St Barthélemy / History, Population, Politics

St Barts was known as Ouanalao before the arrival of the Europeans at the end of the fifteenth century, but it was soon renamed after Christopher Columbus’s brother Bartolomeo. Columbus himself sighted the island on his second voyage to the Caribbean, in November 1493, as he headed north through the islands with colonists for the first colony in the New World in Hispaniola. 

The Spanish held dominion in the Caribbean until the mid 1600s when other Europeans began to settle the smaller, remoter islands. Pirates no doubt used the excellent harbour, but for many years St Barths was largely ignored by potential settlers. It was an extremely hard place to settle because of the lack of water. Eventually though, a few hundred French settlers, mostly from the Northwest, from Britanny and Normandy, managed to establish a simple existence. 

But then in 1785 something unexpected happened. The island was leased to the Swedes, literally exchanged for French trading rights in the Baltic. The Swedes made the island into a free port, a status that it has to this day, and encouraged it to trade. Its town became known as Gustavia after the Swedish King, Gustav III. The population soared to 6000, a level that was only reached again in recent years with the popularity of tourism. It was extremely successful for a few decades, but then gradually the heyday declined and the island fell into ruin and disrepair. Eventually, in 1878, it was returned to France, after a vote by the islanders (351 to one). 

The island had the status of a municipality, within the Région of Guadeloupe (with St Martin, the French side of the nearby island it makes up a commune) up until 2007. In truth the island is very unlike its larger neighbour to the south and with its newfound wealth from tourism it had gradually entertained dreams of autonomy. Following a referendum on the issue, the island’s political status finally changed on 15 July 2007 when it separated from Guadeloupe (as did St Martin) and officially became a Collectivité d’Outre-Mer.