GUADELOUPE

officially Department of Guadeloupe, French Dpartement de la Guadeloupe overseas dpartement of France, consisting of the twin islands of Basse-Terre to the west and Grande-Terre to the east and several smaller islands, all in the Lesser Antilles island chain. Guadeloupe is situated some 4,300 miles (6,900 km) from France in the eastern Caribbean Sea and covers a total land area of 687 square miles (1,780 square km). The capital is Basse-Terre. Basse-Terre and Grande-Terre form a shape like a butterfly; together their maximum length north to south is 26 miles (42 km), and maximum width east to west is 38 miles (61 km). Saint-Barthlemy and the northern two-thirds of Saint Martin (Saint-Martin) are island dependencies of Guadeloupe, lying 150 miles (240 km) northwest of it. The population in 1990 was estimated at 344,000. For information about regional aspects of Guadeloupe, see West Indies: Guadeloupe. officially Department of Guadeloupe, French Dpartement de la Guadeloupe, overseas dpartement of France, a group of islands in the Lesser Antilles chain in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The nearest neighbours of the principal islands are the British dependency of Montserrat to the northwest and the republic of Dominica to the south. The island of Martinique, also a French overseas dpartement, lies about 74 miles to the south. The main territory of Guadeloupe consists of the twin islands of Basse-Terre to the west and Grande-Terre to the east, the two being separated by a narrow channel, the Sale River; other islands in the group are Marie-Galante to the southeast, La Dsirade to the east, and Saintes Islands (Terre d'en Haut and Terre d'en Bas) to the south. Two more island dependenciesSaint-Barthlemy and Saint-Martin (the southern third of which is administered by The Netherlands as Sint Maarten)are situated about 150 miles to the northwest, lying to the northwest of the outer arc of the Lesser Antilles. The total area of Guadeloupe is 687 square miles (1,780 square kilometres). Basse-Terre, on the island of the same name, is the seat of government. The largest urban area, however, centres around Pointe--Pitre on Grande-Terre, the chief port and economic hub of Guadeloupe. Additional reading There are few works that treat all the islands of the Lesser Antilles or describe a particular island comprehensively, although a number of broad overviews are listed in the earlier section on the region. An informative geologic survey, covering locations from both the Lesser Antilles and the Netherlands Antilles, is offered in J.H. Westermann and H. Kiel, The Geology of Saba and St. Eustatius, with Notes on the Geology of St. Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat, Lesser Antilles (1961). Guy Lasserre, La Guadeloupe: tude gographique, 3 vol. (1978), is a detailed geography. Studies of flora include Clarissa Thrse Kimber, Martinique Revisited: The Changing Plant Geographies of a West Indian Island (1988); and David Watts, Man's Influence on the Vegetation of Barbados, 1627 to 1800 (1966).The people of Barbados are discussed in Jill Sheppard, The Redlegs of Barbados, Their Origins and History (1977), which explores the history of indentured servants; Farley Brathwaite (ed.), The Elderly in Barbados (1986), a survey of social and economic conditions of the elderly; and Graham M.S. Dann (ed.), Everyday in Barbados: A Sociological Perspective (1976), which discusses social structures and recreational activity. Jean Benoist (ed.), L'Archipel inachev: culture et socit aux Antilles franaises (1972), is an anthropological study of the French islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, La Dsirade, Marie-Galante, and Saint-Barthlemy. Stuart B. Philpott, West Indian Migration: The Montserrat Case (1973), explores the impact of migration on village population. Bonham C. Richardson, Caribbean Migrants: Environment and Human Survival on St. Kitts and Nevis (1983), focuses on migration as a response to degradation of environment. Karen Fog Olwig, Cultural Adaptation and Resistance on St. John: Three Centuries of Afro-Caribbean Life (1985), examines the society of one of the Virgin Islands.Analyses of economic conditions include Delisle Worrell (ed.), The Economy of Barbados, 19461980 (1982), a study of the trends of the major sectors; Bonham C. Richardson, Panama Money in Barbados, 19001920 (1985), which discusses the impact of remittances on a wide range of economic activities and social attitudes; Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Peasants and Capital: Dominica in the World Economy (1988), which explores patterns of land ownership and agricultural production; and C. Bourne, E.R. Lefranc, and F. Nunes (compilers), Small Farming in the Less Developed Countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean (1980), which provides information on Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, and Antigua. Studies of individual island-state economies include John S. Brierley, Small Farming in Grenada, West Indies (1974); Deirdre M. Kelly, Hard Work, Hard Choices: A Survey of Women in St. Lucia's Export-Oriented Electronics Factories (1987); and Hymie Rubenstein, Coping With Poverty: Adaptive Strategies in a Caribbean Village (1987).Historical works which concentrate mostly on slavery and plantation life include the following: Vincent T. Harlow, A History of Barbados, 16251685 (1926, reprinted 1969), an examination of the period of the early British colonies; Gary A. Puckrein, Little England: Plantation Society and Anglo-Barbadian Politics, 16271700 (1984), a revisionist economic history, particularly strong on the creolizing process; Hilary Beckles, Black Rebellion in Barbados: The Struggle Against Slavery, 16271838 (1984), a provocative interpretation of slave resistance. Jerome S. Handler, The Unappropriated People: Freedmen in the Slave Society of Barbados (1974), which fills a gap in historiography; Karl Watson, The Civilised Island, Barbados: A Social History, 17501816 (1979), a study of the mature slave society; Claude Levy, Emancipation, Sugar, and Federalism: Barbados and the West Indies, 18331876 (1980), on postslavery adjustments; Gordon C. Merrill, The Historical Geography of St. Kitts and Nevis, the West Indies (1958), which discusses the colonial period on the islands; Lennox Honychurch, The Dominica Story: A History of the Island, 2nd ed. (1984), a well-illustrated study covering developments up to the 1980s and benefiting from the author's personal involvement in the constitutional changes leading to independence; and George Brizan, Grenada, Island of Conflict: From Amerindians to People's Revolution, 14981979 (1984), the work of a Grenadian historian and politician. History Visited on Nov. 4, 1493, by Christopher Columbus, the two main islands, then together known as Karukera (Island of Beautiful Waters), were peopled by Caribs, who had displaced the original Arawak inhabitants. The territory was consecrated to Our Lady of Guadalupe of Extremadura in Spain, from whom it takes its name. French rule Preliminary attempts by the Spanish to establish themselves were repulsed by the Caribs in 1515, 1520, and 1523. In 1626 the Spanish, who had established themselves on the coast, were driven away by Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, a Frenchman who established a trading company. In 1635 two Frenchmen, Lonard de L'Olive and Jean Duplessis d'Ossonville, landed and established a colony. Until 1640 the colonists fought against the Carib Indians, but thereafter the colony prospered. Four chartered companies were ruined in successive attempts to colonize Guadeloupe, and in 1674 it passed to the French crown, becoming a dependency of Martinique, which it remained until 1775. Guadeloupe benefited from the influence of Jean-Baptiste Labat (1663 to 1738), a strong personality who was the effective founder of the Basse-Terre colony and who in 1703 armed the African slaves (who had already been brought to the island) in order that they might fight against the English; he also established the first sugar refineries, thereby laying the foundations for the era of prosperity that followed. In 1759 Guadeloupe was occupied by the British for four years but was restored to France in 1763. In 1794 it was again occupied by British troops, allied with French royalists, but was recaptured by Victor Hugues, an official of the French revolutionary government, who proclaimed the abolition of slavery and had several hundred white planters massacred. When slavery was reestablished by Napoleon's government in 1802, a revolt of the slaves occurred and culminated in the heroic act of the antislavery forces, who blew themselves up at Matouba when threatened by French forces under the command of General Antoine Richepanse; Richepanse himself had been sent by Napoleon to pacify Guadeloupe, but he died of yellow fever in the same year. The British occupied Guadeloupe in 1810; however, after some changes in status, it was restored to France in 1816. The abolition of slavery in 1848 was the most significant development of the territory's 19th-century history. Universal suffrage was abolished during the reign of Napoleon III of France, but in 1870 colonial representation in the French Parliament was restored. In 1940 Guadeloupe gave its allegiance to the Vichy government of Nazi-occupied France, but in 1943 it adhered to General Charles de Gaulle's Free French forces. In 1946 it was given the status of a French dpartement, and in 1974 it became a rgion of France.