MONTSERRAT

mountain, northwestern Barcelona provincia, in the comunidad autnoma (autonomous community) of Catalonia, Spain, lying just west of the Llobregat River and northwest of Barcelona city. Known to the Romans as Mons Serratus (Saw-toothed Mountain) and to the Catalans as Montsagrat (Sacred Mountain), it is famous for its unusual appearance, its Benedictine monastery of Santa Mara de Montserrat, and the ancient wooden statue of the Virgin and Child, supposedly carved by St. Luke, brought to Spain by St. Peter, and hidden in a cave during the Moorish occupation. Found in 880, it has since been venerated there by numerous pilgrims, who attribute many miracles to the intercession of the Virgin Mary. Jagged, barren pinnacles of reddish sandstone and conglomerate, formed by erosion, rise from the mountain's huge base, and it is cloven by ravines; the monastery stands on the edge of the widest of these, the Malo valley, at 2,400 feet (730 m). Remains indicate that the mountain was inhabited in prehistoric times. Christian hermits of Santa Mara were residing on Montserrat when in 888 the Benedictine monastery of Ripoll was granted jurisdiction over them. From the 11th to the early 15th century, a regular priory flourished there and obtained independence as an abbey in 1410, which status it has held almost continuously ever since. The present basilica was begun in 1560 and the monastery in 1755, though these were extensively rebuilt after destruction by French troops during the Peninsular Campaign in 1812. British dependency, island of the eastern Caribbean Sea within the Lesser Antilles. Lying 27 miles (43 km) southwest of Antigua, it is 11 miles (18 km) long and 7 miles (11 km) wide. The capital, Plymouth, lies on the sheltered southwestern side of the island. Area 40 square miles (102 square km). Pop. (1994 est.) 12,200; (1997 est.) 6,000. island of the Lesser Antilles chain in the Caribbean Sea, a crown colony of the United Kingdom. The island has an area of 40 square miles (102 square kilometres). The capital and only port of entry is Plymouth. 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 Montserrat was sighted by Christopher Columbus in November 1493 on his second voyage to the New World; he named it for the jagged peaks he saw there. Inhabited by the Carib Indians, it was first colonized by Irish and English settlers led by Sir Thomas Warner in 1632. More Irish immigrants came from Virginia. Plantations were set up to grow tobacco and indigo, then cotton and sugar. The early settlers suffered repeated attacks from the French and Carib Indians. The French took possession of the island in 1664 and in 1667, but it was restored to England in 1668 by the Peace of Breda. The French sacked the island in 1712 and recaptured the island for the last time in 1782. Montserrat was again restored to England, this time by the Treaty of Versailles (1783). In 1834 slavery was abolished (slaves had been introduced in 1664). The cessation of slavery and the falling price of sugar, combined with a series of devastating earthquakes and hurricanes between 1890 and 1936, brought the collapse of the stagnant plantation economy. The Montserrat Company, formed in 1857 under the direction of Joseph Sturge, bought abandoned estates, encouraged the cultivation of limes, and sold plots of land to settlers. Much of Montserrat is still owned by small holders. Between 1871 and 1956 Montserrat was part of the (British) Leeward Islands Colony, which included the British Virgin Islands, Saint Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, and Dominica. The federation was abolished on July 1, 1956, when Montserrat became a colony in its own right. In 1958 Montserrat joined the West Indies Federation, which was dissolved in 1962 with the independence of Jamaica. Subsequent attempts to form a federation were abandoned in 1966. That year Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to visit the colony. In the general election of November 1978, the People's Liberation Movement (PLM), which favours complete independence, won all elective seats. In 1983 that party again won, but the opposition made some gains and the margin was again narrowed in the 1987 election. Montserrat's policy since the PLM ascendancy has been to pursue independence but at a measured rate, preferring first to achieve greater economic self-sufficiency. Janet D. Momsen The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica