History of The British Virgin Islands

The History of the British Virgin Islands is usually, for convenience, broken up into five separate periods:

  • Pre-Columbian Amerindian settlement, up to an uncertain date
  • Nascent European settlement, from approximately 1612 until 1672
  • British control, from 1672 until 1834
  • Emancipation, from 1834 until 1950
  • The modern state, from 1950 to present day

These time periods are used for convenience only. There appears to be an uncertain period of time from when the last Arawaks left what would later be called the British Virgin Islands until the first Europeans started to settle there in the early 17th century, but each period commences with a dramatic change from the time period which precedes it, and so is a convenient way to compartmentalise the subject.

Read more about History Of The British Virgin Islands:  Pre-Columbian Settlement, 1492 - Early European Exploration, 1672 - British Colonisation, Slavery Economy, 1834 - Emancipation, Modern Developments

Famous quotes containing the words history, british, virgin and/or islands:

    Every member of the family of the future will be a producer of some kind and in some degree. The only one who will have the right of exemption will be the mother ...
    Ruth C. D. Havens, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)

    Gorgonised me from head to foot,
    With a stony British stare.
    Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)

    Truly, My Satan, thou art but a Dunce,
    And dost not know the Garment from the Man.
    Every Harlot was a Virgin once,
    Nor can’st thou ever change Kate into Nan.
    William Blake (1757–1827)

    What are the islands to me
    if you are lost
    what is Naxos, Tinos, Andros,
    and Delos, the clasp
    of the white necklace?
    Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)