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ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
Antigua, the largest of the Leeward Caribbean Islands, Antigua and its sister
islands of Barbuda and the uninhabited Redonda make up the nation of Antigua and
Barbuda. The country is an independent nation.
History
The Siboney (“stone people”), whose settlements date at least to 2400 BC, first
inhabited Antigua. The Arawaks who originated in Venezuela and gradually
migrated up the chain of islands now called the Lesser Antilles succeeded the
Siboney. The warlike Carib people drove the Arawaks from neighboring islands but
apparently did not settle on either Antigua or Barbuda. Christopher Columbus
landed on the islands in 1493, naming the larger one "Santa Maria de la
Antigua." The English colonized the islands in 1632. Sir Christopher Codrington
established the first large sugar estate in Antigua in 1674, and leased Barbuda
to raise provisions for hi plantations. Barbuda's only town is named after him.
Codrington and others brought slaves from Africa's west coast to work the
plantations. Antiguan slaves were emancipated in 1834 but remained economically
dependent on the plantation owners. Economic opportunities for the new freedmen
were limited by a lack of surplus farming land, no access to credit, and an
economy built on agriculture rather than manufacturing.
Economy
Antigua and Barbuda's service-based economy grew by 5.2% in 2004, with tourism,
financial services, and government services as the key sources of employment and
income. More than three-quarters of a million people visited Antigua and Barbuda
in 2004, the majority from Europe and the U.S., including over 500,000 cruise
ship visitors. To lessen its vulnerability to natural disasters and economic
shocks, Antigua has sought to diversify its economy by encouraging growth in
transportation, communications, Internet gambling, and financial services.
Antigua and Barbuda's currency is the Eastern Caribbean Dollar EC$ US$1=EC$2.7
Population
In mid-1985 the population of Antigua and Barbuda was about 80,000, of which
78,500 lived on Antigua and 1,500 on Barbuda. The annual growth rate was 1.3
percent, based on a crude birth rate of 15 births per 1,000 inhabitants and a
crude death rate of 5 deaths per 1,000. Infant mortality was twice that for the
population as a whole, at 10 deaths per 1,000 live births. In 1981, about 34
percent of Antigua's population was classified as urban. Nearly all of the
population of Barbuda lived in the town of Codrington. The people of Antigua and
Barbuda were mostly black, descendants of African slaves. But the population
also included some whites, descendants of British, Spanish, French, or Dutch
colonists or of Portuguese, Lebanese, or Syrian immigrants. About 75 percent of
the population belonged to the Anglican Church in the mid-1980s. The Anglican
Church was acknowledged as the official church, but church and state were
legally separated. The remaining 25 percent of the population included members
of different Protestant denominations--Methodist, Presbyterian, and
fundamentalist--as well as Roman Catholics and Rastafarians. Antiguan society
was stratified on the basis of race. Europeans and those of European descent
held the respected positions in society, They were the plantation owners and the
political elites. On the other end of the spectrum were the black slaves or
those of African ancestry, who lacked both political leverage and economic
independence. The middle class was composed of mulattoes, who participated in
commerce as merchants yet had little political clout. The abolition of slavery
did little to change the class structure; nevertheless, the trade union movement
and the associated transfer of political and economic power into workers' hands
did much to weaken class barriers. In the late 1980s, society was divided along
flexible class lines based on economic standing rather than the rigid racial
criteria of the previous century. The upper class in the late 1980s consisted
mostly of foreigners but also included local investors or businessmen from the
private sector. The higher positions in the party system, the civil service, the
state-run enterprises, and the private sector professions were filled by the
upper middle class, while the lower middle class consisted of other
professionals, party functionaries, technicians, and skilled laborers. The lower
class encompassed the rest of society.
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