Workers Party (UWP). When the UWP won its first election in 1964, leader John Compton became chief minister of Saint Lucia. Compton led the country's government from 1964 to 1979. After being voted out of office in the 1979 elections, he returned in 1982 for another six years. Compton presided over one of the most important developments in the island's history—its transition to independent statehood within the British Commonwealth on February 22, 1979.

Since independence, the country has been relatively prosperous, particularly as tourism has experienced strong growth in the 1990s. However, droughts and the changes in the European market, which have threatened the banana industry in the last several years, serve as reminders of the country's need to continue diversifying its economic base. The need for improvements in education also remains a national priority, especially changes that will help the patois-speaking population prosper in the official English society.

Saint Lucia is already celebrated as the home of the Caribbean's two Nobel laureates, economist Sir Arthur Lewis and poet and playwright Derek Walcott. Prominent novelists such as Garth St. Omer also add to the island's reputation. Finally, tourist literature about Saint Lucia is quick to celebrate the island's multicultural African, French, and British heritage as one of its greatest assets. Saint Lucia is already a favorite site for visitors from around the world, and Saint Lucians remain optimistic that their country will continue prospering into the next century.

Agency Specializing in Cruises to the Caribbean.

Caribbean cruises have become one of the most popular ways to visit the Caribbean. Cruises feature great food, entertainment, interesting ports of call and fascinating tours of ancient ruins and cultures along way. There are a number of different cruise itineraries for the Caribbean offered by most of the major lines.

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