Saint Kitts and Nevis

Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis1
Coat of arms of Saint Kitts and Nevis Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "Country Above Self"
Anthem: O Land of Beauty!
Capital	Basseterre 17°18′N 62°44′W
Largest city	capital
Official languages	English
Government	Parliamentary democracy (federal constitutional monarchy)
- Monarch	Queen Elizabeth II
- Governor-General	Sir Cuthbert Sebastian
- Prime Minister	Dr. Denzil Douglas
Independence
- from the United Kingdom	19 September 1983
Area
- Total	261 km² (207th) 101 sq mi
- Water (%)	negligible
Population
- July 2005 estimate	42,696
- Density	164/km² 424/sq mi
GDP (PPP)	2002 estimate
- Total	$339 million
- Per capita	$14,649
HDI  (2004)	0.8252 (high)
Currency	East Caribbean dollar (XCD)
Internet TLD	.kn
Calling code	+1 869

The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis (also known as the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis located in the Leeward Islands, is a unitary island nation in the West Indies It is the smallest nation in the Americas in both area and population.

The capital city and headquarters of government for the federated state is on the larger island of Saint Kitts. It is perhaps worth explaining that Kit or Kitt is an old-fashioned abbreviation for the name Christopher. This island was given the name by Christopher Columbus; the Spanish version was "San Cristóbal".

The smaller state of Nevis, formerly named "Nuestra Señora de las Nieves", which translated means Our Lady of the Snows, lies about 2 miles (3 km) southeast of Saint Kitts, across a shallow channel called "The Narrows".

Historically the British dependency of Anguilla was also a part of this union, which was then known collectively as Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla.

Saint Kitts and Nevis are geographically within the Leeward Islands, and they are relatively close to a cluster of several other islands. To the north-northwest lie the islands of Saint Eustatius, Saba, Saint Barthélemy, and Saint Martin. To the northeast are Antigua and Barbuda, and to the south-east is the very small uninhabited island of Redonda, and the island of Montserrat, which currently has an active volcano.

Geography

The country has two main islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis. The highest peak, at 1,156 metres, is Mount Liamuiga.

During the last Ice age when the sea level was 200 feet lower, the three islands of Saint Kitts, Nevis and Saint Eustatius (also known as Statia) were connected as one island. Saba however is separated from these three by a deeper channel.

Map of Saint Kitts and Nevis

The islands are of volcanic origin, with large central peaks covered in tropical rainforest; the steeper slopes leading to these peaks are mostly uninhabited. The vast majority of the population on both islands lives closer to the sea where the terrain flattens out. There are numerous rivers descending from the mountains of both islands, which provide fresh water to the local population. St. Kitts also has one very small lake.

The capital of the two-island nation, and also its largest port, is the city of Basseterre on Saint Kitts. There is a modern facility for handling large cruise ships here. There is a ring road which goes around the perimeter of the island; the interior of the island is too steep for inhabitation.

St. Kitts is six miles (10 km) from Saint Eustatius to the north and two miles (3 km) from Nevis to the south. St. Kitts has three distinct groups of volcanic peaks: the North West or Mount Misery Range; the Middle or Verchilds Range and the South East or Olivees Range. The highest peak is Mount Liamuiga, formerly Mount Misery, a dormant volcano some 3,792 feet (1,156 m) high.

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GRIFFIN These 2 paragraphs need to be re-worded:

Saint Kitts is 23 miles (37 kilometres) long and five miles wide, is oval in shape, and has an area of 68 square miles (176 square kilometres). A volcanic mountainous ridge down the centre forms a semicircle around a plain in the southeast. Mount Liamuiga (formerly Mount Misery), with a lake in its forested crater, is the highest point (3,792 feet [1,156 metres]). The soil (except in the mountains) is light and porous. Most of the beaches are of black volcanic sands. The island is well watered and fertile, with a cool, healthy climate. The average temperature is 80° F (27° C), and the annual rainfall averages 55 inches (1,397 millimetres).

Nevis, surrounded by coral reefs, lies two miles southeast of Saint Kitts across a channel known as The Narrows. The island is circular, and it consists almost entirely of a mountain, Nevis Peak (3,232 feet), which is flanked by the lower Round Hill (1,014 feet) on the north and by Saddle Hill (1,850 feet) on the south. Its area is 36 square miles (93 square kilometres). The soil of Nevis is clay studded with volcanic boulders. The climate is similar to that of Saint Kitts.

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Climate

The climate is tropical with little variation, tempered from December through February by the steady, mild north-easterly breezes called the alizés or trade winds, followed by a slightly hotter and somewhat rainier season from May to November. Nevis lies in the track of tropical hurricanes, developing between August and October. This period has the heaviest rainfall of the year. In 1999, Nevis was hit by hurricane Lenny, the most recent hurricane to cause heavy damage to the island's infrastructure.

Colonial deforestation

Looking out to sea on Nevis

During the 17th and 18th centuries, massive deforestation was undertaken by the planters as the land was initially cleared for sugar cultivation. Eventually the sugarcane fields stretched from the coast to the upper regions of the mountain slope in many areas. This intense land exploitation by the sugar and cotton industry, lasting almost 300 years, led to irreparable damage to the island’s original ecosystem.

History

Saint Kitts and Nevis has one of the longest written histories in the Caribbean, both islands being among Europe's first colonies in the archipelago. Despite being only 2 miles apart and quite diminutive in size, Saint Kitts and Nevis were widely recognized as being separate entities with separate identities, until they were unified in the late 19th century.

Pre-Columbian Period

The first settlers to arrive to the islands were a pre-agricultural, pre-ceramic people, who migrated down the archipelago from Florida. These hunter-gatherers for years were mistakenly thought to be the Ciboney, an Amerindian race from Cuba. However, archaeological evidence has proven that they were in actuality a group labelled "Archaic people". In a few hundred years, the Archaic people disappeared.

Around 100 B.C.E., the ceramic-using and agriculturalist Saladoid people came to the islands, migrating up the archipelago from the banks of the Orinoco River in Venezuela. These people were then replaced in 800 C.E. by the Igneri people, members of the Arawak tribe. They were a peace-loving pro-religious people who migrated up the same path from the Orinoco. They named Nevis Dulcina meaning "Sweet Island", and heavily settled it, climaxing to an estimated population of 5,000.

Around 1300 C.E., the Kalinago, or Carib people arrived on the islands. The war-like Kalinago people quickly dispersed the Igneri, and forced them northwards to the Greater Antilles. They named Saint Kitts Liamuiga meaning "fertile island", and Nevis Oualie meaning "land of beautiful waters". The islands of Liamuiga and Oualie marked the furthest the Kalinago ever reached northwards, in terms of permanent residence, and probably would have succeeded in occupying the entire archipelago had the Europeans not came. Both islands, were major bases used by the Kalinago from the South to raid the Eastern Taino peoples of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and were critically important for the Kalinago trade routes to the North.

European settlement

The first Europeans to arrive at the islands were the Spanish under Christopher Columbus. He named Saint Kitts Sant Jago (Saint James). However, misinterpretations of maps by subsequent Spanish explorers led Saint Kitts to be named San Cristobal (Saint Christopher), a name originally applied to Saba 20 miles north. Nevis was named "Nuestra Señora de las Nieves", or "Our Lady of the Snows", because of its large volcanic peak, which due to heavy cloud covering at its top made Columbus mistakenly believe that it was capped with snow.

The first non-Spanish settlement attempt in the Caribbean occurred on Saint Kitts, when French Jesuit refugees from the fishing town of Dieppe established a town on a harbour on the island's north coast, which they also named Dieppe, in 1538. However, only months after the founding, the settlement was raided by the Spanish and all the inhabitants were deported. The remains of one of the buildings is now the basement for the Main house in the Golden Lemon Hotel.

The next European encounter occurred in 1607 when Captain John Smith stopped at Nevis for five days before founding the colony of Virginia. Captain Smith documented the many hot springs in Nevis, whose waters had remarkable curative abilities against skin ailments and bad health.

The island of Nevis was colonized in 1628 by British settlers from Saint Kitts. From there, Saint Kitts became the premier base for British and French expansion, as the islands of Antigua, Montserrat, Anguilla and Tortola for the British, and Martinique, the Guadeloupe archipelago and St. Barths for the French were colonized from it.

Unification

Although being tiny in size, and separated by only 2 miles of water, the two islands were always viewed and governed as completely different states until the late 19th century, when they were forcefully unified along with the island of Anguilla by the British. An unsettling relationship follows to even day, with Nevis accusing Saint Kitts of neglecting its needs.

Saint Kitts and Nevis along with Anguilla, became an associated state with full internal autonomy in 1967. Angullians rebelled, and their island was allowed to separate from the others in 1971. St. Kitts and Nevis achieved independence in 1983. It is (as of 2007) the newest sovereign nation of the Americas. In August 1998, a vote in Nevis on a referendum to separate from St. Kitts fell short of the two-thirds majority needed. In late September 1998, Hurricane Georges caused approximately $445 million in damages and limited the Gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the year.

Alexander Hamilton, the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, was born in Nevis and spent his childhood there and on the island of St. Croix.

Politics

Saint Kitts and Nevis is a full member of the OECS.

The country is an independent Commonwealth Realm with the royal head of the monarch of Great Britain as its head of state, represented in St. Kitts and Nevis by a Governor-General, who acts on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. The prime minister is the leader of the majority party of the House, and the cabinet conducts affairs of state.

St. Kitts and Nevis has a unicameral legislature, known as the National Assembly. It is comprised of fourteen members: eleven elected Representatives (three from the island of Nevis) and three Senators who are appointed by the Governor-General. Two of the senators are appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister, and one on the advice of the leader of the opposition. Unlike the situations in other countries, senators do not constitute a separate Senate or upper house of parliament, but sit in the National Assembly, alongside representatives. All members serve five-year terms. The Prime Minister and the Cabinet are responsible to the Parliament.

Saint Kitts and Nevis is a full and participating member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).

Parishes

Parishes of Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Kitts and Nevis are divided into 14 parishes. Nine are located on the island of Saint Kitts and five on the island of Nevis.

1. Christ Church Nichola Town (Saint Kitts)
2. Saint Anne Sandy Point (Saint Kitts)
3. Saint George Basseterre (Saint Kitts)
4. Saint George Gingerland (Nevis)
5. Saint James Windward (Nevis)
6. Saint John Capesterre (Saint Kitts)
7. Saint John Figtree (Nevis)
8. Saint Mary Cayon (Saint Kitts)
9. Saint Paul Capesterre (Saint Kitts)
10. Saint Paul Charlestown (Nevis)
11. Saint Peter Basseterre (Saint Kitts)
12. Saint Thomas Lowland (Nevis)
13. Saint Thomas Middle Island (Saint Kitts)
14. Trinity Palmetto Point (Saint Kitts)

Economy

File:800px-Stkitts-view-lookingatsea.jpg

Salt ponds overlooking Nevis.

Saint Kitts and Nevis is a twin-island federation whose economy is characterized by its dominant tourism, agriculture and light manufacturing industries. Sugar had been the country's main export crop since the 1640s, but increasing production costs, low world market prices and the government's efforts to reduce dependence on it have led to a growing diversification of the agricultural sector. In late 2005, the government decided to close down the state-owned sugar company, which had produced losses and was a significant contributor to the fiscal deficit. Former sugar plantations still dominate the St. Kitts landscape. The agricultural, tourism, export-oriented manufacturing, and offshore-banking sectors are being developed and are now taking larger roles in the country’s economy. The growth of the tourism sector has become the main foreign exchange earner for Saint Kitts and Nevis. The country has also developed a successful apparel assembly industry and one of the largest electronics assembly industries in the Caribbean.

During the 1990s, Saint Kitts and Nevis registered an annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 5.5 percent, but the strong growth was interrupted by devastating hurricanes in 1998 and 1999. Post-hurricane reconstruction led to an economic resumption in 2000 with GDP growing at 6.2 percent. The year 2001 began well enough although the post-hurricane construction boom was over and growth was slowing from its 2000 rate. But after September 11, tourism arrivals dropped off precipitously and activity in related sectors of the economy such as road construction and retail sales declined along with tourism. As a result, the GDP growth declined substantially in 2001 and 2002. Economic activity has recovered since 2003, mainly driven by strong growth in tourism. In view of its high level of public debt, the country needs a prudent fiscal policy to ensure sustainable economic growth.

Demographics

As of July 2000, there were 42,696 inhabitants; their then average life expectancy was 72.4 years. Emigration has historically been very high, and the population is about twenty-five percent lower than at its peak in 1960 of about 51,100.

Emigration from St. Kitts & Nevis to the United States:

• 1986 - 1990: 3,513
• 1991 - 1995: 2,730
• 1996 - 2000: 2,101
• 2001 - 2005: 1,756

Culture

File:BrimnstoneHill.jpg

Brimstone Hill

Saint Kitts and Nevis is known for a number of musical celebrations including Carnival (December 17 to January 3 on Saint Kitts). The last week in June features the St. Kitts Music Festival, while the week-long Culturama on Nevis lasts from the end of July into early August.

In addition, there are other festivals on the island of Saint Kitts. There is Inner City Fest in February in Molineaux, Green Valley Festival usually around Whit Monday in village of Cayon, Easterama around Easter in April in the village of Sandy Point, Fest-Tab around July/August in the village of Tabernacle, and La festival de Capisterre around Independence Day in Saint Kitts and Nevis (September 19th), in the Capisterre region. These celebrations typically feature parades, street dances and salsa, jazz, soca, calypso and steelpan music. There's also the Annual St. Kitts Music Festival.

Sports

Kim Collins is the 100 meter world champion and a national hero. He won in 2003 with only 0.02 seconds between him and three others.

The St. Kitts and Nevis national football team, also known as the "Sugar Boyz", has experienced some international success in recent years, progressing to the second round of qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in the CONCACAF region, defeating the U.S. Virgin Islands and Barbados before they were outmatched by Mexico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

External links

Government

• Government of Saint Kitts and Nevis official website. St. Kitts & Nevis. Retrieved November 19, 2007.
• Marketing and Development Department. St. Kitts Financial Services. Retrieved November 19, 2007.
• Nevis Financial Services. Nevis Ministry of Finance. Retrieved November 19, 2007.

Directories

• Online Local News Station. SKNVibes. Retrieved November 19, 2007.

Tourism

• Official Tourism Authority Site. Explore St. Kitts. Retrieved November 19, 2007.
• Official Tourism to Nevis Island WebSite. Nevis Tourism Authority. Retrieved November 19, 2007.
• Personal Guide to St Kitts and Nevis by a Local. Discover St. Kitts Nevis Beaches. Retrieved November 19, 2007.
• Official WebSite of Annual Music Festival. St. Kitts Music Festival. Retrieved November 19, 2007.

Other

• Local Anglican Churches MainPage. St. Kitts Anglican Church. Retrieved November 19, 2007.
• Welcome To St. Kitts and Nevis!. University of the West Indies. Retrieved November 19, 2007.
• Windsor University Homepage. Windsor University School of Medicine. Retrieved November 19, 2007.
• Currency of St. Kitts. St. Kitts Paper Money. Retrieved November 19, 2007.
• Map of St. Kitts. Caribbean-On-Line. Retrieved November 19, 2007.
• Nevis. Caribbean-On-Line. Retrieved November 19, 2007.

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