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The Virgin
Islands:
were first
settled by the Arawak from South America around 100 BC
(though there is some evidence of Amerindian presence on the
islands as far back as 1500 BC).[2] The Arawaks inhabited
the islands until the fifteenth century when they were
displaced by the more aggressive Caribs, a tribe from the
Lesser Antilles islands, after whom the Caribbean Sea is
named.
The first European sighting of the Virgin Islands was by
Christopher Columbus in 1493 on his second voyage to the
Americas. Columbus gave them the fanciful name Santa Ursula
y las Once Mil Vírgenes (Saint Ursula and her 11,000
Virgins), shortened to Las Vírgenes (The Virgins), after the
legend of Saint Ursula.
The Spanish Empire claimed the islands by discovery in the
early sixteenth century, but never settled them, and
subsequent years saw the English, Dutch, French, Spanish and
Danish all jostling for control of the region, which became
a notorious haunt for pirates. There is no record of any
native Amerindian population in the British Virgin Islands
during this period, although the native population on nearby
St. Croix was decimated.
The Dutch established a permanent settlement on the island
of Tortola by 1648. In 1672, the English captured Tortola
from the Dutch, and the British annexation of Anegada and
Virgin Gorda followed in 1680. Meanwhile, over the period
1672–1733, the Danish gained control of the nearby islands
of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix.
The British islands were considered principally a strategic
possession, but were planted when economic conditions were
particularly favourable. The British introduced sugar cane
which was to become the main crop and source of foreign
trade, and slaves were brought from Africa to work on the
sugar cane plantations. The islands prospered economically
until the middle of the 1800s, when a combination of the
abolition of slavery in the Territory, a series of
disastrous hurricanes, and the growth in the sugar beet crop
in Europe and the United States[3] significantly reduced
sugar cane production and led to a period of economic
decline.
In 1917, the United States purchased St. John, St. Thomas
and St. Croix from Denmark for US$25 million, renaming them
the United States Virgin Islands.
The British Virgin Islands were administered variously as
part of the British Leeward Islands or with St. Kitts and
Nevis, with an Administrator representing the British
Government on the Islands. Separate colony status was gained
for the Islands in 1960 and the Islands became autonomous in
1967. Since the 1960s, the Islands have diversified away
from their traditionally agriculture-based economy towards
tourism and financial services, becoming one of the richest
areas in the Caribbean.
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Information About:
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British Virgin
Islands Offshore Corporation -
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USA
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USA Oregon
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